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The Living or the Dead. The cardinal was unmoved. "They're getting repentant kind of late," he said, and added, "Actions speak louder than words." Meanwhile, St. Patrick's trustees filed a motion in the New York Supreme Court for a temporary injunction against the strikers. "If the judge rules that the strike is illegal," said Cardinal Spellman, "those men who apply will be taken back with full pension and seniority rights"—but not the leaders of the strike.
Had the cardinal overreached himself on the subject of unionism? At least one powerful group of Catholic laborites, the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, last week took sharp issue with His Eminence. Said A.C.T.U. Counsel John Harold: "With all reverence and respect for the cardinal, it is more important to recognize the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively in unions of their own choosing, and to pay the living a just wage, than to bury the dead."