Catholics are often criticised, where social questions are concerned, of talking much and doing little. This is not the place to make public confession—usually unwarranted, almost always odious; and whether or not there is justification for this criticism is more a matter for private examination of conscience. The fact remains that a certain empty verbosity is a fault to which fallen human nature is only too prone, and it is some gain if we are alive to the possibility in us of that strain of Pharisaism, “for they say and do not.”

The Young Christian Workers’ Movement strives to counteract this tendency. Having before its eyes the words of Pope Pius XI that ‘‘the first apostles of the workers are the workers,” it aims at transforming the conditions in which the young workers live, not by force of arms, but by the love of Christ and of souls in Him. This means being intensely practical, getting down to brass tacks, to concrete cases. A realization of this has given birth, quite spontaneously, to a House of Hospitality in London, following the example of that in Wigan. The idea of wage-earners under present conditions extending hospitality on any considerable scale may seem fantastic, and the effort in London, from very small beginnings, has not been without difficulties and seeming failures; but the work goes on, and appears to be growing. After some three months of life, this new venture is able to give some account of itself. Naturally, the control and direction of the house cannot be in the hands of those who are themselves at work elsewhere all day, and there is now a resident voluntary staff, but the Young Christian Workers, after taking an active part in the starting of the house, assist whenever they can.