The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-19


New York.-After an exhaustive
study of social conditions In the
United States, extending over months
and In which more than 100 church
leaders collaborated, the Council of
Churches of Christ of America Issued
a report here finding that profound
suffering and unrest exist through
out the civilized world.
The report takes up a variety OF
subjects, dealing principally, how
ever, with the social and industrial
unrest in the working classes, and
| deplores the tendencies to violence,
but concludes with the significant
warning that II conditions are not
bettered then the people themselves
with indignation and bitterness will
take their destiny and that Of the
world into their own hands.
1.-THE church." says the report
finds itself in the midst of profound
unrest and suffering. The entire So
cial fabric of some of the most adj
vanced nations is in chaos and their
| people menaced by starvation, while
other powerful nations, of which the
United States is one, have expe-
rienced loss of life, material and
capital in the great war, and serious
ployment. 1t is. moreover, world
suffering from overstrain, agitated
| by conflicting programs Of reorgani-
cation.
1.-THE supreme teachings Of Christ
are of love and brotherhood. These
express themselves in democracy In
the cooperation of every citizen for
the good of each and all. The doc
trine of the class conscious struggle
is opposed to this ideal. 1t is rever-
sion to earlier forms of competitive
struggle. The dictatorship of the
proletariat in practice Is a new abb
soldtism in the hands of few men,
and is as abhorrent as any other
dictatorship. The hope of the world
is in the cooperation of individuals
and classes and the final elimination
of classes in the brotherhood of a
Christian society.
while conspiracy and violence
must be restrained by the police and
military forces OF the state, these
should be used to maintain public
peace and safety, and with due re-
gard to the established rights of
freedom of speech and peaceable as
sembly. 1t is undesirable that pri-
vate citizens or groups of vigilantes
should be allowed to take the law
into their own hands. Legislators,
judges and officials should act firmly
but justly, without bluster and with
out unnecessary violence. Working
men believe that they do not get an
equal chance before the law, and 1t is
highly important that whatever real
basis there is for this conviction |
should be removed.
4 81 -. -.
"A deep cause of unrest in industry |
is the denial to labor of a share in !
industrial management. Contro- ,
versics over wages and hours never |
go to the root of the industrial prob |
lem. Democracy must be applied to |
the government of industry as well as |
to the government of a nation, and as
rapidly and as far as the workers
shall become able and willing to ac-
cept such responsibility. Laborers
must be recognized as being entitled
to as much consideration as employ
ers and their rights must be equally
safeguarded.
Industry as Service.
1.-THE Christian and modern concep-
tion of industry makes it public
service. The parties of interest ere
not only labor and capital, but also
the community, whose interest tran
scends that of either labor or capital.
Actual wages, that is wages
reckoned in power to purchase COM
have been decreasing for
several years in spite Of wage in
creases. There is urgent need Of pro-
vision by industry, under the guild
ance of the government, for some
regular method Of adjustment of
wages and salaries to the purchasing
power of money"
Unemployment.
Unemployment is one Of the trag-
edies of the present industrial order,
which the war has demonstrated can
be controlled, or at least effectively
by the government and CO.
operating voluntary agencies. Any