* * * * *
ARBITRATION.--The question of arbitration received quite an impetus at
Braddock, Penn., by the selection of Rev. Father Hickey, the well-known
pastor of St. Thomas' church, at that place, as an arbitrator. The
Bessemer Steel Works, an institution employing _six thousand men_, was
shut down on account of the strike. Father Hickey was selected by both
parties, and succeeded in satisfactorily settling the difficulties.
The "Ten-Commandment" Theory.
Sir Wilfred Lawson, writing to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ (a London paper),
says:--"In a recent article on Home Rule, you declared: 'We are all for
Home Rule plus the Ten Commandments. But if the Irish seek Home Rule
expressly to violate the Ten Commandments with impunity, then they shall
not have Home Rule, let them demand it ever so loudly.' I have my doubts
whether it is possible to 'violate the Ten Commandments with impunity,'
but we will not stop to argue that point. But what I want to know is,
how far you intend to carry this 'Ten-Commandment' theory? Is it
applicable to all nations or only to the Irish? If the former, how shall
we stand in England? The Ten Commandments forbid among other things,
murder, stealing and coveting our neighbors' possessions.
"Do we reverence the command, 'Thou shalt do no murder?' Let the
thousands of Zulus, Afghans, Egyptians and Arabs whom we have
slaughtered during the last few years give dumb evidence on that point.
The slaughter of these unfortunate men, whose crime is that they are
worse armed than we are, is duly hailed with public acclamation and with
ecclesiastical thanksgiving!
"Stealing is equally popular. At this very moment the press gushes with
rapturous delight because Lord Dufferin has succeeded in stealing the
territory of the Burmese.
"As to lying, I need say nothing, as we are all fresh from the general
election.
"The Irish will be very ingenuous if they can contrive to violate the
Ten Commandments more successfully than we do in very many of our public
proceedings. The crimes for which we are responsible are, however,
mainly committed against feeble foes who have no means of stating their
case to the world. But the violation of the Eighth Commandment, which is
what you really fear will be endorsed in Ireland, will be committed
against the body of Irish landlords, who, up to a recent period, have
had their own way in that country. The fear is that the tenants will
steal the property of the landlords. In former times the landlords have
stolen the property of the tenants. In either case stealing is most
deplorable, but I do not know whether, in a moral point of view, the
latter is worse than the former. Honest men must hope that both may be
put a stop to. Sir, I hold by the Ten Commandments, and I heartily wish
that all nations and all individuals would pay them practical deference.
All that I maintain at present is, that the fear that the Irish may, on
one point, adopt a different course is not enough to justify us in
refusing them the benefit of self-government. If we are to wait until we
have guarantees for the observance of the Ten Commandments before we
grant political rights to nations, we shall have, I fear, to wait until
doomsday, or, at the very least, until the millennium is upon us.
However, the position taken up in your article may be the right one; but
even in that case we shall speak to our Irish brethren with much more
effect if we can show that we ourselves are observing the precepts which
we are so anxious to enforce upon them."
Bay State Faugh-a-Ballaghs.