The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1906-02-23
REV. MR.. ORR OBJECTS.
Insists That Ministers Staunchly
Speak Out for the Right.

1
Public" published in The Wagework-
err my first thought was TO smile and
pass it by as absurd. But on refiec-
ton 1 thought that l might, at least,
show how impossible it would be to
sustain the charges
Read this and ask yourself, Gould
it be proved?"
when labor organizations
strike, the pulpit thunders: but
with only here and there an ex-
ception, it's thunderbolts are. lev
eled at the organized men whose
struggle is for bare living for
hard work.
Against labor strikers the pull
pit is seldom slow to thunder its
anathemas But how many pull
pits have Numbered against the
wholesale sacrifice of children in
factories and mines for the en-
richment of men who contribute
temples and observe forms?
AS an institution the pulpit,
and as class the clergy, are allies
of despoiling privilege
The majority of the clergy are from
the so-called working Glass; Would
you or should you expect them to lose
sympathy for the people from whom
they came? If they are not worth
more than the salary received, they
are not worthy of the ministry. They
have chosen the ministry for the good
that they may do; that they may
represent among men the Christ "a
workingman), and bring His teachings
into the lives of men. Should you ex-
pect class of men with such a pur-
pose in life to be time-servers, to be
Influenced by money or men, to be
afraid to apply the teachings of Jesus
to social and economic questions? Is
there anything of which you may think
that could make such class of men
"allies of despoiling privilege?"
The charge is very general and
points to no specific instance where
the clergy as a. whole opposed the
workingman in struggle for his
rights. 1 might ask, where did the
clergy stand in the Homestead strike,
in the miners strike, in the late strikes
at Chicago? Did they denounce the
employer, l. e., the capitalist? Did
they denounce the employee, t. e., the
striker?
The clergy over the whole country,
with but few exceptions, we're arrayed
on neither side. Because the Christ
message which they had to deliver is
for men and not for any particular
class of men. Because they believed
that the panacea to solve the problem
of distribution is to be found in the
teaching of Jesus Christ as given to
us in the New Testament. Almost
without exception where the question
at issue was discussed, the employee
was favored. In one of our church
papers, DIR. Cyrus Cort wrote an artf-
Gle favoring the course taken by the
mine owners during the late strike.
The next issue of the same paper fair
ly bristled in its condemnation of the
views of DR.. Cort. Seeing that he
had not the sympathy of his brethren,
he wrapped the cloak of silence about
him and dropped from view.
In December, 1902, DR.. Hills
preached a sermon at Central church,
Chicago, in which he condemned one
phase of the labor union. He assumed
that unions reduced the competent to
the level of the incompetent. On this
assumption he hased an attack on Ia
Dor unions. So exceptional was this
attack to the utterances of other
clergymen that it was copied by near
ly every city paper in the country.
We venture the assertion that few OF
the clergy were willing to accept the
position of DR.. Hills on the labor
union question. At the same time we
believe that he would strike fearlessly
at a wrong wherever he saw it. The,
sermon expressed somewhat the in
fiuence of environment If he had
been in close touch with working men
IQu UNION ldDOT Tie greater part VI
his life, his point of view would have
been different and his concepts would
have been of a different color
The clergy, with the press, have
been instrumental in bringing to the
front the question, How did you ac-
cumulate your wealth." And they
have been compelling men to give an
account of their stewardship. Hav-
ing been born and brought up in a
Christian family, the home of working
man, and being myself a craftsman,
speak as one having authority. have
always been, more or less, in touch
with the church and it's ministers fand
l have for the first time to hear a
clergyman condemn a striker for
Striking l have heard them con-
denim lawlessness, and rightly, too, but
never the striker or his right to strike.
l have often, yea, numberless times,
heard from the pulpit the teachings
of Jesus which condemn selfishness,
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