The wageworker., 1909-10-09
MINISTER'S MAKE BAD BREAK.

terial association relative to the street
railway strike in that city. When the
strike started the matter was consid-
cred by the Ministerial Association of
| Omaha, body made up there, as in
Lincoln, of Protestant and evangelical
| churches. The Omaha ministers ia
| vored arbitration, of course, and if
they had stopped there all might have
| been we'll. But they went to the
length of advocating the "open shop"
And that is right where the Omaha
ministers not only showed their ignor-
| ance of industrial conditions, but ex-
posed their lack of logic and reason
| ing.
The same condition regarding
churches that the Omaha ministers
demand in the industrial field would
wreck the churches in short order In
order to understand this claim it
should be remembered that the term
open shop" is misnomer; it should
be ''nor-union shop The so-called
open shop" is really closed, and the
so-called ''closed shop" is open to any
| workingman who will subscribe to
certain fundamentals and carry his
share of the burden of maintaining
| conditions prevailing in that shop.
| The church is a CLOSED shop along
| identically the same lines. Any at
tempt to conduct a church along the
| lines demanded by the advocates of
| the so-called open shop" would soon
result in church failure In order to
become a member of a church, the
Methodist, for instance, the would-be
member must subscribe to certain ar
ticles of faith-in other words take
upon himself form of obligation
That is what man must do in order
to become a member of a union. The
| church member is obligated to bear
his share of the burden of maintain
ing the organization; the union mem
ber is obligated to the same thing.
| Would the Methodist church allow a
non-member to participate in it's coun-
ness policies of the church, occupy
time at business, prayer and class
meetings and partake of all the bene-
fits of the organization without putting
The Methodist ministry is union
ministry" in that the minister has to
go through certain well-known forms
in order to secure permission to
preach. That permission of the Meth
odist minister is the same thing as a
working card to a union member.
Would the Methodist ministers of
Omaha recognize the so-called open
man who so desired to occupy the
Methodist pulpit regardless of his edu-
cation and wholly without ordination?
Not in thousand years. Yet Metho-
dist ministers of Omaha sat in that
association meeting and demanded
that workingmen do what the minis
ters themselves would not do. The
| tightest union shop" in the world is
trades unions insist that man who
receives the benefits of the union
must take the obligation and pay his
share of the expense. The Protestant
Episcopal minister must take an obli-
cation, and it must be given by some
one in the line of apostolic succession.
No matter what your qualifications
might be, you couldn't become an
Episcopal minister by any means
whatever other than the rigid rules
laid down by the church. Yet the men
themselves who belong to this union
shop" ministry, and men who sub
scribe to that particular faith, de-
mand that workingmen do what they
themselves will not do.
The Omaha Ministerial Association
by that one blunder, has done more
to break down the growing feeling OF
relationship between the unions and
the churches than can be repaired in
a decade. They have aroused an old
antagonism that was slowly vanishing
under the teaching of men like Stelzle
and Balch. Fraternal delegates SEM
from central labor unions will not
longer feel impelled to attend the
meetings of an association that goes
on record as favoring what must, in
the very nature of things, result in
the destruction of trades unions if car.
ried out as outlined.
We humbly suggest to the Minis.
terial Association OF Omaha that it
rescind it's resolution, and then pro.
ceed to careful study of the objects
and aims of the trades unionists of
the country. We opine that the mem.
| bers of that association acted through