A Christian Day
by Archbishop Samuel A. Stritch
My dear friends:
Agriculture is a major factor in the lives and prosperity of peoples. Food in variety and sufficiency is an essential for human well-being in body and soul. Who does not realize how much the soul depends on the good health and vigor of the body? There may be cases of individuals who, despite sickened bodies, have shown great mental vigor, but these cases must forever be the exception. Normal man for the full vigor of his mental and spiritual life needs a right variety and sufficiency of food. Where the supply of food is not sufficient, or is secured at a cost which is exorbitant, there arise problems which strike at the very prosperity of a people. Often and often again these problems have begotten ugly greeds, the desire to exploit other peoples, the stupid argument about breathing-spaces. It is interesting to study how many of the wars in history took their rise from the problem of an insufficient home supply of food or inadequate provisions from other sources. Teeming populations have forced the alternative of finding a sufficient food supply or facing the sorry condition of underfed, undernourished populations. In mistaken logic not infrequently have they cast their covetous eye on the fertile ,farm lands of other peoples and and gone out to a war of cruel aggression. Rightly to adjust among the nations the easy supply of sufficient food is a problem fundamental to a right world peace. There is no real problem of agricultural surpluses, but there is a real problem of the right distribution of agricultural products. In the solution of this problem international justice and charity, and not mere commercialism, must be the guides of statesmen. Too long have we witnessed maldistribution of farm products among the nations of the world and the underestimating of the importance of farm products in world economy. It is no wonder that serious men these days, who long for a better world day, are honestly and unselfishly trying to find the secret of a sufficient supply and right distribution of agricultural products to all peoples in the spirit of justice and charity and not in the light of a devastating commercialism.
In national life, where the farm has lost its balance in the national economy, difficulties ensue which strike at the very basis of sound prosperity. The decline of many powerful nations has started with an agrarian problem. We sometimes like to ascribe the Fall of Ancient Rome solely to political causes, but facts force us to see that Rome's agrarian problem with the political bungling in attempting its solution was a mighty factor in the disintegration of the Empire of the West. In our day we have seen in Spain what can happen in a country, sufficient in agricultural possibilities, when the agrarian problem is ignored and left long unsolved. In countries of great agricultural and industrial resources it is imperative that the farm be given its proper balance in the national economy, or there will come about the upset of the whole. Here in our own country during the twenties we saw how fictitious was a prosperity in which the farm was out of balance with industry and service. Lately we have been trying to restore to the farm its right balance in our economy, and there have been agitated among us many farm problems and farm demands. Unfortunately, there has been much bungling, and the social aspects of the farm have been sacrificed to mere politics and commercialism. Some progress has been made, but there remains a serious farm problem among us which demands solution. Its solution will not come from the radical proposals which are economically and socially unsound, but from bold action in evaluating rightly the social value of the farm and compensating justly and democratically the farmer. It seems, therefore, helpful at the Opening of your Rural Life Convention sketchily and briefly to talk to you on the social aspect of the farm. Nor may I be accused of treating a mere secular subject in church, for you cannot treat the social aspect of the farm without dealing with Religion.
It is a fact that in all countries before the advent of secularism a certain piety attached to farming. In the religious cults of even the primitive peoples there were Planting Feasts, Harvest Feasts, Prayers against the enemies of farm production. In the Old Testament in the Religious Worship agriculture in the Feasts devoted to it and in the encomiums of Holy Writ was given a special dignity. Christian customs and usages even more emphasize the dignity of farm and farmer. In the farmer's dependence on Almighty God for help and protection he is brought close to God, but Religion inculcates that in a special way the farmer is the cooperator with God in feeding the people. This dignity of the avocation of the farmer begets in him, or should beget in him, a sense of his social ministry and place his work high above mere commercialism. In modern society the outstanding ravage of secularism is that it has robbed the laborer of his dignity as a social servant, of his sense of functioning in organic society. The whole truth of society's functioning organically as a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God has been lost, and work has been related socially only to compensation or profit. Commercialism has run wild. The Christian concept gives dignity and worth to the laborer and forces for him a decent participation in the fruits of his labors. When we understand how the farmer among us does a social as well as an economic service in society, we begin to appreciate his dignity. And when he understands the same truth, his values in life become more and more real. It has been said that the farmer is the most individualistic of men and that his manner of life contributes to his over-individualism. It should not be, for the farmer meets an outstanding social need, and more than most men should relate his work to the common good. Religion always stressed the dignity of the farmer in his social function and demanded for him the recognition of this dignity.
If we foster in the mind of men the dignity of the farmer and farm-life in society and lift his work far above the level of mere gainful employment or engagement, it is not difficult to see that in justice he has a right to his just measure of participation in the national prosperity. Where farm lands are run down, mortgage-laden, unattractive, there is a want of the sense of the social dignity of the farmer. Where the farmer is exploited, denied a fair share in the fruits of his labors, made a slave to the distributor of his products, refused just banking facilities, commercialism born out of secularism, and not Religion, is inspiring society. If industry lays claim to an unfair share of the nation's prosperity, and the farmer is thrown economically out of all right balance, then the principles of social justice which Religion inculcates are ignored. There is a place for Religion in the solution of our farm problems, and society must accept from Religion its sense of the dignity of the farmer and his function in its life. It seems to me that this basic Christian concept of the farmer is not made a guide in our attempts to solve our agricultural problems. We have been overgenerous in helping him with new techniques to produce more and better stuffs, but in our thinking we have not acknowledged his social dignity and as a consequence have been mere economists in trying to help solve his problems when we should have been citizens.
And when the farmer appreciates his social function and dignity there will come to him a clearer understanding of his just demands. He has a right to participate in the national prosperity in the measure of his service. He will leave off asking for privileges, dangerous bounties, and preferred treatment and will talk about his native rights. He wants to be a servant in our democracy and contribute his full share to its well-being. He must not yield to the temptation of exaggerated individualism. He is a part of a whole, a social minister. Never should he exaggerate his claims to the injury of the whole of the nation. More and more he must assume the full burden ' of citizenship. And he asks a fair living and recompense. The reason for his asking is so simple that it must convince all of us. He serves in an important function his country, and for this service he has the right to a fair return or living. Or put it this way! Agriculture is creative of national wealth. Unlike money in the hands of the banker, which of itself is unproductive, land in the hands of the farmer creates new wealth. Therefore, agriculture has the right to its fair portion of the national income.
But there is a sense in which the farmer is laudably individualistic and in his individualism contributes greatly to the social welfare. Farming among us is still largely a family enterprise, and God grant that it will remain a family enterprise. The farm is above all a homestead, and the farm enterprise a homestead endowment. It calls for private ownership and individual enterprise, or rather family enterprise. On our farms the family unit is integral and functions as the basic social unit. The farmer administers farm and family economy, and in fact with him they are inseparable. Here we have the family functioning as the family should function in our culture. Against communism and state socialism and in the support of our democracy there should be no bulwark stronger than the farm among us. In places where vast land-owning and serf farmers have been found, the appeal of communism and state socialism has been strong. Among us the family farm is the right social answer .to it. Cooperative endeavors are good, and a right sense of citizenship is necessary on our countrysides, but we must not yield too readily to the industrialization of farm lands with vast corporative holdings and hired labor operation. We must keep that precious individualism among us which is found in the family-farm. It is a precious national asset and wholly harmonious with Religion's concept of farmer dignity.
Now your work in this Catholic Rural Life Conference is to keep Religion strong and vigorous on our countrysides. If you touch on the purely economic problems of the farmer, you are displaying your charity in trying to befriend our people in their needs. The Church, says Pius XI, cannot be insensible to the temporal needs of the people. Christian charity dictates our trying to help our fellow-men. But your principal and main concern is to bring Religion to bear its full influence on our countryside. In this work you are ministering directly to souls, and you are bringing indirectly the greatest temporal good to the farmer. He will not find a solution of his problems if he forgets the great truths of Religion. These truths integrate all life for him and throw it into a clear perspective. As a servant of society, as well as an individual, he must give praise and honor and worship to God. How can de do this unless he understands his dignity and appreciates the obligations which both justice and charity dictate to him? In our society Christian charity is the woof and warp of our social fabric. When each of us does his social work, he contributes his part to social welfare. And social welfare is nothing more than our singing with Christ a Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving to our Maker. But there can be no real Christian social action where there is no real deep Christian supernatural life. You in your direct labors are endeavoring to deepen in the lives of the dwellers on our countryside life in the Mystic Body of Christ and to engraft into that Mystic Body those estranged from It. The results will be the strengthening of Christian culture in our farmers and contributing to the Christian awakening and the setting-up of a Christian Social Order in the world.
In that Order, in the international life among peoples and in the bosom of national life, if there is to be true peace, the dignity of the farmer must be recognized, and farm stuffs must be equitably distributed in all the world. It seems to me your Conference is particularly timely when with all our might we are striving against cruel wanton aggressors to give the world a better day —a Christian day.
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