THURSDAY,OCTOBER 13, 1904 LABOR DAY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 41, 13 October 1904, Page 17

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1904 LABOR DAY

\Q?\T1F& o1( * Spanish social distinction between the nil "jjJil ' cabal leLo ' (the man on horseback) aud the *£S7''P* ' peon ' (the. man on foot) runs m one f-hape Y<J*f^,>f or ot'her through the history of most people:;, ■^y* <-&)$» It is one 01 the lat^s. and tatterb that have ■^%"T^£Vclun£ to us lrom the troubled times when X 4&P ' every able-bodied tradesman was a warrior, " and fighting was nearly as much a part of the game of life as eating and sleeping. And yet the man with the hoe and the man with the hammer have done more tor the material well-being of our race, moie to build ur> and enrich nations than all the legions of men en horseback that have e\er earverd car h other up upon the world's battlefields. This is one of the obvious reminders ef Labor Day. The worker is the bene and sinew of the community. ' Honest labor tears a lovely face,' says Dekkcr. But it bore the brand of sJavciy and serfdom till the Catholic Church emancipated jtEven in tihe early days of persecution, when people worshipped in secret in the catacombs the slave and the master Knelt side by side before the altar, eqi'al in the sight of God and His Chujch, ' as employer, aril employee do vn" 1 " our 'day. Down all the niigitig .groove^ of centuries pf change the, Church has prpserved the honor and protected the interests of honest labor. She has taken her rstiai*d<,b.y its side, 'and' tfte oldeti bond'betWcen her and the toiling masses shall never be broken.

The Catholic guims of the middle ages were, perhaps, the- best protective institutions ewer formed for the benefit of labor. Under them the artisan had his eight-hours' day. Ho had, for his time, high .wages. He was protected by his guild against arbitary dismissal ; he was insured against the orilinaxy accidents of lite ; he was buoyed up hy the i'casonkh>le Tvo^e of one day Leconung himself an employer. He was secure 01 his Sunday rest., 01 his Saturday half-holiday, of his Umstmas and Easier holidays, and of many other festivals scattencd. throughout the year, and tihe low fixed rents of tf.o time contributed greatly to his prosperity. The generation that preceded the Reformation was. in England and Germany, t!he golden age of labor. Tho old Catholic guilds were overthrown in those countries during the great religious revolution of the sixteenth century. Then began the long, period of moral and physical degradation of the workers, who have only during the past two generations slowly and painfully succeeded, by the establishment of trade t:nions, in winning back some of the rights and privileges of the days of the guilds. 'At the time /of* tfh'e. Keiormation,' says a Protestant authority,' 1 these guilds" were abolished in Protestant countries, under pretence oE their being superstitious foundations. In Denmark and Nor ih Germany their property was devoted to pu-b-hc service, but m Englatad it was handled over "to the( King and his courtiers. Them gfuild-jhoiuses "fcrtarm* poorhouses and their pageants were laid aside. 1 ' Their p^o^erty,' says Professor Ihorold Rogers in his ' Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 1 ' was finally confiscated by 1 E-ttwaid VI., cap. 2»1, after having been comprised in the last of Henry's acts of rapine (37 Henry VIII., cap 1) . . When the gvil'd lands and chantty lands were confiscated at the beginning oi Edward's reign a promise was made that the estates of these foundations nhojld be demoted tojpood and proper use, by erecting giannnar schools, s hools for tlie better augmentation of the I nneisity, and the better provision for the poor and needy They were swept into the hands of Seymoui, Somerset, of the Dudleys and Cecils, and the rest oi the crew who svurrou.njdcd tihe throne of Edward Vl.' Slavery was then re-established, savage laws were trained to perpetuate the bondage of labor, and the woiker sanV into a social and political hell oE the danvned

The middle age in England, Germany, avid Denmark had, its many drawbacks its great and petty tyrannies, its nuinitold discontents and hardships. ' But, on the whole,' says Piote^sor Thorola Rogers, ' there wer,e iione oi those extremes of poverty and wealth which have excited the astonishment of philanthropists, and arc now exciting the indignation of workmen. The age, it is tme, had its discontents, and these discontents were ex.pressed foicibly and m a startling manner Hut of poverty which perishes unheeded, oE a wilJjn^iess 110 do honest .work amd a iaekiof cfapiorfcunlty there was httle or nctie ; It sjioiild have a sobciinji effect to recall all this in. view of Aiie unemployed, difuculty that has suddenly sprung upon us in some o> the provincial capitals on this year's' Labor Day We in this favored land stand in the van of enlightened iactory and genera! labor regis'latiofti'. ' But let us be just to the medieval pioneers that 1 showed us the- way. Our annual October labor festival is not thk ceienration of the conquest of a new right, .£he capture, of a fresh height, by the working man. It- is me're"ly the re-c oncf uesit of rights which were recognised,, as „a matter of course all ewer Catholic Europe as fat back' as four' crrihiries ago, but which was tramttletl: ffytfy dust in the siiorna and fury of t/hei Re-fox rnfyii^n , /j^orc-; ,• over, our legislations progressive though- it ibe^is* ne<Ses-, : warily limited," negative, and protefctVve'm'its nattira. It does' not restore to the world of la.Dor'iiJs Fttst At- ' lantisr—'it does not Secure constant; fempldy-merrt ''or f*e ;r ' certainty of a reasonable wage. MuVh less) can it re-

ssP,e§> , the- ..famfljar j-ahd //friendly <> tseMtfljons J3e.tw.een enyployer and employee that prevailed during the Catholic days of the middle ages. These have drifted apart into two distinct classes. And that drift has caused the conflict which has inflicted untold misery upon the working man. It) has created hosv.lity betwean capital and labor which 'has time and again threatened the fabric of our civilisation and social system with disruption.