Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-08-08
CALL CHURCHES TO
COOPERATE FOR
SOCIAL REFOR N
Federal Council Condemns Class
Hostility in Outline for Social
Reconstruction.
Would Have Capital and Labor Work
Together for Common Good.

The Federal Council Of the Churches
of Christ in America, which represents
thirty-one Protestant denominations
with 100000 members, has just
made public a program for social re-
construction in which definite plans
for social and economic readJustmeht
are suggested for the guidance OF
Christian people who are facing the
p%erpIexing conditions of the present
dav. The platform has been in prep
aratIon for several months by the Com
mittee of Direction Of the Commission
on the Church and Social Service, Oh
which Henry Churchill King is chair
man and the Rev. Worth M. Tippy sec
rotary.
Attempts at reform through class
strugg and class consciousness are
severely condemned, but high consld-
Grafton for the worker as to wages,
hours and participation in the control
of industry are urged. Freedom OF
speech. assembly and the press are de-
manded.
After maintaining that the method OF
social reconstruction must include con
servation of what has been achieved IN
the past, the report says:
1.-THE doctrine of the class conscious
struggle strikes at injustice by greater
and more savage injustice and tends In
practice to break up society. The die
tatorship Of the proletariat in practice
is a new absolutism In the hands OF a
few men and is as abhorrent as any
other dictatorship. The hope OF the
world is in the cooperation of indi
yiduals and classes and the final elimi-
nation of classes in the brotherhood OF
a Christian society.
Deplores Tendency to Violence.
"Class consciousness and the use of
violence are not confined to revolution
airy groups. The possession of wealth
and education tend to the formation
of classes and industrial ownership
and management to a class conscious
ruling group. We observe, also, with
regret, numerous resorts to mob action
in which returned soldiers and work
men have sometimes participated, fire.
quently without police restraint, the
GHsDg Indictment to riot by GER
tain public officials and periodicals
and the unfortunate and dangerous
tendency of many state and municipal
officials to deny fair hearings to rad
zeal offenders and to use unnecessary
and provocative brutality during
strikes.
1T is undesirable that private citi-
zens or groups Of v%igilantes should
be allowed to take the law into their
own hands. Workingmen believe they
do not get an equal nhance before the
law, and it is highly important that
whatever real basis there is for this
conviction should be removed"
The platform holds that provision
should be made for joint responsible
ty and control between the employer
and employee in industry, as the move
ments for shop committees ana coun-
ellis have both an economic and a spir-
itual Significance in that they are or
may be expressions of brotherhood and
recognize the right of the worker to
full development of personality.
"The STATE, as the governmental
agency Of the community, with the CO.
operation Of all involved, should at
tempt to secure to the worker an in
come sufficient to maintain his fami-
ly at a standard of living which the
community can approve. This living
wage should be made the first charge
upon industry before dividends are
considered"
Would Keep Wages High.
The platform considers the necessity
for the continuance of high wages, and
the elimination of unemployment
through the rehabilitation and perma-
nent maintenance of a c~o-ordained ma
tien-wide employment service, and vo-
cational training tor all. 1t would
have the war debt paid by those most
able TO bear the burden, and not
through direct taxes. 1t asks for the
release of all sincere conscientious OBJ.
Jectors. Further demands are justice
TO the negro, adequate housing and q
substitute for the saloon. For the
last, community c%enters, the church
as a social center, fraternal orders and
private clubs, public recreation anc
education are suggested.
Urges Moral Reconstruction.
Above all is placed moral reconstruc
ton. and the platform closes with this
statement on that issue:
THE experiences Of the war, reveal
ing the nearness to the surface of saw
age instincts and deep s%el1shness il
vast numbers of men, the willingness
TO profteer on the part of workers az
well as employers. the intensity of ra
cial. national and religious antago
nisms have demonstrated anew tina
The progress of humanity is ~dependen
rot alone upon social organization, bu
-pon the strength of the moral emo
lions and the discipline of character.
"Now that the war is over, tn
Church should return to its histori
functions OF Christian nurture, evan
ualisu1 and v~elipiOuc education wifi