among the laboring classes, and bring about antagonism between the capitalists and the proletariat.

Liberal School Rejected.

The Catholic School holds that the solution of the social question cannot be found by following out the principles of the schools already mentioned, the Liberal and the Socialist schools.

It rejects the "laissez faire" principle of the Liberal School, and insists that to the state belongs the duty of procuring the temporal well-being of society. The Liberal School errs in insisting almost exclusively on the rights of the individual. Man is also a social being, and his social relations must form part of the concern of the state.

The free and unrestrained competition so strongly advocated by the Liberal School has introduced many evils into society. Large industries are able to destroy the smaller through the competitive power they have resulting from their possession of immense capital. Through competition capital has become the master in the world of production, and society has become divided into two antagonistic classes, the wealthy capitalists and the poor wage earners. To prevent the abuses resulting from unrestricted competition, the state should exercise its power through wise regulation and supervision. The freedom of the weaker elements of society should be safeguarded against the rapacity and the unjust measures of the stronger.

Socialism Rejected. - The Catholic School rejects Socialism, because:

1. Socialism falsely bases its system on the equality of rights of all men, and is utopian in aiming at a condition of perfect equality and fraternity. Men are not equal in the concrete, in physical and mental endowments, in the possession of qualities that make for success in the competitive struggle for existence. Human nature will never become the ideally perfect thing the Socialists conceive. (See under Distribution, p. 385.)

2. Socialism would subject the laborer to greater slavery than Socialists claim now to exist, since he will depend for his labor and place of work on the will of the community.

3. Socialism would do away with the rights of the individual and make him merely a unit in the great social fabric.

4. It rejects the natural right of private property in the means of production.

5. It falsely claims that labor alone is the source of all value. (See under Value, p. 40.)

6. It falsely holds the theory of the Iron Law of wages. (See under Wages, p. 451.)

7. It unduly exaggerates the importance of industrial life or the production of wealth. (Cf. Cathrein-Gettelmann, Socialism, p. 201.)

8. It is hostile to religion.

9. It destroys the sanctity and the indissolubility of marriage, and would efface the family.

Principles of the Catholic School. The fundamental principles of the Catholic School may be outlined as follows (cf. Cathrein, Kirchen Lexicon, "Sociale Frage," p. 445):

Human society is ordained by God. The Church, the state, and the family are institutions divinely ordained, each with its own particular aim and sphere of activity, each with its own peculiar rights and duties, each with its relations to the others, and all destined to work unitedly and harmoniously towards a common purpose. All these institutions tend to help man to attain his end, and that end is to serve God in this life and thereby reach eternal happiness in the next. This earth is not man's lasting dwelling place. It is but a place of trial and pilgrimage, where sorrow always will abide and the heart of man can never attain perfect happiness.

While every effort should be made to better social conditions, society in its existing form should not be overturned, and strenuous warfare should be carried on against the Socialist doctrine that would subvert the present order of society.

Insistence is laid on the following points :

1. The sacredness and indissolubility of marriage.

2. The right of the parents to educate the child.

3. The right of private property in the means of production,

without excluding the right of property in the state or corporations.

4. The right of private individual productive energy and enterprise, contrary to the claim of Socialists and State Socialists, who would give such right to the state alone. The individual and the family are older than the state.

5. The right of individuals to unite for the safeguarding of their liberty and their rights.

6. The toleration of the differences of classes in society, though the bitter opposition existing at present between them should be reprobated. Not absolute equality of all classes is sought, but a condition wherein there should exist respect and charity among all the members of the different classes. The perfect equality desired by the Socialists is in opposition to human nature, to Christian revelation, and to the real welfare of society.

Nor is the democratic state advocated by Socialists to be sought for; whatever form of government obtains rightfully in the state, be it monarchy or democracy, is to be accepted.

7. Rejection of the "laissez faire" principle of the Liberal School. By legislative and executive means, the state must seek to remedy the evils of society. "The state is established to provide for the well-being of society, and society is formed in great measure of the working class. To this class, therefore, the state must direct its most vigilant solicitude under pain of neglecting its duty. It is said that the duty of the state is to cause justice to be observed; but that is not all its duty; it must, moreover, in order to fulfill all its obligations, seek out the social welfare, which does not depend exclusively on justice, but also on a mass of other elements, the most of them depending on labor. Consequently, it must intervene in the protection of labor, so as to enable labor to participate in public prosperity and safety." (Civilta Cattolica; in Antoine, Cours d'économie sociale, p. 236.)

Liberatore says:

A certain amount of state intervention in the economic affairs of society is indispensable. Leaving them

at the mercy of selfishness in conflict is applying to industry the Darwinian idea of the struggle for existence, in which the strongest has the best of it by survival of the fittest. The duty of the government in this matter is to protect the weak and direct the strong." (Political Economy, p. 273.)

8. But the state cannot do all. The Church must join with the state. The moral evils that burden society can be overcome only through the influence of Christianity, and this influence will be exerted through the divinely appointed institution the Church.

9. Activity on the part of laborers and small tradesmen for their own preservation and betterment. They must become active. Church and state can do little without this autonomic coöperation of the people themselves.

Trade unions and labor unions should be formed for the protection of the smaller traders and the wage earners.

Such are the broad principles of the Catholic School. They may all be embraced under the three heads: (1) State legislation, wise, moderate, and progressive; (2) The action and influence of the Church and Christian charity; (3) Individual and associated initiative.

Activity of the State. The activity of the state should be exerted in obtaining the following reforms:

1. The safeguarding of the family and the preservation of the home life of the laborers. A man has a right to an orderly, Christian family life. At present such a life is scarcely possible to the average wage earner. Unlimited competition leads to an effort after production at the cheapest possible cost. Hence, the labor of women and children is employed, to the detriment of the home life. Wives and mothers who are forced to spend the day in factory work in order to add to the scant wages earned by the head of the family, are prevented from making the home attractive. They are obliged to give over the care of young children to the charity of neighbors or of nurseries; they can exert no beneficent influence on the early education of their children, while the children who go out to work are deprived of

any but the merest rudiments of education, and are exposed to all the evils, physical and moral, of factory life.

2. Decent and sanitary conditions in the dwellings of the working class.

3. Prohibition of night work except when necessary.

4. Prohibition of labor on Sunday.

5. The encouragement of union between capital and labor. 6. Restriction in the formation of trusts.

7. Laws favoring labor unions, unions between capitalists and workmen, employment bureaus.

8. The establishment of a minimum wage suitable for the sustenance of an honest and diligent workman, and the fixing of the normal fee in each profession.

9.

The fixing of the extreme greatest limit of a day's work for all laborers, and especially for the work of children under 18 years of age.

10. Prohibition of the labor of women in mines, and of the night work done by women and by children under 18 years of age.

II. Prohibition of child labor in factories for children under 14 years of age.

12. Enforcement of sanitary conditions in the workshops. 13. The greatest possible elimination of danger from machinery, by causing all machinery to be guarded against the carelessness of employees.

14. Insurance of the laborer against the loss of life, accident, sickness, forced unemployment.

Activi y of the Church. The activity of the Church is shown by teaching the truths of Christianity to all classes. The state can affect only the external conditions of men. There must be an inner change, a change in the mental conception of the fundamental truths on which social life is based, and which should determine the actions of men in their relations to God, to themselves, and to their neighbors. This can be done by the Church alone, and it can be done only by the spread of the truths of the Gospel.