THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1913. SYNDICALISM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15823, 23 July 1913, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1913. SYNDICALISM.

The Lyttelton Times seems to be deeply concerned over the fact that we Have 'quoted the views of leaders of the Roman Catholic Church upon the subject of Socialism and Syndicalism in connection with the report that the weight of the support of the Roman Catholic electors in the Grey constituency is to be thrown into the scale in the second ballot tomorrow in favour of Mr Webb, whom "we have described. as the Syndicalist candidate. Our contemporary suggests that it is "bordering very closely upon impertinence," to direct Catholic voters how they should "construe the pronouncements "of their prelates on social and political questions." We have not, as a matter of fact, presumed to direct the Catholic voters how they should construe these pronouncements. The voters in tho Grey will doubtless exercise their own judgment in recording their votes. But there seems to us to be justification for tho statement that if they vote for Mr Webb they -will be according their support to the representative of a school of thought which has been unequivocally condemned by men of authority in their churcli, Fortunately, the pronouncements of the authorities quoted by us 'are so clear and explicit that they do not stand in need' of interpretation. That by Cardinal Bourne, which is the more recent, condemns Syndicalism upon various specific grounds. "In the first place," Cardinal Bourne said, "Syndicalism seems to ignoTe the rights of private ownership, which the Church lias ever defended as being entirely in harmony with the law of God." Next, he challenged Syndicalism because it " appears to deny the right of the individual to' dispose of the labour of his hands, which is, after all, a form of property, in the way that he prefers " and because it was not easy to see how " a continual coercion of this kind can be justified on moral grounds." Thirdly, Cardinal Bourne said that certain methods of which Syndicalism had not hesitated to avail itself were " clearly, as much opposed to Divine as to civil law ''—such methods being those of sabotage, ranging from the neglect of work or the production of inferior work to the wilful destruction of the implements of industry, i even to the extent of imperilling human life, in order to force its opponents to yield to its demands. Fourthly, Cardinal Bounce condemned Syndicalism because it does not shrink from calling to its aid such weapons as the sympathetic strike and the general strike, his belief being that it was impossible to justify in God's sight the " criminal acts which sabotage and the universal strike most certainly involve." And lastly he charged it against the Syndicalist campaign that " it is promoted, inspired, and directed, almost exclusively, by those who neither accept nor practise the teaching of ■ Christianity, while many of them do not recognise in any way God or His law." Now, this is a very plain and outspoken indictment of Syndicalism, and if it be true, in substance or in fact, that the Federation of Labour, of which Mr Webb is or the 1.W.W., upon the lines of which the Federation of Labour proposed to mould its organisation in New Zealand, can he identified with the policy, principles, and motives of the Syndicalism thus attacked by Cardinal Bourne it is patent that tlie Roman Catholio electors who record their votes in favour of Mr Webb to-morrow will be supporting the representative of a movement that has been strongly condemned by one of the princes of their churcli.