Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 41, 11 October 1900, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

From time to time we have been under the proposed unpleasant necessity of applvmg the cat-o' C\tholic press nine-tails to the epidermis of «the cableassociation. demon. Scarcely a month passes but the varlet is guilty of some grave misrepresentation of Catholic incident or principle, and so drearily persistent has been the l>ing of this son of Ananias that the N.Z. T\ki.ft has time and again pointed out the urgent need of forming an association of Catholic journalists, partly for the purpose of meeting and nailing his calumnies, but likewise with the widi r and tuller scope of pintly arranging tor receiving authot it itive correspondence from the headquarters ot ( .tthohc ( hnstiamtv, and from Dublin, London, and elsewhere, ,md ol engaging under the most favorable conditions the htmu^ of the bt st available talent for special at tides on subv-'( to t \it il mil ,t - 1 to the Catholic body at large.

Some weeks ago --on the occasion of the grauc us presentation made to him — the editor oi this paper made the idlcming remarks : ' In countries of mixed religions, such as these, the Catholic Church was, more than any other, made the target ot all sorts of misrepresentations and calumnies. This torced a special function upon the Catholic newspaper • to reiute slander, to wipe away from the fair face of their Mother Church the mud which is Hung upon it, frequently, no doubt, more from ignorance than from mere wantonness or conscious malice. A Catholic editor might be, like himself, by natural temperament and acquired habit, a man of peace , but higher interests at times demanded that he should become, so to speak, a mild t^pe ot the fighting editor — that he should it present in his person the ( hurch militant, and, going down to battle, like another David, with the simple, well-rounded weapon of truth, brain the Goliath of calumny. Perseverance in such a course of action by a well-equipped Catholic Press would hasten the coming of that good time when attacks and misrepresentations ot that kind would become rare, and when Catholics could atlord to treat them with moie indifference than in the present citcumstances was prudent or even possible. From time to time they had the fact unpleasantly forced upon their notice — by cable messages and otherwise — that the main channels of intelligence weie in the hands of associations that are hobtile to the Catholic Church, livil reports were flashed over the electric wires and were at the ends of the raith while truth — slow-footed but sure — was drawing on its boots and rubbing the sleep out of its eyes. At piesent the runnmer ot a calumny to earth was usually a slow process, sometimes a costly one. And so it would remain until they were wise enough to learn a lesson from their non-Catholic friends and form a league of Catholic journalism — or at least ol Englishspeaking Catholic journalism — somewhat on the lines ot the Prottstant Press Association and the Protestant Press Agency, which were formed for the specific purpose of furnishing the newspaper Press with correspondence of Protestant interest. That was one way in which Catholics could more effectually than at present protect themselves against the recklessness of the cable-rigger, the back-wounding pen of the hostile Press

writer, and the indiscriminate scissors-and-pnste of the thoughtless or malicious hack journalist.'

We trust that we are now at length on a fair way to the form ition of such an association as that which was projected by the editor of this p-iper. The suggestion was favorably entertained by the Catholic newspapers of Australasia. Two meetings of the representatives of nine out of the ten Catholic weeklies of these colonies was held at St. Mary's, Sydney, duung Congress week, and, as a result of their deliberations, the following circular has been issued to the whole Catholic Press of Australasia — ' At a meeting of the representatives of the Catholic newspapcr-. of Australasia held at St. Mary's, Sydney, on Saturday, September is. l<>"", hi-, Grace the \rchbishop of Adelaide being in the eh nr — the lullowmg icsolations were unanimously adopted : — 1 i. i'hat a Catholic Press Association be formed for the purposes o! in) obtaining < ccasionallv news Iroin London on impirtint ( athohc nutters, (h) circulating the same to all 'iflili.it c<l journals. I. i promoting the common interests of (. athohc jour n ihsm in Vusti al isia b\ *■ ucli otlu r means as may be heicaiter determined. ' -'. I hat agencies be formed in London and Adelaide for the puipose of givmgetWct to the above resolution. ' }. Th it the entrance ice to the Associition be fi\.ed at /,' , and th.it the expenses ot carrvmg out the beforementioned objects be borne by the affiliated newspapers in equal proportions. '4. That the Adel ude agency consist of the directors of the Southern Cross. 5. 1 hat the Rev. 11. W. Cleary, editor of the N. Z. Tvbii r, be empowered to make inquiries regarding the woi king, expends, etc., of the Association, and to make provisional arrangements, and to submit the information thus obtained and the provisional arrangements thus made to the Catholic newspapeis of Australasia. ' The "Most Reverend Chairman announced, amidst applause, that at a meeting ot the hierarchy held on the previous evening at St. Mary's the assembled prelates cordially endow d a resolution passed at a preliminary meeting ol the n-pic sei.t itives ot the C athohc newspapers of Austrlasia, inquest ing the aid ot the hierarchy and clergy in extending the circulation ot Catholic new-papers in every ( athohc home.'

All this is a good beginning. We wish the projected Association a speedy entrance into active existence, a vast e\ti nsion of its energies, a long career, and a full and overHow ing measure ot success in the cau^e of truth and justice.

Thi.y do things on a very big scale in strikes. America. Their trusts, corners, sky-scrapers, and millionaire^ are the wonder ot the slowgoing European nations. Their latest record in the way of big things is a colossal strike ot anthracite miners in Pennsylvania, where ioo.ooo men have struck for an advance of wages. Taking- a low average this industrial disturbance will alfect halt a million person-., a number more than half the population of this Colony. With all their boasted progress the people of the United States have not as yet devised any means

of settling these troubles between empires and employers save by this old and brutal method. The New Zealand Industrial and Conciliation laws may be open to criticism, st.il they save us from the unpleasant consequences of 1 i')or conflu ts where might is right, and the pirty which h is thy greatest staying powers gams a doubtful v.Un.y. No wonder th a the workers organs in the United States are holding up our laws for the settlement ot disputes between c.ipit il and labor to the aurnir iiiori vi liic people of ;],,; t^;.^ r .r-,,-1 -, r , ,|,, n , 1 ,,,-|, rMr that similar enactments should be pl.Ya-d on Uncie Sam's statute book. With whir never pany n-^ i!,,. Vll iu. y ... j; industiial depute the worker and his wife and family ate sine to be the sufferers. U is a time of enforced idleness, when labor and capital are unproductive. The master may not be in. ik<ng money, b-it this does not interfere with the comfort til his wife and family, but the worker's household must feel the pinch, and many of the necessaries of hfe will have to be done without in these times of trouble. In 11 \"ars, ending lSg-., there were i 1,300 strikes, involving 4,000 operatives, in the I mted States These caused a loss of close on jTt.o.oou 0.-o. In less than half the strikes the workers succeeded, but at a loss of nearly /, y>, 000,000, the loss of the employers being about halt that sum. The loss to each operative on" strike wis about £ i.>, and each master In 1897 there were 864 strikes in the United Kingdom, affecting nearly a quarter ol a million workers, and the loss to labor was enormous. In the middle ages, which are spoken of with such contempt nowadays, strikes were practically unheard of. They are, however, a very ancient method of industrial warfare.

The earliest strike that we have any record of occurred over three and thirty centuries ago. Pharaoh was building a new Temple at Thebes. The masons received very little cash, but a quantity of provisions which the contractor thought sufficient was handed to them on the first of each month. Sufficient or not, they mostly ate it before the time had elapsed. On one occasion many of them had nothing left quite early in the month, so they marched to the contractor's house, before which they squatted and lefused to leave until justice was done. The contractor persuaded them to lay their distress before Pharaoh, who was about to visit the works, and he pave them a handsome supply of corn, and so all went on well for that month. But the same state of things recurred by the middle of the next, and for some da>s the mm struck work. Various conferences took place, but the men declined to do a stroke until they were g.ven another supply of food. They declared lue cle-ks elicited them, used false weights, nr ,d so forth, familiar enough complaints even in this century, und< r the truck system. The contractor not complying with their demands, ihe> I'linhul to the of the cit\, to lay their gn< v.tnc.i , tit f.)u hi-n, and hi- tiled to g( t them to return to work b\ -mootl, words, but th.it was no use and they masted cm ii.ivinq tood. At 1 ist, to <: -t rid of them, he chew up an order fur torn on th< pubi.e gian.iry, and .lie strike was at an end

According to some authorities the British A RMiLKF. people have been endowed with many virtues denied to their less fortunate Contnient.il neighbors. It is a good old hnglish ma\im ttru it is not fair to kick a man when he is down. Now and again we drop acioss exceptions to this rule, and that, too, wh-re we would least expect it. The Kmrth Kst.-te of the realm, which pudrs itself upon being the mentor of the nation in all that is high and noble, sometimes falls below the high standard uhich .£. sets itself to teach. And when thc-e in exalted station err cm we blame the lowly if they follow the bad example of thenbetters. W'hen^ the first batch of Boer prisoners arrived in Colombo the F.uropean newspapers let themselves loose in describing their unwelcome visitois. They had a sort of wardance over the fallen enemy, who were dest nbed as ' the scum of the scum of 1-urope.' ' nil i.ttt,' ' despei adoes,' etc. The occasion certainly was not one in which, any man would look at his best, even an editor, after a tweh c months' camp ugn, with kw opportunities lor attending to his toilet, mi^ht lie seen at a disadvantage under the circumstances. The epithets used we i e, to say the lea^t, uncharitable and so contrary to all accepted idea> of the treatment which should be accorded to a fallen foe, that Sir Wist Ridgeway. the Governor of ( eylon, look occasion at a public leathering a few days I Uer to administer a timely rebuke to the offending journals. The applause with whith his Hxcellency's remaikswere received showed that his audience agreed wi'h Ins sentiments. '1 lie Biitnh colonists of the land of tr>,i and cinnamon were not prepared to sacrifice all their instincts of chivalry by approving of the conduct of the local Prt-ss towards men who wire not in a position to defend themselves. After a few introductory lemarks regarding the 'very harsh words' which had been applied to 'lie lion prisoner-,, his I'xcellencv went on to siv • ''i hey will l>-- licit* d exactly as our s .Idier-,, and they deserve that treatment because they are solclieis, and bi.ne -oldiers, who l\'i\e fought as they behe\td for then country, rind, therefore, they deser\e to be

treated as soldiers On the whole, they have been generous enemies, and they have treated our prisoners well, and I do not know, I have nevrr heard, that our prisoners endured a word of insult during their mc ireeration in Pretoria. It is said, of touise, I know that these are not all Boers, they comprise Irish- Americans and Kuropeans, and very harsh words and epithets hive been applied to these men. I am not going to discuss the question whether the subjects of a neutral State oin-ht to h L rht the battles of another nation. Englishmen sometime- do so, but 1 understand th.tt these men, tnese Kuiopcti.-., ■ •-> ill r-n.-n of rf sped ih\\ it v who most of them occupied positions and had been employed for some years by the i ransvaal Government, and I have the word <>! the officer associated with them that they are men whose conduct has been irreproachable since they have been under his charge, and no prisoner, no IS. >er, Huropean — othcer or m,m— has given the slightest trouble through the long and tr,mg voyage to this i,land. But even if it were not j-o these men have fallen ; they are at our feet, they are at our mercy ; ,md I surely need not appeal to the chivalrous and generous sentiments which ought to animate an enlightened community when I say that we ought to treat at least with silent respect men who are in misfortune, men who are in trouble, in the hour of their defeat, and are separated from mother, wife, home, child, and sweetheart— and refrain from any ungenerous word or thought which would aggravate or add to that trouble or provoke resentment, inflame the aching wound, and, worst of all, retard for one moment the dawn of that bright day which we all hope and pray for when this dieadful war will be at an end, when peace will be proclaimed, and when Boer and Englishman will live, work, and, perhaps, fight side by side under the British flag.'