The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1918-09-06
Glowing Tribute IS Paid Organic
ed Workers By Former Ham
iltOn Pastor In Sermon
Last Sunday.
He Says Labor's Biggest Fight
Namely, For Collective Bargain
ing, Is. After All, Fight
For Peace.

Dr. A. B. Austin at the Madisonville
M E. church Sunday morning, speak
ing on the theme, "The Portion of
Labor" from the text, Give me the
portion of the substance that falleth
to me" (Luke xv., IL. said in part:
"a time of numerous strikes and
lockouts is a time of superheated pas
sions. 1t is hard, at such juncture,
for man detached from both the
camp of labor and the camp of capital
to get hearing. If he tries to hold
the balance level each camp will have
it that he belongs to the other Try as
hard as he may to be a judge, he will
be thought an advocate. The pulpit's
comparative silence on acute indus
trial problems is thus to be accounted
for. 1t is not from lack of sympathy
or interest, but only from the preach
er's advance knowledge that each side
will think he is talking on a subject
he knows nothing about if he says
anything in criticism of their aims or
practices. In a time of passionate
feeling neither side will believe that
he is dispassionate.
Present is Quiet.
opt +odo,, - ~ e,,ol, q wood +;,,, q
/ The industrial world is unusually
quiet. The church's wish to be abso-
lutely fair stands little better chance
of being credited than it ordinarily
does.
Labor Day might be more fifty
called Labor Union Day The only
bodies customarily participating in it's
menster parades are labor unions. In
sections of the country where labor is
not umonized you can travel about on
the first Monday of September with
out knowing that it is Labor Day The
primary aim of the labor union is very
we'll expressed in my text. A union is
company of workingmen banded to-
| gether to secure the portion of the
worlds substance that falleth to them.
l have no apology for saying that this
! pulpit is in hearty sympathy with this
outstanding aim. If it were possible
everywhere to crush the unions out,
as has been done in some localities and
by some captains of industry, we can
i only believe that it would be an i'm
measurable industrial calamity. The
world needs the labor union, the same
as it needs the corporation. 1t is too
late in the day to try to get along
without either. The corporation neces-
states the labor union.
Some Practices Wrong.
"To be sure, some of the practices
of some labor unions have been repre-
hensible to the last degree, and we
would be less than men and Americans
if we did not denounce such objection
able practices. Kaiserism is thing
to be resisted as much when it is clad
in blue jumpers as when it is clad in
the royal purple. In all candor it
ought to be said, however, that labor
has had no monopoly of Kaiserism.
In our past industrial history probably
as much of it has been attempted by
the corporation as by the labor union.
John Galsworthy's picture, in his great
play of Strife, of stern, unyielding
head of concern in deadlock with an
equally stern and unyielding repre-
sentative of his men, is a. picture
drawn to life. Each side has been en-
tirely too ready to assume that the
other side was the devil, and that it
was permissible to fight the devil with
fire. Each side has at times been
high-handed. There's no denying that
Must Be Broad.
If we are to get anywhere today in
the consideration of this subject we
must be broad minded We ought to
see that the present industrial situa-
ton, in the intervals when it is not
actual war, -is preparedness for war
And we ought to understand that ir
any war mems passions are stirred
and things are liable to happen that
never would be done in their cooler