The entire contents of every issue of THE CATHOLIC WORLD are protected by PUBLISHED BY THE PAULIST FATHERS. > NEW YORK: THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD, Copyright in United States, Great Britain, and Ireland. Entered at the Post-Office as Second-Class Matter. DEALERS SUPPLIED BY THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY. N.B.-The postage on "THE CATHOLIC WORLD" to Great Britain and Ireland, France, Wage Earners The Ethics of Buying Cheap. By REV. J. ELLIOT ROSS, C.S.P., Ph.D. An exposure of the unjust wages of these troublous timesand a solution. This is a book that should be read by every buyer, every seller, every consumer, and every wage earner. It should be studied carefully by fathers and mothers who have children that must work. THESE VITAL PROBLEMS ARE ANALYZED: Obligations of the Consuming Class. Theory of Industrial Organization. Wages, Health, Morals. "The inevitable result of low wages is poor health. Bad housing conditions and insufficient food must follow upon the heels of scanty pay, unless the wages are supplemented in some other way; and that means anemia, tuberculosis, and general physical debility." A book that Pastors and Teachers may safely recommend to the employer and to employees. The Common Cause says: "No work in behalf of the consumer and the oppressed wage earner that has appeared in some years deserves more serious attention than this book by Dr. J. Elliot Ross." The scholarly Month says: "In Consumers and Wage Earners we have met for the first time this subject treated formally and exhaustively, according to the principles of Christian morality. We trust that all Catholic students will make a textbook of this valuable work, and endeavor to spread its teaching amongst their countrymen." Delivered to any address in the world, $1.10. The Devin-Adair Company, PUBLISHERS 437 Fifth Avenue, New York A BY W. H. KENT, O.S.C. T first sight it might seem that a discussion of the recent Report* of the (English) Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes must be doubly out of place in the pages of an American Catholic journal. For, on the one hand, this official document is concerned solely with possible suggested legislation which could only affect British subjects, or, to speak more precisely, those who are inhabitants of England and of certain British possessions overseas. And, on the other hand, Catholics who are opposed on principle to any divorce, in the sense in which the word is understood in this Report, cannot, it would seem, be in a position to appreciate or discuss the arguments and evidence in regard to proposals for granting further facilities for divorce, and extending its dubious advantages to new classes of the community. For this reason, it may be presumed, no Catholic is found among the members of the Commission, though some representative Catholics, it is true, gave evidence in the course of the inquiry. None the less it will be found, on further reflection, that there are good reasons why the Catholics, and the non-Catholics also, of the United States should give this document their serious attention. For though directly and more immediately it may affect *Report of the Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes: presented to Parliament by command of His Majesty. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1912. Copyright. 1913. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE VOL. XCVII.-I. British subjects only, in such matters as matrimonial legislation what is done in one land cannot fail to have some effect, whether for good or evil, among other nations. And Americans, it may be added, have a more special reason to be interested in the proposals set forth in this English Official Report. For they will find that what may be called the American argument fills a conspicuous place in its pages. To put this in a few words, it may be said that the Commissioners who sign the Majority Report recommend such further facilities for divorce as would make the English law on this matter approximately the same as that already in force in many States of the Union. And though they do not follow it in every respect, and look for some light and leading elsewhere, it is hardly too much to say that American divorce law is their great example and source of inspiration. 66 On the other hand, it will be found that the three distinguished signatories of the Minority Report, who offer a strenuous opposition to the proposed changes, make a powerful and effective appeal to American experience in this matter. They point to the outstanding fact that in the case of the great English-speaking American people, which has, and for many years has had, a Divorce Law largely similar to that which our colleagues would see established in this country, the number of divorces has grown rapidly year by year." This moral is further enforced by a reference to the formation of the "American National League for the Protection of the Family," and the minority cite some emphatic words of its Corresponding Secretary, Dr. Samuel Dike, on the evils resulting from easy divorce. And after noticing and discussing the argument that the increase in American divorces was due to the independence of the several States and the facility of immigration, etc., they go on to say: After making all allowances for differences of national temperament, climate, and circumstances between England and the United States, we are bound to recognize that the two countries have too much in common to make it probable that if we in England adopt what are substantially the American grounds for divorce, we shall escape the grave disasters which have admittedly followed their adoption in the United States. 'American readers, we imagine, can scarcely remain indifferent to this spectacle of English legislators and social reformers, drawn one way by the example of American laws, and in the opposite direction by the lessons of American experience. But comment on this aspect of the divided Report of the Royal Commission had better be left in the safe hands of American Catholic critics. In much the same way, it may be said, that while Catholics would not be directly affected by any of the suggested changes in the Divorce Laws, such a document as the present Report undoubtedly challenges criticism from a Catholic standpoint. We cannot well be content to let it pass as something in no wise concerning our own people. For in any case the Catholic objection to divorce. is not a mere matter of domestic discipline, like clerical celibacy, for example. Our defense of this latter rule need not imply any censure on those without the Church and free from any such obligation. On the contrary, the Catholic belief in the absolute indissolubility of marriage applies in principle to the marriages of those who are not Catholics. And even if it were the case that divorce laws had no effect on our own people, we must needs regard the growing tendency to relax the bond of Christian marriage as a grave national evil, and do all in our power, whether by word or political action, to arrest its fatal progress. But here, again, there are further and more special reasons why Catholics should take an active part in this struggle. For it is clear to all who understand the influence of evil example and environment that the disastrous effect of increased facilities for divorce among Protestants must carry with it some danger to the morality of their Catholic neighbors and fellow citizens. And what is more, many of the arguments here brought together to make out a case for these further facilities, constitute, however unconsciously and indirectly, an indictment of the Catholic system; and naturally challenge some answering defense of our own position. It is true that the Report, as becomes its official character, is free from anything like religious controversy. We can notice nothing in the nature of offensive language, unless it be one passage quoted from an old Protestant bishop of the seventeenth century.* And if the evidence of the Catholic witnesses examined by the Com *"The distinction betwixt bed and board and the bond is new, never mentioned in the Scripture, and unknown to the ancient Church; devised only by the canonists and schoolmen in the Latin Church (for the Greek Church knows it not), to serve the Pope's turn the better, till he got it established in the Council of Trent, at which time, and never before, he laid his anathema upon all them that were of another mind; forbidding all men to marry, and not to make any use of Christ's concession." These are the words used by Bishop Cozens in Lord Ross' case. |