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Catholic Worker

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Catholic Worker CATHOLIC WORKER Vol. IV. No. 7 NOVEMBER, 1936 /; Price One Cent Globe Strikers' Mormons Relieve Seamen Strike in Cause Is Right, Brothers Without Face of Corrupt Strike Is Wrong State Assistance Union Leadership· Good Example of Unjust Teach Catholics Lesson New Sit-Down Technique Action by Union and Personalist Way to Used; Hiring Halls Employer • Help Poor Main Issue Dressed as CJ:iinese coolies, a line - Mormons are personalists! Mor­ From Maine to Corpus Christi, of pickets paraded one day last mons have taken the lead from from Grey's Harbor to San Diego, month in front of Globe Mail Serv­ Catholics in caring for their needy. from coast to coast seamen are ice, Inc., at 148 W. 23rd Street, New The Church of the Latter Day striking, registering their common York, in a strike typical of so many Saints has met the crisis in a man­ brotherhood, expressing their dis­ similar cases where the cause is ner which· ought to shame our so­ satisfaction with a system that re• right, but the strike is wrong. called Catholic charitable organiza­ fuses to recognize their digpity as Our first contact was with the tions. · men, as sons of God. strikers, who said that 105 men and Of the 117 "stakes,'' local admin­ We will not repeat details of the women, a majority of the staff, had istrative units, stretching from Alas­ strike, which is spreading so rapidly; walked out on September 29 under ka to Mexico, 112 are participating they have been ably -reported in the the banner of the Bookkeepers', in the "Church Security Plan." daily press. It is our intention Stenographers' and Accountants' Eighty-seven of these "stakes" have rather to express our sympathy with Union, affiliated with the A. F. of L. reported that they will be able to the striking rank and file member­ They were striking against "in­ care for every needy family i.Ii their ship of both coasts. credibly low wages, the average membership. To that end we repeat the basic being about $8.50 to $9 for a 44-hour The work was begun last April, needs of the seamen. They are: week," interference with the rigfil and now 400,000 items of canned 1. Tl:)e right to establish and main· to organize, unlimited and compul­ foods, 82,308 pounds of fiour, 11,860 tain union hiring halls. sory overtime, an unfair "bonus" pounds of meat, 27,193 articles of 2. Just overtime rates to be paid system, the discharge of three em­ ~~ ~"' • clothing are ready for Mormon in cash at end of voyage. ployes for union activity, refusal to needy. 3. An eight-hour day, four hour.s bargain collectively with a union SAINT FRANCIS Put to Work on and four off, for the stewards"' chosen by a majority of the firm's department. employes, bad ventilation and dirty In every stake unemployed men and women were set to work sewing, 4. Preferential hiring for licensed lavatories. sweeps a church deck and engine men. Investigation farming, canning, repairing shoes and clothing, collecting furniture Bad Reasoning After two interviews with the and gifts from church members and The unioii. hall issue, if, won, will union, two with Charles E. White­ non-members. • house, Jr., Globe president, and one place the labor market more securely All work was voluntary. No money in the hands of tAe seamen them­ with John D. Moore, director of the EASY ESSAYS was paid. To each man and woman Regional Labor Relations Board and selVes. In effect, it will bring closed a work certificate was given. When conditions into th.e shipping business. official mediator in the case, we by a worker needs anything he presents rooted out the following facts: And the closed shop makes for the his certificate to the Bishop of his only effective type of union. The mail service business is tradi­ PETER MAURIN ward and he _is given what he and tionally low-wage, and Globe em­ We do not agree with shipping his family need. officials that the payment of over­ ployes are among the worst paid of The certificates are not valuated There is a notebook in my purse a badly paid lot. In 1931, at the in which during the course of the time to the men will result iu a poor in dollars or cents. Their value de­ quality of work. We would like to depth of the depression, Mr. White­ pends upon the size of the family. month I jot down quotations from house gave a dinner for his workers, THE PLURALIST STATE . books I am reading, prayers for spe­ know by what process of reasoning Single men doing the same amount they figured that out. during which he persuaded them to of work receive only what they re­ cial occasions, reminder:; of things buy $35,000 worth of bonds, to be I. SECULARISM IS A PEST to be done, and ruminations in gen­ Stewards, and messboys in particu­ paid for week by week out of the quire as bachelors. lar, work twelve hours a day and 1. "What ails modern society No Red Tape eral. Father Gratry said that it was pay envelopes. is the separation a good idea to write down one's seven days a week. And after night lunches have been made and cleaned From the beginning of January, of ~e- spiritual So far there have been no over­ meditations, so though mine some­ 1936, according to Mr. Whitehouse, from the material,'' head expenses incurred in adminis­ times are begun on a crowded street up after, you can make it 14 hours every cent"<>f extra sales had gone says Glenn Frank. trating the projects. This winter, corner and continued in the sub­ per day. They work until the work back into increased wages. This had however, a general manager and is done. 2. That separation way, I jot some of them down after- been done, however, by means of a small clerical staff will be necessary ward as I have time. · Rank and File complicated, highly competitive of the spiritual to handle distribution. :ft-om the material On the Waterfront Preferential hiring for licensed "bonus" system, whereby the good Naturally the basic project has As I waited for the traffic light men is only just and insures a well• workers did get more money, but is what we call been farming. And land was do­ secularism. to change on my way to the Sea­ trained personnel Men who have had the poor workers less, making for a nated, 2296 acres of it, free of charge, men's Defense Committee headquar­ the initiative and perseverance to general feeling of insecurity and dis­ 3. "Secularism is a pest,'' says Pope Pius XI. for raising grain, fodder, fruit, vege­ ters, I was idly saying my rosary, obtain a licensed rating are entitled satisfaction. tables. This food, raised and tended 4. Education without religion which was handy in my pocket. The to preferential treatment. Secret Organization by the men, was canned immediately recitation was more or less auto­ We wish to emphasize the fact that The average 44-hour weekly wage is only information. 5. Politics without religion when ripe by the women. matic, when suddenly like a bright on the East coast this is a rank and for · the whole shop was $16.56, and The security plan also undertook is only factionalism. light, like a joyful thought, the (Continued on page 2) (Continued on page 3) 6. Business without religion (Continued on page 5) words Our Father pierced my heart. is only commercialism To all those who were about me, to 7. Religion is good all the passersby, to the longshoremen STEEL EMPLOYS ARMED Thomas on Violence idling about the corner, black and FASCISM REVEALED IN for weekdays St. as well as Sunda.ys. white, to the striking seamen· I was THUGS AGAINST CJ.O. going to see, I was akin, for we were n. LmERALS NOT LIBERATORS "Sum~ _TheciloJlca," Question 41, GERMAN PERSECUTION Article L all ch.ildren of a common Father, all 1. The present would be different creatures of one Creator, and Cath­ ·courts Take No Action if they had made the past differ­ Conflict with On Strite olic or Protestant, Jew or Christian, Church's ent. "It is a mortal sin for a man to at­ Communist or non-Communist, were t~ Stop Rampan·t 2. The future will be different tack another unjustly, for it is not bound together by this tie. We can Nazis Prov~• Basic if we make the present different. not escape the recognition of the Anarchy 3. But to make the present different without mortal sin that one infiicts Incompatibility harm on another, even if the deed be fact that we are all brothers. Wheth­ one must give up old habits er or not a man believes in Jesus Organized violence, winked at by and start to contract done by the hands. "But in him who defends himself, Christ, His Incarnation, His Life here the authorities, is being employ.eel Catholics who look at Spain and new habits. with us, His crucifixion and resur­ by steel barons to check the unioni• think "Fascism is a good thing be­ 4. But to give up old habits it may be without sin, or it may sometimes involve a venial sin, or rection; whether or not a man be­ zation drive of John L. Lewis' C.I.O .. cause i::panish Fascists are fighting and. start to contract lieves in God ,the fact remains that according -to charges made by Lee for the thurch against Communist new habits, sometimes a mortal sin; and this de­ pends on his intention and on his we are · all the children of - one Pressman, counsel for the Steel persecution" should take another (Continued on page 6) Father.
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