Realizing full well that a house divided against itself must fall, that class hatred, class warfare, and class domination can never effect a just and lasting betterment of social conditions, the Sovereign Pontiff wisely recommends mutual-aid organizations "which draw the classes more closely together. Among these he attributes prime importance to societies consisting either of workmen alone, or of working men and employers together, He devoted much space to describing and commending these societies and expounds with remarkable prudence their nature, reason and opportunities, their rights, duties and laws. The authoritative voice of Leo XIII established once and for all times the right of Christian working men to form unions according to their various trades. Not only did he establish their right, but/he taught them how to exercise it.
The social encyclicals of the Popes issued during the past fifty years go to the very root of the social problem. They expose the basic facts and basic principles upon which human society rests; they point out and vindicate the rights and the duties of both capital and labour, and "from the Gospel as from a living and life-giving source, they propose solid, reasonable and practical doctrines capable, if not of settling at once, at least of considerably mitigating the fatal internal strife which rends the human family.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.