Martha Gallison Moore Avery
Encyclopedia
Martha Gallison Moore-Avery (April 6, 1851 – August 8, 1929) was a Socialist who later converted to Roman Catholicism. After her conversion, she became the founder of the Catholic labor organization Common Cause Society and of the Catholic Truth Guild, which became the most extensive lay apostolate of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

Early years

Avery was born in Steuben, Maine
Steuben, Maine
Steuben is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States. Upon incorporation in 1795 it was named after Baron Frederick William Rudolph Gerald Augustus von Steuben, the Inspector General of the U.S. Army during the Revolutionary War...

, in 1851, one of eight children of Albion King Paris Moore and Katherine Leighton Moore. After the death of her mother when she was 13, she moved to live with her grandfather, Samuel Moore, who was a member of the Maine Senate
Maine Senate
The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. The Senate currently consists of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, though the Maine Constitution allows for "an odd number of Senators, not less than...

. Later, in Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Maine, United States. The 2010 Census determined it had a population of 7,741. Ellsworth was Maine's fastest growing city from 2000-2010 with a growth rate of nearly 20 percent...

, she started a millinery business and became actively involved in religious life, joining the local Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 church. In 1880, she married another member of her church, Millard Fillmore Avery, and shortly later moved to Boston, Massachusetts.

Boston and Socialism

Boston exposed her to a much wider range of religious and social thought. There she studied metaphysics with Charles D. Sherman, an astrologer and student of Eastern thought. She also joined the Nationalist Club, a local society created to promote the ideas of socialist utopian author Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...

. Her involvement with Socialism increased. A year after the death of her husband in 1890, she joined the Socialist Labor Party of America
Socialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...

, and remained a leader in local Socialist politics for a number of years. In 1896, she founded the Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

 Class, which would later be renamed the Boston School of Political Economy.

Disenchantment with Socialism

During this period she became acquainted with David Goldstein
David Goldstein (Catholic apologist)
David Goldstein was a Jewish convert to the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, he spent much of his life as an activist against the spread of Marxism in labor unions.-Early life:...

. In response to the extremist activities and teachings of the Christian Socialist George D. Herron
George D. Herron
George D. Herron was an American clergyman, lecturer, writer, and Christian socialist activist. Herron is best remembered as a leading exponent of the so-called "Social Gospel" movement and for his highly publicized divorce and remarriage to the daughter of a wealthy benefactor which scandalized...

, they gradually became disenchanted with what they saw as the irreligious and immoral implications of a socialist society until, in 1902, they proposed a motion at the Massachusetts Socialist convention to formally repudiate any socialists who attacked religion or advocated violence or free love
Free love
The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...

. After the defeat of their motion by the convention, they withdrew from the Socialist party and became fervent anti-socialists, jointly publishing a book, Socialism: The Nation of Fatherless Children, in 1903. In this book Avery argued that socialism would inevitably lead to a situation where every child was an orphan under the control of the State.. The book uses the example of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

's daughter Eleanor and how her "socialist marriage" led to unhappiness and suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

.

Roman Catholicism

During this time, she found herself developing a growing interest in Roman Catholicism. She sent her daughter to a local Catholic school
Catholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...

 because of her high regard for such schools. Her daughter would convert to Catholicism and eventually become a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

. Later, on May 1, International Workers' Day, Avery herself converted to Roman Catholicism.

Catholic activism

She continued to be a staunch advocate for social reform. However, she now based her ideas on those put forward in Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

's encyclical Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...

. She was a proponent for the development of trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s and collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...

, and was intensely involved in the new Catholic social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

 movement. In 1922, she became the president of the Common Cause Society, a Catholic labor organization, and would remain in that position for the rest of her life, in the process becoming one of the major proponents of a public welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...

 in the US. Avery was a passionate opponent of women's suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

, arguing that it served to destroy family coherence, but she said the same thing of laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....

capitalism. She also wrote a book advocating her ideas about the Bolshevik Revolution titled Bolshevism: its Cure in 1919.

She also came to believe that it was important for her to evangelize for the Roman Catholic Church. In 1916, with her friend David Goldstein
David Goldstein (Catholic apologist)
David Goldstein was a Jewish convert to the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, he spent much of his life as an activist against the spread of Marxism in labor unions.-Early life:...

, she founded the Catholic Truth Guild, which over the years became the largest lay apostolate in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

She continued to serve as a staunch advocate of labor reform and Catholicism until her death in 1929 of arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis refers to a stiffening of arteries.Arteriosclerosis is a general term describing any hardening of medium or large arteries It should not be confused with "arteriolosclerosis" or "atherosclerosis".Also known by the name "myoconditis" which is...

.
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