The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-07-08
CITY OFFICIAL PAPER.
TUESDAY, JULY 8, 1902.
THE CHURCH AND ORGANIZED
LABOR.

Ihe clergy frequently take Occa-
sion to bewail the apparent lack of
sympathy between the church and the
workers-a fact which seems to
worry them not little. That such
a state of affairs exists is not sur
prising, since representatives of the
church pay so little heed to the con-
dition of the masses and are so badly
misinformed as to their needs The
ignorance of some of the ministry,
as REGARDS organized labor especially,
was demonstrated the other day by
the Rev. T. A. Goodwin of Indianapo-
oils, in paper read before the
Methodist ministers weekly meeting,
under title of Methodist Episcopal
Churches and Organized Labor"
Space will not permit us to reproduce
the gentlemans remarks in full, but
the following paragraphs will serve
to show his bigotry:
There are in this country no such
distinct classes as wage earners and
wage payers. He who is a wage
Garner in one pursuit may be an en-
ployer in another
There is such a confederation of
unions that organized labor has it
in it's power to stop every car wheel
and close every factory~in less than
ten days notice, no matter what may
be the consequences. The immediate
employer suffers nothing from
strike that results in higher wages
except perhaps a momentary incon-
venience. He adds cost of produc-
ton to the price of goods and the
consumer pays the cost.
But this enhancement of the cost
of all trust made goods is the least
of the wrongs the labor trust inflicts
on society. The idleness it enforces
upon those whom it drives away from
trades is the parent of most of the
crime with which the state has to
wrestle.
'Of the Ala convicts in the reform
atory at Jeffersonville 268 are from
the ranks of those who can not learn
a trade; SO per cent of the boys at
the reform school are from cities and
towns where organized labor will al
low only here and there one to learn
a trade.
4sIn most cruel mockery, in each
institution they are taught trades,
but when they get out not one of
them can find employment in his
trade except as a scab, which is so
odious classification that many are
driven to crime that they may escape
it,
Organized labor controls all legis-
lation. 1t holds the rod of terror over
every court whose officers are cleo
tive, and threatens the executive if
it does not obey it's behests. We hear
the rumblings of a coming social vol
cano that cannot be misunderstood
Is it nothing to the poor man that
the cost of his fuel is to be increased
probably so per cent by the, coal
strike? Is 1t nothing to the citizen
that such an organized pollucal force
has practically the control of the
affairs of state?
But as preachers we cannot be
Indifferent to it's attitude toward the
church. 1t is the most conspicuous
organized hater of the church in the
world. The saloon interest is pigmy
compared with it, for that is for the
= most part in the hands of men of lit
tie influence, and it has cause for it's
antagonlsm, for the church is it's
avowed enemy, whereas the church
has nothing to do with organized la.
Dor. Its enemy is the memorable, I'M
repealable law of supply and demand,
and the equal right of every man to
the profitable industries of life 1t
is the hungry man demanding a
chance to earn bread.
The animus of organized labor had
a recent official utterance. Lieuten-
ant Governor Coates of Colorado, a
walking delegate of organized labor,
was invited by the pastors of the sew
eral churches in Denver to meet with
them and tell what the basis of hos
tility to the church was, that they
might, if possible, come to relations
of confidence and sympathy
His statement was in the most
vituperative language, Astounding in
such allegations as these: "The pill
lars of the church, the men who pay
your salaries, are the men who take
from the laboring man the fruits OF
his toll; who are making thousands
of paupers and filling thousands of
drunkards' graves every year. 1t is
from such you get your hire. Yes,
you are hirelings, every one of you.
This is only one of the many vi
Imperative sentences, and yet we are
here, as Methodist preachers, inquir-