The Connecticut labor press. (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921, 1920-05-01
PRIEST SEES IN
LABOR SALVATION
OF THE COUNTRY
Clergyman Strong in Support of
Worker and Denouncing
Capital Greed.
SLAVES NO LONGER
Thanks God for Organized Labor
That Has Already Done
So Much.

"To labor organizations, we owe
I every concession that has been forced
from. the reluctant hand of the CAPT.
talist' was the statement made by Rev.
Hugh L. McMenamin, a Denver priest,
IN recent sermon which The Miners
Magazine reports in full.
Prohteers were catalogued as gold
ridden worshippers of Mammon," while
organized labor was highly praised and
the profit sharing system enthusiastic
ally endorsed by Reverend Father Nc
Menamin. Whatever the remedy to
the present industrial evils, it will be
organized labor that will put it into
effect" he declared.
The speaker protested against the
accumulation by individuals of vast
hordes of wealth, while others were
without the necessary food to nourish
their bodies, or the necessary clothes
to cover them, or the necessary educa-
ton to which every American child is
entitled.
Excessive wealth in the hands of an
individual is an evil, both to the in
dividua1 and to the state" he declared.
1--WE must face that fact now and de-
eide TO reduce the excess and relieve
want. No doubt the process will be
revolutionary. Mammon will tremble
upon his throne and the wealthy will
stand aghast at the changes which
labor will exact The other a1terna-
tive is red revolution Unless the
worker is granted what is reasonably
just and fair, socially, politically and
industrially, he is apt to demand more
than is his right"
Father McMenamin expressed the
hope that there will be an amicable
adjustment of the strife between cap
ital and labor, for he declared, at is
no longer question of bread and but
ter alone, but a question of higher
wages. No longer can capitalists hope
to pacify their former slaves by the
building of few club houses and NOV
ing pictures theaters and medical dis
-pensaries. Justice, not charity, is our
aim
Men are going to demand the rights
of men. Not much longer will they
submit to be placed on the same. level
as raw material or machinery.
Not much longer will women be
handed over to the merci1ess prey of
capitalists, engaged in occupations
which rob them of the very end and
purpose of their existence-Mother=-
hood. Not much longer will capital
lists traffic in the sweat and blood of
child1 rem robbing them of their God
given right to an education.
The speaker drew picture of the
miserable condition of the poor in our
great cities, where families are huddled
together, in surroundings which harm
them morally and physically, where
whole families work, and yet the COM
bined salary is not enough !; where saw
ing, a dollar or two against adversely
seems to be a practical impossibility.
What is there in the nature of things
that make all these conditions a neces-
sity? Nothing. The goods of this
world are more than sufficient to supply
the needs of all and on every side
money is being acquired and heaped up
for individuals in amounts so great that
it is impossible for them to control
either its acquisition or its outlay"
Speaking of the re-adjusting of eco
nomic conditions, Father McMenamin
declared that "The millionaire would
find many excuses for sticking to his
money bag, so in default of conscience,
justice must turn to the state and it,.
woke the civil powers to obtain by law
fair distribution of the country's
wealth, and if strikes be necessary to
have these laws enacted, then will JUS
tice turn to them"
The public be damned attitude, how
ever, maintained for many years by
some capitalists, the speaker emyha-
sized, should find no sympathizers in
organized labor. Most unfortunately,
during recent years labor has installed
many leaders who have acted upon the
same principle. Labor's battle is just
and it need not violate the rights of
the public or defy the laws to win. If
the action of the law does not sufic-
iently protect the rights of labor, the
American way is not to shoot the judge,
but to change the law. In our labor
difficulties, as in many others, we have
been striving to solve the equation with
God, the Chief actor, omitted. 1t can't
be done.
Never before did the passionate
greed for gain so clutch the lives of
men than in the world in which we live
Wars might rage, brave-sou1ed men
might give their lives in holy sacrifice
to wonderful cause, but the gold-rid-
den Worshipers of Mammon, the prof.
teers, stand with open NAV like beasts
of prey waiting for their victims. Gold,
more gold, is their unholy cry, even
shivering poor.
God for the labor organizations that
have already raised the wage and short
ened the hours of labor, and which
during the last year have proved them
selves most potent force in this land
in the checking of BoIshevism and
anarchy I pray God that they may not
give up the struggle until they have
ended the era of the wage slave and
made every man a profit sharer in the