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Show ; IMPRESSIONS-OLD AND NEW l . j Berlin. Educational Facilities. Its Uni-l Uni-l versity. People's Libraries. Working-I Working-I men's Unions. Father Kolping. Arch-1 Arch-1 bishop Ketteler. The Centre Party, jj Champions of Labour, (a) Germany, I Austria, Switzerland, France, England. (e Leo XIII and Manning. Catholic Church and Labour. Gilbert Kenneth Chesterton. !! il. ilii) is not backward in the matter of educa-ti,,. educa-ti,,. 1'ur it boasts full many scientific, artistic and i;;. r: ry schools, and its famous university, situated V liii' Linden, holds a high position in the Father-J Father-J was told the number of professors there n;irh, and the number of students amounts iihu"-; to :J,."00. The various museums connected with the university are among the finest in Europe, ,;!,(! -'indents of natural history, anatomy and min-cr:il min-cr:il have nothing to complain of, as the speei-ii:.!it- in these various bhanehes are numerous and co:u te. The university has a magnificent botanical botani-cal garden situated outside the confines of the city ;ml. while the garden is rich in all kinds of flowers, it is especially rich in palms. The zoological garden- are almost as large as those in Regents' park, London, while the aquarium is the largest to be found anywhere. It will surprise the reader to be told that there are in Berlin almost 00 high schools, iilpuiit o0 elementary schools, 40 schools' under the direction of societies, besides numerous private -ho,d.-. The people have ample opportunity for readinir. as there are in Berlin as many as 10 li- rnines set apart ior their use and they contain netween iio.ooo and 70,000 volumes. Berlin has many union or associations which make for the betterment better-ment of the laboring classes, and in this connection the Catholics are not backward. We hear a lot nowadays now-adays from Socialistic "spouters" about the advancement ad-vancement of the people. Talk is cheap and those I'ti.Tiian drr a ns of their can never be realized. Better Bet-ter the people, ye Socialistic dreams, better theni on !ie lines of God, better than on justice and the rilit. Yes. you spout a lot, and you know not what yea talk about, for you neglect the very first prin-- prin-- ij.le of any betterment justice. Labor is holy and !od has forever blessed labor. God had flung forth hi- mandate justice and fair play to the laboring n.an. I am led into this train of thought because in Oermnr.y there is a party called the Centre party, ; i!ii the main plank in the Centre platform is labor. Snciali-tic leaders hurl their anathemas against the 'a'ho;e church, and yet the Catholic church has 1'ien through the ages, the only real friend of the wnrkintrmnn. Bismarck everyone knows about tho li-on Bismarck well, he had two hates Socialism and the Catholic church. But, great man as he was, the Catholic church broke him and relegated him 'o the -hades of night. Nay, it not only broke the I iron Bismarck, but it cleared the way for German oei;d reform. The Ptudent of history goes back to Hi' year 1M7. and he meets there the venerable i:"inen Father Kolping. Tie was the founder of tho v,-. rkmen's societies in Germany, and these societies had for their object the culture and advancement "he toiler. Each of these societies was managed l y a prie-t and a committee of six workmen. When Kojiling died in 18(15 there were the large number of l''o of his societies. Every year saw a.n increase in 'heir number, and at. the present day they reach ainiimt .lMio. The. great champion of the labor inovf i:,et was Ketteler. Archbishop of Mayence. By iiirh a nohlemnn, and with a great knowledge of law I and political economy, he devoted his life to the m- ere;s. of the working classes and by his zeal and '"UraL" won for them many concessions. His book ti the social question and Christianity is an able I'-Tui-e .f the laboring classes against unrestricted '"mpethion and protended freedom of contract. lut of the unions set on foot by Kopling. and -'" nthened by the voice and pen of Ketteler, srui LT that great party, the Centre party, which i:;,yv tUch a prominent part in German politics to-i'i.v. to-i'i.v. and ail the reforms on the labor question which f late years have taken place in Germany are due ' the efforts of this party. You find today amongst lie- h h-rincr classes no more treasured names than X'Viiu-, Ketteler, Abbe Schings, Canon Hetze, 'j-.hi Loe-witz. Ratzenger and Meyer. The Catholic ' rki'.f.men's associations are certainly a powerful 'a' o r in Germany. They have an excellent press, ;nd red by the ablest clerics, jurists and essayists, j Ifr-y Lave co-operative stores of their own, savings !.:.! credit banks, and even- weapon to protect the 1 ''''Tiiiii interests. This labor movement begun in if'f-rnianv spread with immense success through the Miirhh ring countries. In Austria that able man, Euron Von Volgesang, following in the footsteps ff K. tn-jer. wrung from the Austrian diet the first s" i;d reform which secured the limitation of the ! 'v".-ic of"H-,irnon and children and shortened the gen-ral gen-ral w-..rki:ig day to eleven hours. The labor move-hi move-hi Switzerland owes its origin to Cardinal -u''-ria:hl od. For twenty years he carried on the ir;;--:,. -,,r tj1P j-ip-htg 0f the working class, and u" nt need there was for capitalists and states-,;,"n states-,;,"n h'-;d the sores of the toiling poor. He saw rO"' u-.ions in Germany had accomplished, and his ';a!.t cry to the workingman was: "Unite and your battles on the principles of justice and '"tt-ri:i. nt will come!" Decurtins. the great Gas-P'rd Gas-P'rd IwUrtins, a household name in Switzerland 1'':'.v- 'ok up the fight begun by Cardinal Mer-i11;11"1 Mer-i11;11"1 - nd tin? work done by him on behalf of the i"1"'" ' toan was enormous. "Hunger," he declared 1? of the most brilliant orations, "is neither 'r"t'-!a!it. nor Catholic." The work done by ' '"': in-. a I have said, was simply enormous, :ind lV:,-1ant a1(j Catholic, atheist and freethinker. freethink-er. r.--v, re ,, narne 0f him whose constant cry was: Ul.or is sacred and it is the duty of the govern-rr','t govern-rr','t io hold out the hand of help and justice to T'e toiler." By the efforts of Decurtins many fa-nrahle fa-nrahle linv. m rofJar(i to the workingman wero and the splendid University of Fribourg, lh? work i ngmen's university, which today is the l'r"!; of Switzerland, was mainlv due to his efforts. J'rsijce watched with eagerness the struggle of Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the right3 of the worker and was not idle. The valiant Count de Hun, one of the ablest speakers in the French Senate, Sen-ate, took up the cause of the workingman and, after the disastrous war of 1872, founded the Catholic Workingmen's clubs. . He was a soldier and in the breasts of his follows he kindled a soldier's fire. Many fine laws passed on behalf of the working-man working-man are due to him, and if he did nothing else than by introducing trades councils sanctioned by the Senate in 1884 his efforts were not spent in vain. Like another Hercules he worked to get bills passed to protect the working women and children and to safeguard the breadwinner of the homes. In England, where capitalism reigns supreme, the rights of the workingman were ably championed by the great Manning, who, if he did nothing else than write this passage, is entitled to a high niche in the workingman's temple: "If the great end of life were to multipy yards of cloth and cotton twist, and if the glory of England Eng-land consists, or consisted, in multiplying without stint or limit these articles, and the like, at the lowest low-est possible prices, so as to undersell all the nations na-tions of the world, well, then, let us go on. But if the domestic life of the people be vital above all; if the icace, the purity of homes, the education of children, the duties of wives and mothers, the duties of husbands and fathers, be written in the natural law of mankind, and if these thinks be sacred, far beyond anything that can be sold in the market, then I say, if the hours of labor resulting from the unregulated sale of man's strength and skill lead to the destruction of domestic life, to the neglect of children, to the turning of wives and mothers into living machines, and of fathers and husbands into what shall I say? creatures of burden I will not-use not-use any other word creatures of burden who rise up before the suu and come back when it is set, wearied, and able only to take food and lie down to rest; the domestic life of men eixsts no longer and we dare not go on in this path." Yes, turn where we will, the Catholic church has ever been the friend of labor, of the rights of the workingman, and what man of us can ever forget for-get the words that sprung hot and strong from the lips of the saintly Leo XIII: "The modem school of economics considers labor as the supreme end of man, and man they reckon a machine of more or less value according as his labor produces more or less. All that ennobles a man and makes him, as God wishes him to be, an heir of heaven, fades from .the sight and is forgotten. Left in exchange are instincts in-stincts merely animal and intolerant of any curb. In the presence of these beings, by heartness avarice exhausted before their time, we ask if, instead of helping on our progress the adepts of a godless and unchristian civilization are not driving us back, mauy centuries back to the sad times when the greater part of mankind lay crushed in slavery and the poet sorrowfully added: 'Human life is for the few.'" I have digressed in this article from my former theme, but these thoughts are the outcome of that remarkable and forcible system of union which exists ex-ists among the Catholic workingmen in Germany and the benefits of which I saw with my own eyes. Catholic Germany showed what it could do by union and by the sword of justice. Its neighboring countries coun-tries followed Germany's example with good results. Socialists, when they rave and prate at the street comers or in their assembly rooms, should remember remem-ber that the only friend of labor in the past was the Catholic church, and that their grievances at the present time can be remedied only by her and her laws of justice and right. I will conclude this article ar-ticle by a quotation from Mr. Gilbert Kenneth Chesterton, a non-Catholic and one of the ablest writers of our time on the Bocial problem. The quotation quo-tation reads thus: "The Catholic church does not assert that she hns got better people than are to be found anywhere else, but, such as they are, she has got them. I do not say that freethinkers are bound to be scoundrels. scoun-drels. I say they are not bound to be anything. I do not say that the Catholic lamb of mercy is more white, or woolly, or energetic than many evolutionist evolution-ist lambs. I say it is in the ark. And I say that the evolutionist lambs are being drowned visibly before my eyes. I am looking ahead, I am thinking how all this chaotic morality will turn out. I know what is safe. If the Catholic church exists ten million years hence, amid alien costumes and incredible architecture, I know that it will still put the oppression op-pression of the poor among the four sins crying to heaven for vengeance." TAER TANDY. |