Show Cardinal Gibbons on the K of L ROME March 29The text of Cardinal Gibbons report on the Knights of Labor as published in the Moniteur de Rome shows that several additions have been made to the report as originally published Referring to the objections urged against the organization the Cardinal says It is objected that in this kind of organization organ-ization Catholics mix with Protestants to the peril of their faith Among a mixed people like ours the separation of religions in civil affairs is not possible To suppose that the faith of Catholics suffers shows the ignorance ignor-ance of the Catholic workmen in America who regard the Church as their mother They are intelligent instructive devoted and ready to give their blood as they give their hardearned gains for her support and proteotion To the question whether it would not be better to have the organizations conducted by priests under the direct influence of religion re-ligion the Cardinal frankly replies that he thinks it neither possible nor necessary In our country he says we have abundant means of making Catholics good without going so far It being objected that the liberty of the organization exposes Catholics to deadly influences in-fluences and associates more dangerous than even Atheists Communists and Anarchists Anar-chists the Cardinal said It is true that an attentive examination into the violent struggles between labor and capital has convinced me of the injustice of attributing violence to the Knights Their principal authorities have proved the fact that it is as unreasonable to attribute violence to the Knights as to attribute to the Church the follies and crimes of her children against which she protests This thought is admirably developed by the Cardinal He says Part of Christian prudence is to attempt to bind the hearts of the multitude with the ties of the Lord for the purpose of controlling them by the principles of faith justice and charity and to recognize the truth and justice of their cause Removed from what is false and criminal there will converge into a legitimate legiti-mate peaceful and beneficent struggle that which by repulsive severity micht become for the masses of our people a volcanic abyss similar to that which society fears and which the Church deplores in Europe The Cardinal insists strongly and at length on this point He then refers to the aspect of our countrythat of popular power regulated by the love of order respect for religion obedience to laws not a democracy democ-racy of license and violence but a true democracy which seeks general prosperity To evil influences they were exposed everyday every-day and they knew them well and despised them The leaders of the Knights of Labor related how the violent aggressive elements strove to gain authority in their counsels or insinuate person into the principles of the association and also told of the determination determina-tion with which they were repelled Danger would arise from coldness between the Church and her children which nothing would more surely occasion than imprudent condemnation Special stress being laid upon violence even to the shedding of blood which has characterized several strikes inaugurated by workingmens associations asso-ciations the Cardinal says I have three things remark First strikes are not the invention of the Knights of Labor but the universal perpetual means by which the workingmen may protest against what is unjust and demand their rights second in such a struggle of multitudes of the poor against a hard obstinate monopoly wrath and violence are often as inevitablQ as they are regretable third the laws and principal authorities of the Knights so far from encouraging violence or occasions for violence vio-lence exercise a powerful preventive influ enceseeking to keep strikes within the limits lim-its of legitimate action Religion is necessary to preserve so desirable desira-ble a state of affairs Among the churchs glorious titles none at present give her such influence as that of being a friend of the people In our Democratic nation that is the title which gains for the Catholic Church not only the enthusiastic devotion of the millions of her children but the respect re-spect and admiration i of all our citizens whatever their religious beliefs He recognized recog-nized that the great question of the future I was not a question of war commerce or finance but the social question touching the amelioration of the condition of the popular masses especially the workingmen therefore it is of sovereign importance that the church be found always firmly ranged on the side of humanity and justice toward the multitudes composing the body of the human family The conditions the lower classes at present cannot and should not continue |