School for Organizers

In his eleven years as director of Manhattan's Xavier Labor School, Father Philip Carey has become a familiar figure to thousands of working men & women. He is a mild and scholarly Jesuit whose students are electricians, scrubwomen, plumbers, bus drivers, pipe fitters, and wire lathers. The lesson Father Carey teaches them: how to build strong and effective unions.

Last week, as the first term of the academic year ended at Xavier, 150 men & women were enrolled. But these were only a fraction of the school's real student body. This month, while New York's dock strike raged (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), Xavier's assistant director, Father John Corridan, was devoting full time to a steady stream of longshoremen coming for advice. The school never takes sides in such disputes; its influence is felt only indirectly. But over the years, union men all over the East have come to realize that Jesuits Carey and Corridan are as wise about labor problems as any men alive.

Men & Integrity. When Philip Carey began at Xavier in 1940, there was urgent need for such wisdom. One of the main sources of trained labor leaders was the Communist Party and one purpose of

Xavier, says Father Carey, was "to train men who could do the job better than the Communists--men who would have integrity." Today, there are more than 100 Catholic labor schools turning out such men, and Xavier stands among the leaders on the list.

The school's formal course lasts two years, and students of every faith are welcome. Tuition (which is often waived): $5. There are night classes in public speaking and parliamentary procedure, labor ethics and law, in economics and trade union methods. Xavier's volunteer faculty (three lawyers, ten union officers, two businessmen and the two priests) translates its subjects into down-to-earth problems. Students study contracts, sample constitutions, hold mock conventions and negotiation meetings. Sometimes, actual union problems come before their "grievance clinics," with representatives of management on hand to talk things over with the union.

Leadership & Dignity. Since 1936, Xavier has turned out 6,000 alumni from the big, sprawling schoolbuilding on West 16th Street. Once Father Carey's students leave, he never interferes with them. But if they want to come back (and most do), his door is always open. His alumni have led in organizing locals of the Utility Workers Union, the National Federation of Telephone Workers, the brewery workers and the bus drivers. He has watched the alumni rid local after local of Communists and racketeers.

But such results, says Father Carey, are only one phase of Xavier's mission. It is not enough merely to teach men to protect themselves. More important is to instill in them the Christian principle of helping others. "The object of the school," says he, "is not only to train men for intelligent leadership. It is to promote God's law on the dignity and brotherhood of man."

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