People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — VIEWS OF THE POPE. [ARTICLE]

VIEWS OF THE POPE.

Leo XIII. Lsaue* an Encyclical on th* Labor Question —An Abstract of the Document. New Yobe, Aug. 2. —The World publishes a special cable dispatch from Rome containing a translation of Pope Leo’s forthcoming encyclical upon the labor question, of which the following is an abstract. After an introduction, in which he speaks of the relation of constitutions and laws to property and society, he says: •‘No law which wanders from religioner tends to subvert it can be otherwise than defective. Where the individual fulfills his duty to God he cannot fail in performing his duty to society. “Property is an essential element to social order for the preservation and development of human life and the divine law has declared property sacred. The poor have, nevertheless, a right to be assisted by the rich; not by indiscriminate alms giving. but by preparing such employment for them as will be useful. If a man will not work, neither shall he eat. But if be have no work it is plainly the duty of those who can do so to provide it for him. "Reform to be useful and to produce salutary and lasting effect must be opportune and matured, and should be imposed by circumstances and should progress with time, which is the first minister of the Creator, for man is the unconsrfous instrument of God. “The masses, who do not perceive the niceties of light and shade, seeing these moving in a superior condition of life adherents of the principles of socialism, as many are today in Europe, which is in the throes of an immense upheaval of society, allow themselves to be blindly leu by agitators who have no real interest in the cause they so loudly uphold beyond a sordid or selfish one. “And this is why strikes are so unproductive of beneficial results. Placed on a basis more social than economic; being more of a struggle than a pacification, more of aggression than defense, the strike loses its natural aspect and hides its essense. A strike can be justified only as a means of defense, when an individual’s interest is attacked. Never can it be justified as a oollective arm of aggression. "Man has a natural right to UVe and to work and has the right to get the value of his labor, and therefore when his labor is neither productive nor remunerative he has a right to refuse to continue it But an individual right cannot be transformed into a collective right An aggressive strike is not reciprocal between operator and operative, but an instrument of attack upon the proprietor and property. The operative on strike is a passive and dominated instrument not an intelligent and free being. While his action lessens the capital of his employer it puts no money in his own pocket. "The social question should be placed on a religious basis if we want to obtain at once a philosophical and a practical solution of the difficulty. “The struggle against illegal coercion is one of the glories of the Catholic church and should always be uppermost in the minds of every government “If the discontented operative is to be detached from anarchistic socialism his warns must be understood by his rulers, who must not leave to unscrupulous agitators the monopoly of social reform. The right of protecting the operative, whether in the factory or in the field, should be admitted. And for this purpose the maximum of labor as well as the minimum of salary should be fixed. The hours of labor should be arranged, giving due attention to days ot rest and abstention from labor. “Institutions should be founded and main tained for the sick, the old, the feeble, and for those who are unavoidably unemployed, while punishment should be meted out to the drones of society. Lawshave been made almost universally for the protection of women and children laboring in factories and elsewhere, but in how many cases have these laws been enforced? Inspectors of work should be appointed everywhere whose duties should be to see that these laws are not infringed. Thus the blessing of Heaven may rest upon nations and a more calm and equitable state of things might be expected.’’