The Forrest City times., 1891-10-23
JUSTICE FOR WORKERS
LET THE CHURCH DEAL FAIRLY
 WITH LABOR.
Radical Uttsrances at ths Great A1sthodist Confsrence-Labor ana
 Capital Discusssd,

WARRINGTON, Oct. 19.--The Rev. r. W. Bourne. president of the Bible Methodist church of England. occupied the chair at the beginning of the min h days session of the Ecumenical Metho- dist council.
 The topic of the morning session, s'Social Problems" was taken up. The Hon. Alden Spears, president of the essay on "The Church in Her Relation to Labor and Capital"
 Mir. Spears, in the course of his re- marks, said that the church, by the spiritual changes which it has wrought in the lives of millions of her mem ber- ship, has elevated them from habits ty and crime. In return for such priceless benefits, labor and capital should give their first and best efforts to the church for it's extension and prosperity. Referring to protection of hom industry the speaker said:
 If we were to follow the teachings of Englands greatest political leader and close our manufacturing establish ments on all products that we cannot make as cheaply as the same articles
 
 any other country, and If we should put the millions that are now finding constant employment at moro than double tho wages of the agricultural laborer--also on ou.. farms and plan ta- tions, it needs no seeer to forecast the results.
 In country like our own under . government of the people, by the peo- t.fn nd Ia ha olA franchise should not be given to any foreigner till he eau read and write the language of the country of his adoption and long enough resident to become thoroughly conversant with the laws and customs of the land. be that time ten or twenty-ono years. Without this no one is competent or has just claim to take part in the body polite.
 A few words as to the hours that should constitute a days labor. It seems to us that this question is vastly more vital to the wage-earner than to capital. For the last ten years the average return to capital has not been | per cent If further pressed, the goose that now lays the golden egg of constant and well remuneratcd em- ployment IS killed. our factories must be closed and the laborer be left with out employment. if the enhanced cost of production is not added to the goods produced and which must be paid by the consumers, of whom the wagc-oarners and their families are the great majority.
 We are in accord with the proposi- tion so generally accepted that politics shall not be the subject of pulpit dis cussion; VIC are also fully persuaded that the pulpit should speak with no uncertain sound on all subjects appcr- taining to the well-being, prosperity and happiness of the people.
 The Rev. J. Berry of the Australian Methodist church, Wellington, New Zeland, delivered an address on "The Moral Aspect of Labor mbinations and Strlkes." He said:
 The position of Methodism in the twentieth century will depend very largely upon her attitude toward the labor movement in the last decade ot the nineteenth. In considering the morality of strike there are two questions, at least, which must be an. swered:
 l. Is the cause sufficient?
 !
 We all believe that war is ideally wrong. Now a strike Is a social and economic war. The time will come, as Mir. Arnold White puts 1t, when the lion of capital and the lamb of labor will lie down together, but the holy scripture does not mean that the lamb shall be inside the lion.
 It is necessary for labor to organize and fight because capital organizes and fights and is generally the strong CT of the two. There can be no peace between employer and employed until the principle of profit-sharing IS recog- nized as the equitable settlement of the wage question and adopted wher- evcr practicable.
 Let us make haste to wipe out the reproach that the Christian pulpit hardly touches upon the duty of the rich to the poor, except by an occa- sional sermon upon the duty of being charitable Justice first. Until jus tice is done there is no place for charity.
 l. S. Inch L. L. D., of the Methodist church in Canada spoke on the sub ject of s'The Moral Aspects of Combi- nation of Capital" The word ''com- blnation," said Mir Inch, was in dan ger of sharing the fate of many other honest words-suffering degradation by civil asso eiaticns Loss to individ- uals may conc even from beni mt combination, but the progress of the race must not be staid because a few might be sacrificed to the general good. The rolling wheels of progress will always run down laggards. The mower of com hin tion leUitimately ac- qu red must also be legitimately ex- ercised, and in accordance with equity toward employees and even to- ward competitors.
 The alarming extent to which the tyrany of trusts had been exercised in the United States and Canada had been only partially revealed And yet h system of spoliation had been un- covered, in comparison with which the exactions of ieudalism might hide their diminished head.
 Pacific Railroad Report Delayed.