Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/195

 THE CONDITION OF LABOR

AN OPEN LETTER TO POPE LEO XIH.

��TO Pope Leo XIII. YOUR HOLINESS : I have read with care your Encyc- lical letter on the condition of labor, addressed, through the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of your faith, to the Christian World.

Since its most strikingly pronounced condemnations are directed against a theory that we who hold it know to be deserving of your support, I ask permission to lay before your Holiness the grounds of our belief, and to set forth some considerations that you have unfortunately overlooked. The momentous seriousness of the facts you refer to, the poverty, suffering and seething discontent that pervade the Christian world, the danger that passion may lead ignorance in a blind struggle against social con- ditions rapidly becoming intolerable, are my justification.

��Our postulates are all stated or implied in your Encyc- lical. They are the primary perceptions of human reason, the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith :

We hold : That

This world is the creation of God.

�� �