United labor bulletin., 1909-11-05

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tributed by labor or wrung from labor;
and when such church income is devot-
ell to an effort to give the savage some
thing he does not want, while here at
home our socalled Civilized" people
suffer all sorts of damnable impositions,
it does not tend to make the American
working men enthusiastic supporters OF
foreign missions, or of the church.
\ 1t is all very well to seek to educate
the heather child in Africa, but what
about the children at home who are
forced into the mills at a tender age,
and deprived Of education, in order that
their pittance may be added to the fam
lily income, so that the family may exist
under our boasted civilization and per-
chance put a few pennies in the church
Golfers on Sunday.
While the churches are straining and
grunting on their task in Africa, our
wage earners at home are being ravaged
by diseases due to unsanitary workshop
and tenement conditions.
| If there Is a single church denomina-
ton in America that has enlisted itself
on the side of the plain people in their
struggle against the evils of child labor,
or female labor, or low wages, or long
hours, or unsanitary conditions of home
or employment, that fact has not been
well advertised.
On the contrary the very worst tene-
ment novels in America are owned ana
high rents are extorted from them by
Trinity church, New York City.
Churches complain that the men of
labor do not enter their portals, while
wage earners retort, that, because OF
the failure of church and clergy to SYM
pathize with and work for the "hewers
of wood and drawers of water" in the
everyday struggle of life, and because
of the tendency of the church to cater
to it's wealthy patrons who are in many
cases notoriously skinners and feecers
of labor, the church, as now constituted
does not deserve the support of working
men, and, for this reason more than any
other, does not receive it.
1t is perhaps easier to avoid contact
with ugly conditions at home by trying
to help the heather in Africa, and such
a course may avoid treading on the
corns of some large contributor to the
church, but it is sidestepping real issues
and will not win the support of the
masses.
Let it be understood that labor does
not ask for charity, but Justice.
To abolish child labor is not charity,
but an act of the highest citizenship.
To minimize female labor, and to con-
serve and protect the home, is worthy
object in support of which any church
will look well enrolled.
To take firm stand against unsani-
tary or dangerous conditions of factory
and tenement that menace the present
and future health of the human race
NAV rouse the enmity of some rich par
ishioner, who perhaps profits from such
damnable conditions, but if the church
expects to stand well with labor 1t must
take its stand for humanity as against
mammon.
1t is not the purpose of this article tc
arouse in the heart of labor any new
opposition to the church.
From many years intimate associa
ton with those who toll, the writer
knows that deep down in the hearts ol
the workers. with few exceptions, Is
feeling of reverence for the lowly Naz
arene, which. were it not for the studied
policy of the church in steering away
from all issues affecting our social anc
industrial life, and for the most fagran'
hypocrisy of many of the largest contrib
utors to church work as now conducted
would lead to many avowals of Cnris
tian belief.
Unfortunately, to believe in Christ
and to believe in the religion practised
in the churches of the present day, mas
in the minds of many wage earners
come to be two separate and distinct
things.
Nor is this situation to our liking
We are Obliged to fight the encroach
ments of capital in the factory, in the
halls of legislation, and in the courts
and we would like to feel that in the
house of God mammon did not rule.
We would like to feel that all God
fearing people were with us in oul
struggles for the betterment-aye, the
preservation of the human race. Tt
that end we should like to help, and tt
be helped, and we should like to see the
clergy take their stand like the homes
and fearless men they should be, re
gardless of the rich and often repre-
hensible pewholders.
The fact that some church confer
ences have had academic discussions O
some labor issues, and have adopted
some declamatory resolutions. is no
enough.
Such a platform If left behind in the
conference room amounts to nothing.
Only by taking such good resolutions
into their everyday church life at hom'