The Industry Council Arrives in America

Abstract

It has been said that if Catholic social scientists finally come face to face with an industry council, they will not recognize it. The fraction of truth in charge stems from the undue obsession that many of these zealots have had for form, rather than for matter. In hammer and tongs fashion, many Catholic economists and sociologists, after studying the directives regarding industry councils in Quadragesimo Anno set about drawing blueprints for such councils. These were varied, and some were interesting, but by and large, in writer's opinion, they missed the point. Pius XI intended nothing more than to provide cer? tain reference points based upon a reasonable social philosophy. These reference points could be adapted to various national temperaments and institutional frameworks. No one form is correct for all times and all places, nor is the form as important as the spirit! That spirit, based soundly on reason, is one of group harmony flowing from common interests and problems. A social organism which serves to further harmony?always with respect for the broader common good?could be an industry council. Basing ourselves on Pius XFs directives we may tentatively define an industry council as a continuous organization of men working in the same industry, regardless of rank or position, for the purpose of solving the problems and furthering the legitimate aims of their industry. Such councils are to be a remedy for what Pius called this grave disorder which is leading society to ruin. By the disorder he meant the situation in labor relations which divides man on the labor market into two classes, as into two camps, and the bargaining between these two parties transforms labor market into an area where the two armies are engaged in combat. The Pope suggested groups which in his words would e(bind men together not according to the position they occupy in the labor market, but according to the diverse functions which they exercise in society!' A significant fact is the Pope's reference to these group as and spontaneous. How could something natural be totally absent from a social framework? Simply because the framework is just a framework and not an order. But if the concept of the industry council is natural, it is also reasonable, and reasonable men, whether or not they belong