The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-19
TRADE UNION|SM
AND ITS MEANING
Salt Lake Speaker Delivers
FOrCefuI Address Before
Large Audience.
AIMS OF ORGANIZATION
woRD SOCIALISM" NOT ONCE
MENTIONED.

OGDEN April 1S.-H. W. bennett of
s.f. lake spoke from the pulpit of the
First congregational church tonight on
Trades J-nionism: It's Ethocs. Morals
and Practices" The meeting was pre-
SIDED over by the pastor of the church,
.r. Rev Noble Strong Eldsrkin. There
.4c d large attendance OF the labor
-,rf.1 men of the city and others. Mr..
n.ruatr was gwen close attention as
h. discussed the vital principles OF
.-.E. uli0nism tie spoke earnestly
r7- about forty minutes. His address
rs, n part. as follows;
Ladies and Gentlemen: 1 naturally feel
somewhat diffident in my undertaking
his evening for reasons which are quite
.--4--rt 7 am not a public orator in
--- sense. and ] must admit these sur
-15udiugs are WOndrous strange Yet in
ms embarrassment l must find cOnSOla-
-f5r loo the thought that many church
-rsmhers are indeed surprised at such an
,uda-fous venture on the part of the Rev.
Vr EIderkin in permitting the use Of
#4- pulpit ON this Sabbath evening for the
discussion of trades unionism-
Yet wlyESUCh conditions?
Wrv wonder at the determination Of
MANY men wearing the cloth 10 investi-
gate the principles OF .modern trades
rn.0uism2
n b. Prescott an ex-president Of my
70 d
tho Second Presbyterian church CO1gTe-
cation at Evanston, H.. very aptiy said;
1.-The churches came TO us and said :.
Christ was and is the friend of the poor
and the worker It did not take pro-
found knowledge of the Bible to see the
arl0- of that statement. Christ was not
q friend of the WorkinSman and OF the
r76~ lie was q worlIingman and he was
poor. He might have risen above that
Glass; and taken his place among the
Hs.r F.r
rom that position preached at the work
srs but he remained with them, labored
among them. and selected some OF MS
disciples from among what We now call
81 low class Of labor-fishermen.
Carroll d. Wright. for many years com
missioner of labor for the United States.
rafer~ed To this i'm q course Of lectures
before d divinity class IN Philadelphia. As
recolleCt. he said that while 1t was not
proved Christ was q labor agltatOr, II Is
.srtainly true much of his philosophy was
.l keeping with the labor demands or
that time. which accounts Tor mis- Hollow
uE among the lovly. The Romans dlu
not regard the Servile people as possessing
Souls-thev were something apart from
and lower than the rest OF the world
christ preached the fatherhOOd OF God
and brotherhood Of man. which at once
placed all mankind on a Level. That
opened the way TO the betterments and
r-eadom shat have come since. With equal
7lv as TO origin and final reward firmly
Established. the emancipation Of labor nad
taken d great step forward SO IL comes
we may believe the gospel OF Christianity
moved labor men IN all the centuries j
have been many carpenters proud of their
calling because II was the trade that
Christ followed. and his example CO re
naming a worker has had untold effect
I'm giving dignity TO labor, and has also
been instrumental in inducing many men
10 remain in the ranks fighting for labor
when other avenues opened TO them.
Union Not Ideal.
do not wish to be understood as pro-
claiming the trade union an ideal insti-
tuition Indeed in themselves they are
not desirable. and in the sense that they
are both restrictive and repressive they
must be termed necessary evils. But they
are the inevitable result Of existing eco
nOmic conditions. and must remain a po-
tent factor I'm the great struggle OF the
teller TO better his condition, mentally
morally AMI physically. Evils, then,
though they be. many OF our men OF al
fairs those whose environments are such
that they are unable TO investigate their
many virtues. accept this plea for their
destruction. To such as these we ask:
What have YOU to offer in their stead2
BY destroying organization. would You
have Us become anarchists? Or would
you have Us return to the yoke as serfs?
A study Of labOr's progress through or
sanitation, especially from the guilds OF
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries TO
the present. is most interesting, and
should be given some attention before
these queries are answered
Was IL not by combination of the toll
PTS that first enabled them to strike off
the shackies Of serfdom and place their
feet firmly in the path that led TO liberty
and progress?
Was II not the labor unions that dis
PEELED the superstition that some men
ruled by divine TiEht-that some were
chosen 10 live in luxury and ease, while
The great masses must increasingly toll
with sCaut remuneration
II these are facts. is il not fair to pre-
sumo they assisted materially in the in
Spirstlon for republican form Of govern
msut9
So many -'isms" surround the trade
union of today that I deem il essential
NJ this time TO explain my position 1 am
speaking as trade uniOnist as repre-
>entel iu the principles enunciated by the
American Federation Of Labor. These are
not theories. They stand emphatically for
progressive governmental government of.