Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-10-24

this month show that both the house
of bishops and the house of deputies
| had larger business on hand than
changing the name of the Church.
| Many important questions were taken
| up and discussed. Outside of the
convention great meetings were held,
one OF the most important of which
was special service under the aus
pices of the Bhurch Association for
the Interests of LABOR. Several ad-
dresses were made upon the subject OF
organized labor, bat the principal
speaker of the evening was Bishop
! Potter, of New York. He began his
discourse with review of the three
great ideas-mOnarchial, military and
ocratic-which animated men in
their social relations since the chris
tian era began. Under the military
forms of government the principle of
brOtherly love became a myth to be
laughed at and scorned. Under the
aristOcratic regimes the needs of the
common people were seldom if ever
recognized, the habitual result being
discord, degradation and social
gloom. Resuming, the Bishop said:
1t is not surprising that the New
Testament, under conditions which
prevailed at It's conception, should
have assimilated the ideas of
the times. The pagan idea, which
was then in force, became har-
dencd into ineXorable forms by which
the strong became more powerful and
The weak were forced to the wall.
The fraternal idea is the real basis of
all human society. The feudal ages,
which we think were worse than the
age in which we live, were in some
respects very much better.
1t was in fcudal times that the prin-
cipal of trade uniOnism was born. In
those days these unions were known
us guilds. We, who today may deem
our trades unions as perfect, should
study the guild system of the dark
ages. Our sytcm of trades unions
has not the striking feature possessed
by the guilds, which was a mutual de-
pcndence upon each other of the en-
plOyer and the employed. Both of
these elements defended common in
tcrcst and that is not the rule that
obtains to-day.
We will never solve the question of
labor until the organizing minds, the
guiding hands and employing mana
gers are identified with the unions
with which the employees are identi-
fled. There should be a mutual un-
derstanding between employers and
their help, and both should be ami
mated by a common tic of brother
hood and fealty.
Bishop Potter then spoke OF the OPP
erations of the Board of Mediation
and Cancellation of New York, of
which he is president. He said the
board came into being without auth
GRITTY and added that that was the
reason probably why he was chosen
Us its president, The board was in
existence some ten years and had set
tied number of momentuous labor
disturbances. The operations of the
board were conducted on the prin-
ciplc that nothing tangible could be
accomplished if the question of social
contact was ignored. Resuming he
said:
We have not yet learned to eXtin-
guish that characteristic by which we
ditlGrCntiate between those antagOnis-
tic elements that make up modern So
ciety, There is no complete harmony
Of sentiment and idea. The mischief
of the modern social order is that the
moment people begin to accumulate
money or lands or any other valu-
ables, other people begin to differ
cntiatc themselves from the cause thal
should be harmOniously cO-Operated
in by all alike. Christ received sim
ners and ate with them, but the mod
ern Phariseeism prompts men to
ignore those who are beneath them
socially, or whose degree is of the
baser sort.
The greatest missionary society in
the world is that society which fol-
lows the preccpts of Christ and es-
| tablishes brotherhood among all
sorts and conditions of men. That is
the aim of the Church Association for
| the Advancement of the Interests of
Labor. 1t is to remedy defects we
come in contact with every day that
the association was called into being.
| stood one day in front of fac
tory and saw 500 men going out to
dinner. | said to the owner of the
factory: GLOW many of the men do
you know He looked at me aston
ished, aud though he did not say it,
knew he felt that | was very pre-
sumptuOus,
The times require a change from
conditions like this. 1t has always
been n question in my mind whether
the industrial development of the
nineteenth century has been of benefit
to human society. | once dined with
n family in New y DIRK, the housewife
of which went to IA store and bought
everything for the table, including
pressed meat baked beans, brown
bread and canned fruits Everything
came in tins or glass jars, and not a
thing was prepared in that home
When | was young, women touched
home life with the charms of their
personality. 1t was an inspiration to
dine at a housewives table fifty years