June Meeting Cancelled

Sorry for the late notice, but I will not be able to make the June meeting. So I supposed that means it's cancelled. I arrived home from Mt. Vernon, OH, the site of Barbershop Society's Apple Corps, to find that an uncle had died. So I'm leaving for Pennsylvania first thing Monday and probably will spend most of the week there.

ChesterTen Registration is Open.

It seems strange to access the blog and not see Max Beerbohm's caricature at the top. It looks to me like Mr. Ted Schluenderfritz (the logo designer) might have gotten some of his inspiration from Max's caricature of Chesterton. Then again, maybe not.

IHS Press

A Word From the Editors. IHS Press was launched in September of 2001 to bring back into print the classics of last century on the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church. IHS Press titles are sure to appeal to the Catholic reader who wants to know more about the wealth of information buried in the Church's Social Doctrine. And our titles will no doubt be a welcome and refreshing change for any socially-conscious reader who, in a search for a humane solution to modern social problems, is looking for a break from worn-out theories.

I thought I'd share the above information from IHS Press with others who might be interested in books dealing with Catholic Social Doctrine. IHS is a great resource. Of course, if the book was written by Chesterton, you might check with the American Chesterton Society first and buy it from them. You'd be supporting the ACS.

Latest Issue of Gilbert Has Arrived

I've read about half of the latest issue. It's excellent, as usual. What I did find to be different, however, is that Sean Dailey's editorial, "Clarity on Torture," is available on-line at the Gilbert Magazine Page. In my experience, the Gilbert Magazine Page has been static and not updated to correspond to the current issue of Gilbert. Having at least part of Gilbert available on-line is great.

Meeting on Wednesday Evening, May 19, at Schlegel's

Don't forget this month's meeting. 7 p.m. at Schlegel's Coffee House.

Distributism and "Just Price"

I've been reading several books by Hilaire Belloc, who was one of the main proponents of Distributism. He mentions "just price" several times, but I've been unable to figure out exactly what that means to a Distributist. So... I asked one of the authors at The Distributist Review, Richard Aleman, for some help. Here's what he said:

Dear Bob,

You are most welcome. Yes, regarding the just price I recommend reading Dr Peter Chojnowski's article on the School of Salamanca. http://drchojnowski.blogspot.com/

Eric Gill described it most succinctly as,

1. A just price (i.e. price reckoned in terms of labour costs)...[W]hat we want is just price, i.e. price fixed by maker.

The idea was to create a production outlet (or retail/manufacturer combo) that would sell flexibly with the smallest profit margin, competing via the distinctive creations of the producer (in Gill's case, artist or craftsman). This would, as much as possible, elminate middlemen and price wars as every product would be an original work based on the unique creativity of the small business owner.

This is still the case in small shops in Europe. Take bakeries for example. They measure how ingredient and labor costs, bake on premises, and sell directly to the consumer. They never undersell competitors or have a need to widen profit margins as they stand (or fall) on the quality of their unique, various products.

I can also recommend Msgr. John A. Ryan's book "The Living Wage" which you may normally find on ebay or for free on archive.org (PDF). http://www.archive.org/details/livingwage00ryanuoft

Also, if you have not read them, I recommend two more books by Belloc: Economics for Helen and the book Usury. In this last Belloc defines productive property and lending alternatives without the use of token interest.


Keep in touch!

Pax Christi,
Richard

PS: Let me know when you are ready to study the guilds. I will email you some PDFs by Arthur Penty.

Uncommon Sense Podcast #23 Now Available

Nancy Brown interviews Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society, in the latest Uncommon Sense Podcast. It contains lots of good info on the upcoming ChesterTen, this year's Chesterton Conference.