Norwich bulletin., 1919-09-22
LABOR COMBINES CAN
 STARVE THE WORLD

| ruthlessness because they can cut all l the arteries of the nations life at a | stroke. said Rev. $. H. Howe, D. D., in
 a masterly sermon delivered before his l congregation at Park Congregational | church Sunday morning.
 | In his sermon. the theme of which l was The Labor Problem. Rev. pr. | Howe called attention to the-need of consultations, for, in his own words, ] They can starye the world by stop l ping the forces of production and of 1 transportation and bring in universal | anarchy if we interpOse no resistance . | In his sermon Rev. .Dr. Howe said: 1 While we have slept in stupefying [ inertia there has grown up an organ | ization which bodes for evil. beside l which the menace of Germany or the ] drink evil sinks into insignificance. | Some of us have been for a long while | watching the gathering coils of the 1 mighty python. and it's menace to civ ] ilization. and now we see the full | outworking of these mighty forces for evil which are appearing in full flower and fruit in European countries and are stealthily approaching the same development in our own land These combina tions of labor, for potintial evil can. when fully employed, exceed in destructiveness German ruthlessness, of the nations life at stroke They can starve the world by stopping the forces of production and of transpor- tation and bring in universal anarchy If we interpose no resistance.
 want as an outside observer to speak of these mighty potentialities
 And first it is patent at a glance that
 organized abor in it's full federated
 power can paralyZe the industries of a
 continent-stop all the wheels of in
 dustry in 3 day. I am not saying it
 has done this yet. but it is reaching
 after the power that can do it. The
 individual units may protest and dis
 approve. but they are commandeered
 and must obey orders.
 A few gentlemen in tall hats and
 creased trousers who earn their saIa-
 res by ordering strikes and sowing
 the seeds of discontent, can set the
 business and industrial world adrift.
 This is the meaning and potentia1ity
 or federated labor. There appeared a
 few days ago cartoon representing
 Ia Dor as a modern Samson taking hold
 of the pillars which uphold the temple
 of civilization and breaking them in
 frasments and toppling in ruin the
 locking on and saying: we knew
 you could do it." and we all know it
 can be done
 They can destroy the safeguards of
 governments. They can tear up
 thrones they have done in Russia and make other forms of government ineffective as they have been doing in
 the states of central Europe They can render presidents orders scraps of paper, defy rulers and set civic order adrift as they have lately been doing Tn Boston. and by tampering with the
 ire department can set city in flames They can withdraw all the safeguards of order and law and leave a city at the mercy of thieves and thugs they did in Boston and I.jv erpool and threatened to do in Seattle and Winnipeg and are threatening to do in smaller places
 In the third nlace they can break the bond of citizen loyalty to the na ton and destroy patriotism. They can stop and have stopned the manufac- ture and transportation of munitions or war in the time of grave national peril as they attempted in England When loyalty to country and the con stituted authorities of government an taSon1ze loyalty to their unions they go with their unions. We cannot be patriots and erect our clan into s,, . preme authority over the conscience
 Patriotism is not policy but a sac rament" and vet we see it sacrificed to the mandatory of labor leaders
 Then we have seen them antagonize moral reforms when the mandate from leaders asks for resistance Organized labor defeated prohibition in Great Britain during the war and is keeping the door barred against it al this mo- ment. Christian men said in our own country No beer no work" and prob ably would have carried out their threat but for the fierce lightning of public opinion They were a little too late. The gate was barred
 These organiza tions work disaster to l religion. How can man be religious man who is so wanting in the sense of brotherhood as to put the vast ma jor- 1 lty of his countrymen in jeopardy for 1 the sake of advancing the material in terest of small minority? How can man be religious who stops all the productive forces of the country. ar- i rests the currents of traffic which ; bring food and fuel and the necessi- i ties of life to the mass of his fellow , How can a man be re- ligieus and spurn the Golden Rule; | who waylays you and threatens you | with starvation. even violence if you 1 do not acknowledge his authority or advance his wages according to a 1 standard he sets up? You wonder why the workingmen are not in the church.
 these organizations of labor work moral and physical disaster to the himself. These masters of labor unions can unhouse and starve him a mendicant who must depend on the charity of others. They destroy his freedom and self respect and re- duce him to demeaning slavery. No his master than members of the Ia bor unions and for this my pity and com go out to him. Tn many cases they cannot obey their own best moral Judgments They must coerce their own consciences to obey the or deB of their ma sters. They must help to carry out strikes when they are convinced they are wrongly order ed. And what personal degredat ton awaits a man who allows his con sciencA to be coerced.
 How can he become free true man much less religious man if he is to go full head against his own ethical mandates.
 Now what Is to be done about this? and political economists and promoters of the morals of the people had better be about these tre- nerdous problems. Look at the cold acts.
 Here at the heart of a national gov is another goyernrnen an tfr1rerjJJrn in iy1,ner{oro is forfl