Socialism and Social Reformation

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 32, 26 August 1925, Page 27

Socialism and Social Reformation

•r It may be safely stated that the Gospel of Socialism has been, . in' the main,' a gospel of hatred, fanaticism and class division. Yet - socialists . nave done . good ? service ?in revealmg our social wrongs and injustices, in denouncing our avarice and cruelty, and in V • . V V«t • » ■* - showing up our crass stupidity and smug Pharisaism; though they are by no means alone in their denunciations. tj i . •- But, as a man and a Christian, I am compelled to condemn Socialism, first, because, whether considered from the standpoint of history or from the outlook of Christian Ethics, I find it to be bound up with principles, and postulates and consequences which, by no legitimate mental process, can be made to square with the laws of justice, equity and right as promulgated by the Christian dispensation. Secondly, as a man and a Christian, I condemn Socialism, because even were it an economic theory onlywhich it is not —it would be fraught with consequences pernicious and even disastrous to the individual and to family, to religion and to the State. . Thirdly, I condemn Socialism, because* it takes for granted what is not true, that all the social and industrial evils of our day are wrongs inherent in the system of private capital. This, assertion is contradicted by a host of the ablest and best menmen upright of purpose, sound in judgment, students of history, well read in sociology, ripe scholars and earnest Christians—who maintain, with the most cogent of reasons, that the deplorable and widespread social evils are not due to, nor essentially inherent in, private ownership, but, on the contrary, are due almost entirely to certain economic and industrial abuses that have been imported into the system. Never would such abuses have crept in, if only the Christian principles of justice and charity had been observed and enforced in the relations between capital and labor. Certain it is, also, that our present-day struggles, our rampant evils, and our dreadful situation of unrest and rivalry, of class hatred and of fight for bigger dividends and higher wages, are very largely due-to apostasy from God, and revolt against Christ and His Christianity, Lv; •• < '■ The Only Alternative, If this world is our be-all and our end-all, then let the cure-all be revolution, with apolicy of universal grab. It were the wellearned result of human folly.. Our alternative must be either “Back to Christ” or “On to Socialism.” The source of some of our social evils is deliberate injustice. Others spring from stupidity. Together they amount to an appalling sum of misery' which requires to be faced honestly and remedied promptly. Let me state. a few facts of our social conditions, say, in England. ' . : ? 1. The housing of the poor, a few years ago, nay, largely even now, was and is a national • disgrace. Millions of human belings were housed worse-than cattle or horses If . •*. - • . > - . \

(For the N.Z. Tablet by Abchbibhop Rbdw ood.)

• n • r—r» j. ,; of many, a lord and squire. What delicacy, modesty, or self-respect could such wretched creatures have? ! - 2. One out .of every four persons in London died in a . work-house, asylum, or hospital, and -over 30 per cent, of the population of London lived on, or below r the poverty line. Unemployment is ever "present:. - 3. Infant mortality due to criminal carelessness or curable ignorance was deplorably high. In some streets more than half the children born alive among the poor perished under a year old.' O v •• ; ‘ 4. Wages were often far below that minimum upon which the Catholic Church , insists as necessary- to decent living. Sweating existed to an appalling extent, not only in the case of home workers, but also in many factories and workshops. Then came the evil, of child labor. The remedy is legislation. It is vain to wait till Capital takes pity on Labor. Conditions in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom out of a population of 43,000,000, as many as 38,000,000 were poor. In an average year 8 millions died, leaving between them three times as much wealth as is left by 644,000 poor persons who died in one year. About oneseventieth part of the population, owned far more than half of the entire accumulated wealth, public and private, of the United Kingdom. Consider for a moment the lives of those in England who made our match-boxes (288 drawers, 288 covers, 288 bits of sand-paper) for twopence halfpenny per gross; one penny per hour for those who converted sugar bags into bran sacks; threepence or fourpence the gross for those who made artificial flowers. Excluding domestic servants, there were in England 3j millions wage-earning women, and thousands of them receiving less than 7 shillings a week. Only think of it—in London, where there is no room but in the 'churches— one-fifth of the population; underfed and overcrowded 111 Surely, as Pope Leo XIII said, a remedy must be found and found quickly. What remedy? Not Socialism. For Socialism would cripple the forces which are indispensable for social welafre. Not legislation alone. Because it can only indirectly touch the deeper springs of national well-being. Can jt foster kindly relations between employers and employed, or strengthen conjugal fidelity, or kindle patriotism, or inculcate generosity, manliness, thrift? It may help to remove obstacles, but hardly more. Besides, legislation unbacked by public opinion is almost useless. You may pass laws, but, unless you’have a healthy social conscience they will be evaded, and become a dead letter. ,- 7 I . • ■ The Social Question. Nor can Christianity alone solve the social question. For the social question is both, a moral and religious question, and also an

economic and political question. . It demands ] • the positive action of civil authority. Leo ; XIII insists oh this. ’State action * and vate action must combine with Church ac- * tion in ’ the solution of the social question. That is..the only, reasonable view. There UsT: > , , .... . T -'-vdl no - short cut,- no 7-panacea. All possible forces - are required, and they must be coordinated. J '■ v ' - I.^ ■ ■ • ' ’ . . . 1. LEGISLATION,—Much : has been done i in some countries instance, factory.laws '/ • * -p . 4' r *T * • « ■ • *** 1 in . Europe and America, and 'New Zealand. . Contrast the conditions of * labor now with - those of ,the early part of the 19th century,* and the progress made .seems enormous. No. question: demands closer or more immediate ; study than the.question of wages. The “just wage” is a matter • upon which the Catholic . Church holds very strong views. She detests 'i the old political ' economy ;, which centred the attention merely on production. She looks to the producers. The workman has a right ■ to a living' wage, and legislation should enforce that right. It is no business of , mine to draw up a . scheme of social legislation. I merely point y out that much remains to be studied. And j it is well to insist on the need of rescuing ; such legislation from, its subordination to ; mere party interest.; Party interest, though • valuable, must not c prejudice the progress of beneficial legislation. . • 'I • - 2. PRIVATE INITIATIVE.— initiative has effected much, and can still do much more. It were difficult to over-rate the value of, Such activities as trade unions, co-operative societies, and such like. Then numbers of profit-sharing and labor-copart- : nership systems have on the whole worked well in England, not to speak of other countries. They introduce the much-needed human element into business; they'bring employer and employed into closer relationship and they make Capital • and Labor interested in the financial success of the same I commercial enterprise. What above all is wanted is a widespread and sound social sense. Few are willing to take part in social reform. The workers are the exceptions. The rich, as a rule, are absorbed in pleasure hunting, the middle class are sunk in rou- I tine, the toilers are . engaged in the grim ! fight for daily bread. And so social responsibility fails to make itself felt. ' ! . : • . . . ■ • :ii •; :; - 3. THE ACTION OP THE CHURCH.— What is here meant is that the social question cannot be solved apart from -the Church, since the Church, in Newman’s phrase, supplies “the - binding principle of society,” The Catholic Church protests against current Capitalism with its immoral and unmoral economics, its false boast .of, freedom," its undisguised utilitarianism. She protests against,iSocialism which, in the ultimate - analysis, is equally utilitarian. To both-she says: “In cutting yourselves off from me you are cutting yourselves off . from what is most sound in -European traditions;' You 1 • are cutting yourselves off from a great spiritual - force, without which society can. make ; no real progress.” . - Legislative machinery > and economics , ordinances cab; not give men V ideals or permanently and effectively check

Stheir Agreed, -or teach jthem' the dignity and * duty of labor, or maintain that purity ,of child life; and, family life upon which social .well-being depends. ” The Church can-do all ,, s these things. Hence the- Church is a necessary factor in social progress. I am speakj ing •of modern - times. ;- Pre-Christian ; civilisation may have attained to some measure of well-being by the cultivation of the merely : natural yjrtues. They 1 groped for the truth and guided* themselves by broken light. If we, who ' have the ■ fulness of light turn ; ; away• from it, our darkness will be complete. ?Tlie-“after-Christian” writer Devas, cannot attain .even - the-measure of success that 1 lay - open to the “fore-Christian.” The Church and State. - - • I leave out here the Divine claims of the ; Church; and, on a lower ground, as a. mere matter of expediency in view of public welfare I ■ ask what should he the attitude of the Civil , Power to the Catholic Church? . The Catholic Church can evoke forces quit© out of reach of the State. Dealing with. -human conscience, she can make an intimate appeal to tke heart of man which is beyond the power of any civil government.. The. Church which brings man into direct, and supernatural relations with his Maker, can implant in him a basic principle of right living and a foundation of social ser- ‘ vice . which no. government can create. The Church fosters those virtues without which high civic life becomes impossible. Hence, - for the State to cripple the Church, to ; meddle with her inward constitutions, to hamper her freedom of action is suicidal. | A secular State develops an irrational panic at . the supposed . menace to patriotism involved in the doctrine, say, of the Immaculate Conception, or of; Papal Infallibility, or some , other Catholic dogma. Catholic schools are banned and hampered, Catholic . -worship rendered difficult-or impossible. The social influence of the clergy is restrictA ed, the charitable activity of the Church . impeded. ; What , is- the result? We have seen it in many European countries often . enough during the last century. Public . morality suffers, sanctions are removed, ideals are dismissed.- The people thus emancipated from their reverence for God cease to retain their reverence for the State. The neglect. of God’s laws leads to the ■ neglect of human law. Passions are unchained and ; all authority, is imperilled. When Govern- . ,mcnts turn| God—the Moral } Lawgiver— out of the public schools,, they find revelations . which astound our juvenile courts. They . seek. a. remedy. - They introduce “Moral . Hygiene,” or, “Lay Morality” into the • school. . But without God at the back of the . law- it fails when most needed. During the -year .of the big famine in Ireland, there ,was no record, of a single suicide; some years ago in the United States there were, , in one .year,; no less - than > 15,000 cases of self-slaughter, and 100,000 divorces. I believe it is . far worse to-day. It is vain to try to run a great Republic without God. The Catholic, Church’s . Conception of Life . The greatest - statesmen of all ages have* understood .and praised'; the social power, the social cohesion, and the stimulus to

duty, which spring from the Catholic Churcch’s conception : of ; life. v Constantine knew it Napoleon knew it; Washington knew it; present day statesmen ■ in tthe Uni- v ted ;■ States know it. • ■ It is ' the second-rate politician .who ignores it. , The , Catholic Church is .the; stay - and £ support, of ; States, the abiding foundation of civil duty and ; social < service.. -Belief ■ in thetFatherhood, of.; God'creates the Brotherhood .of; men. ; Reverence for God’s authority - implies reverence for that authority which God i has delegated to civil rulers. . No purely “rational” grounds for civic obedience and social- ser- - vice have yet been discovered. St. Augustine long | ago pointed > to the beneficent influence of the Church, a . “Let those-who say that the doctrine of .Christ is adverse to the State . . . show us an: army of soldiers such as . the doctrine of Christ has commanded them to , be.. Let them show us such governors of provinces, such husbands and »wives, such parents and children, such • masters . and - servants, - such judges as the ■ Christian teaching would have them to be, ■ nay, such contributors to all manner of taxes and such gatherers of taxes, and then let them have the face if they can, to tell us that such teaching is injurious to the State.”. (Ep, 138 ad Marcelldnum.) Truth to tell, with Catholics patriotism is something more than a sentiment, a tradition. It is a growth of our creed. It is that rare rich bloom whose , roots lie buried ~ deep in the virgin soil of our holy religion, Hence the dictum: “The better the Catholic the better the citizen.” Secularists may try to snatch the flower from the stem, and decorate their own philosophy with it, but the flower 1 will : wither. : It • needs its native soil. : V . . ■ , Social Work of ..the Catholic . Church. The Catholic Church is doing an enormous social work in the United States and in England, either directly by means of her ' children or indirectly , by means of those . who retain some part of her beliefs and her traditions. ’ Such work is a great national asset; to trifle with it would bo to provoke - national disaster. ~ . But what must Be said about Catholics who are making no contributions to social ■ welfare ? .They; have failed, not because of their Catohlicism, but in spit©, of it. Besides, remember the many disabilities Catholics labor under in more countries than ' one, particularly in - the old world. Give them 1 a fair chance, give them time, give them fair play, and you will see that St. Augustine spoke the truth, and that’ the Catholic spirit is Society’s best asset. . Such, then, is the Catholic solution of the social question—the Church, the State, and** Private Initiative working 1 in harmonious concord. No concerted action of any kind a can be effective and l lasting • in its results■ unless it becomes penetrated and permeated with; the spirit of Christian justice and charity. Without ' its association • with the. ’ charity of Christ justice strikes : too hard a bargain to satisfy human as actually constituted, r fV a •: ‘ ; ' - ' :• ' - • To employers I 1 would ; say: Rally to the standard of Christ, the civilised ! world’s ‘ Great Reformer, Improver, and Liberator. . ■ • f. . /’ - A 1 - ■ ■ >"• V: ‘ .4. : 7. ... .. ... •- -

Exchange a tike rivalry between A wealth A'andM wages f for,- a- fair j? division ,of the £ profits. Instead of v making ? exorbitant profits- your 1 aim, let profit-sharing 1 be your ambitionCome once more to r realise ? that r. the Fatherhood of i God means . a Brotherhood inspired® and actuated by, a spirit of ; justice and charity, ; manifesting ' itself !; in sympathy, patience 1 and - forbearance with. all men. You -are- only the stewards of God;.-; One day you \ will have to. give - t a j strict s account of ; your goodsan i account of ; how you shared v them with i the-men who helped you to win them: : To wage-earners, ; men and i women, I j would say : You have • a right to 1 form unions, and by f means: of : unions, 3 to t enforce your : just ;!| demands for a living wage and human f conditions ; both in your workshops and ;in jour homes. :.• ;o ■- But a word-of warning. :In your. unions, - : in your disputes with your employers, nay, even in the < sad • necessity, of -a- strike, never, never commit yourselves to the leadership of men . who, are the enemies of Christ and who, if. true to ; their principles, must : rob’ v| you of your dearest:possession, your ! Christian Faith. • ; ; ' To all I would say: Let us make it our "i ambition, as it is our mission, to teach all the world that we have a common I origin "'S and a common destiny that the same Hu- W man nature in us has the same yearnings % for peace, rest and happiness;-that 3 ; we all have the same Saviour; that very shortly our present differences will vanish like a dream; and that then if we ■ be. worthy, ,V shadows will give place to realities, faith shall pass into vision, hope shall he more# than , realised, and all will discover that the conflicts of time were meant to bo victories for. eternity, and the rivalry of Brother- J hood, a victory of service in the interests of - our common Father in Heaven, whose- home and whose Jove shall be ours throughout the everlasting day of Eternity. r 3 ,