Workers are just as much bound by the Christian law as their
employers. There is a disposition to regard work as an intolerable
burden to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible and with as little
effort as possible. This is contrary to Christian teaching.
This natural discontent is fomented and intensified by the noisy
agitators of Socialism, the enemies of God and man, who would overturn
the foundations upon which human society is built, and exile God from
His universe.
This singular set of men who seek to conceal the malice of their real
principles, but who cannot, are a brood of disturbers. Their doctrines
are an abomination striking at the foundations of family life and
religion. There is not, and cannot be, a Catholic Socialist. Certain
misguided Christians may call themselves Socialists, but, objectively,
a Catholic Socialist is an utter impossibility.
Another source of unrest among working people, and one against which
they should be warned, is the desire to give themselves over too much
to the pleasures of life.
* * * * *
Some of the tricks of the trade are described in the personal
experiences of a saleswoman who writes in a recent number of the
_Outlook_ on the wastes of retailing. A serious element of waste arises
she maintains from downright dishonesty practised in unnamed
establishments:
The management cheats the public through the employes, and logically
the employes turn about and cheat the management, and in either event
the public pays the bills.... A cheese is cut into pieces weighing
about a pound each, and all are sold within an hour under four
different names and at four different prices. Canned peas which cost
ninety cents a dozen are sold at nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
and fifteen cents a can—all the same grade. The jobber was willing to
put different labels on the same goods because he had an order for two
carloads.
“Don’t want that pie; want your money back?” said Willie. “How much
was it? Seven cents? I thought so. What do you expect? The
higher-priced ones were beside it. If you want good stuff, why don’t
you pay for it?”
Later I asked Willie what the difference was between the seven and the
twelve-cent prune pie, and he told me that the stones were taken out
of the twelve and put into the seven-cent lot. I counted the stones or
pits in the pie that the angry woman returned. There were forty-three.