The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-12-12

RELATION OF CHURCH
70 MODERN ]: INDUSTRY
Modern Economic Laws So-called
Deprive Multitudes of Their
Church Privileges. = =
Organized Labor for Its Social
and Moral Influence Potent
: in Beneficence..
az REV. CHARLES sTElzLE

There is in session this week in
Philadelphia the greatest religious con-
Vention ever held in the history Of
the Protestant church. Nearly four
hundred delegates, representing thirty
d11rerent nominations, eighteen million
members and nearly fifty million ad-
nerents, are to spend week in dis
cusslng the great social and moral
problems confronting the people of the
United States
Labor Mass Meeting.
One of the great features in con-
nection with the conference will he T.
monster labor mass meeting to be
held in the largest down town theatre
on Sunday afternoon, which it will be
my privilege to address, and which
not only has the endorsement of the
central labor body of Philadelphia, but
large numbers Of the local trades un-
ions are to march to the meeting place.
Also. Oh another day during the con-
Vent1oE. a special committee on "The
Church and Modern Industry" will
present strong report relative to this
SUBJECT. Here is an advance note
taken from this report:
"Multittdes 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 auto
fomy should be destroyed. That too
these impersonal causes are added the
crueltles of greed, the heartlessness Of
ambition and the cold Indifference of
corporate selfishness, every friend of
his fellow with grief and shame must
admit
Army Of Unemployed.
The unemploye! are an army The
I accidents of factories and railroads
crowd our institutions and tenements
with widows and orphans. The stress
of reckless competition which loads
manhood with oppressive burdens,
lev1es upon the fratl strength of
womanhood and turns sunny childhood
into drudgery, iwarfs our stature, saps
our vitality, crowds our prisons, vi
tlates our virtue and darkens our old
age. The homes Of the wage earners
in our great cities are an indictment
Of our civilization. The meager in
come which is easily reckoned suffi-
cient by the fortunate who are not
forced to live upon it, is without war
rant of reason. The helplessness Of
the Individual worker, the swift
changes in location of industrial cen
ters, the constant introduction of labor
saving appliances, the exactions of
landlords, add uncertainty to privita-
ton. The hazard of the mine the
monotony of the shop, the poverty Of
the home, the sickness. of the family,
the closing of the doors of higher OPP
portunity reast with dreadful precision
upon temperament and mar character.
Evidence Of Divine Call.
That workingmen should orga nize
for social and industrial betterment
belongs to the natural order. The eff
fort of the worlds toilers to secure
better conditions of work and larger
possession of themselves is welcome
evidence of a divine call within them
to share in the higher experiences
of the intellectual and spiritual life.
It. 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 to
talk of 'conceeding' this right. 1t ex-
lists. in the nature of things. We do
not confer it. But we welcome its
existence. The vast multitudes OF
working people have vital share in
re-sha ping the moral standards of the
time. They are at heart profoundly
moral in their ideas and desires. Their