The Enemy Within Us · for 20 Years, Harry T
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.- THE --- ··--·-,-,. CATHOLIC WORKER Sub~cription1 Vol. XVIIl No. 7 February, 1952 25c Per Year Price le The Enemy Within Us · For 20 years, Harry T. Moore had worked for National .Associa tion for the Advancement of Col ored People. Last December, he was continu ing that wock, concentrating on the case · of the Lakeland County Ne· groes who had been accused of raping a white woman in 1949. When Harry Moore was mur dered by the explosion of a bomb underneath his cottage, the Lakeland case had already been simplified: -one defendant had been lynched, another killed by a sheriff (in "escaping"), and the sole sur vivor seriously wounded. When· Harry Moore was mur dered, Florida's racism was extend ing itself to religious hatred: Catholic Churches and Synagogues had been defaced. When Harry Moore was murder ed, the United States Government was announcing the ~onstruction of concentration camps jor those sub versive elements wblcb. a foreign · power had wor In eountey. Hali1 'M oal M·RMM~· Die In Illinois The story of the mines in Illinois could be a story of exploitation how the farmers sold all the min eral rights at low prices, and how the operators turned their colony in~o a bonanza of coal and oil. The story of the mines in Illinois since 7:30 P.M. on December 21 has been death. At that hour, Orient Number 2, a mine of the Chic;,ago, Wilmington and Franklin Coal Company, ex .. ploded. When the dead had been taken from the debris, it was dis covered· that 119 miners had per ished, - the worst disaster in 23 years, second worst in the history of Illinois-but separated by only a few scant years from the Cen- . tralia holocaust which took a toll of 111 men on March 25, 1947. Who was responsible? · One week after the tragedy, Federal Investigators charged that the explosion had been caused by faulty ventilation, particularly in the way in which rock-dU.Sting was carried out. On January 8, the Illinois investigators corroborated this analysis. It was revealed that the company had turned down a Federal warn ing (Federal Bureau of Mines Inspectors cannot enforce their findings). Illinois State Mine Director Eadie said that the matter was contraversial - that perhaps the federal men were wrong. (Of course Eadie is a former employee of the mine operators; however it must be said for him that there was no 0 Sion, adorn thy bridal chamber, and wel· gotten before the day-star, whom Simeon, re• evidence of political deals, shalCe downs, etc., as at Centralia in come Chr.ist the King: embrace Mary, for she ceiving into his arms, declared unto all peoples 1947.) to be the Lord of life and death, and the Saviour UMW acting ·Safety Director who is the very gate of heaven, bringeth to Thee Ferguson had complained of the of the World. conditions in a letter to company the glorious King of ilie new light. Remaining last summer after Sl violations of (Antiphon from the Mass on the Feast of the Purification of the (Continued on page 2) ever Virgin, in her arms she bears her Son be- Blessed Virgin Mary.) · .- .. e Page Two THE CATHOLIC WORKER Fehrnary, 1952 VQI. XVIJI No. 7 February, 1952 Pius XII: Prayer for the Birth Control CATHOLIC tebwoRKER Apostolate By MICHAEL BARRINGTON 0 Lord Jesus who has called Libera,, tolerant non-Catholic velopment of personality, for the friends of mine, who see great life of the family. Confronted, then, Pa'Mlshed Monthly September to Jue, Bl-monthly laly·A•&'Ud us to the honor of making our (Member of Catholio Pres• Association) humble contributions to the value -in inany of the stands which with a society in which ownership ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT work of the hierarchical aposto.· I take because I am a Catholic, will is concentrated in the hands of a PETER MAURIN, Founder late, Thou who has aske.d of always say: but as to birth-control minority, our opposition to birth Associate E'ditors: the Heavenly Father not to re· you are a reactionary without re- control demands that we change ROBERT LUDLOW, TOM SULLIVAN, MICHAEL HARRINGTON . move us fro;,i the world but to spect for the people, you seek to this society so that every family • Managing Editor and Publisher: DOR01 H\' DAY oppress by moral coercion. will have that private property 223 Chrystie St., New York City-2 preserve us 'from evil, grant us Telephone GRamercy 5-8826 an abundance of Thy light and I say: it is precisely because I which is necessary for their de Thy grace that we may crush in am a Catholic and believe in the velopment in a Christian way. Subscription, UnJted States. 25c Yearly. Canada and Forel(n, 30c Yearly ourselves the spirit' of darkness Church's philosophy of the family Reactionary critics are forever Subscription rate of one cent per copy plus postage a;>plles to bundles of one and condemnation of birth con- claiming that the masses are shift· hundred or more cop!i!s each month for one year to be directed to one addreu and sin, so that aware of our duty and persevering in good, trol that I must adopt a revolution- less, out f-0r getting something for ary attitude toward society. nothing. They propose this as a Reentered as second class matter August 10, 1939, at the Post Ofilce and inflamed by zeal for Thy of New York, N. Y., Under the Act ot March 3, 1879 cause, by the power of example, Wrong Emphasis reason for keeping property con· prayers, action and supernatural Critics of the Church are not centrated in the hands of a few. .. 09:: life, we may make ourselves without reason when they attack But in so much as the masses do every day more worthy of our her stand on birth control-that prefer the' vulgar to the fine and · Holy mission, more capable of is, we can understand why they do, the cheap to the beautiful and the establishing a n d prpmoting not that they are correct. Catholic:;; soap opera to the.round table, why among men, who are brothers, have too often presented the is this so? Is it not precisely be 119 Coal Miners Die in Dlinois Thy kingdom of justice, peace theology of birth in a vacuum. They cause they are brought up and _and love. have deduced their conclusions conditioned in squalor and ·ugli· (Continued from page 1l from revelation of apriori prin- ness. Will they change unless their the code were found. At the same teeth into mine regulations), John ciples and let it go at that: They surroundings change? Shall w• time, it is possible that John Lewis D. Battle, Executive Vice President of the IFOR, and on theology and have not realized that their very demand, by law or by sermon, feuds with former Secretary of the of the mine operators group, op the problem of non-violence, Fa- belief in the sacramental character that they live Christian family Interior Krug had caused the UMW posed it-on the grounds that the ther Lorson described the Catholic of man-iage and the significance lives filled with an emphasis on to go against a better mine safety individual states were making Peace Movement 'in France, Hans of birth oblig tes them to other po- spiritual values when their very conditions law after Centralia. great progress in mine safety! Wirtz . discussed· remilitarization, sitions. existance is a negation of spirit• (And Murray Kempton in the New There are still investigations Father Stratmann spoke on the If Rerum Novarum and Quad- ual values? Shall we ask the crip. York Post reported a strange going on to fix the· guilt. Christian and the state, and- Dr. regessimo Anno had ne.ver been pied to run in races? apathy on the part of the UMW There were investigations after Feber laid' down the immediate written, we should be able to come We call, then, for the deprole. ,to press the charges against the Centralia. And four years later, practical tasks of the group. to most of their conclusions tarianizatiop. of the masses, for ~ company during the hearings after Secretary of the Interior Oscar Results through considering thu one fact widespread ownership, for the r the West Frankfurt disastor.) Chapman said of the tragedy at As a result of the meeting, the we affirm life, we a.re opposed to dignity of the worker. We are , When the Price-Neely• bill was West Frankfurt: A.d.K. <Catholic. group) is firmly birth control. forced to this revolutionary posi• r introduced into Congress (to put "It need not have happened." titut d 'thi th IFOR b t tion because we believe in the ~ cons e w1 n e , u The Family no t as a separat e b o d Y since· its When we oppose birth control, value of life. r members join their respective na- does this mean that we wish chi!- State Control r r tional branch of the FOR. It was dren to be born into starvation and At the same time, our belief Respect Insurance Pickets decided to attempt to unite Catha- involuntary poverty and ignorance? that the family is the basic unit lie pacifists, especially in regard This is the charge of the planned of society, and that government r The agents of the Prudential Insurance have been on strike for al- to a study of the relation of tradi- parenthooder. Have we answered does not exist for itself, makes ua most two months now.