The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-06-10
CONSERVING HUMAN LIFE.
Some Startling Facts Brought Out at
Great Church Meeting.

SS''~ wa s'''S 0SNS otO0Sus wv a.
Great Church Meeting.
1t is estimated that 10 900 people
attended the great Labor Mass Meet
ing conducted under the auspices of
the Presbyterian Department of
Church and Labor in Atlantic City
during the last week in May, while the
National Convention of the Presby-
terrain church was in session.
This was the Fifth Annual Labor
Meeting of the Department., and each
time the Labor Meeting has been the
most largely attended of any held dur
ing the two weeks session of the
National Convention. Heartily CO.
operating with the Labor Department
was the Central Labor Union of At
lantic City, which appointed strong
committee to arouse an interest IN
the undertaking. While organized Ia
Dor is not very strong in this town,
fully 1000 trades unionists turned
out, their leaders taking seats upon
the platform.
The meeting was presided over by
Congressman William S. Bennett of
of New York, who is a member of the
committee directing the general work
of the Labor Department of the Pres
byterian church. Mr.. Bennett made
strong plea for the conservation of
human life, stating that the boys with
whom he played baseball in his ma
tive town, only two were now alive,
the remainder of them having been
killed as railroad men. The Rev. War
rem H. Wilson, Phi D., the assistant
Superintendent of the labor depart
ment, spoke on the Conservation of
Country Life" and the Rev. Charles
Stelzle, superintendent of the Depart
ment, addressed the convention IN
CONSERVATION of Industrial Life" He
said in part, when 10000 industrial
workers are killed every year, some
thing is wrong in our Industrial sys-
of murder. 1t is said there are near
ly always 100000 persons in this
country who are sick, and the pity of
it is that most of this illness is pre-
ventable. 1t was once believed that
human mortality followed an inexor-
able law. Facts, however, show that
mortality varies in different places
and decreases as better hygienic con-
ditions prevail.
1.-THE length of life in Sweden and
Denmark is fifty years; in the United
States and England about 40 to As;
in India less than Is. The death rate
among the poor exceeds that among
the rich by about 100 per cent. Infant
mortality among the poor is about
three times as great as it is among
the wealthy.
"The present working day from a
physiological standpoint is too long.
1t keeps the majority of men and
women in constant state of over
fatigue, and induces the craving of
means for deadening fatigue and in
ouCCo uIuAhSuucSS anu OLuoT GX-
cesses.
'The real justification for a shorter
working day is found in the interest
of the race. 1t is the business of the
church to remedy this situation. We
should talk less about building up
the church and more about building
up the people. The church is simply
means to an end and not end in it.
self.
"The Protestant churches of Amer
lea have membership of $4,000, 1000,
with constituency of 10000. 1t is
the most powerful agency in America
today for the solution of the social
problem. If the social problem of
America is not solved, God and man
may hold the church responsible"