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Show Died a' Bornin'. ttjE HAVE not heard anything lately late-ly ly about that society of Catholic workingmen started in Chicago, and conclude that the venture died a' bornin'. If such has been its fate, it is no loss, for we do not see any necessity neces-sity for Catholic workingmen getting together to establish unions or guilds cf their craft in this country. Rather would such unions invite the hostility of the established trades unions. These aim to work in concert and harmony with all belonging to their craft, as it is only by unity of purpose can they accomplish anything in amelioration of the condition of the wage earner. It may be urged that Catholic work-ingmen's work-ingmen's societies are in line with recommendations rec-ommendations made by the Pope. So they are, in countries where the trades union system is not the same as it is in America, and where a member of a trade guild is nearly always found to be a Socialist, and not a rational one either. In continental Europe, to belong be-long to a certain guild is tantamount to belonging to a certain political par- I ty, for its members are pledged to ' I support certain candidates for office 1 of their own nomination. It is such societies so-cieties that are condemned by the Holy Father when he urges the Catholic mechanic to separate from them and form others in harmony with Catholic faith and respect for property. The recent re-cent session of the American Federation Federa-tion of Labor and the turning down of the Socialist delegates, i3 evidence that no danger from that source is imminent in this country; hence no necessity exists for Catholics to go off by themselves and form unions of their own. So the plan attempted at Chicago would really create an ill feeling towards to-wards th Church, most deplorable. There are already three national organizations organ-izations at war with each other the American Federation of Labor, the Knights of Labor and the Western Federation of Labor. It should be the aim of the Catholic workingmen to harmonize har-monize these elements instead of creating cre-ating another- to make confusion worse confounded. If socialism or anarchism crops up in his trades union, he should be present to vote It down. If he does this, there is nothing to be feared from labor cranks in this country. In view of the recent conference in New- York to promote some plan reconciling recon-ciling the differences between labor and capital, we are almost certain that Archbishop Ireland does not approve of Catholic workingmen's societies in this country.' |