Hitze, however, shows none of his master’s hesitation, but emphatically declares that “the solution of the social question is essentially and exclusively bound up with a reorganisation of trades and professions. We must have the mediæval régime of corporations re-established—a régime which offers a better solution of the social problem than any which existed either before or after. Of course times have changed, and certain features of the mediæval régime would need modification. But some such corporative régime conceived in a more democratic spirit must form the economic basis.” (Capital and Labour.)
[1058] “We must direct all our private initiative and concentrate public attention upon this one reform—the corporative reorganisation of society.” (Programme de l’Œuvre des Cercles ouvriers, April 1894.)
Co-operative association is dismissed altogether. The Social Catholics have especially little sympathy with the small retail co-operative stores, because they threaten the existence of the small merchant and the small artisan—types of individuals that are dear to the heart of the Catholics. On the other hand, it shows itself very favourably inclined towards co-operative credit, because of the possibility of assisting the classes already referred to—the shopkeeper and the small merchant.
[1059] In 1894 the Congress of Catholic Circles which met at Rheims declared that, “without minimising the difficulties which stand in the way of extending the mixed syndicats, the formation of such syndicats must be our chief aim.” In 1904 Father Rutten, one of the leaders of the Belgian Catholic Syndical movement, in a report on the syndicalist movement writes as follows: “We do not despair of the mixed syndicat, which in theory we certainly think is nearest perfection. But we must not blind ourselves to facts, and whether we will or no we have to admit that at the present moment the mixed syndicat in ninety industries out of every hundred seems quite Utopian.” (Quoted by Dechesne, Syndicats Ouvriers belges, p. 76; 1906.)
[1060] Such is the programme as outlined especially in Austria, which is one of the countries where Social Catholicism seems fairly powerful. As a matter of fact, the corporative régime has never quite disappeared there, and for some years now attempts have been made to revive it in the smaller crafts. The new corporation would take the form of a centralised organisation, whose regulations would be obligatory upon all the members of the craft.
[1061] “The commune has always been organised. Is there any reason why the trade should not be? In both cases special relations are established, special needs arise, there are frequent conflicts and occasional harmony between the different interests. But all of them are nevertheless intimately bound together, and the links connecting them must be co-ordinated on some regular plan if every one is to be safe, and free to follow his own bent.” (Henri Lorin, Principes de l’Organisation professionnelle, in L’Association catholique, July 15, 1892.)
To this it might be replied that the majority generally makes the law for the commune, but that in the case of a free corporation it is often the minority that rules. To which it might be retorted that the so-called majority is often not better than a minority of the electors, and a very small minority indeed of the whole inhabitants—who of course include women, who generally have no votes. Moreover, as soon as the rules of the syndicat became really obligatory the majority if not the whole of the workers in the trade would be found within the union.
[1062] Father Antoine writes as follows in his Cours d’Économie sociale, p. 154; “The social question can never be completely solved until we have a complete revival of Christian morals.” Still more categorical is the declaration of M. Léon Harmel in L’Association catholique for December 1889: “We can see only one remedy, and that is that the authority of the Pope should be recognised all the world over, and his ruling accepted by all people.”
The annual study reunions which go by the name of les Semaines sociales, and which afford one of the best manifestations of the kind of activities which Social Christianity gives rise to everywhere, are not so exclusive. Economic questions of all kinds are discussed, but the programme is not strictly Catholic at all, and the basis is wide enough to include everyone who is a professed Christian.
[1063] “The corporations which would be set up under the ægis of religion would aim at making all their members contented with their lot, patient in toil and disposed to lead a tranquil, happy life” (sua sorte contentos, operumque patientes et ad quietam ac tranquillam vitam agendam inducant). (Encyclical of Leo XII, December 28, 1878, called the Quod Apostolici. See History of Corporations, by M. Martin Saint-Leon.)