CATHOLIC WORKEA Subacr1pt&on1 Vol. XXV No. 6 January, 1959 25c Per Vear Price le ON PILGRJMAGE CREDIT By DOROTHY DAY Last month I read about a 67 to fit into the classifacations set UNIONS year old "operator," agent for a up to be eligible for projects. By BENSON Y. LANDIS corporation, who was sentenced to Rents go higher and higher, four Within the walls of 1,244 U. S. fifteen days in jail because of 112 room apartments are being split up violations on the slum tenement into two room apartments and peo­ and Canadian churches, people where he was collecting rents. ple become more and more have organized credit unions. This was part of the "massive new cramped and there are more and These cooperative thrift associa­ attack on the slums" that Mayor more slums. tions are unique: No other kind A Family Is A Person Wagner is talking about. Strauss, of co-op should be formed on de­ In our search for buildings to the convicted man, was vice-presi­ nominational lines. dent of a Realty Corporation which house the House of Hospitality, we was operating on a lease. "This is learn more and more . about the Three-fourths or these (936) are not a rent gouging operation. It is law. There must be one bath room in Roman Catholic parishes, 250 in a thankless task. No public agency for every five persons, under such Protestant churches, 28 in Jewish will handle it," he said. classification as ours. A sprinkler congregations, and three in Budd­ How strange a situation for us to s~stem , steel self-closing doors, a hist groups. Together they repre­ be in,-t9 be speaking sympathetic­ fire alarm system, a night watch­ sen l 6% of all credit unions. ally of this i;nan ! And how ter­ man, lights over every door and The first Canadian credit union rible it is to see that I myself am in fact a thick volume of hous­ was organized at Levis, Que., by a in the same category, a convicted ing laws to cover the classification Catholic layman and journalist, Al­ criminal, under suspended sen­ "multiple dwelling." phonse Desjardins, in 1900. He tence for being a slum landlord. During the tours conducted by also helped organize the first of This is in connection with the the Mayor and the commissioner these peoples' banks in the U. S. in trouble we had in 1956 which led of housing terrible overcrowding the Roman Catholic parish of Ste. to us remodelling our St. Joseph's was discovered which was yet quite Marie at Manchester, N. H., in house at the cost of $24,000 only to legal. Families of ten in one 1909. - be told two years later we had to room driven into rooming houses There were earlier efforts. Ap­ move out to make way for a sub­ because of lack of apartments­ parently a credit union-in effect, way. There were eleven violations all this is quite legal. if not in name-functioned in the in our house which led to my con­ We Give Up Catholic parish of Rustice on viction. At the plea of my lawyer, We are defeated and yet we are Prince Edward Island as early as Judge Nichols thundered that if undefeated. We have given up the 1864. we were a charitable group, all the quest for a house after occupying All the American · developments worse for us because these poor architect and lawyer to look up owe much to the pioneering work people we helped could not move hws and plans and survey build­ of a German, Frederick W. Raif­ out! ings, only to find them all forbid­ feisen, who organized a cooperative What very strange encounters den us. After all, it is only after credit society in Flammersfeld in _. a\Mrut through the pt'act\ce of i:lspection by all city agencies th.it 1848. A devout Lutheran layman, the works of mercy. What strange a cer.tifica~e of occupancy is given, Raiffeisen believed he was per­ lessons we learn through this hard and if, this is refused one cannot forming a Christian ministry and way, of loving our enemy, in the move in. called the idea "brotherhood class war which is basic in the So we will now be ome renters. credit." He discovered the great, world today, very much a part of It is only for the last eight of the basic truth that any group of peo­ all the cold war which is going on CW 25 years that we have been ple save enough to meet their nor­ between the rich and the poor. CJ Wners in the city. We will go mal short-term credit needs. - back to the status of tenants, and To Be A Landlord Credit unions may be small or pay our monthly rent, and in addi­ Always the landlord, the collec­ large. They operate-like other co­ tiCJn to a "day center" (the former tor of rents, has been considered operatives-with each member little theater and dancing school the enemy of the poor. And here having one vote, regardless of how which we have rented on Spring we found ourselves, I found my­ many shares he holds. A govern­ street) we will rent ap:µ-tments In self, since the house at 223 Chrys­ ment agency examines their ac­ thP near neighborhood. We have tie St. was in my name, In the counts at regular intervals. Mem­ found one in an old apartment position of the landlord, though bers may withdraw their savings, house down the street which has 1958 Peace Prize we collect no rents. Holiday of Arts as from a savings bank. They must What is the solution to such a steam heat and hot water and 1s· Goes to Priest regularly repay a portion of what question-for everyone to own his on the sixth floor. This is good The Grail is sponsoring a they've borrowed .• own home. through cooperative excerclse for the aged. Little Mar­ (Condensed from an article 'bY. Holiday of Arts exhibit in Bos­ A credit union operates through housing In the city, such as that of garet who is over 70 says that tt Rudolph C. Ellsworth for the NC. ton, on the theme of the In­ a board of directors that members the Amalgamated Clothing Work­ is good for her arthritis to walk From the Davenport, Iowa, Mes­ elect. A credit committee (to ap­ ers or the International Ladies Gar­ up and down stairs all day. It carnation. The artists repre­ sencer.) prove or reject loans), a supervis­ ment Workers-or for the city to keeps her from getting stiffened sented include Charles Umlauf, The 1958 Nobel Peace Prize ory committee (to audit the reco: ds own all the apartments? Personal up. We are promised two other Jean Charlot, Norman LaLib­ went to Father Dominique Pire, periodically), and sometimes an ed­ responsibility, group responsibility apartments in the same house next erte, Lambert Rucki, and Wil­ the Dominican priest who has or city or federal responsibliity? month. It. the heat does not come ucation committee are also selected, liam Schickel. The media in-. founded a refugee resettlement usually by the members. The di­ Subsidiarity up to the top floor we will put on movement known as "Europe of "It ls an injustice, a crave evil our coats and cover our stiff knees elude painting, sculpture glass, rectors choose a treasurer <the Love." He accepted the prize in credit union's manager), bond him, and a disturbance of richt order," with blankets. It there is no h:>t graphics, and tapestry. The ex­ the name of "refugees and of all writes Pius XI in bis encyclical water we will not bathe in the tub and select a bank of deposit. hibit will be at the St. Botolph those who suffer on earth, because The credit union's primary func­ Quadrageslmo Anno, "for a larger which is placed quite publicly by Center for Religious Art, 134 the laureate is also the unknown and higher association to arrocate the kitchen sink. Our first apart­ tion is to encourage savings. Its Newberry St., from January worker in an unknown activity at second task is to lend money from to itself functions which can be ment has the sun shining ih and the service of untold suffering." performed efficiently by smaller windows looking out over the roofs 5-24, daily except Sundays, the pooled savings to those mem­ Father Pire had founded open­ bers who need short-term credit. and lower societies. This ls a fun­ on two · sides. We can smell thl! from 9:30 to 5:30 . Admisslon is air camps for children even before damental principle of social phi­ e;1st wind from the ocean when the Credit unions generally charge 1 % free. the war, and in February, 1949, per month interest on the unpaid losophy, unshaken and unchance- storms begin, we can study cloud In connection with the exhibit he began his work with refugees able." · formations, we can watch the dance balance of these loans· none there will also be a series of for which he received the prize. charges more. • The city is doing away with of the pigeons against the sky, Five years later, through his ef­ slums. You take the bus on First when the boys from the neighbor­ special events. Each loan applicant must explain forts, 200 refugees had been taken why he wants th.e money and his Avenue and ride down to South hood come up with their long sticks There will be celebration of in by Belgian families, 7,000 re­ plans for repaying it with interest.