The herald., 1897-01-18
IN THE FIELD OF LABOR
Many Leaders Are Outspoken
Christians
THE NAMES OF NOTED ONES
Samuel 0ompers Speaks in Wesley
Chapel
Election of officers by the Council Of
Labor and Unions-City and Gen
eral Labor Notes.

Nearly all of the labor leaders OF Eng
land and the United States are outspok-
en- Christians and frequently occupy
pulpits Tom Burt and Henry Broad
hurst are good Methodists. Joseph
Arch, the Moses of the agricultural Ia
borers, was a local Methodist preacher
So was Fenwick, member of parliament
for the Wansbeck miners. who preached
a noble sermon on the need OF religious
character in the labor movement. Sam
Woods, the chief man In the Miners
Federation, frequently occupies the
pulpit. Keir Hardie. the leader of the In
dependent Labor party. is a Christian
preacher. Tom Mann had thoughts, not
long ago. of entering the ministry of the
Church of England. Ben Billet is
Congregationalist and was a preacher
at the council of that church few years
ago.
Eugene V. Debs, the head Of the A. r.
L. in the United States. has frequently
during the past year occupied puipits
in the different cities. Samuel Gompers.
president of the American Federation CT
Labor, pending the last annual con-
vention of the federation at Cincinnati,
was invited to occupy pulpit OF the
Methodist church in that city, and pre-
sented the labor question to large and
appreciative audience. The daily pa
pers of Cincinnati gave long account
of the speech of President Gompefs, the
Inquirer saying:
Although President Samuel Gompers
of the American Federation of Labor has
addressed multitudes upon his CHERISHED
subject il is doubtful if he ever spoke
to such an audience and anlid surround
ings such as yesterday
The announcement that the great
champion of organized labor would ad-
dress all willing to hear him at Wesley
chapel attracted not alone the regular
parishioners of the church, but a large
numbe of strangers Fashionable ladies'
probably listened for the first time TO
theme, which was in the nature of
revelation, as the speaker unrolled
word picture of the miseries of the poor
the struggle os the lowly against the
adversity of fate.
MIR. Gompers is singularly gifted with
vivid imagination, power of conceu-
tration, and the mind of a poet. his
voice attunedrto pa atlos and humor alike,
he can sway an audience with graph
illustrations of the scenes with which he
has long been familiar. His earnestness
utterances, and his perfect diction shows
him to be master of the English Ian
guage.
After describing life in factory and
shop. he asked: lis there labor ques
tion? l say there is. If there is one
who doubts it, direct him to the miners
OF Ohio. men who work in the bowels of
the earth, men to whom day and night
are perpetual darkness. Ask them, Saa
their wives and, children. Go to the
towns and factories of your cities. Talk
to the countless myriads walking the
! highways and by-ways, vainly pleading
for work Ask them Go to the mills of
New England. Ask the neglected chill
Gren, forced to work at an early age!
Go to the mills of the south and ask the
slaves Of Mammon! Go into the sweat
shops of great cities and ask the women
and children sewing their life-thread in
to the garments in their trembling
hands Ask them if there is a labor
question, and the answer will come
back to you in thunder tones"
The Commercial-Tribu also gave a
lengthy account of the meeting. Rev.
Magruder, pastor of Wesley chapel. in
his opening remarks said that the meet
ing was the first step of movement
that will become general; that a calm
discussion of the social side of life was
as necessary as that of the religious
side