THE IRISH HIERARCHY AND LABOR

New Zealand Tablet, 16 April 1914, Page 11

THE IRISH HIERARCHY AND LABOR

■ A JOINT PASTORAL. . < " •- TH E DUBLIN TROUBLES AND CATHOLIC SOCIAL POLICY. A NOTABLE DELIVERANCE. The Cardinal Archbishop, the Archbishops of Dublin, Tuam, and Cashel, and the other Bishops of Ireland, have issued a joint pastoral, which was read in all the churches of Ireland on Sunday, February 22 on the late labor disputes in Dublin and other parts of the country. The pastoral is as follows: Very Rev. and Rev. Fathers and Dear Brethren in Christ, — As Pastors of the faithful children of St. Patrick we have deeply felt the pain and sorrow which a prolonged labor dispute, of singular mischief in its various complications, has brought on our people. Hence the responsibility now devolves upon us of addressing to you this Pastoral Letter, in reference to the means by which sucfc great evils, spiritual and temporal, as this deplorable quarrel has unfortunately produced, may through the Divine mercy be prevented in the years to come. • ‘ All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to them that seek after His covenant and His testimonies’ (Ps. xxiv., 10). Arbitration and Conciliation. , Whoever shares responsibility for the failure in the past to set up Conciliation Boards in Dublin, for the prevention and settlement of labor disputes, has much to answer for. Had any .reasonable system of arbitration or conciliation been in working order it is more than likely that the recent strikes and lock-outs, with all their degrading consequences, would not have taken place. A paralysis of employment, that was altogether avoidable, has left us the humiliating, memory that in a year of plenty many thousands of the toiling masses in the capital city of our country were left for months in idle dependence on rations and strike-pay from England, and that large numbers of children had to be fed by charity away from their homes when not deported into strange fosterage across the Channel. Near Prospect of Native Government. The sense of misery, caused by this deplorable strife, was deepened by the fact that, whatever is to be said about the instigation, the contest arose and went on between Irish employers and Irish workers, to the serious prejudice of the nation’s interests at a time when the near prospect of native government should have raised the hearts of true Irishmen and drawn them together in harmonious and dignified relations. Had the healing influence of native rule been felt for even a few years we cannot believe that the bitter privation, the enormous waste, the loss, the shame, the sin of this insensate conflict, would have been entailed on a city, in which commerce and manufacture need to be fostered with tender care, instead of being recklessly endangered in a senseless war between workers and • employers. ■ - Irish Trades Unions. The great lesson from this sad experience is the imperative need of well-formed Conciliation Boards, duly representative of both sides, to adjust differences as they arise. Masters and men have a common interest in industry; and that is the way to maintain it for the common good. For the requisite organisation strong Irish Trade Unions, conducted on sound principles, can do much in industrial centres, as they .can likewise to 0 i serve other useful purposes of a kindred nature. - ' ‘ A strong association -of workers is not likely either 'to accept less than a living wage or to plead compulsion when' a collective 'bargain is authorised by a ■ regular ballot of its : members. The sense of Christian duty, as of manly self-respect and honor, has then fair play to ’ , influence conduct; and to- develop a sound ton© and

tradition in industrial relations. The employers, likewise, need their Unions. But disputes there will be. The making of- a bargain in which a multitude is concerned, . and the varying circumstances of persons and events, naturally mad to sharp divergences from time to time, and then a fair jury should have a chance of bringing in its verdict before the protagonists on either side let loose the horrors of war. Nothing less is demanded by the interests of the parties themselves. Nothing less is fair to the public. The Laborers’ First Claim. • • In connection with the labor question, it is the laborers who have first claim on our consideration. Though there is no counting the number of unsuccessful manufacturers and of unprosperous merchants, business and trade make rich men, and industry will not flourish and will not give employment unless it brings wealth in its tram. But for our part, when we desue ardently to see suitable industries thrive in town and country, our desire is not for the enrichment 'of any class, but for such employment and remuneration of Irish labor at home as will afford our working people a worthy livelihood, and stem the tide of depopulating emigration. 1 ° 'Outlet and Outlook.’ In backward districts, or where foreign competitors have got far ahead, or where from other reasons existing circumstances, are unfavorable, the workers need not expect at the start the full measure of remuneration to which they are entitled when the industry has reached normal conditions. But out of the average thriving business the workman may well claim, in return for his honest day s work, what will at least procure worthy maintenance for himself and his little family, with such ‘ outlet and outlook,’ to use the phrase of a living statesman in a like connection, as are implied in a reasonable opportunity to improve steadily the condition of his household. Nothing less is fair recompense for hard work, temperance, and thrift. • As a rule, the laborers, who toil at the heaviest work for the lowest pay, have not received a fair share of the wealth they do so much to produce. Under the sway of materialist economics, less than a hundred years ago, men and machinery were treated as one in the greatest manufacturing centres, except, indeed, that the machinery was better cared.But the Catholic Church has never accepted and never could accept the doctrine that there was any body of human beings that no one was bound to look after and among the classes that compose lay society, apart from the infirm and destitute, no class has ever bad, from her the same warm, watchful, courageous care as those who literally earn their bread in the sweat of their brow. They needed it most, and they had it most. They had it when they were not the great power in the State that they are now, that -they need to be in our time for the protection of their interests, and that they deserve to be because of their essential services to the community. The Church and Honest Toil. Friendship for honest toil is seen from the first in the life of the Church. Amidst a perverse world, that held manual labor in dishonor, her Divine Founder was a carpenter by trade, the Prince of the Apostles and many of his . colleagues were humble fishermen, the Doctor of the Gentiles was a tent-maker. The Fathers of the Church extolled the rights and dignity of labor. Her monks preached and practised manual toil. In the course, of her combat with oppression, lasting through the centuries, she emancipated labor by abolishing slavery, and kept it free by banning usury and by encouraging unions among different classes of workers for improvement and defence. The combined action of the members of these associations was all the more effective in that they were welded together in the practice of religion, and conscious of the freedom which the truth of the, Gospel brings to men. And when, in consequence of . mechanical invention ' and 1 the dominance of 1 inhuman economics, the old protective associations were dissolved, or

. became .unsuited to: the circumstances of a new industrial era, and workmen were left to survive if they could where labor-saving machinery had supplanted them, the Church rejoiced at every legitimate combination of the toilers to uphold their rights and demand redress for theij many grievances. Her zeal for them, her respect and love for them, in the twentieth century, flow from the same divinely-established source from which sprang the demands for liberty and justice to the ■ oppressed and enslaved toilers which her pastors uttered in the first centuries in face of a scornful pagan world. No absolutism of capital, no utter dependence of labor, can be laid to her charge. A sharp "division between the employer and the employed is none of her work. But since the dividing line has been so rigidly drawn, she ever fosters harmony between labor and capital, as the sound basis of their common interest in industry, and she earnestly desires that each of them should have a fair return from the joint contributions of both. Leo XIII. Encyclical. The Encyclical of Leo XIII., issued in 1891, On the Condition of Labor, contains great lessons for workers and employers alike. It is rightly called the Charter ' of the working classes. Their rights, their duties, their dangers, their safeguards are set forth in it by the Successor of the Fisherman, the Vicar of Christ; by one who had their welfare at heart as his Master had, and who was fortified with ample knowledge and full authority to uphold their interests within the full compass of the Divine Law. Employers and men should not be content, with such fragments of that noble Christian philosophy of social and industrial life as seem to suit them at the moment. • They should read the Encyclical over and over again; and the boys and girls of the industrial classes, as they grow up, should be thoroughly schooled in a teaching that is so appropriate to their condition in life, if they are to be trained aright for the duties of Christian citizenship. The well-known paragraphs that follow suffer by being torn from their context: m . ‘ But all agree,’ writes Leo XIII., ‘and there can be no question whatever that some remedy must be found, and quickly found, for the misery and wretchedness which press so heavily at this moment on the large majority of the very poor. The ancient workmen’s guilds were destroyed in the last century, and no other organisation took their place. Public institutions and the laws have repudiated the ancient religion. Hence by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been given over, isolated and defenceless, to the callousness of employers and the greed of unrestrained competition. The evil has been increased by rapacious Usury, which, although more than once condemned ' by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different form, but with the same guilt, still practised by avaricious and grasping men. And to this must be added the custom of working by contract and the concentration of so many branches of trade in the hands of a few individuals, so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the masses 'of the poor a yoke little better than slavery itself. . -. t To remedy these evils, the Socialists, working on the poor man’s envy of the rich, endeavor to destroy private property and maintain that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or municipal bodies. They hold that, by thus transferring property from private persons to the community, the present-evil state of things will be set to rights, because each citizen will then have his equal share of whatever there is to enjoy. But their proposals are so clearly futile for, all practical purposes that, if they were carried out, the working man himself would be among the first to suffer. Moreover, they are emphatically unjust, because ' they would rob the lawful possessor, bring the State into a sphere that is not its own, and cause complete confusion in the community.’ - - ; • t « - The great mistake,that "is made in the matter now under consideration is to possess oneself of the idea that class is naturally hostile to class, that rich

and poor are intended by nature to live at war with one another- So irrational and sp false is this view, that the exact contrary is the truth, Just as the symmetry of the human body is the result of the disposition of the members of the body, so in a State it is ordained by nature that into one another, so as to maintain the equilibrium of the body politic. Each requires other ; capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital. Mutual agreement results in pleasantness and good order; perpetual conflict necessarily produces confusion and outrage. - ' ‘Now, in preventing such strife as this, and in making it impossible, the efficacy of Christianity is marvellous and manifold. First of all, there is nothing more powerful than religion (of which the . Church is the interpreter and guardian) in drawing rich and poor together, by reminding each class of its duties to the other, and especially of the duties of justice. Thus Religion teaches the laboring man and the workman to carry out honestly and well all equitable agreements freely made; never to injuie capital, or to outrage the person of any employer ; never to employ violence in representing his own cause, or to engage in riot, or disorder; and to have nothing to do with men of evil principles, who work upon the people with artful promises, and raise foolish hopes which usually end in disaster and in repentance when too late. Religion teaches the rich man and the employer that their work-people are not their slaves; that they must respect in every man his dignity as a man and as a Christian ; that paid handicrafts are nothing to be ashamed of, if we listen to right reason and to Christian philosophy, but honorable employments, enabling a man to sustain his life in an upright and creditable way; and that it is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to look upon them merely as so much muscle or physical power. Thus, again, Religion teaches that, as among the workmen’s concerns are Religion itself and things spiritual and mental, the employer is bound to see that he has time for the duties of piety; that he be not exposed to corrupting influences and dangerous occasions; and that he is not led away to neglect his home and family or to squander his wages. Then again, the employer must never tax his work-people beyond their strength, nor employ them in work unsuited to their sex or age. His great and principal obligation is to give to everyone that which is just. Doubtless, before we can decide whether wages are adequate many things have to be considered’; but rich men and masters should remember thisthat to exercise pressure for the sake of gain upon the indigent and the destitute, and to make one’s profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. ‘ To defraud anyone of wages that are his due is a crime which cries to the avenging anger of heaven. “ Behold the hire of the laborers, . . . which by fraud hath been kept back by you, crieth ; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” Finally, the rich must religiously refrain from cutting down workmen’s earnings, either by force, by fraud, or by usurious dealing; and with the more reason because the poor man is weak and unprotected, and because his slender means should be sacred in proportion to their scantiness. ‘ Were these precepts carefully obeyed and followed, would not strife die out and cease ? ‘Rights must be; religiously respected wherever they are found, and it is the duty of the public authority to prevent and punish injury, and to protect each one in the possession of his own. Still, when there is question of protecting the rights of individuals, the poor and helpless have a claim to special consideration. . The richer population have many ways of protecting themselves, and stand less in need of help from the State; those .who are badly off have no resources of their own to fall back upon, and must chiefly rely upon assistance of the- State. And it is for this reason 'that ‘ wage-earners, who are; . undoubtedly ; among the weak and.'; necessitous, should be specially cared for and protected I.by the commonwealth. - f

, ‘ Here, however, it * will be advisable to advert expressly to one or two of the more important details. It must be borne in mind that the chief thing to bg secured is the safeguarding, in legal enactment and ' policy,-of private property. Most of all, it is essential' in these time of covetous greed, to keep the multitude within "the line of duty; for, if all may justly strive to better their condition, yet neither justice nor the common good allows anyone to seize that which belongs to another, or, under the pretext of futile and ridiculous equality, to lay hands on other people’s fortunes. It is most true that by far the larger part of the people who work prefer to improve themselves by honest labor rather than by doing wrong to others. But there are not a few who are imbued with bad principles and are anxious for revolutionary changes, and whose great purpose is to stir up tumult and bring about a policy of violence. The authority of the State should intervene to put restraint upon these disturbers, to save the ' workmen from their seditious arts, and to protect lawful owners from spoliation.’ ‘ But if the owners of property must be made secure, the workman, too, has property and possessions in which he must be protected and, first of all, there are his spiritual and mental interests. Life on earth, however good and desirable in itself, is not the final purpose for which man is created ; it is only the way and the means to that attainment of truth and that practice of goodness in which the full life of the soul consists. It is the soul which is made after the image ' and likeness of God; it is in the soul that sovereignty •resides, in virtue of which man is commanded to rule the creatures blow him, and to use all the earth and the ocean for his profit and advantage. ‘ “Fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all the living creatures that move upon the earth.’ In this* respect all me nare equal ; there is no difference between rich aiid poor, master and servant, ruler and ruled; for the same is Lord over all. No man may outrage with impunity that human dignity which God Himself treats with reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher life which is the preparation for the eternal life of Heaven. Nay, more, a man has here no power over himself. To consent to any treatment which is calculated to defeat the end and purpose of his being is beyond his right ; he cannot give up his soul to servitude ;'for it is not man’s own rights which are here in question, but the rights of God, most sacred and inviolable.’ ‘ The preservation of life is the bounden duty of each and all, and to fail therein is a crime. It follows that each one has a right to procure what is required in order to live; and the poor can procure it in no other way than by work and wages.’. ‘ Let it bo granted, then, that, as a rule, workman and employer should make free arrangements, and in particular should freely agree as to wages nevertheless, there is a dictate of nature more imperious and more ancient than any bargain between man and man ; that the remuneration must be enough to support the wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comfort. If through necessity, or fear of a worse evil, the workman accepts harder conditions, because an employer or a contractor will give him no better, he is the victim of force and injustice. In these and similar questions, however-such as, for example, the. hours of labor in diffierent trades, the sanitary precautions to the observed in factories and workshops, etc. -in order to supersede undue interference on the part of the State, especially as circumstances, times, and localities differ so , widely, it is advisable that recourse be had to societies or boards, such as we shall mention presently, or to some- other method of safeguarding the interests of wage-earners, the State to be asked for approval and protection. ;v ‘ ■-V ; ‘ If a workman’s wages be sufficient to enable him to maintain . himself, his wife, and his children in -reasonable, comfort, he will not find it difficult, if he is • V "

a sensible man, to study economy; and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by a little property; nature and reason would urge him to this. W 6 have seen that this great Labor question cannot be solved except by assuming as a principle that private ownership must be held sacred and inviolable. The law, therefore, should favor ownership/ and its policy should be to induce as many of the people as possible to become owners. v ‘ Many excellent results will follow from this; and, first of all, property will certainly become more equitably divided. For the effect of - civil change and revolution has been to divide society into two widely differing castes. On the one side there is the party which holds the power because it holds the wealth ; which has in its grasp all labor and all trade, which manipulates for its own benefit and its own purposes' all- sources of supply, and which is powerfully represented in the Councils of the State itself. On the other side there is the needy and powerless multitude, sore and suffering, and always ready for disturbance. ‘ If the working people can be encouraged to look forward to obtaining a share in the land, the result will be that the gulf between vast -wealth and deep poverty will be bridged over, and the two orders will be brought nearer together.’ This concludes our lengthened quotations from the renowned Pontiff. As might be expected, many foolish words, many unfair and wicked things, were said and written during the recent labor troubles. One of the most unbecoming and most ungrateful utterances was an attempt to belittle Leo XIII.’s great Encyclical. It will be treated as of no account, or as a mere primer on the labor question, by none but those who aim- at destruction and not at construction, or who have never given it careful study, or who are incapable of realising that a brief statement of fundamental truths in social and industrial life, from a master mind and master authority, may present its most far-reaching principles better than libraries of wild theory that cannot stand practical examination and must dissolve under the scrutiny of reason, to say nothing of Revelation. With the lapse of time, questions must arise that will need their own solutions in the light of their own circumstances. But none is likely to enter the domain of industrial disputes that will fail to be helped towards a’solution by a, reference to the basis of right, declared as the law of Divine justice in that courageous pronouncement. The Quagmire of Socialism. In sorrow, not in anger, does the Holy Father endeavor to save men from following a will-o’-the-wisp into-the quagmire of Socialism. But the evils that lead so many to embrace the Socialist creed, which, as a body of teaching, centres human existence on an impossible equality, or that- impel them to have recourse to the ruinous strikes and lockouts which are becoming more and more frequent, and remedies for these evils, were not hidden from the keen vision of Leo XIII. If he has exposed the injustice and the folly of Socialist doctrine — since then has considerably moderated its official —and vindicated man s rights to private property, proving it to be necessary in the interests of the workman, not less than of anyone else, he has also proclaimed the need for a far wider distribution of ownership than now exists; and he has done so as an adjunct to his memorable teaching on the living wage. ‘The law, therefore,’ he says, ‘ should favor ownership, and its policy should be... to induce as many of the people as possible to become owners.’ Then he adds, ‘Many excellent results will follow from this; and, first of all, property will certainly become njore equally divided.’ ; ‘ : - - The Desire of Ownership. The desire of ownership, which within due bounds, is natural and legitimate in man, and may be highly commendable, springs from the laudable purpose of P ro " viding in a stable way for. himself and those depending upon him. The real explanation why multitudes of

men, otherwise as good as their neighbors, have swelled the ' ranks of Socialism, seems to be, not that they hated private property on principle, but that by nature and in fact they loved to have it, and saw no avenue leading to participation in it except the fantastic way that opens on the dismal swamp where there is to be State ownership of the instruments of production and distribution, and State intrusion everywhere. It is, indeed, the duty of the State to see that the national resources are turned to good account for the support and welfare of all the people; and, consequently, the State or Municipality should acquire, always for just compensation, those agencies of production, and those agencies only, in which the public interest demands that public property rather than private ownership should exist. •Fortunately the trend of land settlement in this country is in the direction of reasonably-sized holdings owned by their occupiers; and under native management it is not too much to expect that a model system of employment will be developed by degrees in suitable variety, so that Christian comradeship between men and masters and a sense of joint interest may be the rule and not the exception. An opportunity to share in the profits or to acquire a co-partnership, or at least to benefit in some permanent way by the continued prosperity of the undertaking, might with great advantage be embodied in a scheme of employment. In this manner good, steady, whole-hearted work would be encouraged, and the men would have a chance of becoming masters through their own exertions. Industrial Transition* The difficulty of conducting successfully a commercial undertaking, in the management of which the workers would have a voice, may, in most cases, be too much for us at present. But it looks as if the industrial world were at a stage of transition when such things are likely to be ; and, though machinery and invention have made a lasting change in the industrial system, it is to be remembered that the Church, in the interests of mankind, has ever desired a wide distribution of property, 'and in her days of greatest social power sanctioned a large control of industry by the workers. What she never did, and never can do. is to countenance wrongful interference with capita! or contracts, any more than she can sanction an invasion of the rights of labor. British Trades Unions. The Trade Union of Great Britain came to the aid of their Dublin fellow-workers with great liberality, in the belief, it may be assented, that the right ofcombination was attacked. The pity was, and is, that the Labor leaders, and still more the press, in England were in such impatient haste to back in Ireland, about- which they knew little, methods of action which they soon found would not answer in their own country, for whose interests they were becomingly solicitous. The ■ subsequent efforts of the leaders to make peace deserve all praise. But how came it to be their duty to cross over as peace missioners to settle a local dispute in a country on the eve of self-government where the race of capable men is not supposed to be yet extinct? Well, be it said in answer, this wretched, long-drawn-out strife, like many another on Irish soil, would never have taken place or, once begun, would have been readily composed, if Irishmen had their own strong and independent Union and did not invite outside intervention by leaning on outside support in their disputes. .. - Syndicalism. It was a different issue, however, that darkened the sky. Syndicalism wanted no employers in Dublin or anywhere else, and it prepared and took the field to use Irish workers and the English unions for its own purposes. As a result it would be difficult to say to which of these three classes it did the greatest amount of mischief. But the bitterest suffering fell to the lot of the families of the poor, and the greatest loss to the City of Dublin. ■; . .

If Syndicalists must have a theatre for their operations they should find some other place than Ireland to experiment upon. The Irishman has been long enough exploited against himself by force or craft from across the Channel. And certainly, in our poor country, so badly needing employment, it is folly little short of madness for any of our own people to join m a cry to destroy the one class that makes some use of its resources to give employment to the workingman when no other is ready to do so. Irish Workers and Irish Industries. Let any sane scheme be launched, or even propounded, of industries conducted by Irish workers without employers, and Irishmen will be prepared to give it a trial. - The smashing of labor would be a wicked and barbarous programme however it might be explained. But, unless some such plan as we haite just referred to be possible and adequate for the purpose in view, there is no legitimate way of giving effect to the almost equally barbaric formula of smashing capital. It is the use of capital by employers that is marked out for destruction. Under Syndicalism the employer is compelled to disappear, and the workers are supposed to do everything and manage everything in an industrial federation away from State control. But without capital from some quarter nothing can be done in the world of industry, even if the management were competent; and, to seize the property of employers would be wholesale robbery paving the way to anarchy. Well, civilisation cannot afford to dissolve into chaos in Ireland or anywhere else. It will not do to overthrow human society, or reverse the wheels of progress. W have got to hold fast to Christian principles. If, therefore, associations of workers cannot acquire the means in a legitimate way, or if with the necessary capital they are incapable, from their circumstances, of conducting industrial concerns successffully, what is to be said is that a good man can thrive on fair wages, if the housekeeping is whatsit ought to be, and there remain such plans as we have already indicated by,which industrious workers in the course of their employment may share in the industry or become masters themselvesThe Wage System. Certainly, the wage system should be so improved as nowhere to deserve the name of sweating or wageslavery. ‘ When work-people,’ says Leo XIII., ‘ have recourse to a strike, it is frequently because the hours of labor are too long or the work too hard, or because they consider their wages insufficient. The grave inconvenience of this not uncommon “occurrence should be obviated by public remedial measures.’^ It is the inhuman offence of crushing labor that is responsible for the cry against capital. Whether our workers have yet arrived at the stage of setting much store on proprietorship in any degree or not, they rightly have a keen sense of the value of proper dwellings in which they live. Housing accommodation is not less important for them than the amount of their wages. What chance is there for health or comfort, temperance or thrift, home education or a Christian life,*if a married man has not a sanitary dwelling of three or four rooms to shelter his family ? Attention has been justly fixed on the miserable house accommodation of many of the poor in Dublin. Within a generation large schemes to provide new houses for the workers of the metropolis have been successfully carried out. But a vast deal of improvement in this line is still most urgently needed in Dublin, and proportionately in other cities and towns throughout Ireland. A healthy home for the town worker finds a precedent that should be followed, so far as conditions allow, in the fine accommodation for agricultural laborers that now adorns many an Irish countryside. It is a case in which private enterprise, the .provision made by some employers, and the efforts of. philanthropy need to be supplemented by municipal encouragement and State aid.

The City Housing. , . When, however, improved tenement houses in the city and separate cottages in the city or its suburbs have brought the dwellings of laborers and artisans up to a fair standard, and when the wages of the worst paid and hardest workers are higher than they are now, it is not to be expected that all disputes about wages, hours, work, and treatment will disappear. Even if there were no employers inclined to be exacting and no workers inclined to idle, it is in the nature of things, certainly in man’s nature, and in the' interests of progress, that changes should be sought with changing time and circumstances. An employer may resist where he should comply, a worker may make a new demand where he should rest content. • The common sense, therefore, of the. matter is that, in the spirit of mutual interest, the whole issue should be considered by capable men, fairly representing both sides, with a view to an arrangement of the difficulty if possible, and that no extreme . course should be taken except as a last resort and in a constitutional way by the free ballot of men in full possession of the merits of the case on’ both sides. The public, also, should be afforded opportunities to form its opinion before war breaks out, if indeed the name of war can he applied to a conflict in which it is wrong to destroy property or do bodily hurt to anyone. Schemes for Conciliation. Hence, while not expressing an opinion on the Inquiry recently held by the Board of Trade in Dublin, we cannot too warmly recommend some such scheme of conciliation as that set forth in the second part of the report then submitted. The proposals it contains offer something really valuable in substitution for the sudden or sympathetic strike or lockout, and they provide fairly for breaches of agreement. Its application in the capital of Ireland to as many departments of industry as possible would be a useful example for other Irish cities and towns. The matter seems to us so urgent as to brook no delay beyond the time necessary to make carefully-considered arrangements for each of the industries concerned. To Settle Labor Disputes. .In every civilised country, but certainly in Ireland, there ought, we repeat, to be an efficient means of settling labor disputes without, recourse to strikes and lock-outs until all else fails. Woeful want in the homes of the workers, heavy loss to the employers, grave inconvenience and injury to the public, deplorable waste of time and resources, great set-back to industry, sacrifice of the material interests of the nation for the advantage of her rivals, violence and bloodshed, and an avalanche of unchristian language charged with perverted opinions and voicing feelings of hatred, revenge, and all uncharitableness, are some of the evil consequences with which we are not unfamiliar. Our people, indeed,* are the last who should use their rough weapon against one another. They are kindly by nature, religious by conviction, and not unaware of the almost irreparable loss inflicted on Irish trade, industry, and commerce by jealous neighbors in the past, or of the urgent need to develop native employment with the greatest care and patience. When it comes to a strike or jock-out, too often, not ought, but might settles the issue. Well, it is not placing too high an estimate on the character of our people to say that if they had a controversy with another nation, and strength were on their side, they would be the first to propose that the justice of the case should be ascertained by a competent tribunal and that right should be allowed to prevail. As Irishmen and as Christians they would , use their strength for defence, not for offence, in dealing with outsiders. Now, we owe one another, to say the least of it, as much as we owe the stranger, and to resort to the rough arbitrament of a strike or a lock-out is out of keeping with our place in Christian civilisation if more rational methods be available to assert our claims to fair play. ' \ ! " ’ The Workers and Trades ' Unions. •', ' ; ~ "s Mainly through trade unions, with all their : shortcomings, have the working classes secured something

corresponding with the protection which, in a different industrial order, the Church promoted former times. Their organisation is most desirable. If based on Christian principles, the more widespread in industrial * centres and the more perfect it is the better for all concerned. But were their strength ten times as great as it is, it would not be wise and it might be criminal to use it in the form of a strike to settle a labor dispute that could' be fairly arranged in a conference between the parties. The same, of course, holds for a lock-out by employers. ' What is the use of saying that a sympathetic strike or lock-out may be justifiable in conceivable, circumstances when the real point is that the sympathetic strike or lock-out is cpinous to industry, and therefore to employment, unless it is fenced round with most careful safeguards ? The Sacredness of Contracts. What, again, is the use of saying that a contract made under compulsion is not binding when the important point is that unless the sacredness of contracts entered into by men enjoying average freedom in regard to them is upheld there is an end to the confidence in man’s plighted word, which is the bond of human intercourse, the mainstay of fair dealing, and the basis of business enterprise everywhere ? Disregard of contracts by workers may have its counterpart in disregard of contracts by employers, just as the sympathetic strike is matched by the sympathetic lock-out. These are extreme expedients not readily justified. They are destructive engines of war ; and only a sound scheme of arbitration and conciliation can restrain them from devastating the industrial field. How many industrial enterprises have perished, how many families of workers have been cast adrift within living memory, through strikes and lockouts, in all their ramifications, that a well-manned tribunal of peace might have prevented ? Conciliation Boards, constructed on wise lines, will go far to take the place of an ideal association of workers and employers, and though they are not likely to prevent all conflicts between them, they will obviate constantly-recurring strikes and lock-outs, to the great advantage of both classes and of the general public. Nothing is more important for trade and for everyone dependent upon it than to draw employers and workers closely together. Once that is done, it cause* little trouble to arrange, .for instance, as regards overtime when a structure needs to go up in a hurry, or a disabled ship calls for immediate attention in the repairing docks. The Elimination of Sweaters. In the legitimate effort to eliminate sweaters and secure fair conditions of employment the advantage of having employment and the need to secure its continuance should never be overlooked. We want to attract shipping, trade, and commerce to our shores. We need to establish suitable industries and put fresh life into those already in existence. The man who, instead of placing his money in a bank or investing it abroad, faces the risks of putting it into a project for the development of Irish industries, deserves credit and encouragement. He takes a line that too few of our people have taken, and when he does so it behoves us, as some return to him, and for the encouragement of others, to make his risk as light as we can. v The interest of every class, particularly of the workers, demands that-we should attract the use of capital, not frighten it away. The full programme in the interests of labor is to have as much employment as possible and to see that its conditions are fair to the workers. The laborer, skilled or unskilled, should have a fair chance to improve his condition. It must not be too difficult for industry, ability, thrift, and character to raise him to a position equal to his worth. One splendid advantage he enjoys in this country is the - opportunity to educate his family on sound Christian lines. A good primary education, as a rule, can be had within easy reach and, fortunately, the way .to the Technical or Secondary School, or higher still, is beginning to open for the fine boys and girls that come from the laborer’s household, and who are gifted

with deft fingers or bright minds. In whatever else the Irish city worker may be at a disadvantage he is no longer behind in the opportunity to give his children the education that is best for them. Our Young Workers, It will do good to the rising generation if our young workers reflect how they came to enjoy the wealth of this fine educational inheritance. It was the rich dower of young workers in Ireland long ago.Once more it is their heritage, largely through the selfsacrifice of men and women who had something beyond justice and equity to bestow. More than strict justice is due in- equity to the toilers who do the hardest and most necessary work of the community, sometimes at peril to their lives, living very much from hand to mouth on the earnings of employment that is not at all times available. In some such spirit as this for the public good, as also from a sense that wages were inadequate, the State in recent years has been making most praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of its industrial population. But before social legislation made any # progress our Irish workers had experience of a still higheAtype of service in the sacrifice of those who gave their lives without personal reward to the Christian education of the poor. The Priests and Laymen. This brings us almost to the conclusion of what we have to say. If we have deemed it right to touch briefly on many sociological questions in this Letter, it is not because we consider that priests and laymen in this country need be specially occupied with set addresses on the evils of Socialism or Syndicalism, or strikes, or lock-outs. These subjects cannot, indeed, be too w-ell understood by the shepherds and guides of the people; and it is a great acquisition of strength on the side of right that they are discussed in a variety 'of excellent little Catholic publications that are within the reach of all, and that all may read with lasting advantage. Moreover, a warning is necessary now and then. ' But our main object, while fixing attention on the nature of the dangers with which our people have recently been confronted, is to urge, in the spirit of Pius X. as of Leo XIII., the sovereign importance of preventing, by fair treatment and fair trial, the evils that evoke these crude, unchristian theories, and drive men to adopt these rough methods of redress. To this end, circles for social study, debate, and work are specially useful. It is eminently a case where prevention is better than cure. Indeed, in applying a cure on any wide scale we have to go back to the ways of prevention. Accordingly, our chief concern is a full measure of proper treatment for the laboring classes, with ample encouragement to good, hard, honest work, but no encouragement to drink, idleness, or inefficiency. Justice and Equity. We have been throughout asserting the claims of justice and equity under existing industrial conditions. But as Christians we owe more to one another than the duties even of social justice, ‘ because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost Who is given to us ’ (Rom. v., 5). We were not made for earth but for Heaven. Only when the perishable goods of this world pass away from us for ever, do we enter on our eternal possessions arid begin our true life with God. ■ ‘ It is more blessed to give than to receive ’ (Acts xx., 35). If we have much we can call our own, the Lord gave it' for our welfare and for the relief of others, in whose person He may stand asking some of it ba'ck from us. If we have little, the Saviour had less for Himself, and it is His hard-pressed fellow-labourers He invites to come to Him that He may refresh them. In Christ we are one, and earthly possessions, or want of them, do not count. If duty calls, us to practise justice, patience, consideration, forbearance towards one another, w r e are also bound as Christians to .be charitable in thought and word and deed. Let charity;, then, which is the queen of virtues and (he bond of perfection, reign in our hearts. God is charity, and he that abideth in charity *abideth in God, and God in him’ (1 St. John iv., 16). Maynooth, 11th February, 1914,