DR. BUXTON ON WORLD AFFAIRS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22082, 3 May 1937, Page 4

DR. BUXTON ON WORLD AFFAIRS

TO THE EDITOR OK TUB PRESS. Sir,—“Plebeian,’’ frhose letter in your columns of April 24 has been brought to my notice, might be likened to St. Thomas More in that he apparently enjoys an occasional flight of fancy. Although I appreciate the spirit of his compliments I cannot remain silent at the suggestion that I "never preached the stuff that Marx called dope for the people.” Like every other Catholic priest, my work in Kfp is to preach the Gospel of Christ in all its fulness, and that. Gospel, as history past and present Indicates, Is not dope but a very powerful dynamicl As for St, Thomas More and his advocacy of Communism, suffice it to say that the majority verdict of competent critics denies that the praise of Communism put into the mouth of Hythloday in “Utopia” expressed the views of More. Indeed, More makes himself the objector. "On the contrary," answered I, “It seems to me that men cannot live conveniently where all things are common. How can there be any plenty where every man will excuse himself from labour? For as the hope of gain doth not excite him, so the confidence he has in other men’s Industry may make ’ him slothful. And, if people come . to be pinched with want and yet cannot dispose of anything as their own, what can follow upon this but perpetual sedition and bloodshed, especially when the reverence and authdrity due to magistrates falls to the ground? For I cannot imagine how that can be kept up among those that are in all things equal to one another.” “Utopia” was inhabited, by a race of men excelling in reason, and natural virtue. As H. G. Wells says: “A good Catholic undoubtedly he IMore) was, and yet we find him capable of conceiving a non-Christian community excelling all Christendom ! in wisdom and virtue.” Contrasting, doubtless, the prevailing spirit in England, More stresses the absolute lack of avarice and the contempt of money which characterised the Utopians. Among such a race of extraordinary men, Communism might hope to be an economic success. The Catholic Church, taking men as she actually finds them, condemns Communism as being injurious to the best interests of people in general, and this even were it not atheistic and were introduced with the consent of all. On the other hand, the religious orders of the Church furnish us with examples of voluntary community life, but the Church recommends this state of life only to special souls who have the vocation to follow the Evangelical counsels. "Plebeian” wants information about the Catholic Workers’ College at Oxford. Like its sister college, Ruskin, it is' an institution for the training of young'working men and women to fit them to make their proper contribution to the establishment of social justice and peace. Supported by the voluntary offerings of their fellow workers in England, Scotland, and Wales, they undertake two years’ study for the diploma of political and social science of the university. At the same time they are given a formation in moral philosophy and in social science as expounded by the Church. The principles of social science are, of course, principles of the natural order, ascertainable by the hupian mind, and distinct from the truths of revelation of which the Church is the guardian and the expounder. They would still remain valid even If the Church were not in existence. As, however, these principles are moral ones, embracing both justice and charity, and are necessary for the right ordering of life, instruction in them comes within the competency of the Church. The students of the Catholic Workers’ College are keen indeed to apply fitting remedies to the evils of society, but they believe the final solution of these evils will be found not in the conflict, but in the co-operation of the classes Would “Plebeian” call them rightly “Reds of the deepest dye”?— Yours, etc., . .. L. T. BUXTON, April 29, 1937. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Your anonymous correspondent, who signs himself “Truth,” should select a more appropriate pen-name. In his letter in “The Press” to-day I can find neither truth nor common sense. It is just a tissue of false and silly statements about the Pope and the Church, without a scrap of proof or evidence for what he writes. The burden of proof lies on the shoulders of your correspondent. His letter is typical of the anonymous Communist propagandists who look to Moscow for light and guidance in all they do and say. To attempt to reply to all the nonsense these people send to the papers would be not only impossible but also a great waste of time.—Yours, etC " (REV.) P. J, COONEY. 1 Lyttelton, April 30. 1937. TO THE EDITOR OR THE PRESS. Sir,—Your correspondent. Father Cooney, ehdeavours to justify the active support by the Catholic Church

of that unjust system called capitalism, wherein the means of production are owned by a small minority, who thus accumulate vast wealth. It is perfectly true that capital cannot do without labour, and vice versa, but that does not prove that a wealthy class of capitalists should exploit the masses through the ownership of capital. The surplus profit, after keeping the slave alive, is apprppnated by the capitalists, although it is a social product. It is inevitable under capitalism that the wage slave must be treated “as a commodity to be bought and sold” for gain, as the employer can only employ the worker if he is to make a profit out of him, over and above his miserable allowance. The Church, having vast vested interests, is a part of the capitalist system, and therefore, I suppose, it is perfectly rational for it to support capitalism and Fascism, and to oppose the struggles of the workers for better con-ditions—all-in the name of Chnstianity’” Yours, etc., g R BECK April 28, 1937. TO THE EDITOB dfc THE PEESB. Sir,— Kindly allow this son of the great unwashed one more flutter before you ring the bell. I have posted to Dr. Buxton clippings from The Press” to let him see whathasbeen said in your paper about his world trip and world affairs. I thanked him for the words of wisdom he had given us and suggested he might tell us what he told those flippant foreigners who said Britain was like a reformed burglar who now believed in doing what was right, but also believed m sticking to what he had got. As l slipped the cuttings into the envelope I slipped in a little letter of love to Dr. Buxton because he broke bread” with the reds at -the Catholic College, Oxford. , _ I know my critic, Father Cooney, scorns the ’ idea of Catholic reds at Oxford, but he did allow me this one: That Sir Thomas More was a red of the deepest dye. He was a great man, one of the few great men who were able to give a lift to all mankind. He lived a good Catholic and died a good Communist after writing these lines: “. . . The setting of all upon a level was the only way to make a nation happy; which cannot be obtained so long as there is property. When I say that Father Cooney granted me that one, I mean he was silent; and silence means consent. I wonder what Father Cooney meant when he said, “The Church teaches that the wealthy class and the working class are intended by Nature to live in harmony through the acceptance of the teaching of Christ. Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument in classrooms about the doings of old Mother Nature or the story of biology, the science of life. At that time I lived in dear old Dublin and London. But my heart was young and I roamed in many lands with a sailor lad who still blesses himself bqfore he goes to bed. The first time we landed in New York we landed a winner. I mean we listened to a great man of science telling the story of Mother Nature. That man was Dr. Alexis Carrel, the Catholic biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize. He said there was no harmony in what we called Nature. Nature was red in tooth and claw and we all had to fight for a living. Father Cooney also claims that Christ teaches that the rich and poor should live in harmony. I wonder where he gets that from? This common lumper can tell him where Christ says, “Blessed be ye poor. Blessed are ye, that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Woe unto you rich. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." I know that Father Cooney Is a lover of good books, although he does think queer thoughts about harmony in Nature. This scribe will gladly send him a little booklet of parables by the famous Count Tolstoi, if he will* accept It, The fable that makes this lumper laugh the loudest Is called “The Big Fat Flea and the Little Lean Hard-working Fox Terrier.” The flea is a thinker and teaches the dog political economy—that fleas and dogs need each other and that Nature Intended they should live in harmony.—Yours, etc., PLEBEIAN. Lyttelton, April 30, 1937. [Subject; to the right of reply otf • “Plebeian,” this correspondence is now closed.—Ed., “The Press.”]