The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1919-02-14
CATHOLICS URGE
SUCIAL JUSTICE
Bishops Recommend Mamie
nance Of War Wages.
!HOORSE SEC. LANES PLAN
They Ask Permanency For the war
Labor Board in Reconstruction
Plan They Outlined.

Washington, Feb. 14.-Adoption OF
minmulI wage schedules, malnteh-
ance in general of the wage levels al
tanned during the war and permanent
establishment of the national war Ia
Dor board and the United States EN-
plOyment service were advocated as
essentials of a just reconstruction i'll
a report made public by four Roman
Catholic bishops, constituting the adj
minstrative committee of the national
Catholic war council.
While favoring, in the interests OF
health and morality, prohibition OF
child labor and reduction to the small
est practical limits of the employment
of women in industry, the committee
urged equal pay for women doing
equal work with men. 1t declared al
so for insurance Of workers against
ILLNESS, old age and unemployment
until wages are high enough to tide
over such periods, for abolition OF mo-
nopolies, for continuance of heavy
taxes on large income and excess
profits, for cooperative merchandise
ing in necessities to reduce the cost
of living and for government-assisted
colonization Of unoccupied farmlands
by demobilized soldiers and sailors.
As a measure outside its present
reconstruction program, but OF value
to solving the problems of capital and
labor. the committee urged gradual
participation by labor in the manage
ment and eventually in the ownership
of industry.
The report, entitled Social Recon-
struction: A General Review OF the
Problems and Survey Of Remedies
was issued in the names of Bishops
Peter J. Muldeon, of Rockford, ILL.,;
Joseph Schrembs, Of Toledo, o.; Will
liam T. Russell, of Charleston, s. c.,
and auxiliary Bishop Patrick ]. Hayes,
of New York AS members of the
war councils administrative commit
tee, they represent the Catholic hier-
archy Of America in general direction
of war work in this country and over
seas.
Declaring that "the deep unrest so
p1llIbIldlICdllN anu "luClS NoiSSu
throughout the world is most seri-
Gus menace" the bishops held up
'.social Justice and contented people"
as the only safeguard of peace.
The authors of the report disclaim-
ed any attempt to formulate a COM
Their recommendations, it was stated,
were confined to reforms that SEEM
ed to be desirable and also obtainable
within reasonable time. and to those
general principles which should serve
as guide for more distant develop
mentS"
Discussing the rehabilitation of the
military f0rces,- tire report Endorsed
the suggestion of Secretary Of the In
terror Lane, that discharged men
should be given an opportunity to
work at good wages in retaining I'M
used lands, afterward to be assisted
by government loans to establish
themselves as farmers 1t credited
the federal employment service with
81 fair degree Of development and eff
cheney during the war;" and urged that
congress continue and strengthen the
organization as a means of helping
to solve the ever-present problem of
unemployment.
The bishops rated the national war
labor board as lone Of the most bene-
fetal governmental organizations of
he war" Its efforts, they asserted,
had prevented innumerable strikes
and raised wages to decent levels In
many industries.