ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE LEO XTTT. 139
without the results of labor a man cannot live ; and self- conservation is a law of Nature, which it is wrong to disobey. Now, if we were to consider labor merely so far as it is personal, doubtless it would be within the workman's right to accept any rate of wages whatever; for in the same way as he is free to work or not, so he is free to accept a small remuneration or even none at all. But this is a mere abstract supposition ; the labor of the working-man is not only his personal attribute, but it is necessary ; and this makes all the difference. The preser- vation of life is the bounden duty of each and all, and to fail therein is a crime. It follows that each one has a right to procure what is required in order to live, and the poor can procure it in no other way than by work and wages.
49. Let it be granted then that, as a rule, workman and employer should make free agreements, and in partic- ular should freely agree as to wages ; nevertheless, there is a dictate of nature more imperious and more ancient than any bargain between man and man, that the remu- neration must be enough to support the wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comfort. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accepts harder condi- tions because an employer or a contractor will give him no better, he is the victim of force and injustice. In these and similar questions, however such as, for example, the hours of labor in different trades, the sani- tary precautions to be observed in factories and work- shops, etc. in order to supersede undue interference on the part of the State, especially as circumstances, times, and localities differ so widely, it is advisable that recourse be had to Societies or Boards such as We shall mention presently, or to some other method of safeguarding the interests of wage-earners; the State to be asked for approval and protection.
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