CATHOLIC  SOCIALISTS.

I31
midst  of  the  immoral  surroundings  of  the  factory,  is  to  destroy
the  Christian  family.
The  union  of  all  these  measures  should  constitute  the
“Labour  Code,”  just  as  there  is  a  commercial  code,  a
maritime  code,  and  a  civil  code.  It  should  regulate  the
relations  between  apprentices  and  masters,  manufacturers
and  workmen.  The  existing  anarchy  would  then  cease.  A
social  order,  not  exactly  identical  with  that  which  formerly
existed,  but  based  on  the  same  principles,  would  be  reestablished. ­
  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  adds  the  orator,  that
the  demands  of  the  people  are  sometimes  unreasonable,  and
their  accusations  often  too  violent,  when  we  reflect  that  nothing
whatever  is  done  for  them  ?
(2)  Like  Lassalle,  Canon  Moufang  demands  that  the  State
should  advance  money  to  working  men’s  societies.  When  rich
capitalists  make  a  railway,  the  State  often  guarantees  them
interest  or  subsidizes  the  undertaking.  Why  should  it  not
give  the  same  advantages  to  working  men  ?  They  have  even
a  better  claim  ;  for,  with  them,  it  is  not  a  question  of  aggrandizement, ­
  but  of  life.  “  I  am  no  partisan  of  M.  Louis  Blanc’s
Workshops,”  said  Herr  Moufang,  “  but  when  a  sound  association ­
  of  working  men  is  in  need  of  aid,  I  cannot  see  why  the
State  should  refuse  to  grant  it.  What  is  equitable  for  the
rich  is  equitable  for  the  poor  also.”  The  Canon  of  Mayence
cathedral  omits  to  mention  in  what  respect  his  associations
differ  from  those  of  M.  Louis  Blanc.  The  difference  probably
consists  in  the  fact  that  the  associations  proposed  by  the  canon
would  be  founded  on  a  ground  work  of  Catholic  principles  ad
niajorafu  Dei  gloriam.  ’
(3)  The  State  ought  to  reduce  the  taxes  and  military
burdens  which  weigh  so  heavily  upon  the  labourer.  The
independent  gentleman,  with  thousands  in  his  purse  pays
Hardly  any  taxes,  while  the  worker,  who  has  only  his  scanty
J^age,  sees  it  still  further  reduced  by  direct  and  indirect
axation,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the  best  years  of  his
for  ^Grvice  in  the  army.  Distributive  justice  calls
radical  reforms  on  this  point.  Militarism  is  the  curse  of
'-»ermany.