Maryland Tercentenary
Shriver, Mark O.
580 THE COMMONWEAL March 30, I927 MARYLAND TERCENTENARY By MARK O. SHRIVER T HE twenty-fifth day of March, I934, seems rather far in the future in 1927, but seven years pass quickly and a...
...The undersigned individuals and organizations therefore respectfully petition for such official action as shall properly recognize this anniversary in some acceptable manner thereafter to be determined...
...Note the words used in the encyclical---"if the employer will pay no more," which implies freedom of choice on the part of the employer...
...With the approval of Governor Ritchie and the endorsement of the Knights of Columbus of Maryland and the Calvert As- sociates and the Maryland Historical Society, a memorial will be presented to the Assembly now in session at Annapolis, call- ing attention to the great event of 3o0 years ago, and petitioning for its recognition in some fitting and proper manner...
...The big impetus in Maryland has come from a committee of the State Council, Knights of Columbus, appointed because of the activities of the Calvert Associates in the spring of I926 when a large meeting was held in Baltimore, which was ad-dressed by Sir Esme Howard the British Ambassador, Governor Ritchie, Michael Williams, and other distinguished persons...
...O the Editor :--Were it not for one implication in Father Maguire's farewell letter, I should be inclined to allow him to retire in peace...
...and I made the request that unless the employer in question could be convicted of defrauding the laborer of his wages were he to make the proposed reduction, the critics, in all fairness and decency, should restrict their criticisms to those cases in which they can prove their contentions, and quit generalizing about employers as a class...
...He contents himself with a quotation from Pope Leo XIII, which follows in part: "If through necessity . . . the workman accepts harder conditions because [his] em-ployer . . . will give him no better, he is the victim of force and injustice...
...The National Bureau of Economic Research has demonstrated that of the total national income, 77 percent is 9ald as salaries and wages, and the remaining 23 percent is divided up as rents, interest and profits...
...Assembly of Maryland should take a leading part with all the people of the state in fitly commemorating this remarkable act in a world and at a time when intolerance was the general rule, and oppression the ordinary habit of men...
...It is an occasion and a date that should ever be gratefully re- membered by all Americans, and one that should ever be held in special veneration by the inhabitants of this state...
...The story is in all history and is cut in the imper- ishable stone on the base of the statue erected to the memory of Cecilius Calvert which stands in the vestibule of the Baltimore court-house...
...But there is a vast difference between the meaning of the phrase quoted and that which Father Maguire implies, "whether the employer can or cannot pay more...
...The memorial which will be presented to the General As- sembly is as follows: "To His Excellency the Governor and the General Assembly of the state of Maryland :--The twenty-fifth day of March, I934, will mark the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Maryland Pilgrims on the shores of St...
...There is another point, namely, that he has misrepresented the Holy Father's doc-trine...
...One of the curious facts of all living wage controversies is that it seems never to have occurred to the proponents of com- pulsory living wages, not that some workers are not receiving their just share of the total income of society, but that that total income may not be large enough to afford that living wage for everyone...
...If, therefore, we were to expropriate all rents, interest and profits, and divide them up in proportion to present incomes, each would receive approxi- mately 30 percent more than he is now receiving--not a very startling increase...
...However, the wage paid is all that the labor is worth...
...The absurdity of any such interpretation is more evident when we consider it a little fur- ther...
...I wish to reiterate that request...
...My first letter was incited by a lot of loose thinking...
...as we must admit the pro- ductivity of capital, we must grant that interest in payment for its use is a fair charge...
...It is proper, therefore, that the Governor and the General...
...This wage is a living wage for the first man, who is unmarried and has no dependents...
...STEVrtErr Dtr BRUL...
...Mary's County...
...Father Maguire then goes on to say that I have presented a dilemma, "one conclusion of which is that the em- ployer must be allowed to 'pay a notoriously low wage' contrary to the doctrine of Leo XIII...
...and much as we may bewail the baseness of human nature which demands profits as a reward for taking the risks inherent in the conduct of business, we must admit that unless we pay those profits the risks will not be undertaken...
...However, as we believe in private property, we must admit the justice of rent...
...Under Father Maguire's interpretation of the encyclical, I am bound in conscience to pay the more needy worker more...
...This is a tacit admission on his part, that the employer in question will be committing no injustice...
...The memorial will, it is planned, be presented to the House of Dele- gates by the Honorable Fendall Marbury, a descendant of an old family of southern Maryland...
...Suppose I have two men in my employ, who are being paid the same wage for doing the same work...
...It is considered likely that some ceremony will be held on the shores where Lord Baltimore landed with his colonists, but the principal events of the tercentenary celebration will in all prob- ability be held in the city of Baltimore...
...but, in the case of the second man, it is not a living wage because he is married and has a large family to support...
...The present plan is to have committees appointed on the part of House and Senate with, possibly, representation on the part of the petition- ing organizations, who will serve without pay and who will re- port a preliminary plan to the session of I929 when definite action should be taken...
...It was in Maryland that toleration was first established and Church and state made supreme, each in its own sphere...
...Just what form the celebration will take has not yet been defin- itely determined, and it is probable that no decision will be reached until the meeting of the next General Assembly of Maryland in I929...
...and to the Senate by the Honor- able David G. McIntosh who, by virtue of his office as president of the Senate, is the lieutenant-governor of the state...
...Mary's County...
...Now Father Maguire himself ad- mitted that he would permit this condition for a short time and with certain reservations, but the fact remains that he does per- mit it...
...In our early days, before the federal government had been established, certain of the colonies may indeed have enacted ini- quitous laws and imposd unjust restrictions, but the United States of America has always been a haven for the oppressed of every race and creed...
...If Father Maguire's interpretation is correct, the employer is guilty of defrauding the laborer of his wages regardless of his inability to pay a higher wage...
...580 THE COMMONWEAL March 30, I927 MARYLAND TERCENTENARY By MARK O. SHRIVER T HE twenty-fifth day of March, I934, seems rather far in the future in 1927, but seven years pass quickly and a movement is already under way to commemorate fittingly the landing from the Ark and the Dove in St...
...A COMMUNICATION T EXISTING ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES Jackson, Ohio...
Vol. 5 • March 1927 • No. 21
