PART III: LABOR PRIOR TO CAPITAL

  

    Lincoln at Gettysburg redefined the political - moral basis of the United States by indicating that “All are created equal with the right to life…”   means what it says, but he also said we were (and still are) in process of realizing this fundamental truth.  Lincoln’s “Labor is Prior to Capital,” 

a corollary of this principle is also in process.

THE PROGRESSIVE ERA:  The Gilded Age – 1890, T. Roosevelt & W.H. Taft vs. Corruption, Wilson epic pro-Labor & Peace to World War l – 1917.

 

   President Theodore Roosevelt saved Capitalism from a bloody worker revolution, but workers continued to be exploited. Historian Foster Rhea Dulles wrote:

   Yet the status of the great bulk of working men did not improve during these years of the progressive era in terms commensurate with the national advance as a whole.  The real wages of industrial workers; that is, wages in terms of purchasing power, actually declined. (Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co. New York, 1966, p. 185.)

Neo-liberal legislation curbed the criminal greed of the capitalists, but the direction the economy as ‘for the people’ was not achieved.   Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book The Bully Pulpit minimizes the seriousness of this explosive situation at the turn of the century to W.W. I. (Kearns Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2013.)

THE POLITICS OF PLUTOCRACY

   Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were of the ‘progressive era,’ men of principle, compassion and, in many instances, advanced the cause “of the people,” but they were limited by their higher belief of loyalty to their class.

   As a result, the ‘progressive era’ was not all progressive.  Beyond Roosevelt and under Taft was the dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910. Western Federation of Miners members were found guilty of the attack.  Let’s not forget the Triangle Shirt Waist strike by garment workers in 1909 and the tragic fire at Shirt Waist in 1911.  During the Wilson administration there was the Ludlow Massacre of strikers and their families by the militia in 1914. Consider before Roosevelt’s presidency, the Pullman strike, and some of the bitter violent struggles of the Western Federation of Miners - Cripple Creek, Colorado 1894; Leadville, Colorado 1896; and Coeur d’Alene Idaho, 1899.  (Rayback, Joseph G. A History of American Labor, The Macmillan Company, N.Y. 1966)  State militias were used to keep the peace, but at the request of Idaho Governor, Frank Steunenberg, President McKinley sent Federal Troops to Coeur d’Alene. (Stone, Irving, Clarence Darrow for the Defense, Big Trouble, Bantam Books, 1958, p. 97)

   ‘Square Deal’ Roosevelt was not Labor’s favorite.  The legendary Mother Jones led a march of 100 children in 1903 to Roosevelt’s summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island to protest conditions in Philadelphia textile mills.  (AFL-CIO web site)  

   During the Roosevelt administration, three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners, including nationally known Big Bill Haywood were kidnapped by Pinkerton detective, James McParland, and shipped from Denver to Boise, Idaho to stand trial for the 1905 murder of the former Governor of Idaho, Frank Steunenberg.  The trumped up charges were obviously false and recognized as such by the working population. Roosevelt categorized the defendants as ‘undesirable citizens’ which outraged the working community. A trial was held in Boise; Roosevelt sent Federal troops to a nearby fort to be called out if needed.

   Throughout the country in 1907, May Day marchers protested Roosevelt’s ‘undesirable citizens’ remark.  Eugene Debs wrote for the May Day edition of The Worker, the Socialist Party’s weekly:  “This is the first and only international Labor Day.  It belongs to the working class and is dedicated to the revolution.” (Philip S. Forner, International Publishers, New York, 1986, p.77)

  
                                     Eugene Debs, sketched by Liam Gima-Lange,                                                                                        student at Aptos Middle School, San Francisco, California

 In New York a massive march was held that included a large representation of Jewish garment workers.  Presiding speaker, Socialist attorney Morris Hillquit, the former Moses Hilkowitz of Riga, Latvia, began his remarks, “Ladies, gentlemen and fellow undesirable citizens.”  Eugene Debs vented his anger at the detention and accusations against the Western Federation of Miners leaders: “If they attempt to murder Moyer, Haywood and their brothers, a   million revolutionists, at least, will meet them with guns.” (Eugene V. Debs Speaks, Pathfinder, New York, 1970, p. 147)  With Clarence Darrow as defense attorney, a not-guilty verdict was reached in 1907.  World Federation Miner leader, Big Bill Haywood, was released from prison.  (Lukas, Anthony, Big Trouble, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 470 – 490, 722.)

    W.H. Taft, Roosevelt’s chosen successor, was not a Labor favorite.  As a Federal Circuit Court Judge in Cincinnati in 1894, he issued an injunction to stop railroad workers from refusing to service Pullman cars.  Taft ruled that the railroad workers had the right to organize, but not to boycott Pullman which was a manufacturer in another city. (Kearns Goodwin, p. 216.)

   

   Taft could not see beyond supporting Labor’s right to organize.  Property rights, for Taft, superseded worker rights.  Kerns Goodwin reports his comments:

   To the daunting question of what those unable to find work during the recession might do, he had earnestly answered, ‘God knows….they have my deepest sympathy.  It is an awful case when a man is willing to work and is put in this position.’ (Kerns Goodwin, p. 535.)  

Eugene Debs’ important reply is not recorded by Kerns Goodwin. Debs stated:  “The Socialist Party does not refer this important problem to the   Deity for solution.  It recognizes the fact that is of human creation and must be solved by human effort.” (Eugene V. Debs Speaks, p. 162.)

THE McCLURE’S MAGAZINE

   McClure’s as progressive – that’s a stretch.  Anthony Lukas wrote:

    For years McClure had betrayed anxiety about labor’s ‘lawlessness.’  In part his misgivings sprang from an 1896 pressman’s strike against  his own company occasioned by his temporarily cutting his press feeders wages from twelve to ten dollars a week. (Lukas, p. 591)

 

   It’s no wonder that Samuel S. McClure would not publish Eugene Debs’ response to President Cleveland’s article in McClure’s Magazine justifying sending Federal troops to Chicago to break the Pullman strike.   Samuel McClure was pro-labor as long as labor was exciting and his writers produced articles that sold magazines.   The powerful investigative writing team of McClure’s separated from the magazine in 1906. (Kerns Goodwin, p. 487.)

   Undaunted, McClure and the magazine continued.  He was especially interested in the ‘lawless’ Western Miners Federation.  The chief witness against the W.F.M leaders was Harry Orchard – a gun for hire – who claimed the W.F.M. hired him to murder ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg, a major figure in the Cour d’Alane strike.

   McClure secured psychiatrist Hugo Munsterberg, a colleague of William James at Harvard, to profile Harry Orchard.  During the trial articles were written portraying Orchard as telling the truth.  Defense lawyer Clarence Darrow and his “defense team were livid.”  (Lukas, p. 600)  The move to ‘yellow journalism’ did not work. 

   Taft with Roosevelt’s support won the presidency in 1908.  After the election, McClure offered Roosevelt 72,000 dollars to work for his magazine, but Roosevelt rejected the offer and signed with Outlook magazine. (Morris, Edmund, Theodore Rex, Random House, New York, 2001, p. 540.)  McClure sold his magazine to creditors in 1911.

THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

   Milwaukee ‘Sewer Socialists’ claim Eugene Debs as founder with Victor Berger.  Frank Zeidler explains ‘Sewer Socialist’:

   …it reflects a time when the practical Socialists of Wisconsin were held in some derogation by Socialist theoreticians, especially in eastern states, who said the Milwaukee Socialists were incapable of theoretical thinking and were content to see that rubbish was collected and sewers installed.  (Beck, Elmer A. The Sewer Socialists, Westburg Associates, Fennimore, WI, 1982, viii)

   Anthony Lukas calls this, “…one step at a time ‘gas and water’ Socialism, so named because its program emphasized the ownership of municipal utilities.”  (Anthony Lukas, p.413.)  Change would come through political action. (Elmer Beck, p. ix)

   Democratic Socialist Eugene Debs was a man of compassion.  He was a worker himself and identified with the suffering poor.  Debs was incarcerated during the Pullman strike.  He wrote about his experience as an inmate in the Cook County Jail,

   I can never forget the sobbing and screaming that I heard, while in Cook County Jail, from the fifty or more women prisoners who were there.  From that moment I felt my kinship with every human being in   prison, and I made a solemn resolution with myself that if ever the   Time came and I could be of any assistance to those unfortunate souls   I would embrace the opportunity with every ounce of my strength.(Debs Speaks, p. 297)

   Eugene V. Debs was a man of principle; for him it was clear that labor was prior to capital.  Like Lincoln he believed that all were equal and had the inalienable right to life and a living wage.  Debs wrote in 1903:

   As a social party we receive the Negro and all other races upon absolutely equal terms.  We are the party of the working class, and we will not suffer ourselves to be divided by any specious appeal to race prejudice… (Debs Speaks, p.93)

 Is Labor prior to Capital?  Debs wrote’ “…the truth is axiomatic that labor, and only labor, creates capital.”  (Ibid. p. 55.)

      

Compassion and Principle in the Faith community

   Leo XIII’s Encyclical is not mentioned by Doris Kerns Goodwin or Edmund Morris as having an influence on Theodore Roosevelt or W.H Taft.  Lukas mentions an incident concerning the May 4^th march in 1907 which supported the W.F.M. leaders held in detention and called “undesirable citizens” by Roosevelt.   A Roman Catholic Pastor denounced the march and the people in no uncertain terms.

       I watched the crowd pass back and forth and hardly heard and English   word spoken … This horde abused the privileges they got by being    permitted to land on our shores.  We ought not to become the dumping ground for the refuse of Europe.  (Lukas p. 479)

   In Denver, Roman Catholic Bishop, Nicholas C. Matz condemned the W.F.M. as Socialist and therefore contrary to the teaching of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. (Lukas, p. 193)                                                                                                                               

   Labor priest, Irish immigrant, Peter Yorke in San Francisco in 1901 supported a maritime strike that included all working on the docks citing Rerum Novarum.

    Garment workers in New York had no problem connecting the theology of faith with an understanding of every day social justice. Anthony Lukas wrote:

   The intellectuals who rose within the garment trades were often   Socialists, working class savants mixing up a rich stew of Talmudic   doctrine and Marxist dogma.  Tracts of that era saw a congruence   between the two beliefs the coming of the Messiah became the Social revolution; Israel’s liberation from Egypt symbolized the workers’ liberation from class oppression. (Anthony Lukas, p. 466)          

   The Social Gospel advocated by the Protestants, initiated by the faith based abolitionists, had a strong presence in the progressive era.  Roosevelt wrote an article for McClure’s in 1901 which indicated that he might have been close to breaking away from the “politics of plutocracy.”  The article referred to a large New York City Episcopal Church, St. George, which had made an impact preaching the Social Gospel. Roosevelt wrote:  The Church is of all places, that which men meet on the basis of   common humanity under the conditions of sympathy and self respect.  (Roosevelt, Theodore, McClure’s Magazine, “Reform Through Social Work,” vol.XVL, March 1901, p. 448)

   The dominant political philosophy of Roosevelt was that of the Manifest Destiny of the U.S. plutocracy controlling not only the American Continent, but the world.  With Roosevelt we begin with U.S. neo-colonialism and the steady march to W.W.I and W.W.II.

Sources

AFL-CIO, Web Site    www.aflcio.org

Beck, Elmer A.  The Sewer Socialists, Westburg Associates, Fennimore, WI. 1982

Dulles, Foster Rhea, Labor in America, Thomas Y. Cromwell Co. New York, 1966

Forner, Philip S. May Day, International Publishers, New York, 1986

Kearns Goodwin, Doris, The Bully Pulpit, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2013

Lukas, Anthony, Big Trouble, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997

Morris, Edmund, Theodore Rex, Random House, New York, 2001

Rayback, Joseph G.  A History of American Labor, The Free Press, New York, 1966

Roosevelt, Theodore, “Reform through Social Work,” McClure’s Magazine, March 1901, vol. XLV

Stone, Irving, Clarence Darrow for the Defense, Bantam, Books, New York, 1958

Tussey, Jean Y.  ed. Eugene V. Debs Speaks, Pathfinder Press, New York,  1970 

PART II: LABOR IS PRIOR TO CAPITAL

    Pope Francis was Time Magazine’s 'Person of the Year.' The Time lead article stated:

You could argue that he (Pope Francis) is Teddy Roosevelt protecting capitalism from its own excesses or he is simply saying what Popes before him have said, that Jesus calls us to care for the least among 

us...

The question is interesting.  Yes, T. Roosevelt’s neoliberalism (regulated capitalism) saved free market capitalism (liberalism) from self destruction, and Pope Francis, in focusing on real problems rather than Church rules, may be saving the Roman Catholic Church from irrelevance.  However, it should be noted that the tradition of Roosevelt’s neoliberalism is now under attack by his own Republican Party.  Also, Pope Francis is advocating for justice for the poor.   Free market capitalists might throw loose change to the poor, but justice beyond fulfilling contracts is not a concept understood by the free market liberals.

 Where are the Wisconsin Politicians on the issues of  justice?  The debate on the minimum -living wage ordinance will tell the tale.  Wisconsin legislators have Wisconsin progressive tradition to refer to that dates back to the Roosevelt era.

   McClure’s Magazine

   Doris Kerns Goodwin in Bully Pulpit recounts that McClure’s Magazine investigated abuses of the robber barons, published stories about political reformers, and was a part of T. Roosevelt’s attempt to go over the heads of politicians and communicate with the people.

  

   Let’s look as some McClure's articles not referenced by Kerns Goodwin as a historical guide for Wisconsin legislators in deciding about a living wage for workers.  McClure’s writer Lincoln Steffens wrote about Wisconsin Governor Robert La Follete in October, 1904:

His [La Follete's] long, hard fight has developed citizenship in Wisconsin - honest reasonable intelligent citizenship.  And that is better than business; that is what business and government is for men (people) (McClure’s, Oct. 1904, No. 6, vol. XXIII)

     

   McClure’s Magazine published an article in 1904 by former Democrat President Grover Cleveland where he tries to justify sending Federal Troops to Chicago to end the Pullman strike.  Pullman workers went on strike because of a cut in their meager wages.  The strikers were supported by the American Railway Union headed by Eugene Debs.  In the McClure article, former President Cleveland argued in terms of existing law written to protect business.  From Washington, D.C., Cleveland decided that Interstate commerce was interrupted, that the mail was stopped, that there was violence and neither the State of Illinois nor the City of Chicago would act, therefore Cleveland had to send in the troops.  Labor leader Eugene Debs defied an injunction to call off the strike and he was sent to prison.

     Debs wrote a reply contradicting Cleveland point by point, but the ‘progressive’ McClure’s would not publish the article.  Victor Berger of Milwaukee, later to be the first Socialist to be elected to Congress, visited Debs at his Woodstock, IL prison cell.  Later, Debs wrote explaining how he became a Socialist because of the events of the 1894 Pullman Strike:

Victor Berger – and I have loved him ever since – came to Woodstock,   as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever heard.  (Eugene Debs Speaks, ed. Jean Y. Tinssey, Pathfinders Press, N.Y. 1970, p. 49)

But do Wisconsin legislators need the principles and compassion of a socialist to understand the need for a living wage?  Consider the words of Adam Smith the founder of liberal economics or laissez faire Capitalism.

    Servants, labourers and workers of different kinds, make up a large part of every great political society.  But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole society.  No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.  It is but equity, besides, that they who feed,   clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people should have a share of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged. (Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, I. VIII, 36, 1776)

A minimum - living wage makes practical sense, but does the politics of money make it a tough call for Wisconsin politicians?

COMPASSION AND PRINCIPLE

 Part I

“LABOR IS PRIOR TO CAPITAL” Abraham Lincoln at the Wisconsin

State Fair - 1859 

   Several of us from the Immigrant Workers’ Center – Voces de la Frontera - attended the Monday, December 16^th hearing of the County Board of Supervisors Finance Committee on a ‘living wage’ ordinance.  I was very disappointed. At least two of the Supervisors and a representative of the County Executive attempted to block the legislation.  Final vote of the committee was delayed frustrating over 100 living wage advocates who were in attendance.  A wage of 10% over the poverty level is being asked for which is not really a living wage but perhaps a beginning towards a living wage.

  Several advocates mentioned Catholic Social Teaching which has supported a ‘living’ wage since Pope Leo XIII in 1891.  Despite impassioned pleas from workers, testimony from a professor of economics and a prominent faith leader, Supervisors who opposed the legislation didn’t listen, and spoke without compassion or principle.  They could only speculate a future of doom and gloom if the legislation were passed.

   But this is not the time for personal or partisan politics; the situation is serious.  Former chief economist of the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz says the income gap threatens democracy.  (Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality, W.W. Norton & Company, New York & London, 2012, p. xii) 

PRINCIPLE AND COMPASSION IN U.S. HISTORY

   For guidance let us consider the words of Abraham Lincoln in his speech at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1859.  The nation was struggling with the issue of slavery.  Lincoln advocated free labor.  He said, “Labor is prior to Capital.”  Just wages should determine political and economic structures. 

   Do we need to go back to Lincoln to find compassion and principle in U.S. economic thought?  Economist Robert Reich notes that the 1929 income gap that preceded the Great Depression was similar to the present gap.   The response was F.D.R.’s New Deal.  Social justice legislation in the 30’s would be an example of legislation based on compassion and principle, but let us go back to the beginning of government legislating against free market capitalism and the criminal  greed that disrupts the common good.  Doris Kerns Goodwin in her book, Bully Pulpit, (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2013 ) provides a guide to the progressive era, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.  Both were Republicans, but were separated by personality and political thought. The problems of the ‘gilded age’ were similar to the present. It was the epoch of the ‘Robber Barons’ and the income gap threatened to be a chronic disease of the economic system.

COMPASSION

   Theodore Roosevelt’s eyes were opened to the poverty in New York City by an investigative journalist, Jacob Riis.  While T. Roosevelt was Police Commissioner and New York State Assemblyman, “Jacob Riis had introduced him [Roosevelt] to the realities of immigrant life in the slums, though Roosevelt found it hard to relinquish his conception of the poor as people who had ‘failed’ in life.” (Bully Pulpit, p. 213)  Riis’ famous book, How the Other Half Lives stuck with Roosevelt.  Doris Kerns Goodwin described T. Roosevelt’s final campaign speech at Madison Square Garden in his 1912 presidential campaign.

   If the problems created by the industrial age were left unattended, Roosevelt cautioned, America would eventually be 'sundered by              those dreadful lines of division’ that set the ‘haves’ and the ‘have not’s’ against one another.  (Bully Pulpit, p. 735)   

  

PRINCIPLE 

    

   Abraham Lincoln was T. Roosevelt’s role model. (Bully Pulpit, pp. 79, 83, 566, & more)  Lincoln at Gettysburg emphasized inalienable rights; Roosevelt did the same in a 1912 campaign speech at Columbus, Ohio.

   We progressives believe that human rights are supreme over all other rights; that wealth should be the servant, not the master of the people. (Bully Pulpit, p. 678)

A GILDED BUT TARNISHED LEGACY – EXTREME NATIONALISM

W.H. Taft, T. Roosevelt’s successor, and more so T. Roosevelt himself are considered progressives in the ‘gilded age.’  They challenged liberalism (laissez fair capitalism) with neo-liberal legislation and judicial decisions. Kerns Goodwin listed the accomplishments:

A series of anti-trust suits had been won and legislation passed to regulate railroads, strengthen labor rights, curb political corruption, end corporate campaign contributions, impose limits on the working day, protect consumers from unsafe food and drugs, and conserve vast swaths of natural resources for the American people.   (Bully Pulpit, p.xi)

   But T. Roosevelt promoted the Spanish American War.  His reaction to the 1886 Haymarket riot was couched in language distinguishing ‘Americans’ as law abiding as  opposed to the immigrant German workers demonstrating against police brutality.  Kerns Goodwin quotes Roosevelt from his western ranch in Medora,

Men here are hard working laboring men for no greater wages than many of the strikers; but they are Americans through and through, I believe nothing would give them greater pleasure than a chance with their rifles at one of the mobs.  (Bully Pulpit, p.159)

   Kerns Goodwin fails to note that the 1886 demonstrations in Chicago were part of the Knights of Labor national campaign for the eight-hour day, and that parades around the world on May 1^st remember the Haymarket Martyrs.

   The next posting, Part II of COMPASSION AND PRINCIPLE, will continue with the guide of Doris Kerns Goodwin’s book Bully Pulpit, but will focus on the role of McClure’s magazine as an agent for T. Roosevelt’s – ‘Bully Pulpit.’ How did Taft and Roosevelt differ?  We will also consider Eugene Debs criticism of T. Roosevelt’s labor policy.

“LABOR IS PRIOR TO CAPITAL” Pope John Paul II (not Pope Francis) Laborem Exercens, 1982

The sketch of President Theodore Roosevelt is by Liam Gima Lange.  Liam is a student at Aptos Middle School, San Francisco, CA

For comments:  wjlange@sbcglobal.net

President Theodore Roosevelt drawn by Liam Gima-Lange, January, 2014

PEACE ON EARTH TO THOSE OF GOOD WILL

   'Tis the season of wonderful myths.  Our steering committee of Voces’ New Sanctuary Movement was invited to the St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Burlington, Wisconsin to do a dramatization of the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

   We discussed myths as we traveled to Burlington; it took over an hour.  What were we doing, out on a cold, snowy, and dark evening?  The discussion went as follows: Christmas time puts us in touch with myths from all faiths.  Such myths are comforting, but they also could propel us to create new political structures for the common good.  We decided that you cannot say a myth is false in the sense that it is not historical or scientific.  Scientific or historical truth is not the purpose of a myth.  Its purpose is to give understanding to something that is very difficult or impossible to explain.  There were still questions by the time we got to Burlington.

Cast of the Play in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe

      The reception at the parish was warm and friendly.  Most of the people were Latinos but not all.  We celebrated Mass which included Aztec dancing; we prayed the Rosary and we did our play.  The singing of our committee member, Maria Guadalupe, was a moving religious experience for me.  Her song petitioned the beloved and pregnant, dark skinned Mother of the Savior for the gift of Justice and Peace.  The liturgy was a loving act of resistance in a repressive foreign culture.

   But what about the Gospel Christmas myths of Matthew and Luke; are they still viable?  Let’s look at another example that says yes to myths.

   The gospel of Luke has the birth of Jesus announced to shepherds, working people, by angels, messengers from heaven.  The Savior is a Jewish peasant child born in a stable in occupied Israel. What does this mean?  The angels caroled, “Good news of great joy”… “Peace on earth to those of good will.” (Luke C. 2, vs. 10 - 14)  The revelation goes directly against the Roman good news myth of, Pax Romana, – peace through aristocratic military might.

   Let us remember, fifty years ago the world was on the cusp of nuclear destruction.  John XXIII responded with his encyclical, Pacem in Terris. (Peace on Earth)

   The Cuban missile crisis of October, 1962 had been resolved by negotiation.  John XXIII had pleaded, “We implore all rulers not to remain deaf to the cry of humanity for peace … to resume negotiations … to set in motion, to encourage and accept discussions at all levels and at any time a maximum of wisdom and prudence.” (Douglass, James, JFK and the Unspeakable, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2008 p. 339)  Vatican Council II had opened a few days before the world was aware of the threat of nuclear destruction.  The Council’s opening message from the Church Fathers stressed peace and social justice.   

   By April of 1963 talks on a nuclear testing treaty seemed to have broken down.  John XXIII presented his encyclical, Pacem in Terris, on April 11^th.  Khrushchev had seen a copy.  Kennedy, of course, could not refer to any influence by the Pope.  The Encyclical proposed mutual trust as opposed to mutual nuclear escalation for complete annihilation as the road to peace. The path to a disarmament treaty looked dark, but on June 10^th Kennedy gave his greatest and most radical speech at the American University commencement program.  James Douglass wrote, “The American University address owed much to Pacem in Terris.” (Ibid. p. 347) Kennedy announced a unilateral suspension of nuclear tests in the atmosphere to promote “our primary long range interest, general and complete disarmament.” (Ibid. p. xxvi).

   Benevolent dictator Pope Francis has indicated that the ‘Peace thru Justice’ theme of Vatican II and Pacem in Terris is not completely dormant in the Roman Catholic Church but surely needs to be revived.  In the Francis papacy, Roman Catholic theologians may be given the freedom to explain faith and myths in terms of peace and justice.  The spark for revival is there; I’ve heard many people say, “because of Pope Francis, I’m proud to be a Catholic.”

 

THE POLITICS OF A BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP (parts 2 and 3)

   The headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shouts, “Hierarchy asks Catholics for opinions.”  The article states, “[Pope] Francis in October called on bishops around the world to survey the faithful in advance of a special synod on evangelization and the family scheduled for next fall.” (M.J.S. 11-18-12)  Such a survey is in line with the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium that names the faithful the ‘People of God’ who receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (L.G. C.1,4. C.4,9.0)

   Is this simply a bait and switch con game?  Francis has said that the bishops overemphasize abortion, contraception, and gay marriage, but the survey focuses on these issues.  Lumen Gentium also states that the Church hierarchy in conformity with the pope is the ultimate and final authority. (L.G. C.III,18=21)  Infallible decisions have been made on the issues to be discussed at the Synod.  Rush Limbaugh and Sara Palin have been critical of the Pope.  This is an indication that Francis is on the right path, but did Rush and Palin push the panic button too soon?  Church doctrine will not be changed because of a survey.

    However, the pastoral response of the hierarchy may change as a result of the survey.  Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy, emphasized the ‘pastoral slant’ of the Synod:  “It is not, therefore, a matter of debating doctrinal questions, but rather … how to effectively proclaim the Gospel of family in the times we are living, characterized by a clear and spiritual crisis.” (National Catholic Reporter, 11, 22, & 12, 5, 2013, p.8)  Does this mean that as ‘Benevolent Dictator’ Francis will bend a bit on the hot issues of politically right wing bishops such as Cardinal Dolan of New York?  Pope Francis could maintain the dogma and cite exceptions depending on circumstances and reference to the right of freedom of conscience.   He may also dust off the opinion of Thomas Aquinas and say that we should follow the natural law and do what is reasonable. (Summa Theologiae, Ia-IIa, q. 19, a. 4; cf. a. 9)  It remains to be seen, but Dolan may have hitched his carriage to the wrong horse. Will the position of the U.S. Bishops on Obamacare change? (See – “Behind the scenes bishops seek exit strategy,” National Catholic Reporter, 12, 6-19, 2013, p. 5)

   Nothing has been said about making the economic survival of families a concern for the Synod.  Church liberals and conservatives ignore the simple survival of families in a world of increasing income inequality and poverty, but the Pope has raised these issues and received press coverage from every vantage point.

   Let us remember, the first social encyclical expressed that the core of society, the family, was entitled to life – a living wage, and health care. (Rerum Novarum 34)   The living wage principle continues to the present.  Key to achieving a living wage and health care is the political support of a strong labor movement.  Leo XIII shocked the world by stating in 1891 that workers have the right to organize. (R.N. 36)  Pope John Paul II was ignored when he said in Laborem Exercens that labor unions are indispensible. (L.E. C. 4, 20) 

    In Centesimus Annus, John Paul II states that the social encyclicals are the ‘new evangelization.’ (C.A. Intro. & C. I, 4)  But for the Roman Catholic hierarchy and their liberal critics, doctrine on internal church rules on sex trump food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education as prior.   

  

  

Oscar – The Advisor - Rodriguez (The Politics of a Benevolent Dictatorship part 3)

   Pope Francis has appointed eight Cardinals as his most trusted advisors.  One of them is Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras.  NCR reports that the Honduran Cardinal serves as coordinator of the group. (National Catholic Reporter, 12, 6-19, 2013. p.12)  The direction of Church ‘reform’ will be greatly influenced by this Central American Cardinal.

    I interviewed Rodriquez for the Spanish Journal in October of 2006.  The Cardinal received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Lutheran affiliated Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rodriguez was clear that he favored ‘Liberation Theology’ and was also clear that he opposed trade agreements that exploited workers.  The Archbishop of Milwaukee, and future New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, attended the event.

   But questions about Rodriguez Maradiaga’s involvement in the 2009 military coup in Honduras are troubling.  Did Rodriguez support the coup?  Did he support the coup because the democratically elected president Zelaya had discussions with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela?  Questions about anti-semitism and a rigid position on church rules concerning sexuality have also surfaced. 

   The politics of Francis’ benevolent dictatorship may allow the Central American Cardinal Rodriguez to position himself on the side of the poor.  Rodriguez is from a poor and violent country, but he has lived a privileged life.  Still the question remains, what takes priority for the papacy and Church of Pope Francis?  The fact that there is a change in Church politics is a hopeful sign.

POLITICS OF A BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP

 (Part 1 of 2)

Remembering J.F.K. and the beneficence of a former benevolent dictator in the Vatican...

   Is Pope Francis a Benevolent Dictator?  How about John XXIII was he in the same mold?

   The question was, could a Roman Catholic be President of the U.S. and not be subject to the Pope in Rome?  John Kennedy in a 1960 Houston speech convinced enough U.S. voters that the pope did not and would not determine his political decisions.   Pope John XXIII saw fit not to remind Kennedy and U.S. voters that as Pope he was infallible in matters of faith and morals, morality including politics.  Kennedy was elected and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis was resolved without massive nuclear destruction.  We moved forward on arms control and civil rights for African Americans with Kennedy providing cogent reasons for moving ahead on these issues.

   Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput stated in 2010 that Kennedy was wrong.  Chaput was later promoted to Archbishop of Philadelphia.

   Kennedy inspired the American people to, “ask what you can do for your country.”  His murder was an American tragedy that resonates to present.

Where were you and how did you react when you knew the President was assassinated?

   Joanne Lange is my partner my friend – my wife of over 40 years.  Our kids went to Milwaukee’s German immersion school.  

   We had a party at our house for school parents, and I noticed this woman was intently staring at Joanne.  She said to Joanne, “did you teach at St. Catherine’s High School in Racine?  “Yes,” said Joanne.  The woman responded, “You were my math teacher; I’ll never forget you.  When they announced that the President was killed – you cried.  I didn’t know that nuns could cry.”   

   Joanne is a retired professor of mathematics at Milwaukee Area Technical College, a volunteer at Voce de la Frontera’s immigrant workers center, and a member of the Comite Timon, the Steering Committee of Voces New Sanctuary Movement.  She is known as ‘Maestra,’ to her former students.

   Josefina Gomez recalled, “I was in Fort Worth, Texas at the time; when it was announced on TV that the President was murdered, I fell to my knees and prayed that God the Father would immediately receive the President in His loving embrace.” 

   Josefina is a mother of four; her son – a father, grandfather and support of a large family - was deported to Mexico and was killed in an automobile accident.  Josefina is a member of the Family Support Group (Círculo de Apoyo) of Voce’s New Sanctuary Movement.

   Bill Snowden recounted, “I was in the ninth grade at the segregated all African American School in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  When the news of the Presidents assassination reached us, I was in class, and I turned to the kid behind me and said – What are we going to do now?”  

    Bill is a Milwaukee Public School teacher, choir member at his Roman Catholic church, father of four, and a strong supporter of President Obama.

   Jim Zelinski remembered that he was a religion teacher and counselor at Bishop Baraga High School in Marquette, Michigan the day of the assassination.  He shared that he was in his office when it was announced that the President had been shot.  “We immediately went to a classroom and said the rosary.”

   Jim, a Capuchin, is a member of the Steering Committee (Comite Timon) of Voce’s New Sanctuary Movement.

   J.F.K. inspired a generation of political activists.  True enough many have passed and some have lapsed, but those that remain don’t need an explanation of “Si se puede,” the mantra of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chaves of the farm workers union.  (Yes, it can be done)

“INEQUALITY FOR ALL” Starring Robert Reich

 A Movie Review

    The Declaration of Independence states that all are created equal and have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but income inequality has locked us all into the prison of free market economics.  The life and liberty of the poor is not respected and the rich are obsessed with wealth.  The result: a divided community in separate prisons without a thread of connection.  Happiness is a lost goal.

   Robert Reich confronts the current economic malaise with his book, After Shock, and a movie “Inequality for All.”  The movie follows the book in theme and content.

   Reich effectively establishes the fact of inequality with bar charts; one especially impressive is a chart that has the configuration of the Golden Gate Bridge.  This is fitting since the bridge was built during the great depression as part of an economic stimulus program and Reich teaches at nearby U.C. Berkeley.  The movie is based at U.C. Berkeley showing Professor Reich teaching a class – and us - about income inequality and what he proposes we do about it.

   The Golden Gate Bridge bar chart shows two towering opposite poles representing income inequality just before the great depression and income inequality just before the great recession.  Immediately the impression is – income inequality = an economic crash.

   What is the moral point of view?  Let’s refer to the papal Encyclical most revered by conservatives, Centesimus Annus.  and to Dutch theologian – Henri Nouwen.

The ‘Liberal’ Answer:  Focus on Middle Class Security

    Reich and others look to Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 30’s for the answer:  money in the hands of those who will spend it on goods and services will stimulate the economy to benefit all.  The ‘multiplier’ effect results in a constant turnover of funds for spending that stimulates production and jobs and the ‘accelerator’ effect of increased investment maintains the recovery.  The movie provides a circular graph for an explanation.

      The ‘accelerator’ effect depends on investments in the production of goods and services and not on various types of Ponzi schemes; hence government regulation and spending on infrastructure is crucial.

   The ‘multiplier’ effect depends on providing purchasing power on a massive scale.  The keys are labor unions and taxes.  Reich goes along with the New Deal economic theory that workers must have the right to organize and taxes must be fair requiring the rich to pay their fair share.

    For the system to work, government is needed for direction.  Reich is clear that the economic system is not of nature, but was and is created politically.  He also is clear that the system is to benefit most not just the few.  This is where we find the basic disagreement.  Republicans and right wing Democrats look to the economy to benefit the few.

   But what direction are we going?  Since the 70’s Republicans and right wing Democrats have moved the political spectrum to the right.  Today Eisenhower would be to the left of Obama. Eisenhower wrote to his brother Edgar,

   Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things.  Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man  from other areas.  There number is negligible and they are stupid. (The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, L.Galambos and D. van Ee, eds. doc.1147. cited by J.S. Hacker & P. Pierson, Winner-Take All Politics, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, p. 189.)

   Today compromise in the middle is really right wing politics controlled by the very wealthy which makes Reich’s movie quite clear.

Centesimus Annus as a Guide to the Moral Dimension

   Some sample quotes: Income disparity  

   As a help in reviewing Robert Reich’s movie, “Inequality for All,” let us consider John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus widely touted by conservative analysts as most important and supporting for their point of view.    

   Centesimus Annus was written in 1991 for the 100^th anniversary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum.  Pope John Paul II reviewed and reaffirmed the social teaching tradition of the church and named it part of the ‘New Evangelization.’ (C.A. Intro. 3; c.1,5; c.6, 53 ) The 1891 setting for Rerum Novarum was tragic income disparity.  

Pope John Paul wrote in Centesimus Annus,

   Here we find the first reflection for our times as suggested by the encyclical (Rerum Novarum).  In the face of a conflict which set man against man, almost as if they were “wolves,” a conflict between the extremes of mere physical survival on the one side and opulence on the other … However, the pope was very much aware that peace is built on a foundation of Justice. (C.A.c.1,5.)

Intervention by the government

Such a society is not directed against the market, but demands that the market be appropriately controlled by the forces of the society and by the state, so as to guarantee that the basic needs of the whole of society are satisfied. (C.A. c. 4, 35)

Labor Unions

Furthermore, society and the state must ensure wage levels adequate for the maintenance of the worker and his family, including a certain amount for savings.  This requires a continuous effort to improve workers training and capability so that their work will be more skilled and productive, as well as careful controls and adequate legislative measures to block shameful forms of exploitation, especially to the disadvantage of the most vulnerable workers, of immigrants and those on the margins of society.  The role of trade unions in negotiating minimum salaries and working conditions is decisive in this area. (C.A. c.2, 15)

Preferential option for the poor

   The focus of Robert Reich’s analysis is the middle class, but for Roman Catholic social teaching the focus is the poor.  John Paul II wrote in Centesimus Annus,

Rereading the encyclical (Rerum Novarum) in the light of contemporary realities enables us to appreciate the church’s constant concern for and dedication to categories of people who are especially beloved to the Lord Jesus.  The contents of the text are an excellent testimony to the continuity within the church of the so called “preferential option for the poor,” an option which I defined as a “special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity.” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,42 cited in C.A. c.1, 11)

“Preferential option for the poor” is unique to the Roman Catholic Social Teaching.  By the “poor” is meant world-wide poverty – of little concern to Robert Reich in his attempt to save the U.S. middle class.

Ecology and Consumerism

    Centesimus Annus was written in 1991 and John Paul II had concern about the environment as part of his moral economic message.

   Equally worrying is the ecological question which accompanies the problem of consumerism and which is closely connected to it. (C.A. c.4, 37)

   It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward “having” rather than “being,” and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself. (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 35, Populorum Progressio, 19, cited in C.A. c.4, 36)

Neither point, ecology nor consumerism, is emphasized by Robert Reich. 

Reich and His Movie – Inequality for All – Not Radical Enough for Catholic Social Teaching

   ‘Preferential option for the poor’ is not important for Reich with his focus on the U.S. middle class.  Catholic social teaching expresses concern for the poor worldwide.  Reich was a member of the Clinton administration when N.A.F.T.A. (North American Free Trade Agreement) was passed.  On January 4^th 1994, the Zapatistas took control of several towns in Chiapas Mexico in protest.  N.A.F.T.A. was nothing more than a new way for U.S. corporations to exploit Mexican labor.  

   It’s not just Reich; the politics of the day skip concern about the poor, not just in other parts of the world, but in our own inner cities.  This relates to ecological concerns; after all the wealthy can always escape the floods.  Roman Catholic Dutch theologian Henry Nouwen noted that compassion, a defining note for being human, is limited in our capitalistic society.

  Nouwen wrote that compassion, like that of Jesus, looks like an enemy of competition, the basis of the free market.  Would too much compassion destroy the contemporary version of the free market economic system?  Remember, it’s the source of opulence for those in power.  (McNeil, Morrison, Nouwen, Compassion, Doubleday, New York, 1982)

Conclusion

   The income gap threatens the existence of U.S. democracy, but ‘New Deal’ economics is not the solution.  Consumerism threatens the earth itself.  Jobs, work, fair income with the goal of happiness for all, needs to be re-thought and apparently Reich doesn’t even see the fundamental problem which is somewhat different from that of the 30’s.

     “Inequality for All” is informative and important, but it falls short of even defining the economic disaster we face; the very ecological environment we live in is threatened by our economic system based on ‘having’ rather than ‘being.’