Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor)

¹That the spirit of revolutionary change, which has long been disturbing the nations of the world, should have passed beyond the sphere of politics and made its influence felt in the cognate sphere of practical economics is not surprising.

²The elements of the conflict now raging are unmistakable, in the vast expansion of industrial pursuits and the marvellous discoveries of science; in the changed relations between masters and workmen; in the enormous fortunes of some few individuals, and the utter poverty of the masses.

³Some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.

⁴The great mistake made in regard to the matter now under consideration is to take up with the notion that class is naturally hostile to class, and that the wealthy and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict.

⁵Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital. Mutual agreement results in the beauty of good order.

⁶Man precedes the State, and possesses, prior to the formation of any State, the right of providing for the substance of his body.

⁷The right to possess private property is derived from nature, not from man; and the State has the right to control its use in the interests of the public good alone, but by no means to absorb it altogether.

⁸Whenever the general interest or any particular class suffers, or is threatened with harm, which can in no other way be met or prevented, the public authority must step in to deal with it.

⁹The richer class have many ways of shielding themselves, and stand less in need of help from the State; whereas the mass of the poor have no resources of their own to fall back upon, and must chiefly depend upon the assistance of the State.

¹⁰Among the most important duties of employers, the principal one is to give every worker what is justly due him. To defraud anyone of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven.