As far back as the year 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued his famous Encyclical entitled "The Condition of Labour.' Twelve years of serious thought, prolonged study and unstinted labour went into that document. Leo XIII knew he had a message for humanity, and his very office as Vicar of Christ upon earth compelled him to speak out in defence of human rights and human labour. The message he had was revolutionary, and the minds of the people, even Christian people, were not prepared for his advanced social doctrine, Between the years 1878 ànd 1890 Leo XIII issued a whole series of Encyclical Letters. All these were designed to pave the way for his really remarkable document officially known as "Rerum Novarum" in which he laid down for all mankind rules for the right solutions of the difficult problem of human solidarity, the social question which we have with us even today. On the fortieth anniversary of Leo's Encyclical on the condition of labour, Pope Pius XI issued an equally famous and universally proclaimed document entitled "Quadragesimo Anna" on "The Reconstruction of the Social Order." His purpose, he tells jus, is to recall the great benefits which Leo XIII's labour encyclical had brought to the Catholic Church and io the world at large; secondly, to vindicate the social and economic doctrine of so great a master against certain doubts which have arisen. and develop more fully some of its points; finally, after arraigning modern economics and examining the nature of Socialism, to expose the roots of the present social reler, and to point out the only salutary cure, a reform of Christian morals."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.