societies,1 Italian Catholics in general are not well disposed towards Socialism. The consequence is that Italian Socialism is daily assuming a more decidedly anti-religious character, and continues to consider the Church as an obstacle which must either be surmounted or destroyed, rather than as an institution that is favourable to its principles and tendencies.

On the other hand, the few Italian Catholics who have written on the social question have had no influence of any importance on the labour movement. Their works have scarcely even been read, and have had no effect in arousing the Italian public from their habitual indifference. In Italy, no bishop or Catholic in authority has openly taken part with the working classes, or entered into friendly relations with them. What wonder, then, if the Italian Socialists are, in general, avowed Atheists, and have no faith in the social action of the Church?

1 See Charles Gide, Du rôle pratique du pasteur dans les questions sociales, p. 18. Paris, 1889. A few writers who have studied the social action of the clergy with benevolent intentions, have confined themselves to praising things of little or no importance. See Claude Jannet, Les faits économiques et le mouvement social en Italie, pp. 41-48. Paris: Larose et Farcel, 1889. On the action of the Italian clergy, their principles and tendencies, see my study, "Socialism and the Priesthood in Italy," in the New Era, June, 1892.

358

CHAPTER XII.

THE PAPACY AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION.

Socialists and Catholics-New Tendencies of Socialism-The Latest Congresses -Cardinal Manning and Liebknecht-The Catholics and the State-The Catholic Church and Socialism-Economic Views of Leo XIII.-Pastoral Letter of the Archbishop of Perugia-The Revolt of San Lupo and David Lazzaretti-Violent Character of Italian Socialism towards 1878-Encyclical Letter against Revolutionary Socialism-Causes which led to its Publication-Leo XIII. and Catholic Socialism-Address of Leo XIII. to the French Pilgrims-Views of Leo XIII. on the Social Question-Vatican Policy and Progress of Catholic Socialism-Progress and Victories of the Papacy-Mr. Stead's Prophecy-New Tendencies of the Papacy-Cause of the Increased Power of the Pope-Action of the Church-Socialism and Science Socialism against Science-Socialism and the Church.

IN

N the face of this wide-spread Catholic Socialist agitation what has been the attitude of the Vatican? What are the personal views of Leo XIII.?

If, in the name of justice and religion, the Sovereign Pontiff permitted the late Cardinal Manning to support the necessity of the legal determination of the minimum wage and the maximum working day; if he has encouraged the Euvre des Cercles in France, and has given his approval to the State Socialists, Ratzinger, Hitze and Vogelsang; if he allows Catholics, as in the case of Decurtins, to make common cause in matters of social reform with the most advanced Radicals; if, upon the intercession of Cardinal Gibbons, he not only recalled the excommunication of the Knights of Labour, but refrained from putting Henry George's books in the Index, it evidently means that between the principles of the Church and those of pacific, evolutionary Socialism, there is no absolutely open contradiction.

The evolution, in a practical and pacific direction, made by Socialism within the last few years has been most rapid. Not only have the Anarchists and revolutionary Socialists been greatly in the minority at all the more recent Socialist congresses, but they could not succeed in finding a hearing for their opinions, and everywhere met a current of thought contrary to their useless and criminal violence. Even in America the odious figure of Most is losing friends and followers, while in Europe the number of Bakunin's admirers is constantly diminishing.

In the various European States Socialism tends not only to become Conservative, but, in preference to their old system of isolated action, its partisans now join the political struggle, and take part in the parliamentary battles.

French Socialists have also, within these last years, abandoned the policy of violence, and tend to become a party working by legal means.1 In England the practical Anglo-Saxon spirit is a preservative against the follies of Anarchism, and English Socialists, whether they follow the programme of Henry George or that of Mr. Hyndman, or carry on their movement by means of trade-unionism, are all far from sharing the violent tendencies of the democratic Socialists of other countries. Socialism in the United States, having freed itself from many revolutionary elements, which had filtered in with German immigration, is daily becoming more and more of a constitutional party.3

But even in Germany, where after Marx Socialism had assumed a revolutionary attitude, the evolution in a conservative sense is constantly becoming more accentuated. The congress at Halle, in 1890, not only noticed the inopportuneness of useless revolutionary agitations, but admitted freedom of religion and the representative form of government, and

1 Compare chapter x.

2 Compare chapter xi.

See article by the Socialist, L. Gronlund, "Le socialisme aux États-Unis," in the Revue d'économie politique, first year, pp. 109-124; and the book by A. Sartorius Von Waltherhausen, Der moderne Socialismus in der Vereinigten Staaten von America, p. 442, Berlin, Bahr, 1890.

advocated for the future a system resembling the Swiss Referendum. The German Socialists have now understood that as a means of propaganda violence is not a good method. The Volksblatt, transformed into the Vorwärts, said a year or two ago: "The conquest of political sovereignty cannot be accomplished in an instant, or by sudden revolution; it can only be realised by persevering efforts and through the action of Parliament. Bourgeois society was not created at one stroke, consequently it cannot be destroyed in a moment. It is a fortress with innumerable means of defence. An army that should try to take it by storm would be guilty of madness." 1

Things have even reached this point, remarks an observant writer, that "when a Socialist leader wishes to rid himself of a colleague, he accuses him of being an Anarchist. 'Anarchist!' cries Bebel to Werner. 'Anarchist!' cries Liebknecht to Domela Niemvenhuys. 'Anarchist!' cries Mrs. Aveling to William Morris." 2

If Democratic Socialism will but divest itself of its violent character, and renounce, as appears probable, its anti-religious principles, if it will recognise the necessity of the representative system of government, and abandon, in consequence, the insane violence it has heretofore employed, it is sure to meet with ever-increasing sympathy among Catholics.

Whatever may be the economic programme of modern Socialists, there is nothing contrary to it in the origins, traditions and principles of the Catholic Church. There are Catholic writers and economists whose programme of social reform is, from a certain point of view, no less utopistic or dangerous than that of the Democratic Socialists, and who, no less than they, wish to reform profoundly the basis of our economic organisation. A French economist, G. de Molinari, in stating the views of Cardinal Manning on the social question, exclaimed with surprise: “M. Liebknecht lui-même ne va pas plus loin!"s

1 See the account of the congress at Halle, in the Revue Bleue, 23rd October, 1890.

2 De Wyzewa, op. cit., p. 334.

* See the "Chronique," by G. de Molinari, in the Journal des Économistes, p. 157, October, 1890.

The Catholic Socialists do not merely represent a tendency or indeterminate aspirations; their ideas are clear, precise, and sincere. The first bishops who accepted the criticisms of Socialism, and who, like Monsignor Ketteler, adhered in great part to Lassalle's programme, limited themselves, rather than anything else, to indicating the evil and signalling the danger. But their followers and successors have passed them by a long way; they are either thorough State Socialists, like Monsignor Bagshawe, or, like the late Cardinal Manning, the convinced supporters of the labouring classes. The young German school of the Katheder-Socialisten has recruited its most ardent followers, in Germany as in France and Austria, from among the Catholic clergy and Catholic writers. Abbé Hitze, De Mun, and Vogelsang have done nothing more than popularise and defend a thorough programme of State Socialism.

One of the pioneers of Catholic Socialism, the Austrian ex-Minister, Prince Von Lichtenstein, said one day before the Reichsrath: "Labour is not a private concern, but a species of function which society delegates to each of its members. The peasant who cultivates his land, the mechanic who toils in the workshop, are no less functionaries of society than the Government employee at his office or the soldier on the battlefield. Labour, like every other function, creates a series of reciprocal obligations between society which furnishes it and the workman who performs it. After this conception of it, how narrow seems the definition which reduces labour to a ware, subject to the law of supply and demand!

"1

Now, this theory, which raises labour to a social function, and would have it considered as independent of the law of supply and demand, this theory as fallacious in economics as it is alluring, is not the conception of Prince Lichtenstein alone, but is shared by a great part of the Catholic clergy and by almost all Catholic economists. It is not so very long since Cardinal Manning, a prince of the Church, whose magnanimity equalled his breadth of mind, boldly proclaimed this theory as true, and defended it with conviction.

1 A. Villard, Le socialisme moderne, Son dernier état, p. 255. Paris: Guillaumin, 1887.