Editor’s Table: Attitude of the Church Towards Reform

EDITOR'S TABLE. ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH TOWARDS REFORM- POLITICAL PARTIES. From M. D. Fitzgerald, of Lynn, Massachusetts, the editors of the Era received the following, under date of January 4th, in relation to the evils of the world and the plans proposed by the Social Labor Party to eradicate the same. I am prompted to write you this letter because I have been favored in making the acquaintance of Elder Charles Westover of your Church. The doctrine, etc., of the Church so far as I understand it from a simple study of its cardinal principles, are certainly "Godlike," and superior to many conflicting doctrines that surround me here. I am a Catholic by baptism and education, and can only find a reason for deviation from the doctrine of our Savior Jesus Christ by so-called Christian Churches in this fact, that they have admitted the right of private ownership of the means of production and distribution, thus entailing usury, the competitive system, the disinheriting of the masses, wars, having an economic basis, and other evils too numerous to recapitulate in this short letter. On this New England coast are many cities containing thousands of idle men and women, living in poverty, in enforced idleness, while the means, i. e. natural resources and machinery, capable of being united to and operated by their intelligence for the purpose of producing untold wealth, are also lying comparatively idle. Churchmen and statesmen are continually tinkering or vainly endeavoring to remedy this deplorable condition; I believe it can only be aggravated by these so-called panaceas, viz: free trade, protection, monetary reform, expansion, (imperialism,) etc.