Month: June 2014

Writing about the Catholic Church,
a radical writer says:
“Rome will have to do more
than to play a waiting game;
she will have to use
some of the dynamite
inherent in her message.”
To blow the dynamite
of a message
is the only way
to make the message dynamic.
If the Catholic Church
is not today
the dominant social dynamic force,
it is because Catholic scholars
have failed to blow the dynamite
of the Church.
Catholic scholars
have taken the dynamite
of the Church,
have wrapped it up
in nice phraseology,
placed it in an hermetic container
and sat on the lid.
It is about time
to blow the lid off
so the Catholic Church
may again become
the dominant social dynamic force.

Christ drove the money changers
out of the Temple.
But today nobody dares
to drive the money lenders
out of the Temple.
And nobody dares
to drive the money lenders
out of the Temple
because the money lenders
have taken a mortgage
on the Temple.

When church builders build churches
with money borrowed from money lenders
they increase the prestige
of the money lenders.
But increasing the prestige
of the money lenders
does not increase the prestige
of the Church.

Which makes Archbishop McNicholas say:
“We have been guilty
of encouraging tyranny
in the financial world
until it has become
a veritable octopus
strangling the life
of our people.”

Lincoln Steffens says:
“The social problem
is not a political problem;
it is an economic problem.”
Kropotkin says:
“The economic problem
is not an economic problem;
it is an ethical problem.”
Thorstein Veblen says:
“There are no ethics in modern society.”
R. H. Tawney says:
“There were high ethics
in society
when the Canon Law
was the law of the land.”
The high ethics
of the Canon Law
are embodied in the encyclicals
of Pius XI and Leo XIII
on the social problem.
To apply the ethics
of the encyclicals
to the problems of today,
such is the purpose
of Catholic Action.

Uncle Sam does not believe
in the unemployed dole,
but Uncle Sam does believe
in the money lenders’ dole.
Uncle Sam doles out every year
more than a billion dollars
to the money lenders.
And it is the money lenders’ dole
that put Uncle Sam
into a hole.
The money lenders are first citizens
on Uncle Sam’s payroll.
There were no money lenders
on the payroll
in Palestine and Ireland.
There were no money lenders
on the payroll
in Palestine and Ireland
because the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
forbid lending money at interest.
But Uncle Sam does not listen
to the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.

Business men say
that because everybody is selfish,
business must therefore
be based on selfishness.
But when business is based on selfishness
everybody is busy becoming more selfish.
And when everybody is busy
becoming more selfish.
we have classes and clashes.
Business cannot set its house in order
because business men are
moved by selfish motives.
Business men create problems.
they do not solve them.

When the bank account
is the standard of values
the class on the top
sets the standard.
When the class on the top
cares only for money
it does not care
for culture.
When the class on the top
does not care
for culture,
nobody cares
for culture.
And when nobody cares
for culture
civilization decays.
When class distinction
is not based
on the sense of noblesse oblige,
it becomes clothes distinction.
When class distinction
has become clothes distinction
everybody tries
to put up a front.

Modern society believes
in separation
of Church and State.
But the Jews
did not believe in it,
the Greeks
did not believe in it,
the Medievalists
did not believe in it,
the Puritans
did not believe in it.
Modern society
has separated
the Church from the State,
but it has not separated
the State from business.
Modern society
does not believe
in a Church’s State;
it believes
in a business man’s State.
“And it is the first time
in the history of the world
that the State is controlled
by business men,”
says James Truslow Adams.

People go to Washington,
asking the Federal Government
to solve their economic problems,
while the Federal Government
was never intended
to solve men’s economic problems.
Thomas Jefferson says that
the less government there is,
the better it is.
If the less government there is,
the better it is,
then the best kind of government
is self-government.
If the best kind of government
is self-government,
then the best kind of organization
is self-organization.
When the organizers try
to organize the unorganized,
then the organizers
don’t organize themselves.
And when the organizers
don’t organize themselves,
nobody organizes himself,
And when nobody organizes himself,
nothing is organized.

[An address by Peter Maurin to the unemployed at a meeting held in September, 1933, at Manhattan Lyceum, and published in THE CATHOLIC WORKER, (October, 1933) in order that it might be sent to all the Bishops and Archbishops meeting at the National Conference of Catholic Charities in New York.]

The Duty of Hospitality

People who are in need
and are not afraid to beg
give to people not in need
the occasion to do good
for goodness’ sake.
Modern society calls the beggar
bum and panhandler
and gives him the bum’s rush.
But the Greeks used to say
that people in need
are the ambassadors of the gods.
Although you may be called
bums and panhandlers
you are in fact the Ambassadors of God.
As God’s Ambassadors
you should be given food,
clothing and shelter
by those who are able to give it.
Mahometan teachers tell us
that God commands hospitality,
and hospitality is still practiced
in Mahometan countries.
But the duty of hospitality
is neither taught nor practiced
in Christian countries.

The Municipal Lodgings

That is why you who are in need
are not invited to spend the night
in the homes of the rich.
There are guest rooms today
in the homes of the rich
but they are not for those who need them.
And they are not for those who need them
because those who need them
are no longer considered
as the Ambassadors of God.
So people no longer consider
hospitality to the poor
as a personal duty.
And it does not disturb them a bit
to send them to the city,
where they are given the
hospitality of the “Muni”
at the expense of the taxpayer.
But the hospitality that the
“Muni” gives to the down and out
is no hospitality
because what comes from the
taxpayer’s pocketbook
does not come from his heart.

Back to Hospitality

The Catholic unemployed
should not be sent to the “Muni.”
The Catholic unemployed
should be given hospitality
in Catholic Houses of Hospitality.
Catholic Houses of Hospitality
are known in Europe
under the name of hospices.
There have been hospices in Europe
since the time of Constantine.
Hospices are free guest houses;
hotels are paying guest houses.
And paying guest houses or hotels
are as plentiful
as free guest houses or hospices
are scarce.
So hospitality, like everything else,
has been commercialized.
So hospitality, like everything else,
must now be idealized.

Houses of Hospitality

We need Houses of Hospitality
to give to the rich
the opportunity to serve the poor.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to bring the Bishops to the people
and the people to the Bishops.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to bring back to institutions
the technique of institutions.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to show what idealism looks like
when it is practiced.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to bring social justice
through Catholic Action
exercised in Catholic institutions.

Hospices

We read in the Catholic Encyclopedia
that during the early ages of Christianity
the hospice (or the House of Hospitality)
was a shelter for the sick, the poor,
the orphans, the old, the traveler,
and the needy of every kind.
Originally the hospices (or
Houses of Hospitality)
were under the supervision of the Bishops,
who designated priests
to administer the spiritual
and temporal affairs
of these charitable institutions.
The fourteenth statute
of the so-called Council of Carthage,
held about 436,
enjoins upon the Bishops
to have hospices (or Houses of Hospitality)
in connection with their churches.

Parish Houses of Hospitality

Today we need Houses of Hospitality
as much as they needed them then.
if not more so.
We have Parish Houses for the priests,
Parish Houses for educational purposes,
Parish Houses for recreational purposes,
but no Parish Houses of Hospitality.
Bossuet says that the poor
are the first children of the Church.
so the poor should come first.
People with homes should
have a room of hospitality.
So as to give shelter
to the needy members
of the parish.
The remaining needy
members of the parish
should be given shelter in a Parish Home.
Furniture, clothing, and food
should be sent to the needy
members of the parish
at the Parish House of Hospitality.
We need Parish Homes
as well as Parish Domes.
In the new Cathedral of Liverpool
there will be a Home
as well as a dome.

Houses of “Catholic Action”

Catholic Houses of Hospitality
should be more than free guest houses
for the Catholic unemployed.
They could be vocational training schools,
including the training for the priesthood,
as Father Corbett proposes.
They could be Catholic reading rooms,
as Father McSorley proposes.
They could be Catholic Instruction Schools,
as Father Cornelius Hayes proposes.
They could be Round-Table
Discussion Groups,
as Peter Maurin proposes.
In a word, they could be
Catholic Action Houses,
where Catholic Thought
is combined with Catholic Action.

Dear Father:

In your instruction about writing
you told us that the best way
to learn to write
is to write letters
because a letter is a message
from someone to somebody
about something.
So this is a message
from an agitator to another agitator
about a discontented world
which begins to realize
that things are not good enough
to be left alone.
The Catholic Worker thinks
that you are a wonder.
We know what good work you are doing
among Catholic college youth.
But Catho1ic college youth
is a small proportion of Catholic youth
and all Catholic youth needs you.
Not only all Catholic youth needs you
but all youth needs you.
And not only all those who
are in their first youth
but all those who are getting
in their second youth
and also all those who have
reached the age of maturity
without having reached the
state of maturity.
That is to say,
we all need you.
We all need you
because you have the knack
of getting at the core of things
and of presenting your findings
in a vivid and dynamic form.

In one of his editorials Father Gillis says
that this age is very much like
the age of the fall of Rome
and that we could use one another
St. Augustine.
Father Gillis adds
that we need men to stir things up
and that we have too many
who try to smother them down.
You certainly can stir things up
and you can do that with
much ease.

It is said that Abbe Chardonnel,
who was a poet,
became a priest
so he could be more of a poet.
You, who are a born agitator,
have become a priest,
which makes you more of an agitator.
In St. Louis University
you turn out Masters of Arts,
but as Diego Rivera says:
“All art is propaganda.”
And as all propaganda is agitation,
it behooves St. Louis University,
one of the best American universities,
to turn out Masters of Agitation.
So The Catholic Worker suggests
that you, our Master Catholic Agitator,
start in St. Louis University
a School of Catholic Agitation
for the popularization of Catholic Action.
Yours for Catholic Action,
For The Catholic Worker,

PETER MAURIN

To Be a Marxian

Before he died, Karl Marx
told one of his friends,
“I have lived long enough to
be able to say
that I am not a Marxian.”
To be a Marxian, according to
the logic of Das Kapital,
is to maintain that the best thing to do
is to wait patiently till capitalism
has fulfilled its historic mission.
To be a Marxian, according to
the logic of Das Kapital,
is to step back, take an
academic view of things
and watch the self-satisfied capitalists
dig their own graves.
To be a Marxian, according to
the logic of Das Kapital,
is to have faith in the forces of
materialism–
forces so powerful, according
to materialists,
that they will bring the millennium
whether man wants it or not.
To be a Marxian, according to
the logic of Das Kapital,
is to let economic evolution do its work
without ever attempting to give it a push.

What Karl Marx Realized

Karl Marx soon realized
that his own analysis of bourgeois society
could not be the basis
of a dynamic revolutionary movement.
Karl Marx soon realized
that a forceful Communist Manifesto
was the necessary foundation
of a dynamic Communist Movement.
Karl Marx soon realized.
as Lenin realized,
that there is no revolution
without revolutionary action,
that there is no revolutionary action
without a revolutionary movement.
that there is no revolutionary movement
without a vanguard of revolution,
and that there is no vanguard
of revolution
without a theory of revolution.

The Communist Manifesto

Having realized that a
Communist Manifesto
was the basis of a Communist Movement,
Karl Marx decided to write
a Communist Manifesto.
To write the Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx did not use his
analysis of capitalism.
He took the definition of
Communism of Proudhon
and made it his own.
He borrowed Utopian
criticism and Utopian aims
and decided to advocate class-struggle,
that is to say, materialist aims.
As some people used to think
that we need a good honest war
to end all wars,
Karl Marx used to think
that we need a gigantic class-struggle
to bring about a classless society.

For Catholic Action

We Catholics have a better criticism
of bourgeois society
than Victor Considerant’s criticism.
used by Karl Marx.
Our criticism of bourgeois society
is the criticism of St. Thomas More.
We Catholics have a better
conception of Communism
than the conception of Proudhon.
Our conception of Communism
is the conception of St. Thomas Aquinas
in his doctrine of the “Common Good.”
We Catholics have better means
than the means proposed by Karl Marx.
Our means to realize the “Common Good”
are embodied in Catholic Action.
Catholic Action is action by Catholics
for Catholics and non-Catholics.
We don’t want to take over the control
of political and economic life.
We want to reconstruct the social order
through Catholic Action
exercised in Catholic
institutions.

The Bishops’ Program

Shortly after the war
Bishops of America
formulated a Program of
Social Reconstruction
largely based on co-operation.
But the Bishops’ Program
failed to materialize
for lack of co-operators.
Catholic laymen and women
were more interested
in a laissez-faire economy.
So Catholic laymen and women
went back to Normalcy with Harding;
they tried to Keep Cool with Coolidge,
and then to See Rosy with Roosevelt.
Catholic laymen and women
are more interested
in political action
than they are interested
in Catholic Action.
Catholic laymen and women
are more ready to follow
the leadership of the politicians
than they are ready to follow
the leadership of the Bishops.

Reconstructing the Social Order

The Holy Father and the Bishops ask us
to reconstruct the social order.
The social order was once constructed
through dynamic Catholic Action.
When the barbarians invaded
the decaying Roman Empire
Irish missionaries went all over Europe
and laid the foundations of medieval Europe.
Through the establishment of
cultural centers,
that is to say, Round-Table Discussions,
they brought thought to the people.
Through free guest houses,
that is to say, Houses of Hospitality,
they popularized the divine
virtue of charity.
Through farming colonies,
that is to say, Agronomic Universities,
they emphasized voluntary poverty.
It was on the basis of personal charity
and voluntary poverty
that Irish missionaries
laid the foundations
of the social order.

Usurers Not Gentlemen

The Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
forbid lending money at interest.
Lending money at interest
is called usury
by the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
Usurers were not considered
to be Gentlemen
when people used to listen
to the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
When people used to listen
to the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church
They could not see anything gentle
in trying to live
on the sweat of somebody else’s brow
by lending money at interest.

Wealth-Producing Maniacs

When John Calvin
legalized moneylending
at interest
he made the bank account
the standard of values.
When the bank account
became the standard of values,
people ceased
to produce for use
and began
to produce for profits.
When people began
to produce for profits
they became
wealth-producing maniacs.
When people became
wealth-producing maniacs
they produced
too much wealth.
When people found out
that they had produced
too much wealth
they went on an orgy
of wealth destruction
and destroyed
ten million lives besides.
And fifteen years after
a world-wide orgy
of wealth and life
destruction
millions of people
find themselves victims
of a world-wide depression
brought about
by a world gone mad
on mass-production
and mass-distribution.

Legalized Usury

Because John Calvin legalized
money-lending at interest,
the State has legalized
money-lending at interest.
Because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest,
home-owners have mortgaged their homes.
Because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest,
farmers have mortgaged their farms.
Because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest,
institutions have mortgaged
their buildings.
Because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest,
congregations have
mortgaged their churches.
Because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest,
cities, counties, States,
and the Federal Government
have mortgaged their budgets.
So people find themselves
in all kinds of financial difficulties because
the State has legalized
money-lending at interest.

The Fallacy of Saving

When people save money,
they invest that money.
Money invested
increases production.
Increased production
brings a surplus
in production.
A surplus in production
brings unemployment.
Unemployment brings a slump
in business.
A slump in business
brings more unemployment.
More unemployment
brings a depression.
A depression
brings more depression.
More depression
brings red agitation.
Red agitation
brings red revolution.

Avoiding Inflation

Some say
that inflation
is desirable.
Some say
that inflation
is deplorable.
Some say
that inflation
is deplorable but inevitable.
The way
to avoid inflation
is to lighten the burden
of the money borrowers
without robbing
the money lenders.
And the way
to lighten the burden
of the money borrowers
without robbing
the money lenders
is to pass two laws,
one law
making immediately illegal
all interest
on money lent
and another law
obliging the money borrowers
to pay one per cent
of their debt
every year
during a period of a hundred years.

Dear Father:

There is a lot of talk today
about the social value of Fascism.
But Fascism is only a stopgap
between capitalism and Bolshevism.
Fascist dictatorship is a halfway house
between the rugged
individualism of capitalism
and the rugged collectivism of Bolshevism.
There is no essential difference
between Fascist dictatorship
and Bolshevik dictatorship.
The trouble with the world today
is too much dictatorship
and too little leadership.

Leadership cannot he found
among politicians, business men
and college professors.
The appointed leaders of mankind
are the Catholic Bishops.
Catholic Bishops have ceased to lead
because Catholic laymen and women
do not consider the Bishops
as their leaders
in political and economic matters.
Catholic laymen and women
look up to the Bishops
in spiritual matters
and look up to politicians and
business men
in political and economic matters.
Catholic laymen and women
commit the great modern error
of separating the spiritual
from the material.
This great modem error,
known under the name of secularism,
is called a “modern plague”
by Pope Pius XI.
You, who are a born agitator
and a theologian,
hould bring a thorough understanding
between Bishops, clergy, and lay people.
From that understanding
would spring a form of Catholic Action
that would be dynamic in character.
We are threatened with
dynamic Bolshevik action
because we are sorely lacking
in dynamic Catholic Action.

PETER MAURIN

Two years ago
I went to see Professor Moley,
former head
of President Roosevelt’s Brain Trust,
and said to him:
“I came here to find out
if I could make an impression
on the depression
by starting a rumpus
on the campus.
But I found out
that agitation is not rampant
on the campus.
Only business is rampant on the campus,
although business is the bunk.
“May be,” said I
“history cannot be made
on the campus.”

And turning toward his secretary,
Professor Moley said:
“That’s right,
we don’t make history
on the campus,
we only teach it.”
And because history is taught
but not made
on the campus of our universities.
the Catholic Worker
is trying to make history
on Union Square,
where people have nothing to lose.
A battle royal is raging
between East and West,
between stock speculators
and land speculators,
between money lenders
and money borrowers.
To go back to the gold standard,
as the so-called “sound
money” people propose,
is to favor the money lenders
at the expense of the money borrowers.
To increase the amount of currency,
as the mild inflationists propose,
is to favor the money borrowers
at the expense of the money lenders.
To devise schemes
so as to bring about a rise in prices
is to favor both money lenders
and money borrowers
at the expense of the consuming public.

We made the mistake
of running business on credit
and credit has run into debts
and debts are leading us
toward bankruptcy.
The Jews had a way
of wiping off the slate.
Every fifty years,
the year of the Jewish Jubilee,
all debts were liquidated.
But nobody,
not even the Jews.
proposes this old-time solution.
John Maynard Keynes,
the well-known English economist, says
that we ought to ask ourselves
if the medieval economists
were not sound
in condemning money-lending
at interest.

In his book
on Religion and the Rise of Capitalism,
R. H. Tawney,
another English economist,
points out
that at the base of our acquisitive society
we find legalized usury,
or lending money at interest.
Because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest,
in spite of the teachings
of the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church,
home owners have mortgaged their homes,
farm owners have mortgaged their farms,
institutions have mortgaged
their buildings,
governments have mortgaged
their budgets.
So we are where we are
because the State has legalized
money-lending at interest
in spite of the teachings
of the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church.
To go back to the teachings
of the Prophets of Israel
and the Fathers of the Church,
as I propose in my Easy Essays
in the current number of The
Catholic Worker,
would not do any injustice
to the money lenders
or the money borrowers
or the consuming public.
Money lenders would get their
money back,
money borrowers would find
their burdens lightened,
and the consuming public
would not have to pay the bill.
We would go back to the point
from which we should never have gone.
We would go back to the time
when no one was called a gentleman
who indulged in money-lending at interest.
We would go back to the time
when people could not see anything gentle
in trying to live on the sweat
of somebody else’s brow
by lending money at interest.
Many people say
that we cannot go back,
but I say
neither can we go ahead,
for we are parked in a blind alley.
And when people are parked
in a blind alley
the only thing to do is to go back.
For when people lend money at interest
that money is invested.
Money invested
increases production.
Increased production
brings a surplus in production.
A surplus in production
brings unemployment.
Unemployment
brings a slump in business.
A slump in business
brings more unemployment.
More unemployment
brings more depression,
A depression
brings more depression,
More depression
brings red agitation.
Red agitation
brings red revolution.

Two years ago I went to see
college professors
and asked them to give me
the formulation of those universal concepts
embodied in the universal message
of universal universities
that will enable the common man
to create a universal economy.
But college professors were
too busy teaching subjects
to be interested in mastering situations.
College professors
were too interested
in academic matters
to be interested
in dynamic matters.
But now college professors realize
that they must be men of action
as well as men of thought–
that they must be dynamic
as well as academic,
and that Union Square
can teach something to college professors
as well as learning from college professors.

The scholar has told the bourgeois
that a worker is a man for all that.
But the bourgeois has told the scholar
that a worker is a commodity for all that.
Because the scholar has vision,
the bourgeois calls him a visionary.
So the bourgeois laughs at the
scholar’s vision
and the worker is left without vision.
And the worker left by the
scholar without vision
talks about liquidating
both the bourgeois and the scholar.
The scholars must tell the workers
what is wrong
with the things as they are.
The scholars must tell the workers
how a path can be made
from the things as they are
to the things as they should be.
The scholars must collaborate
with the workers
in making a path
from the things as they are
to the things
as they should be.
The scholars must become workers
so the workers may be scholars.

Henry Adams tells us in his
autobiography
that he could not get an education
in America,
because education implies
unity of thought
and there is no unity of
thought in America.
So he went to England
and found that England
was too much like America.
So he went to France
and found that France
was too much like England and America.
But in France he found the
Cathedral of Chartres
and from the Cathedral of
Chartres he learned
that there was unity of thought
in thirteenth-century France.

People who built the Cathedral
of Chartres
knew how to combine
cult, that is to say liturgy,
with culture, that is to say philosophy,
and cultivation, that is to say agriculture.

The Cathedral of Chartres is
a real work of art
because it is the real expression
of the spirit of a united people.
Churches that are built today
do not express the spirit of the people.
“When a church is built,”
a Catholic editor said to me,
“the only thing that has news value is:
How much did it cost?”
The Cathedral of Chartres was not built
to increase the value of real estate.
The Cathedral of Chartres was not built
with money borrowed from money lenders.

The Cathedral of Chartres was not built
by workers working for wages.

Maurice Barres used to worry
about the preservation of
French Cathedrals,
but Charles Peguy thought
that the faith that builds Cathedrals
is after all the thing that matters.
Moscow had a thousand churches
and people lost the faith.
Churches ought to be built
with donated money, donated
material, donated labor.

The motto of St. Benedict was
Laborare et Orare, Labor and Pray.
Labor and prayer ought to be combined;
labor ought to be a prayer.
The liturgy of the Church
is the prayer of the Church.
People ought to pray with the Church
and to work with the Church.
The religious life of the people
and the economic life of the people
ought to be one.
I heard that in Germany
a group of Benedictines
is trying to combine liturgy
with sociology.
We don’t need to wait for Germany
to point the way,
Architects, artists and artisans
ought to exchange ideas
on Catholic liturgy and Catholic sociology.

[A reader in Bellingham, Wash., wrote to Peter Maurin urging the Organization of Catholic Labor Guilds throughout the country. Members would be assessed a dollar a year, and the money so raised would be used to start Houses of Hospitality. Peter’s reply follows. (February, 1934.)]

Most organizations exist,
not for the benefit of the organized,
but for the benefit of the organizers.
When the organizers try to organize the unorganized
they do not organize themselves.
If everybody organized himself,
everybody would be organized.
There is no better way to be
than to be
what we want the other fellow to be.
The money that comes from assessments
is not worth getting.
The money that is worth getting
is the money that is given for charity’s sake.
Parish Houses of Hospitality
must be built on Christian charity.
But Parish Houses of Hospitality
are only half-way houses.
Parish Subsistence Camps
are the most efficient way
to make an impression
on the depression.
The basis for a Christian economy
Is genuine charity and voluntary poverty.
To give money to the poor
is to increase the buying power of the poor.

Money is by definition a means of exchange
and not a means to make money.
When money is used as a means of exchange,
it helps to consume the goods that have been produced.
When money is used as an investment,
it does not help to consume
the goods that have been produced,
it helps to produce more goods,
to bring over-production
and therefore increase unemployment.
So much money has been put into business
that it has put business out of business.

Money given to the poor is functional money.
money that fulfills its function.
Money used as an investment
is prostituted money,
money that does not fulfill its function.
Poverty and charity are no longer looked
up to,
they are looked down upon.
The poor have ceased to accept poverty
and the rich have ceased to practice charity.
When the poor are satisfied to be poor,
the rich become charitable toward the poor.

Because Christianity presents poverty as an
ideal
Bolshevik Communists try to make us believe
that religion is the opium of the people.
Karl Marx says that the worker is exploited
at the point of production.
But the worker would not be exploited
at the point of production
if the worker did not sell his labor
to the exploiter of his labor.

When the worker sells his labor
to a capitalist or accumulator of labor
he allows the capitalist or accumulator of
labor
to accumulate his labor.
And when the capitalist or accumulator of
the worker’s labor
has accumulated so much of the worker’s
labor
that he no longer finds it profitab1e
to buy the worker’s labor
then the worker can no longer sell his labor
to the capitalist or accumulator of labor.
And when the worker can no longer sell his
labor
to the capitalist or accumulator of labor
he can no longer buy the products of his
labor.
And that is what the worker gets for selling
his labor
to the capitalist or accumu1ator of labor.
He just gets left
and he gets what is coming to him.
Labor is not a commodity
to be bought and sold–
Labor is a means of self-expression,
the worker’s gift to the common good.

There is so much depression
because there is so little expression.
I am fostering Parish Subsistence Camps
or Agronomic Universities
as a means to bring about a state of society
where scholars are workers
and where workers are scholars.
In a Parish Subsistence Camp
or Agronomic University
the worker does not work for wages,
he leaves that to the University.
In a Parish Subsistence Camp
or Agronomic University
the worker does not look for a bank account
he leaves that to the University.
In a Parish Subsistence Camp
or Agronomic University
the worker does not look for an insurance
policy,
he leaves that to the University.
In a Parish Subsistence Camp
or Agronomic University
the worker does not look for an old-age
pension,
he leaves that to the University.
In a Parish Subsistence Camp
or Agronomic University
the worker does not look for a rainy day,
he leaves that to the University.
Modern industry has no work for everybody
but work can be found for everybody
in Parish Subsistence Camps
or Agronomic Universities.

I may later on publish a magazine entitled
The Agronomist
for the fostering of the idea
of Parish Subsistence Camps
or Agronomic Universities.
Edward Koch, of Germantown, Illinois,
publishes a magazine entitled
The Guildsman;
you ought to get in touch with him.

Your co-worker in Christ’s Kingdom.

PETER MAURIN

[Taking exception to Peter’s answer to the Bellingham reader, Michael Gunn, organizer of the Catholic Labor Guild in Brooklyn, wrote a critical letter, which drew the following reply. (March, 1934.)]

Dear Mike:

In my answer to a reader
from Bellingham, Washington,
I said most organizations exist,
not for the benefit of the organized
but for the benefit of the organizers.
I added that when the organizers
try to organize the unorganized
they do not organize themselves.
When I wrote that
I did not have in mind
the Catholic Labor Guild in Brooklyn.
I had in mind
some selfish exploiters
of the exploitation of the exploited
who like to be called labor leaders.
I had in mind
some exalted rulers of secret societies
who, while they call themselves Masons,
have not yet learned
to create order out of chaos.
I had in mind
some dignified regulators
of societies which have some secrets
without being called secret societies.
While I don’t like some of your ideas,
I like you personally.
I think that you are much better
than some of your ideas.

I think that you are inclined
to lead a life of sacrifice.
During the World War you placed your life
at the service of the British Empire.
After the war, you placed your life
at the service of the Irish Republic.
And now you have placed your life
at the service of the Church.
You and your fellow workers
of the Catholic Labor Guild
are trying to combine
prayer, action, and sacrifice,
as the Holy Father suggests.
You and your fellow workers
want to be go-givers,
you don’t want to be go-getters.
Since you and your fellow workers
want to be go-givers,
you ought to give
to those who are in need of giving.
To give to people who have money to lend
is to give to people who are not in need.
People who have money
should do good with their money,
either give it away.
as our Saviour advises,
or lend it without interest.
To pay interest on money loaned
is to place an enterprise
under a too heavy burden.
Everyone must live on the sweat of his brow
and not on money loaned.
Nobody could lend money at interest
If nobody would borrow money at interest.
People who live on money loaned at interest
reap some of the profits of property
without the responsibility of property.
To pay double wages to managers
is to make the workers
envious of the managers.
Managers should receive what they need
and no more than they need.
Knowledge obliges as well as “noblesse
oblige.”
We cannot have a Catholic democracy
without a Catholic aristocracy.
Paying double wages to managers
is not the way to make aristocrats
out of efficient managers.
“The most important of all are Workmen’s
Associations
and it is greatly to be desired
that they should multiply
and become more effective,”
says Pope Leo XIII.
To borrow money at interest
and to pay double wages to managers
is not absolutely necessary
to the good functioning
of Workmen’s Associations.
You say that the Catholic Labor Guild
does not lend money at interest
I hope that it will see the way
not to borrow money at interest.
You say that the Catholic Labor Guild
stands for profit-sharing.
I hope that your self-sacrificing example
will lead the members of the Guild
to stand for loss-sharing.
When the members of the Guild
decide to allow the Guild
to accumulate the profits
they will not need to worry
about their economic security.
Let the members of the Guild
give all they can to the Guild;
the Guild will not leave them in want.
Let the Labor Guild help
all those it can help
and the Farming Communes will help
all those that the Guild cannot help.

Yours for Catholic Action.

PETER MAURIN

Program

The purpose of the Catholic Workers’ School
is to bring Catholic thought
to Catholic workers
so as to prepare them
for Catholic Action.
Besides presenting Catholic thought
to Catholic workers
the Catholic Workers’ School
presents a program of Catholic Action
based on Catholic thought.
The program of the Catholic Workers’
School
is a three-point program:
1. Round-table Discussions
2. Houses of Hospitality
3. Farming Communes.

Round-Table Discussions

We need Round-Table Discussions
to keep trained minds from being academic.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to keep untrained minds from being superficial.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to learn from scholars
how things would be,
if they were as they should be.
We need Round-Table Discussions
to learn from scholars
how a path can be made
from things as they are
to things as they should be.

Communes

We need Communes
to help the unemployed
to help themselves.
We need Communes
to make scholars out of workers
and workers out of scholars,
to substitute a technique of ideals
for our technique of deals.
We need Communes
to create a new society
within the shell of the old
with the philosophy of the new,
which is not a new philosophy
but a very old philosophy,
a philosophy so old
that it looks like new.

Catholic Social Philosophy

The Catholic social philosophy,
is the philosophy of the Common Good
of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Three books where this philosophy is
expressed are:
The Thomistic Doctrine of the Common
Good, by Seraphine Michel;
The Social Principles of the Gospel,
by Alphonse Lugan;
Progress and Religion, by Christopher
Dawson.

Better and Better Off

The world would be better off
if people tried to become better.
And people would become better
if they stopped trying to become better off.
For when everybody tries to become
better off,
nobody is better off.
But when everybody tries to become better,
everybody is better off.
Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be what he ought
to be
if everybody tried to be
what be wants the other fellow to be.

Christianity has nothing to do
with either modern capitalism
or modern Communism,
for Christianity has
a capitalism of its own
and a communism of its own.
Modern capitalism
is based on property without responsibility,
while Christian capitalism
is based on property with responsibility.
Modern Communism
is based on poverty through force
while Christian communism
is based on poverty through choice.
For a Christian,
voluntary poverty is the ideal
as exemplified by St. Francis of Assisi,
while private property
is not an absolute right, but a gift
which as such can not be wasted,
but must be administered
for the benefit of God’s chi1dren.

According to Johannes Jorgensen,
a Danish convert living in Assisi,
St. Francis desired
that men should give up
superfluous possessions.
St. Francis desired
that men should work with their hands.
St. Francis desired
that men should offer their services
as a gift.
St. Francis desired
that men should ask other people for help
when work failed them.
St. Francis desired
that men should live
as free as birds.
St. Francis desired
that men should go through life
giving thanks to God for His gifts.

Three Ways to Make a Living

Mirabeau says “There are three ways
to make a living:
Stealing, begging, and working.”
Stealing is against the law of God
and against the law of men.
Begging is against the law of men
but not against the law of God.
Working is neither against the law of God
nor against the law of men.
But they say
that there is no work to do.
There is plenty of work to do,
but no wages.
But people do not need to work for wages,
they can offer their services as a gift.

Capital and Labor

“Capita1,” says Karl Marx, “is accumulated
labor,
not for the benefit of the laborers,
but for the benefit of the accumulators.”
And capitalists succeed in accumulating
labor,
by treating labor, not as a gift,
but as a commodity,
buying it as any other commodity
at the lowest possible price.
And organized labor plays into the hands
of the capitalists, or accumulators of labor,
by treating its own labor
not as a gift, but as a commodity,
selling it as any other commodity
at the highest possible price.
And the class struggle is a struggle
between the buyers of labor
at the lowest possible price
and the sellers of labor
at the highest possible price.
But the buyers of labor
at the lowest possible price
and the sellers of labor
at the highest possible price
are nothing but commercializers of labor.

Selling Their Labor

When the workers
sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
they allow the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
to accumulate their labor.
And when the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
have accumulated so much
of the workers’ labor
that they do no longer
find it profitable
to buy the workers’ labor
then the workers
can no longer sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor.
And when the workers
can no longer
sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
they can no longer buy
the products of their labor.
And that is what the workers get
for selling their labor.

[These excerpts from the Bishops’ Message of 1934, with Peter Maurin’s comments, were published in the Catholic Worker of May, 1934. The quotations are printed here In Roman type and Peter’s comments in italics.]

In tracing the remote causes
of the present misery of mankind
we must listen to him
who as a loving father
views from an eminence
all the nations of the world.
Quoting St. Paul, our Holy Father says:
“The desire for money
is the root of all evil.”
From greed arises mutual distrust
that casts a blight
on all human beings.
From greed arises envy
which makes a man
consider the advantages of another
as losses to himself.
From greed arises
narrow individua1ism
which orders and subordinates everything
to its own advantage.

People looking
for a rainy day
have put so much money
into business
that they have brought about
an increase
in producing power
and a decrease
in purchasing power.
So there is a rub
between the rich
who like
to get richer
and the poor
who don’t like
to get poorer.

In common with other nations
we have brought about our present
unhappy conditions
by divorcing education, industry, politics,
business, and economics
from morality and religion
and by ignoring for long decades
the innate dignity of man
and trampling on his human rights.

We have taken religion
out of everything
and have put commercialism
into everything.

That we are an industrial nation
is our public boast.
Industry is considered to be of more
importance
than the moral welfare of man.
The lord of all is Industry.
“Save Industry!” is the cry.
“Put business on its feet
and all will be well
as it was in the past.”

We are beginning to learn
that to put big business
on its feet
does not necessarily
put the forgotten man
on his feet.

The philosophy which has ruled govern-
ments, groups, and individuals
for the past three hundred years
has not taken as its guide
the moral law,
has not considered the rights of men.
Money, not men,
bas been the supreme consideration
and the justifying end.

When people care
for money
they do not care
for culture.
And when people
do not care
for culture
they return
to barbarism.

That philosophy permits individuals
to accumulate as much wealth as they can
according to unfair methods
of modern business
and to use such accumulated wealth
as they see fit.
This extreme of individualism
has led to the extreme of Communism.
We rightly fear its spread in our country
and see an especial menace
in its insidious presentation
of fundamental troubles
for its own destructive ends.

When modern society
made the bank account
the standard of values
people ceased
to produce for use
and began
to produce for profit.
Rugged individualism
leads to
rugged nationalism,
which leads to
rugged collectivism.

The brotherhood of man
is loudly proclaimed.
Energetic protest is made
against injustice
done to the working class.
The abuses of the capitalist system
are vigorously condemned.
It is insisted
that man shall not exploit his fellow man
and that all shall be dedicated
to a life of service.

In a capitalist society
where man
is inhuman to man
people cannot
keep from dreaming
about a society
where man
would be human
to man.

A program of social reform
couched in such language
and with such aims and purposes
is unassailable
because it is distinctly Christian in origin
and purport,
but in the hands of the Communists
it is merely a snare
to allure those who are oppressed
by the prevailing economic maladjustment
into accepting the iniquitous social and
religious tenets
of Lenin and Stalin.
There is a very grave and subtle danger
of infection from Communism.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas
man is more
than an individual
with individual rights;
he is a person
with personal duties
toward God,
himself,
and his fellow man.
As a person
man cannot
serve God
without serving
the Common Good.

Special efforts are being made
to win Negroes
who are the victims of injustice.
The Communists have as their objective
a world war on God
and the complete destruction
of all supernatural and even natural religion.

The Negroes
are beginning to find out
that wage slavery
is no improvement
on chattel slavery.
The Communists say
that Christianity is a failure,
but it is not a failure
for the very good reason
that it has not been tried.

The central act of devotional life
in the Catholic Church
is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Sacrifice of the Mass
is the unbloody repetition
of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
On the Cross of Calvary
Christ gave His life to redeem the world.
The life of Christ was a life of sacrifice.
The life of a Christian must be
a life of sacrifice.
We cannot imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to get all we can.
We can only imitate the sacrifice of Christ
on Calvary
by trying to give all we can.