El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-07

" HE following article on the re-
lation Of the church to labor is
written at the request of the
New York Federation of Churches.
Let it be remarked at the outset
that it complicates the situation to
have the word labor limited, in its
application, to work done with the
hands. thus drawing a line Of dis
tinction between manual and mental
labor and setting off the latter at an
aristOcratic distance from the former,
thus suggesting that 1t IS inherently
nobler business to practice mediclne
OF law, to teach, preach or run
banking house, than 1t is to work at
farming, carpentering or any one OF
the other honorable employments to
which men put their hands.
Christ as a Carpenter.
am excusable for having some feel
ing in this matter, for my father was
a farmer and up to considerably past
middle life spent his summers plant
ing and hoeing corn, making nay,
digging potatoes and attending to all
those varieties Of occupation includ-
ed in the profession of agriculture;
and his winters in caring for the cat
tie and logging All of which is very
definitely comprised in the restricted,
the unfortunately restricted, term Ia
Dor" He would have smiled a very
amused smile at the idea that the
church sustained any different rela-
ton to him because he worked with
his hands than it did to the minister,
lawyer and doctor because they
worked with their brains.
Let it be remembered in the sec
ond place that Jesus Christ spent al
most his entire adult life carpenter
ing; that most of his disciples were
fishermen and that the chiefest of his
apostles, St Paul, worked at tent
making in order to keep himself in
food and clothing. And yet, by what
is known as the higher stratum OF
society, man who follows the en-
ployment OF either Jesus, Peter or
Paul is regarded, even at best, with
a plying condescension, and is social
" ostracised- Only a man with white
hands is socially let in on the ground
floor.
The ssCIass Difference
Very few women even in our Chris
tan congreg cations worshiping on the
main avenues of the city, would De
willing to have their daughters mar
~ a mechanic or a carpenter An
architect? yes; but not man who
executes the architects designs To
be well married means with them be-
ing married to a man with white
hands It makes little difference how
much of the stuff OF native nobility
there may be in him, or how sincere
the girls effection, she will be said
TO have married beneath her If she
take I'D with a man who is devoted
to as mean" an occupation as was
the Man of Galilee and the Apostle
of Tarsus-
There is something, of course, to
be said in behalf of marriages con-
tracted between parties who are in
similar social, financial and intellect
uaI conditions A combination be-
tween rich and poor, educated and IN
educated, will not be as likely to in
ure to the harmony of matrimonial
life, for reasons that are quite indie
pendent of the question of the dig
nifty Of every kind of honorable man
ual labor.
Into the Heart of Matters.
SO, because a girl who has been to
college can be less congenially re-
lated to a man who is an uneducated
mechanic does nothing to prove any
inequality in personal worth and
dignity, and goes not a single step
toward showing that the work which
he does is a shade less honorable than
the more intellectual and lucrative
employment of the girls father, which
enabled him to give her liberal edu-
cation.
1 have gone on multiplying these il
Illustrations. for of all people in the
world, it is church people and Chris
tan people that ought to think their
way into the heart of such matters
and not be satisfied to limit their re-
CARDS and interests to the mere sur
face aspect of things It is a doc
trine to be preached in the pulpit and
drilled and hammered into the Chris
tfan conscience Of people who attend