The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1908-12-12
The Gospel and
The Industrial Worker

There is in session this week in
Philadelphia the greatest religious
convention ever held in the history Of
the Protestant church. Nearly four
hundred delegates, representing thirty
different denominations, eighteen mil
lion members and nearly fifty million
adherents, are to spend a week in
discussing the great social and moral
problems confronting the people of the
United States.
One of the great features in con-
nection with the conference will be al
monster labor mass meeting to bel
held in the largest downtown theatre
on Sunday afternoon, which it will be
my privilege to address, and which
not only has the endorsement of the
Central Labor Union of Philadelphia,
but large numbers of the local trades
unions are to march to the meeting
place.
Also, on another day during the
convention, special committee on
THE Church and Modern Industry
will present a strong report relative
to this subject. Here is an advance
note taken from this report:
"Multitudes are deprived, by what
are called economic laws, of that op-
portunity to which every man has a
right. When automatic movements
cause injustice and disaster, the au-
tonomy should be destroyed. That to
these impersonal causes are added the
| cruelties of greed, the heartlessness
of ambition and the cold indifference
of corporate selfishness, every friend
of his fellow must with grief and
shame admit. The unemployed are
an army The accidents of fac
tories and railroads crowd our insti-
tutions and tenements with widows
| and orphans. The stress of reckless
| competition which loads manhood
lNith oppressive burdens, levies upon
the frail strength of womanhood and
turns sunny childhood into drudgery,
dwarfs our stature, saps our vitality,
crowds our prisons, vitiates our virtue
and darkens our old age. The homes
of the wage-earners in our great
cities are an indictment of our civil
ization. The meager income which is
| easily reckoned sufficient by the for
! tunate who are not forced to live upon
| IL, Is without warrant of reason. The
helplessness of the individual worker,
the swift changes in location of in
dustrial centers, the constant intro
duction of labor-saving appliances, the
exactions of landlords, add uncertainty
to privation. The hazard of the mine,
the monotony of the shop, the poverty
of the home, the sickness of the fam
lily, the closing of the doors of higher
| opportunity react with dreadful pre-
cision upon temperament and mar
character.
''That workingmen should organize
for social and industrial betterment
belongs to the natural order. The
effort of the worlds toilers to secure
better conditions of work and larger
possession of themselves Is welcome
evidence of Divine call within them
to share in the higher experiences of
the intellectual and spiritual life.
1t is their right as it is the right of
men everywhere, within the law, to
combine for common ends. Both
church and society should cease 20
talk of 'conceding' this right. It ex-
lists in the nature of things. We do
not confer it. But we welcome its
exercise. The vast multitudes of
working people have a vital share in
re-shaping the moral standards of the
time. They are at heart profoundly
moral in their ideas and desires.
Their demands are an influence upon
the conscience of the nation. Despite
the errors of individuals and groups,
the faults of spirit, the imperfection
of methods and, in some instances,
most deplorable results, organized
labor is to be regarded as an influ-
ence not hostile to our institutions
but potent in beneficence. When
guided from within by men of far
sight and fair spirit, and guarded
from without by restrictions of law
and of custom against the enthusiasms
which work injustice, the self-interest
which ignores the outsider, or the
| practices which create industrial
havoc, trades unionism should be ac-
cepted not as the church's enemy,
hut as the churchs ally."-Rev.
| Charles Stelz1e.