The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1912-05-17

Editors Note-NTore and more the
Christian church is approaching the view
point of the labor union, j. e., that the
material needs of man must be minis
tered to as well as his spiritual needs.
1t is hard to talk to a man about saliva
ton if his stomach is empty and his
clothes ragged If whole family must
work twelve hours a day, seven days a
week, in sitting, disease breeding fac
tory to keep the breath of life in their
bodies, they have no time to think about
their souls. There can be no evangeli-
zation of the world while social injustice
prevails. We note with satisfaction the
signs that the church is slowly but sure
ly coming to the aid of the labor unions
in the fight for the common people
against the greed of gold. The quad
rennial conference of the Methodist
Episcopal church has recently gone on
record as being squarely with the cause
espoused by trade unionists. This does
not mean that every Methodist will i'm
mediately espouse the cause of labor but
it does show the trend of thought of the
leaders of that great denomination. The
following splendid article is from the pen
of Bishop Robert Mcintyre of the M. E.
church. 1t will run in this and succeed
ing issues of the Labor journal and we
recommend its careful perusal and
study,
A scion of lie house of Rockefeller
gave the nation picture of the evolu-
tion of multimillionaire 1t was deity
done. A cpaital stroke of art from the
plutocratic point of view, Scan it again;
A modern gardener had a bush, bearing
hundred roses. He clipped all the
young blooms, except one which was the
most promising All the vitality and
vigor of the sturdy plant, the flood of
sap and strength brings up the capilaries
into its expansive bosom and in fullness
of time we enjoy the size, sympathy,
color, and odor of the prize American
Beauty and forget the ninety and nine
untimely interiors inundated to perfect
this climax of floral loveliness. A fra
grant similitude surely; charming les
son in economics, but inept and meaning
less, as it omits the one essential ele-
ment in the equation, which is, CON
scious life.
The disinherited human suffers when
cut off; the rose branch knows no pang
This sophistry is the asp in the petals
of the oil mans exquisite flower. The
abyss between the vegetable and the
human is unplumbed and unspanned, and
the analogue is therefore inadequate
Let me present in less poetic parable
the wage-earner's survey of the same
matter. A certain farmer in the middle
west won every prize for fat swine at
the county fair Each year he bore off
the blue ribbon and lucre appendant
thereto. His neighbors tried in vain to
wrest his laurels from him. They
bought pigs from the identical litter
and feed from the same dealer. They
cooked, spiced, and steamed it. They
fed it to the Berkshires without stint
even coaxed and entreated the bristly
people of the sty to have a little more
of the same. 1t was vain, however, for
the envied granger always produced a
porker few pounds heavier than the
others. Finally they bribed his secret
from freckled hired man in his en-
ploy. The successful breeder was a
psychologist. He knew that the crea.
lures had, each beastie of them, soul
wee, vulgar, aborted, unperfumed SOUL
to be sure, but yet such as could be
harnessed and employed to bring hard
cash to students of porcine soteriology
When the big fellow, fortnight before