The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-10-25
REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF
EPISCOPAL BISHOPS.
DISTRuST CAUSES TROUBLE
Organization Of Labor Essential to
the Well-Being of the Work.
ing People.

DOoIOAS " " wv AOuoOS VI
the Episcopal general convention
which was opened on October 4, have
voted in favor Of final adjournment
Tuesday next. In the house of bish.
ops, the standing committe on the re.
lations OF capital and labor, of which
Henry G. Potter OF New York is chair
man, presented it's report. The com
mittee was appointed by the general
convention OF 1901 to study the pur.
poses OF labor organizations to inves-.
tigate the ous of Industrial dis
turbances and to hold themselves in
readiness to act as arbitrator should
their services be desired.
The report says that no request for
action as arbitrator has been re-
ceived and that the committee has
not yet succeeded in studying in com.
mon the occasions of current disturb
ances.
I'VE agreed, however," the report
says, " in the conviction that the
causes OF the violence of the past
three years in Pennsylvania, in Colo
RADIO and in Illinois are not so much
economical as moral. The strikes
commonly begin in distrust. The rea-
SOL at the heart OF it is that the mas
ter has as little confidence in the
good will of the men as the men have
in the good will ana faith of the
master. Where distrust and antago-
nism are well founded there is moth
ing for it, so far as the church is
concerned, except one version.
1--WE perceive among our clergy and
laity alike much Ignorance Cranky
confessed and deplored) as to the
principles which are involved in the
conflicts of the industrial world.
Every Industrial dispute involves
three parties-the employer, the EN-.
ployed and the public, and the public
eventually casts the deciding vote.
Thus a serious social responsibility
rests upon every Christian citizen
and more especially upon the Chris
tian minister.
I'VE call attention to the analogy
between certain offenses OF the union
and like offenses, past or present, OF
both the capitalist and the church.
man Thus the employers blacklist
corresponds to the unions boycott.
The lockout and the strike are OF the
same nature. , The question of the
closed shop is like the question OF
the closed state. Men whose Puritan
ancestors strove to maintain a state
whose privileges should belong only
to members of the church, ought to
be able to understand the struggle OF
their brethren and to maintain a shop
in which no mar shall serve except a
member of the union.
They may not agree with these
brethren, but they ought to appreciate.
their self-sacrifice. The laborer has
learned from the capitalist to despise
order and law. He has learned from
the churchman to pursue the dissen-
ter with menace and violence.
The recen tragedies in Colorado
do not follow at a far distance the
massacres which in the 18th century
ensued upon the withdrawal OF Hol-
land from the ecclesiastic union.
while, then, we condemn the tyr
amy and turbulence of the labor un-
ion and call upon the law to preserve
the liberty Of every citizen to employ
who he will and to work for whom
he will, we d%eprecate the hasty tenn
per which, in condemning the errors
of the unions, condemns at the same
the whole movement with which
they are connected. The %offenses OF
the union are not distinct from the
cause for which the organization of
law stands as the inquisition is dis
from the gospel. In the face OF
a prejudice and an hostility fo- which
there are serious reasons we are con.
thai the organization of labor |
is essential to the well-being OF the |
working people. Its purpose is to
maintain such a standard OF wages. |
hours and conditions as shall afford
every mar an opportunity to grow in
mind and in heart. Without organiza-
ton the standard cannot be maintain.
ed in the midst of our present com
mercial conditions"
This report condemns the employ
ments OF children in factories and
/