CARDINAL BOURNE ON SYNDCALISM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1713, 2 April 1913, Page 6

CARDINAL BOURNE ON SYNDCALISM.

—- . In* another part of this issue we publish the concluding portion of a notable address on Syndicalism, recently delivered at Leicester, by Cardinal Bourse.- It is characterised by directness, sanity of judgment, and sound common sense, qualities which arc', only too often conspicuous by their absence in modern ecclesiastical utterances on social questions. Cardinal Bourne recognises that the Labour problem has two sides, and he weighs the merits and defects of ,each point of view in summing up the position. He points out that in the past many employers have failed in the complete fulfilment of their duty to their employees by payment of low wages, or by using the power of capital to crush the toilers; but on the side of the worker there has been indifference to the real interests of the industry which gives him the means of livelihood, and at times bitterness and hatred .against those of a different station in life. Ho is emphatically opposed to attacks on the rights of private ownership, which rights, he says, "the Church has ever delended as being entirely in harmony with the laws of God," but he adds that "the possessor must ever bear in mind that property, like all other of: God's gifts, carries with it duties to Him and to our neighbour." Though he admits the lawfulness of strikes lock-outs in exfcrcnic casqs, ha thinks that, owing to the injury they do to society as a whole, "some tremendously powerful justifying cause is required before they can be regarded as legitimate, while the universal strike is "contrary to every principle 1 of justice and charity. He warns his people to be on .their guard against syndicalist teaching, "lest, led by blind guides, they enter on a path that will be the destruction of their eternal as well as of 'their temporal hopes." The whole address is well worthy of carpful consideration. There is tendency. among some recent scientific writers of high standing on social problems, such as Dr. ChattertonHim, I)r. Foerster, and Mr. Whetham, to look ,)yith marked favour on. the sociological teachings of the . Roman Catholic Church. Its vieys on - such fundamental problems as marriage, family life, pro : perty, the duty of a .man to his neighbour, .and the relations between rich and poor, ,iave been gradually worked out and built up on the basis of a long and varietj experience of human'nature in all its forms. It takes long views, and knows human nature through and through, and its teachings on these subjects are not the results of hysterical efforts to meet temporary emergencies, which in the long run often do more harm than good. T-hi sociological teachings of the Roiran Catholic Church arc worthy of the most careful attention bv all serious students of modern social problems. They, have survival value in the international struggle for existence, and it is not ! i theologian, but a distinguished nodern scientist who states that the nation*, which ignores the survival ralue of religion is destined to perish }ff tho' face of tie earth.