CHURCH AND LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1895, 1 November 1913, Page 5

CHURCH AND LABOUR.

'At the Salford Cathedral recently"' ■ Canon Sharrock referred to the presence I ■in the congregation of Roman Catholio j delegates to the English Trade Union ' j Congress, In the name of tho bishop ' ■ (Br.'Casartelli), ho gave a, very hearty ! welcome to tho delegates to the ''Parr i liamcht of Labour," and expressed good; ■'•' wishes for tho success of their delibera- • tions. There were few, tho Canon said, ; in the ranks of tho clergy who CQultl speak with a mono intimate knowledge ■'; and appreciation than his own of tho • work of tho Trade Unions Congress and .: . of the conferences of the Labour party. ■'■ Dealing with the objects of labour ;; organisation. Canon Sharrock referred!' > ■to tho Papal "Eiioyclical of 5.891'0n .the ■; condition of the working classes. That I letter of Leo Xlttj. ho said,, was tho ! charter of tho working man, for it ex- ! pressed the basic principles underlying '.' the lives of working men and women, Tho first principle they must accentuate was tho right of private property. jU ■mait worked: to secure a remuneration, ■■ which shoirW be his own, and' a$ lip '. lived, wot Tike the brute citation, for ; tho moment only, he wanted ownership ; of the soil as well as its fruits. This i only power which could heal the diseased , conditions of working-class life was tho i power of holy religion, hacked in right ' measure by tho interference of tlio State. They were not going to heal amy of ' the ills of hiininu life by setting class -: against class or opposing capital to ■■ labour, for in such conflicts ft was a!- | ways the poor and 1 the downtrodden ; who suffered. Nor were their ills to lid. ■: cured by the rich forgetting their duties to tlio podr, for it mwst bo recognised that in return for his labour every ' man had a right to demand reasonable comfort in the game of human exist* eneo.