Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-13
SAYS SOCIAL
JUSTICE ONLY
BAR TO WAR
Report of Catholic Bishop
Declares Contented Peo-
pie Means Peace

Washington, Feb. Is. Adoption
of minimum wage schedules. main
tenance in general of the wage lev
els obtained during the Nwar and
permanent establishment of the Ma
tional War Labor Board and the
United States Employment Service
were advocated as essentials of a
just reconstruction in a report made
public today by four Catholic bish-
ops, constituting the administrative
committee of the National Catholic
War Council.
While favoring. in the interests of
health and morality, prohibition or
child labor and reduction to the
smallest practical limits of the en-
ployment of women in industry, the
committee urged equal pay for wo-
men doing eQCal work with men. 1t
declared also for insurance of. work
ers against illness, old age, and un-
employment until wages are high
enough to tide over such periods,
for abolition of monopolies, for con-
tinuance of heavy taxes on large
incomes and excess profits, for CO.
operative merchandising in necessi-
ties to reduce the cost of living and
for goveInment-assiste colonization
of unoccupied farm lands by de-
mobilized soldiers and sailors.
Capital VS.. Labor
AS a measure outside it's present
reconstruction program but of value
in solving the problems of capital
and labor the committee urged grad
ual participation by labor in the
management and eventually in the
ownership of industry.
n
construction; a General Review of
the Problems and Survey of Rene
dies" was issued in the names of
Bishops Peter j. Muldoon, of Rock
ford, ILL.,; Joseph Schrembs, of To-
ledo, o.; William T. Russell, of
Charleston, 5. c., and Auxiliary
Bishop Patrick ]. Hayes, of New
York. AS members of the War Coun-
ellis administrative committee, they
represent the Catholic hierarchy of
America in general direction of war
work in this country and overseas.
Unrest Il Menace
Declaring that the deep unrest
so emphatically and widely voiced
throughout the world is a most Sc
rious menace" the bishops held up
social justice and a contented peo-
pie" as the only safeguard of peace.
The authors of the report dis
claimed any attempt to formulate a
comprehensive scheme of recon-
struction. Their tions,
it was stated. were confined to "re-
forms that seemed to be desirable
and also obtainable within a reas-
enable time. and to those general
principles which should serve as a
guide for more distant develop
ments."
Discussing the rehabilitation of
the military forces, the report in
dorsed the suggestion of Secretary
of the Interior Lang that discharged
men should be given an opportu-
nifty TO work at good wages in re-
claiming unused lands, afterward to
be assisted by government loans to
establish themselves as farmers. 1t
credited the Federal Employment
Service with "a fair degree of deveI-
opment and efficiency during the
war" and urged that Congress con-
tinue and strengthen the organiza-
ton as a means of helping to solve
the ever-present problem of unem-
p1oyment.
The bishops rated the National
War Labor Board as ''one of the
most beneficial governmental organ
izations of the war" It's efforts,
they asserted. had prevented in
Vulnerable strikes and raised wages
to decent levels in many indus
tries"