Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.” Any Time - Anywhere Call a Taxi Radio Cabs DECATUR CO-OP CABS 310 Howard Ave. 24-Hour Service Passengers insured Trips Anywhere DR 7-3866 - DR 7-1701 DECATUR, GA. CARY SANDER?! USE BULLETIN CLASSIFIEDS FOR FAST SERVICE NELSON RIVES REALTY 3669 CLA1RMONT ROAD CHAMBLEE, GEORGIA ' REAL ESTATE, INSURANCE' SALES, RENTALS RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTY PHONE: 451-2323 Television, Radios Stereos ty mm SALES AND SERVICE 375# Roswell Rd., N.E. Phone 233-4275 iWm.Terence 0 Brien 4/ KNOWS liee INSURANCE Suite 715 270 Pchtr Bldg. N.W.,AtL, Ga. Home BU 4 1191 Office 688-2400 Southland Life eft) INSURANCE COMPANY Homt Qffcct « Southland Center • Dallas c & s REALTY COMPANY Specialists in Commercial and Industrial Real Estate” Suite 200 Henry Grady Bldg. Atlanta 3, Ga, Warehouses, Stores, Mfg. Plants, Acreage, Shopping Center Dev., Subdivision Dev., Industrial Dev., Insurance 524-2052 MIKE & STEVE SERTICH BRANAN A SCHMITZ REALTY CO 4641 Roswell Rd. N. E. Atlanta, Georgia 255-7770 BUYING OR SELLING A HOUSE?contact Branan & Schmitz for qualified personal service! Specialists in AREAS I & II Residential Sales - Acreage - insurance 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.