Theologians, beginning with St. Thomas Aquinas, have but one argument to legitimise the right of property; that is, the right which every man has to subsist, and to provide for his own future subsistence and that of his family, and the right to appropriate to his own use not only the fruit of his labour, but also the soil from which he derives it. Consequently, the foundation of the right of property is originally nothing else than the right to subsistence which every man possesses. If we refuse the workman his only means of subsistence, we must then admit that a great portion of humanity has no right to subsist.

The Liberal economists, who admit that in the hire of labour all justice consists in the convention between the parties, subject only to the law of supply and demand, are in opposition to Christian morality and natural law.

Nor, on the other hand, are the assumptions of the Malthusians less immoral. Even supposing that labour had no other scope beyond the production of wealth, this argument alone would suffice to prove what a ruinous system it is to employ the workman without furnishing him the means of continuing his race on a large scale. It consequently becomes necessary, in order to estimate the minimum wage to which the workman has a right, to take for basis the average number of children resulting from the real fecundity of marriages contracted among the class in which the workman lives.

Labour is, according to Abbé Pottier, "the means given by God to the mass of humanity to procure the things necessary for existence in accordance with natural law. . . . Consequently, when the total and indispensable sum of labour furnished by the workmen to any form of industry compensates the various factors of the industry to the full amount of their rights, the workman also has a right to earn by his collaboration sufficient to live on here below."

The workman's wage should also include all that is necessary to provide for his existence according to his condition and the claims of human dignity. 1

1 See the memorial by Abbé Pottier, Ce qu'il y a de légitime dans les revendications ouvrières, presented at the Congress of Liége, 1890.

These theories, frequently uncertain and contradictory, which should incline Abbé Pottier to admit the right to labour, the limitation of wages according to the various industries, profits, etc., do not, however, lead him to accept these conclusions which are the necessary outcome of the premises he lays down.

From Victor Brants' books it would appear that he is much more a follower of the Liberal School than a Catholic Socialist, yet he accepts in a general way the principle of legal limitation of the maximum working day. However, he would have this limitation brought about, not through the action of the State, but through the initiative of the masters and the action of co-operative syndicates and congresses of arbitrators, taking into account the degree of compressibility of each industry and of all forms of labour, the nature of the industry itself, the technical difficulties, and the averages of the workmen and industrialists. The limitations and restrictions would consequently be so numerous, and of such a rature, as to render the principle itself, if not altogether impossible, certainly most difficult to apply.1

But it was at the last Catholic Congress at Malines that the Belgian Catholics clearly showed that though they possess great ability in leading the electoral masses, they are, nevertheless, most inexpert in matters of social economy.

After all the orators had delivered rhetorical tirades against Socialism-which, to some, appeared to be the negation of God; to others, the enemy of Christianity; to others, finally, the scourge of society-M. Dumonceau rose to protest indignantly against so many vain assertions. "I need not tell you," he said, "whether I am a Socialist or not. I shall merely say, before condemning Socialism, study it better. You are behindhand. It was not until the other day that you gave any thought to the questions raised by Socialism, on which the Socialists have the merit of having been the first to

1 V. Brants, "La journée de huit heures dans le travail industriel," in the Revue Générale, September, 1891.

throw light. It is because you neglected this mission that God has passed it on to others." 1

And as a clamour of protestations arose from all the benches, the orator immediately added: Vous avez peur du mot! You are afraid of the word!

A most singular discussion then began, in the course of which things were said which do not even merit to be reported, and which was brought to a close by a certain M. Helleputte, who asserted that the Catholics want Democracy, but do not want Socialism. "Christian Socialism," concluded the said M. Helleputte, "would be a form of Socialism admitting those principles which all Socialists reject."

2

And the congress burst out into frantic applause at this idea, expressed with a vigour and precision of language worthy of Joseph Proudhon.

The Belgian Catholics are, generally speaking, much less venturesome than the other Catholics of Central Europe. Living in a wealthy country, where the conditions of labour are singularly good, being able to count upon large forces, and to dispose of the Government, they feel less the necessity of boldly entering the field and attacking the social question without fear or prejudice. It is now several years since the Catholics came into power, and they have not shown that their economic views are larger than those of the Liberals. Though in 1886 they carried out an inquiry which resulted in rendering evident the abuses and infamies of Industrialism, even in the most flourishing cities of the kingdom, the Ministry only utilised the enormous Catholic majority to vote the laws against drunkenness, which do not remedy the evil; the laws on the insequestrability of wages, which change nothing; the laws on the consulate of industry and labour and on working-men's dwellings, which are of but small efficacy; and finally, the laws for protecting the labour of women and children-none of which can bear comparison with the social

A. Nyssens, "La quatrième assemblée générale des Catholiques à Malines," in the Revue Générale, pp. 738-739.

A. Nyssens, loc. rit.

false

laws of Germany and Switzerland, where, however, the Catholic party only forms a strong minority. 1

1

1 On the social laws of Belgium see the study by C. Favre in the Revue d'économie politique, January, 1892. At the Berlin Congress the Belgian representatives, sent by a Catholic minister, and all of whom belonged to the political party, were just those whose views were to us large and democratic.

311

CHAPTER XL

PROGRESS OF CATHOLIC SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND, AMERICA, SPAIN, AND ITALY.

English Socialism-Radical Socialism and its Want of Success-The Socialists and the Church-Progress of Catholicism-English Christian SocialismCardinal Manning and his Social Theories-Cardinal Manning's Socialism: Reduction and Limitation of Working Hours, Limitation of Minimum Wage, War against the Abuses of Capital-The Right to Labour and the Right to Subsistence, according to Cardinal Manning-Cardinal Manning and the Dockers' Strike-Monsignor Lynch and the Right to Existence-State Socialism of Monsignor Bagshawe - Necessity for the Regulation of Labour-Mr. Devas - The Catholic Clergy and Agrarian Socialism in Ireland-American Socialism-Catholicism in the United States-Socialism of the American Clergy-The Knights of Labour and the Abolition of the Wage System-History, Organisation, and Vicissitudes of the Knights of Labour-Cardinal Gibbons Saves the Knights of Labour from Excommunication-Henry George Admitted by the Clergy, as not Contrary to Religion-Father MacGlynn and the Labour Party-Monsignor Ireland and Modern Democracy --Character of Spanish Socialism: its Violence and Tendencies-Lack of Moderation in the Clergy-Feeble Efforts of Catholic Economists-Condition of the Clergy in Italy-The Italian Clergy and the Aspirations of the Papacy-Position of Catholics in Italy-Padre Curci and his Social Theories-Attempts at Christian Socialism-Padre Liberatore -Cardinal Capecelatro and Monsignor Bonomelli-Other Attempts-Italian Socialism assumes an Anti-Religious Character.

S

OCIALISM spread much less rapidly in England than in Germany, and also with much less intensity. The religious tendencies of English workmen, their little aptitude for the theoretical abstractions and more or less chimerical dreams of the new Socialistic schools, together with the trades unions and other large associations which, in bringing the workmen into contact, govern them with inexorable discipline, leaving them but a very limited liberty of action, have, up to the present, formed an obstacle to the development