CATHOLIC  SOCIALISTS.

I4I

it  depicts  the  situation.  A  real  understanding  is  impossible
between  the  Social  Democrats,  who  preach  atheism  with  a  view
to  upsetting  the  throne,  the  Church,  and  all  established
authority,  and  the  Ultramontane  Socialists,  who  desire  to
strengthen  authority  with  a  view  to  concentrating  it  in  the
hands  of  the  bishops  and  the  Pope.  But  both  parties  address
themselves  to  the  working  men,  tell  them  their  grievances,
propose  remedies  for  the  ills  from  which  they  suffer,  and  put  the
responsibility  for  all  their  wrongs  upon  the  shoulders  of  the
Liberal  middle  classes,  “who  exploit  the  people  without  pity  or
mercy.”  They  are  thus  found  together  in  opposition  and  give
their  votes  for  each  other.
The  associations  created  under  the  influence  of  Catholic
Socialism  are  veritably  innumerable,  without,  of  course,  counting
convents,  which  are  their  ideal  type.  Dr.  Rudolf  Meyer  has
taken  a  great  deal  of  trouble  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining,  not
full  statistics,  but  merely  an  enumeration  of  their  different
species,  and  he  avows  that  he  has  found  it  impossible  to  draw
up  a  complete  list.  Nevertheless,  his  classification,  as  it
stands,  is  of  considerable  length.  It  embraces  the  following
institutions  :—Catholic  journeyman  associations  {^Katholische
Gesellenvereine)  after  Kolping’s  model.  They  count  more  than
eighty  thousand  members,  and  exist  in  almost  all  Catholic
towns.  Their  meetings  take  place  on  Sundays,  and  aim  at
intellectual  and  moral  culture.  They  sometimes  include
savings  banks,  and,  at  Berlin,  they  have  founded  an  academy
for  the  cultivation  of  taste  in  artistic  manufactures.—Catholic
apprentice  associations.  They  are  connected  with  those  of  the
journeymen.  They  have  usually  schools  on  Sundays  ;  that  of
Cologne,  for  example,  having  more  than  six  hundred  pupils.
—Catholic  associations  of  master-workmen.  For  the'purpose
of  keeping  up  good  feeling,  these  are  pledged  to  take  the
sacrament  together  at  least  once  a  month.—Catholic  associations ­
  of  factory  girls,  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Paul.—Catholic
associations  of  mining  operatives.  These  are  very  numerous
in  the  coal-basin  of  the  Roer.  They  usually  possess  a  mutual
aid  fund.  Meetings  take  place  for  the  discussion  of  their
interests.  The  object  is  the  cultivation  of  religious  and  social