f J CATHOLIC. - . Vol XXII No. 8 ON SEGREGATION EASY HE statement of the Archbishop of New . Orleans on the sinfulness of segregation ESSAY policies given ·recently in the form of a By PETER MAURIN . ~ pastoral letter which was read at the I Sunday Masses could not have been more j welcome. At last we have a bishop in the NO RECOURSE deep South throwing worldly prudence Politicians used to say; to the four winds and stating in un-ambig­ "We make prosperity through our wise policies." .. uous terms the position of the Church. For , II too long we have heard excuses such as Business nien used to say: the danger of losing souls. To int.e- "We make prosperity · I through our private enterprise." grate all Catholic institutions and abolish the Negro parishes The workers did not seem would bring about just as many conversions among the to have anything to do . Negroes as you would lose among the white Catholics. Con­ about the matter. tinuing segregation is simply preferring the soul pf the white They were either man to the soul of the Negro. Ann Foley of ·Friendship House put to work said to me the other day: "I don't think the bishops realize or. thrown out • how much influence they have; I don't think they know how of employment. rnuch wejght their words carry." Archbishop Rummell can­ And when unemployment came the workers had no recourse not be praised enough for the .stand he has taken and the against the professed honesty and courage and vision he has shown. Ultimately, makers of prosperity- • • , the Truth is the only thing that matters and everything must politicians be sacrified to the Truth. and business men. ALABAMA'S POLICE STATE POLITICS IS POLITICS The City of Montgomery, Ala., has invoked an obscure A politician is an arlist in the art anti-boycott law in an effort to break the spontaneous and of following the wind courageous fight of the city's Negroes against the city bus of public opinion. line for its discrimination policies. 115 Negro leaders have He who follows the wind­ been indicted, including nine ministers. Seventy-three mem- of public opinion (Continued on page 8) does not follow his own judgment. And he who does not follow his own judgment cannot lead people oqt of the beaten path. He is Jtke . l tht') tail .. nd of.._the dog to...... da• 114Nld.;; % eomes ~- iiUftridaa1 eJl ptoplt· Jtand ..... ~---· '~"'· income taxes which we pay; 30% ·comes from COl"Joration taxes; 15%. of pollttciaDI ·amlllill'!I and polltlclanl comes from excise taxes; and 7% otlier sources stand back of the people, people and polltlclana go. around In a circle By ERNEST BROMLEY and. get nowhere. , .....,HE Administration's proposed budget, re­ presents problems.. is there no advice that can be given to the MAKER OF DEALS cently announced, asks for a billion dollar average working person about the business of non:..cooperat­ A business man increase.. for "new weapons of unprece­ ing with income tax payments? I would advise: Stop paying is a maker of deals. He wants to close dented strategic and tactical importance" in income taxes (whether y~u file a form to this effect or not). a profitable deal order to give this nation "the greatest mili­ For some people this will, of course, mean that they will in the shortest possible time; tary power in its peacetime history." Dia­ have to leave their present jobs and take employment that is he tells you grams of the proposed income and expen­ not affected by withholding. Here we sometimes tend to lose what a good bargain ditures emphasize two things: (1) The sight of the fact that there is probably no type of socially use­ you are getting. chief source of federal revenue is the in­ ful work (individual or organizational) being done under the And when he tells you dividual income tax, (2) The chief national withholding tax set-up which cannot also be done outside it. what a good bargain expenditure is military (including bomb And, too, this raises the important question of what social you are getting usefulness really is. Can "socially useful" firms or organiza­ he is always thinking stockpiling and new terror weapons). Both things have been what a good bargain true for these eighteen years, but one is always struck an~w tions remain socially usefµl to any real degree when their one he is getting. with each announcement of them. rigid requirement is that the first portion of a worker'.s earn­ He' appeals So minute a portion of the tax money is being spent for any ings be set aside for war? Can a "socially useful" person re­ to the selfishness in you socially acceptable activity that it seems to be only an illu­ mairt socially useful in his job to aby real degree when, in to satisfy sion to consider that one's Federal taxes go to anything con­ order to do with one hand the work of building a better so­ the selfishness in him. j J structive. (Actually; the only way one can support the better ciety, he has first to do with the other hand the work of de­ BUSINESS IS j enterprises is to by-pass the Interhal Revenue Bureau com­ stroying it (like a church constructing a brothel)? Conscien­ SELFISHNESS ·' "J pletely and find ways to contribute to these causes directly.) tious workers in such employment may reason after a while, Because everybody J The war build-up touches the individual much more di­ as some have, that the effect of this operation is that t~ey are is naturally selfish J rectly and intimately at the income tax point than it does working in a munitions factory part of the time. business men say j anywhere else. Almost two-thirds of every tax dollar goes to Men go to prison rather than join the armed forces and that business j build H-Bombs, Guided l\1:j.ssles, Germ Warfare, Conscript support conscription. Should not the people with these prin­ rr.ust be based j Armies, etc.-thirty-five times -as much as for schools, roads, ciples (especially the people not subj9ct to any draft) face the on selfishness. '- j and health combined. (Can ·there be any doubt about what imperative of sacrificing a little econ6mic security (or conveni­ But when business j the Federal government's major activity has come to be?) ence), especially when not facing it means continuing to pay is based j on selfishness j It is almost unthinkable that more people ( especia1ly more substantial sums of money for terrifying weapons and con­ everybody is busy j pacifists) have not declined to bolster this monstrous drive script armies? becoming more selfi6h. , j to destruction; that they have not at this major point stopped (Ernest Bromley lives in Sharonville, Ohio, with his wife, Marian And when everybody is busy the flow of their funds through the book-keeping which takes and family. He keeps his earnings below the amount where any tax becoming more selfish most of what they pay and channels it into what they abhor; has to be paid. Around 1942 he refused, when a Methodist minister we have classes and clashes. in North Carolina, to purchase an automobile ta~ (not a license), for -that they have not by-passed the present tax set-up and given · his car and did three months in jail. His wife wqrked for the Fellow­ TEACHING SUBJECTS ... their valuable, held-back funqs to something worthy of sup­ ship of Reconciliation, the leading pacifist group in this country, -Our business managers port. Will we wake up too· late·? and quit her job rather than pay· the withholding tax for war which dc.n't know how to manage The first, and major, encumbrance to keeping one's tax this and all other peace organiz.ations take from their employees. the tliings they try to manage money and using it for something decent is the withholding He has . been head of the tax refusal committee of Peacemakers. He because they don't understand set-up. Trying to be a tax refuser in a withholding job is a supplements his income by an apiary in his garden. I have visited the t hings they try to manage. So they turn to college professor• good deal Jike being a pacifist~ the army. In each case you there several times and respect the effort which 'he and his wife are have already placed yourself well within the system; and in making to live up to their ideals. They live a few miles from the in the hope of understanding Grail farm at Loveland, bhio. The .Jehovah Witnesses and the Cath­ the things they try to manage. each case the very first step is to take yourself out of the olic Worker are two groups where all work for their keep and no But college professors system. The real, creative possibilities on these fronts begin salaries-and no taxes-are paid. This basis of voluntary poverty· do not profess anything; to open up only after this step of separation has been taken. could be approximated by others if they wished to make the neces­ they only teach subjects. · The fact that such separations are difficult to carry out makes sary adjustment ·between faith and works and try to live la commu­ As teachers of subjects them no less imperative. Because the ""'.ithholding situation nity.-A.H) <Contmued. on page 8) -------------------------:; ~--- -- -- ....,__---- - , THE CATROLI<; WORKER March, 1956 Yol.