IV .sx OTHER ELEMENTS IN INDUSTRY .sx Space does not allow us to consider the problems of the technician , baulked often by the leading-strings of profit in doing what he feels to be the best with his job refused the best material , or hindered in quality or quantity of output ; forced into what he feels is less than honest work .sx But he is a figure whether research worker , or engineer , or designer who is taking an important part in modern industry , and who is far from happy under the conditions it imposes .sx In him , as in the industrial administrator , Catholicism may well find a natural ally .sx Nor , for the same reason , have we pursued the figure of the salesman , so often held up to-day as the quintessential industrial man .sx The Catholic priest , noting the suggestion of a Salesman's Conference that a minister should regard himself as the salesman of religion , can hardly fail , in his disgust , to realize that something has gone wrong with the mentality which issues in such a conception of the right approach to the Holy .sx The salesman or middleman has , of course , a position of real importance , with problems of its own .sx It suffers at present from hypertrophy , on ac-count of the limited market conditions , to be considered in Chapter V. But one study circle saw the .sx vocation of the middleman as " the conveyor of goods to man , standing with that function before God , the Giver of all good " .sx The general conclusions of this chapter may be summarised in the demand made by the Summer School for something more effective in the way of self-examination questions than those suggested for " employers " and " employed " in the current manuals of devotion .sx Aquinas , as one member remarked , would turn in his grave at the thought of them .sx Baxter's Christian Directory , quoted on p. 47 , gives some indication of the type of manual needed by the layman .sx Chapter III .sx THE CATHOLIC IN .sx THE ASSOCIATIONS OF INDUSTRY .sx OUR STUDY BEGAN WITH THE INDIVIDUAL in industry .sx because it is in the impact of industry upon the con-science of the individual that the Catholic finds his most immediate point of contact with the system .sx But the individual does not in fact stand isolated over against the vast industrial order .sx Man is a social animal , and out of all his relationships he spontaneously creates associations .sx Catholic tradition , as we saw , recognizes this in its view of society as communitas communitatum .sx The School had therefore no doubt that the natural place for the Catholic in industry was within his appropriate association , whether Trade Union , Employers' Association , or those Associations of the Salariat which stand in some sense between the two .sx But these associations , naturally , give rise to problems of their own , internally and in their mutual relations .sx I .sx The Trade Unions were historically the first of such associations to arise , and much in the whole subsequent development has resulted from the fact that in the circumstances of the Industrial Revolution , amid which they appeared , they could hardly .sx grow up otherwise than as organs of a class struggle .sx They were the weapon of defence of the working-class against an intolerable oppression .sx The invited Trade Unionist speaker at the School , Herbert Pickles of the Textile Workers , laid emphasis on the fact that the Trade Union of to-day still finds itself driven to encourage a militant mind in its members .sx Deliberately he challenged the School to reconcile this fact with its Christian outlook ( he himself , by the way , is a Quaker and was a Conscientious Objector) .sx Within the Union membership means the cultivation of a brotherly mind , and individual self-respect .sx The Trade Unionist is no longer a miserable atom , tossed about by social whirlpools altogether beyond his control , a unit in mass production , a desperate competitor with his neighbour for daily bread .sx He is one of a fellowship , co-operating to obtain or maintain the standards of life and conditions of work which to him and to his neighbour seem reasonable .sx The personality which threatened to be swamped by the insignificance of the individual in modern mass production now re-gains its sense of value and finds channels for the exercise of will and opportunity for service to others .sx This , at all events , Trade Unionism at its best can mean and has meant .sx " I thought the matter " , says one Trade Union leader in his autobiography , " and I came to the .sx conclusion that the Labour movement was built on the very rock of Christianity , and that I was as much serving God by preaching economic freedom as when I occupied the " .sx " Trade Unionism in the county ( Durham ) has been .sx .. largely a result of the elevation of character wrought by religious conversion upon individual " , writes Sidney Webb .sx Along these lines it is altogether congenial to the Catholic outlook .sx But to those who are without , Trade Unionism turns a different face .sx " The purpose of the Trade " , said Mr. Pickles , " is to fight the employers .sx Its weapon is the strike .sx You will never understand the mind of a Trade Unionist unless you start here .sx A strike is an act of war , and creates a war psycho-logy , in which a blackleg , a scab , or a knobstick use the Lancashire word is to the loyal Trade Unionist what a soldier who deserts in face of the enemy is to his comrades in the " .sx Yet " the strike is labour's expression of free-will ; without it he is the merest " .sx " It is often said that the workers , taking part in a general or national strike , are committing an anti-social act .sx The worker is not a theorist , particularly the British worker ; he acts in the light of his experience and his immediate needs .sx He knows that it is through his Trade Union , backed up by the weapon of the strike , that he has won what measure of freedom he possesses .sx More- .sx over , his world is not that of the writers , the lawyers and the Press .sx He knows that all along , for more than one hundred years , these people have leagued them-selves with the employers in the battle he has waged .sx All along the line the Trade Unions have met with the united opposition of the employers , the lawyers , the economists , and the State .sx To-day they are tolerated by most firms , only being fully accepted by the best type of employer .sx " It is not for members of a Church Militant to deny that there is a right kind of militancy .sx On the face of it militancy and Christianity , in the form of the class struggle and the gospel , do not agree .sx Yet every child is at baptism sworn to " fight " , not only against the flesh and the devil , but against the world , which is another name for society as we know it .sx The difficulty presumably lies in the mind of the fighter .sx Ideally , the happy warrior fights without malice or hatred or quickness to pick a quarrel .sx Practically , as Mr. Pickles pointed out , a war mentality has to be deliberately cultivated .sx You cannot fraternize with the enemy and cheerfully put your bayonet drill into practice on him .sx You need to have in mind not Fritz who came over into your trench on Christmas Day , or Mr. Jones who is so interesting at the round table , but a propaganda-created myth entitled , as the case may be , the Bosch or the Capitalist .sx Perhaps , perverse as this may sound , it really does solve our problem .sx For there is truth inmyths ; and Fritz is not killed , nor Mr. Jones defied , in his personal capacity , but because he embodies the forces against which for the moment we are striving .sx Perhaps it is for this reason , and because she recognizes the reality of the body corporate , that the Church has not , like the Quakers , condemned war .sx The circumstances that lead to it , and the mind it engenders , ought to be transcended :sx but meantime she recognizes the need for a choice of evils .sx There seems no reason that a different yardstick should be applied in the case of industrial strife .sx Further , it is significant that our Lord , while he never condemned individuals , did hate and condemn the characteristics of certain classes .sx The Pharisees and lawyers were not indeed economic classes , but they were recognized groups within the community whose characteristic features are pilloried by Him .sx Apart from the question of general outlook , practical difficulties arise for the Catholic Trade Unionist .sx The Unions perform a good and useful function in seeking by collective bargaining to secure a minimum wage , standard hours and mini-mum conditions of work in their industry :sx and the School held that so far it was a clear duty for a Christian workman to belong to his Union .sx Certain of their methods raise no difficulties :sx the provision of skilled negotiators , and ( in conjunction with the Employers' Association ) of graded machinery for .sx negotiation , are all to the good .sx Clearly also it is open to them to promote such legislation as seems needed in support of their objects ; but here the whole series of questions regarding the proper relation of economic to political associations is opened up .sx They range from whether , if the promotion of legislation is legitimate , a strike in support of that object is also legitimate , to whether Trade Unions should , through the nominal machinery of a constituency , send members to Parliament to represent their interests ; and to the proper relations between the Labour Party , a Labour Government , and the Trade Union Congress .sx These are political and constitutional questions of great interest , and they also as was seen during the General Strike raise moral questions .sx The bankruptcy of Catholic Sociology is clearly seen on such an occasion , when the Church , having no thought-out principles to appeal to , is compelled either to be silent because she does not profess to understand the economic background of the admittedly ethical dilemma , or to depend on the sometimes varying obiter dicta of Cardinals , Arch-bishops , and hastily organized Councils of Christian Ministers .sx The Unions' devices for maintaining discipline within their ranks are also subjected at times to assumedly ethical criticism .sx Such for example is the use of a benefit scheme to attract members , and to enforce conformity upon them under penalty of lossof benefit .sx The general principle of contracts would seem to cover this device so long as members fully understand the conditions on which benefits are offered .sx But it does also raise the interesting moral point as to how far it is ever proper to use economic pressure to reinforce an association .sx Other instances are criticism of Mothers' Pensions , or the Married Women's Property Act , on the ground that they make divorce easier ; and the withdrawal of subscriptions from a missionary society because of some conscientious action of the bishops supported by it .sx Another Union device is the laying down of regulations for their members' work those customs of the trade of which we hear from time to time as hindrances to productive efficiency .sx After what was said in Chapter I concerning the difficulties the conscientious workman laboured under as between doing his best at his work and dealing fairly by his fellow-workmen , it will be clear what kind of situation these regulations are intended to meet .sx No one who has ever discussed them with a Trade Unionist can doubt that they are not a strain on , but a relief to , his conscience .sx And no one can read a detailed study of the various customs such as may be found in the Webbs' book Industrial Democracy without being struck by the real appropriateness of what at first sight might have seemed arbitrary distinctions .sx The practical political genius of the Englishman is extra-ordinarily apparent here .sx No doubt there are faults .sx of conservatism , and of one-sidedness , but they maybe the defects of the quality of obstinateness necessary in the situation .sx On the other hand , the rapid technical revolution of the post-war years is creating a situation when the Union's natural anxiety for the " employment " of its members tempts it to ignore the rightness of the use of the best available technique .sx The strain on conscience is here appearing in a new form .sx Yet another device , the refusal to work with non-Unionists , is criticized from outside as an example of intolerance and failure to admit the liberty of the individual .sx