Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1916-12-12
Report to Federal Council Recommends Church Re
 Made Community Center.
GIVE ENCOURAGEMENT
 TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS
Commission on Church and Social Service Believes That Ministers Should Reserve Criticism for
 Use as Last Resort.

St. Louis, Dec. 11.--At today's ses- sion of the quadrennial meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the Rev. Worth M. Tippy, of Vanderbilt University, read the report of the commission on the church and social service, outlin- ing an exhaustive program of general social welfare.
 The attitude of the church to rec reation, was one of the subjects on which he laid stress. This attitude, he said "has been on the whole cri tical and negative; should now be- come sympathetic, positive, and aggressive. It should be contended that it is Christian service, natur- al expression of Christian love.
 "A direct way in which the churches are in position to con tribute to this need is by enlarging their work as neighborhood centers. Their possible contribution is very significant, due to the fact that there are 207.72S Protestant churches in the United States, and that they are thor oughly organized and firmly estab- lished in the heart of every com munity."
 The commission urged better organizatio namong the churches for education for social service, and discussed the relation of the pulpit to politics. It said, in part:
 "In their relation to public officials, ministers. evangelists, and ministers ,o;o to rnI1cn Tho prevailing attitude of criticism to- ward public servants and to adopt one of sympathy and cooperation, re- serving public attacks, as working men reserve the strike, to be used only as a last resort. The remark able advance in municipal govern ment in the United States during the last decade justifies such change of attitude"
 It also took up the problem of un- employment, and declared that "when a period of unemployment due to industrial depression strikes community. it is immensly important for the churches to organize in a great way, to meet the emergency.
 Answers Argument fo~ Linnor.
 A reply to the financial argument advanced in opposition to prohibition was given by Rev Charles Stelzle. field secretary of the council who de- clared that if the money now invest cd in the liquor business were in- vested in average American industry # would give employment to four times as many persons. who collec- lively would receive four times as much wages as now and four times as much raw material would be required
 During the debate on the report Of the commission on evangelism, which recommended that evangelists be placed on salary, Rev. c. Blake of Chicago said he had bee masked by the head of the department of evange- lism of the Methodist Episcopal church to speak against the plan for nationwide evangelistic campaign. The counci! finally ordered that the recommendation for such campaign be eliminated from the report.
 The council adopted a resolution calling for national prohibition under amendment to the federal constitu- tion, and calling on Christians thru out the world to cooperate in an ef- fort to establish peace on the lasting basis of friendship and good will.
 Rev. Chas. S. Mcfarland was re- elected general secretary of the council tonight. Rev. Dr. Frank Mason North will act as chairman of the executive committee until Janu- ary il. when the committee is to meet in New York city to elect chairman to serve four years and transact other business.