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PAGE 2 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1964
1964
LABOR DAY STATEMENT
Social Action Department
National Catholic Welfare Conference
Rt. Rev. Msgr. George G. Higgins, Director
Labor Day has been observed as a national holiday
in the United States for more than three quarters of
a century. During that period of time far-reaching*
not to say revolutionary, changes have taken place in
American economic life. Not the least important of
these changes has been a steady and almost spectacu
lar improvement in our methods and tools of produc
tion. The so-called Industrial Revolution, which was
in full swing when Labor Day was established as a
national holiday, has run its course, and, for better or
for worse, we are now moving very rapidly into the
age of Automation. Our methods and tools of pro
duction, already so advanced and so efficient as to be
almost completely different in kind from those which
were in common use even a few short decades ago,
are constantly being improved, and the end of this
new technological revolution is nowhere yet in sight.
The age of Automation has brought with it a num
ber of very serious economic and social problems
which have yet to be solved. On the other hand, it
has also brought us certain potential blessings. Among
these blessings is the growing realization that "labor”
is no longer synonymous with manual, much less
menial, tasks. To put it in more positive terms, there
is growing awareness, not only in this country but in
other industrialized countries as well, that the pro
duction of goods and services for the general welfare
of society as a whole is a common enterprise in which,
as Pope Paul VI recently reminded us, "every worker
—whether he be a chief of an enterprise or a wage-
earner, rank-and-filer or technician, artisan or busi
nessman, farm worker or factory worker, or member
of the liberal professions”—has an indispensable role
to play. Done by the community of men, work,”
Pope Paul points out, "unites them among themselves
in a close interdependence, and it usually orders it
self towards the common good.”
In the present situation, then, the problem of work,
in the judgment of Pope Paul, overlaps the "social
question' of an earlier period and can no longer be
equated exclusively with the problem of capital-labor
relations. It is no longer, he says, "simply the man
ual activity of an industrial worker that must be con
sidered, but every effort of interdependence and
knowledge expanded to transform created nature and
adapt it to increasingly differentiated human needs.
Besides, save for rare exceptions, everyone works'
who is able to carry out an activity and whose effort
is pointed, beyond the indispensable gain needed for
the life of the family, to the development of persons
and the ordering of society.”
This being the case, it would seem only logical that
our observance of Labor Day, which was established
at a time when "work” was thought to be more or
less synonymous with manual or even menial oc
cupations and when "workers” were generally re
garded—and, often enough, tended to regard them
selves—as a class apart, should begin to reflect the
fact that we have moved into a markedly different
and, hopefully, a much better kind of economic
system. The time has come, in other words, to think
of Labor Day as the national holiday not only of
"workers” in the old class-conscious sense of the
word, but of all those who share in what Pope Paul
refers to as "the collective work” of economic life,
whether they be chiefs of an enterprise or wage
earners, rank-and-filers or technicians, artisans or
businessmen, farm workers or factory workers, or
members of the liberal professions. We have reached
the time when Labor Day should be regarded as a
kind of all-American holiday and should be observed
in such a way as to center attention on the common
sense of purpose which ought to animate all segments
of our economic society and ought to prompt them
to adapt their own particular interests to "the uni
versal good that overrides the interest of groups . . .
and to bring individuals, social classes and pro
fessional communities into collaboration with the pub
lic powers for the common prosperity.”
Pope Paul's emphasis on the need for closer col
laboration, for the common prosperity,” between the
various private sectors of economic life on the one
hand and the agencies of government on the other
could hardly be more timely so far as our own sit
uation in the United States is concerned. Despite the
fact that we are currently enjoying a remarkably high
level of economic prosperity in this country, millions
of able-bodied Americans are unemployed, through
no fault of their own, and millions more are the
victims of the most degrading kind of poverty—all
the more degrading because it so often goes un
noticed in a land of bounteous plenty.
If we are ever to find a solution to these problems
—problems which can no longer be swept under the
rug or blandly dismissed as representing merely tem
porary dislocations in our otherwise extraordinarily
affluent society—we will have to use the combined
resources of private enterprise and all the agencies
of government, Federal, State and local. Private en
terprise in the industrial sector of our economy, given
a high degree of intelligent cooperation between
management and labor, can help to solve the prob
lem of mass unemployment and mass poverty in the
midst of plenty, but it cannot and should not be ex
pected to do the job alone.
This point needs to be kept clearly in mind at a
time when it is becoming rather fashionable to put
the blame for many of our economic woes on the so-
called breakdown of collective bargaining and fashion
able also to berate the labor movement for its alleged
lack of militancy and moral idealism and its lack of
creative imagination. It goes without saying, of
course, that labor and management should not be
immune to constructive criticism, but criticism ceases
to be constructive when it fails to take account of the
fact that, after all has been said and done about the
real or alleged faults of the two parties to collective
bargaining, the institution of collective bargaining
alone cannot be expected to solve all of our national
economic problems.
Every effort should be made to improve upon the
techniques of collective bargaining, and labor and
management should be challenged to look for new
ways, over and beyond traditional collective bar
gaining, of jointly tackling the economic problems
which beset the United States at the present time.
On the other hand, they should not be expected to
work an economic miracle. There simply isn’t any
one miraculous way of eliminating mass poverty and
mass unemployment even in this the most prosperous
society in the history of the world. These problems
are so complex and so deeply rooted in their under-
lying causes that they can only be solved by coopera
tive action on the part of government and the private
sectors of our economy, including management and
organized labor.
The government of the United States has begun
to face up to its responsibilities in this regard, but
much more remains to be done—hopefully on a com
pletely non-partisan basis. Mass poverty and mass
unemployment are not partisan issues, and should
not be approached from a partisan point of view by
either political party. The war on poverty, in other
words, calls for the combined efforts of all men of
good will, regardless of their political affiliation, for
poverty and unemployment, aside from all moral or
ethical considerations, are a clear and present danger
to the country as a whole—no less of a threat to our
national welfare than the threat of military action or
internal subversion by an enemy nation.
The real challenge with which we are all con
fronted, then, on Labor Day 1964 is to move full
speed ahead with the war on poverty and unemploy
ment and to make sure that all segments of our
economy and all interested voluntary groups at the
local, regional and national level are given an op
portunity to play their proper role in this all-out
crusade for human dignity.
The government should lose no time in tooling up
its own set of anti-poverty programs, which, at this
point, are rather limited in scope, and, as time goes
on, should be prepared to adopt such additional pro
grams as may prove to be necessary.
Management, in turn, is called upon to put aside all
partisan or ideological considerations and forth
rightly support whatever degree of government ac
tion is required to bring the war on poverty to a
successful conclusion. And the unions, to quote again
from a recent statement by Pope Paul VI on the gen
eral subject of labor, should resist the temptation to
become a "pressure group” and should "rise above
all class outlook to collaborate with the heads of en
terprises for the common good. Organs for the de
fense of the legitimate collective—but always pri
vate—interests of their adherents, unions,” Pope
Paul continues, "will be anxious to avoid stiffening
into an attitude of simply claiming rights or of dis
putation, but rather to raise themselves to higher
responsibilities. If the decision belongs to govern
mental organizations, they will be anxious to share in
its elaboration and then in its application, in the per
spective of the universal good that overrides the in
terest of groups.” In other words, our unions will
want to adapt the interest of their own group to the
general welfare and, as noted above, will want "to
bring individuals, social classes and professional com
munities into collaboration with the public powers
for the common prosperity.”
Voluntary agencies in the field of education, re
ligion, youth work, and social welfare also have a
great contribution to make in the war against poverty.
As we noted in last year’s Labor Day Statement, for
example, they can do much to encourage the victims
of poverty, and especially the ever-increasing number
of unemployed youth, to look ahead to a better day
and can help to motivate them to the point where
they will want to take advantage of the educational
and retraining services which are now being made
available to them in almost every community in the
United States.
In jointly waging an all-out war against poverty,
labor, management, and government—and all the
rest of us, of course, regardless of our occupation—
will want to give special attention to the problem of
racial injustice. No greater mistake could be made
than to think that this problem, the sheer magnitude
and tragedy of which we have yet fully to grasp as
a nation, was taken care of once and for all by the
enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The pas
sage of this statute was truly history-making in its
implications, but, in the long run, the Act could
prove to have been a curse, rather than a blessing, if
the hopes and expectations which it has aroused
among our Negro fellow citizens are frustrated, not
so much by the uncompromising opposition of those
who opposed its enactment in the first place as by the
careless apathy and indifference of those who favored
its adoption.
In this connection, it is literally true to state that
labor and management can do more than any other
segment of our population either to implement the
purposes and the spirit of the Civil Rights Act on the
one hand, or, on the other hand, to turn it into an
empty and meaningless gesture of good will which
can easily boomerang, so to speak, and bring down the
wrath of history on our nation. Our reason for say
ing this is that quite obviously the long-range solution
to the problem of race relations in the United States
will depend mainly on whether or not Negro workers
and the members of other disadvantaged minority
groups are able to secure gainful employment on a
non-discriminatory basis. And this, in turn, will de
pend in large measure on the willingness of labor
and management to go all the way in implementing
the spirit as well as the letter of the Act.
What a proud boast it will be, then, for labor and
management if, in the coming year, they succeed, at
long last, in eliminating every vestige of discrimina
tion from their hiring and promotion practices and,
in the case of the unions, from the administration of
their apprenticeship programs. This is the greatest
single challenge they have ever faced. The nation
will be everlastingly grateful to them if they meet
it with vigor and determination, but, by the same
token, will hold them guilty of a form of treason if
they fail to do so. For our own part, we are confi
dent that the verdict of the nation, a year from now,
will be clearly in their favor, for, happily, the evi
dence would seem to indicate that they are prepared
to face up realistically to a moral responsibility which
has been too long neglected and can no longer be
shirked with impunity.
Labor and management will be the better prepared
to cooperate with one another and with the govern
ment in meeting the challenge of degrading poverty
in the midst of plenty and the related, century-old
problem of widespread racial injustice if they bear
in mind at all times the truly exalted purpose of
their common calling in the service of God and the
service of their fellowmen. We have already noted,
in the words of Pope Paul, that, by the very social or
collective nature of the work they perform, they make
up a true "community of men” in which their work
"unites them among themselves in a close inter
dependence, and . . . usually orders itself toward
the common good.” But Pope Paul goes on to re
mind us, in this same context, that "human brother
hood would be shortlived if earthly purposes made up
its only horizon. We must then look further: the
dignity of man as God’s cooperator, the grandeur of
the worker who frees himself from material slavery’
and fulfills the moral demands of his person, the
brotherhood of men in a common labor—these spir
itual values of earthly work,” the Pope points out,
"find their meaning only in their relation to the
eternal life to which humanity ... is called.”
Beyond a reform of economic institutions, then,
"a reform of morals must be promoted,” and work
must be done in such a way as to establish "a world
that is a friend of man ... a world where everyone
can fulfill his task as a child of God in the midst
of his brothers.” Thus, in cooperating w r ith one an
other in the production of goods and services for the
general welfare, workers, regardless of the nature
of their contribution to the collective work of society,
will—to paraphrase the concluding words of Pope
Paul s recent statement on labor—unite themselves
with the creative work of the Father, with the redemp
tive work of the Son and with the sanctifying work
of the Spirit and will prepare themselves "for the
glorious manifestation of the Lord.”
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CARDINAL BEA
Optimism Expressed Over Third Session
MUNICH (NC)~ Augustin
Cardinal Bea, S. J„ declar
ed here that there is good
reason to look forward “with
confidence” to the third session
of the Second Vatican Council.
But he insisted that all baptiz
ed Christians must pray for
its success.
The head of the Vatican Se
cretariat for Promoting Chri
stian Unity was speaking over
the Bavarian radio system Sept,
9, five days before the coun
cil was to reconvene at the
Vatican. x
CARDINAL BEA, German-
born Scripture scholar, predic
ted that the third session will
bring to fruition much of the
groundwork done during the
first two sessions. Among the
documents he said he expects
the council Fathers to act on is
the schema on the nature of the
Church. He called this the most
important document of Vatican
H. Becaue it is so important,
he said, it is no wonder that
it has required so much deli
beration.
He indicated that he expects
the document on the Church to
be passed with an overwhelming
majority, as was the Consti
tution on the Liturgy last Dec
ember,
OTHER documents the Car
dinal expects to be brought to
completion this fall include the
schemas on Revelation, on bis
hops and diocesan administra
tion, and on ecumenism;
the closely connected declara-
Train In Miami
MIAMI, Fla. (NC)—'More than
30 rural and labor leaders
from the Dominican Republic
are participating in a pilot pro
ject here to teach Latin lea
ders the social doctrine of the
Church, economics, and moral
theology.
Sponsored by the diocese of
Miami, the Inter-American In
stitute of Social Formation con
ducts classes in a building on
the grounds of Opa Locka air
port.
tions affirming freedom of re
ligion and the close ties bet
ween Christians and Jews, and
the schema (outlining; the
Church's involvement in the
needs of the modern world.
Cardinal Bea described as
"out of date” the fears voic-
B1RMINGHAM, Ala. (NC)--
Three new Byzantine-Melkite
Rite priests, all converts, will
concelebrate the Divine Liturgy
(Mass) here Sept. 13 with the
priest who led them into the
Catholic Church,
The parishioners of St.
George's church here have a
special interest in the new
ed that the third session would
be the council’s last. He said
that statements made by some
of the “highest officials,” of the
council should hqve set such
fears to rest.
And in general, he said, “if
MELKITE RITE
priest-visitors, Fathers David
Kirk, Karlo Forstberg and Lyle
Young. Their pastor, Msgr. Jo
seph M, Raya, played a major
role in the conversion of the
three and directed their inte
rest to the Byzantine Rite,
FATHERS Kirk and Forst
berg are natives of Alabama
while Father Young is a native
one takes a broad view of the
whole situation and does not
allow himself to become op
pressed or confused by isolat
ed incidents, then there is good
reason to look forward with con
fidence to the third session of
Vatican Council 11.”
of England. Before his conver
sion, Father Young was an An
glican minister and served In
Australia for five years.
The three said they were at
tracted to Father Raya as the
result of his articles on ecu
menism, which appeared in var
ious publications, and led to a
mutual interest in Catholicism.
3 Convert Priests Concelebrate
Left: Archbishop Hallinan at installation of officers dur
ing convention of Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women.
Top: The Archbishop giving Communion to delegates. Above:
Miss Peggy Roach addressing convention workshop.