The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-14
Catholic Thought And Opinion
By REV. JOSEPH F. DoNNELLY

on greed, human misery, degrada- ton, exploitation, appalling waste and tragic sacrifice.
 As a result of this philosophy the rise Of large corporations and the dominance of finance has gone on
 virtually unchecked. Men toyed
 with huge corporations as years ago they played with kingdoms and em-
 pires. Barons gained and lost for-
 tunes many times in this warfare while stockholders, workers and consumers were but pawns in a fas- cinating game.
 It was Q system characterized by artiflcially provoked economic cole lapse. It ribboned the land with railroads but they were railroads built on the bone of human sacri- flee. It cnthroned greed, cruelty and pride in the human heart as virtues.
 But today this system of unfet- tered indivldualism is fading dream. A system respecting human rights and enforcing justice is nov. ing in to take it's place.
 PLUS XI CONDEMNED
 IT
 The basis ethical assumption of individualisrn is that economies and ethics may be separated. Business is business" The law of God does not apply. But such principle is immoral. Man is a creature of God with rights and responsibilities which must be respected. To sub- Ject these rights to soulless econo- my and to leave these responsibilities a plaything of the market is a dls- regard for human dignity which can never be sanctioned in Christian ethics.
 Plus XI in the greatest of the en- cyclicals of the modern Popes, "On Reconstructing the Social Order" aptly states the Catholic attitude to- wards this heartless individualism:
 Just as the unity of human so- ciety cannot be built upon class war fare, 50 the proper ordering of eco- homie affairs cannot be left to free competition alone. From this source have proceeded in the past all the errors of the "IndividualiStic" school. This school, ignorant or forgetful of the social and moral aspects of eco- homie matters, teaches that the State should refrain in theory and practice from interfering therein. be- cause these prossess in free compe- tition and open markets a principle of self-direction better able to con- trol them than any created intel lect.
 Free competition, however, though within certain limits just and productive of good results, cannot be the ruling principle of the economic world. This has been abundantly proved by the consequences that have followed from the free rein giv- en to these dangerous individuals tic ideas"
 THE END OF AN ERA
 Industry in America is most re- luctant to admit the end of an eco homie era. But the economic sys- tenn that was parody on liberty and degraded itself to become a system of exploitation has failed. Today the phrase rugged individualism" which was synonymous for an economic system which was rotten to the core in the 10th century, Robber Barons- Josephson) recalls in It's l930th and It's final phase the emaciated and starved faces of millions of respect able citizens, families broken up while strong men fretted in the bonds of enforced idleneSs and hun dreds of thousands of boys and girls whose bodies and souls were wasted by a calamity Of which they were the innocent victims.
 Another idol has fallen. The postwar years will be years of tre- mendous economic change. We must learn now to live by the law of jus tice and respecting the God of jus- tice.