The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-09-08
UNION CHURCH SERVICE
Rev. George S. Mills Gives Address
BETTING Labor Day Sunday.


The union service Sunday night il
the Second Congregational churcl
was addressed by Revi George S
Minis on "What the Christian Churcl
Has to Say About the Labor Situa
tion.'
/. Mr.. Mills pointed out the awaken
ing from the false idea that the
churches were not concerned will
civic, economic and other social ques
tions. He said that a strike or shu
down in Bennington, the disputes
about profits and wages. the manage
ment of our mills and factories, the
thrift or extravaganza Of our working
people, the duties and privileges OF
the wealthy, and, in short, the spirit
and program of our entire industrial
and social life, were as proper and
necessary topics to be referred to and
discussed in a church meeting as they
were in a Labor Union, Club room
or on the street.
Whether all appreciated it or not
the Christian church was bound to be
a tremendous force in the settlements
that were to come. The churches and
ministers of all faiths with other
Christian leaders and allied institu.
tions constituted a moral dynamic
and influence than which was none
more powerful in all the land. Let
the politicians take warning-th
have learned some things of late, for
as the Christian sentiment goes so
goes the country.
Most of Mr. Mills address was TAX
nj xuft On, Nf b,.s,
ton church program in this time of
serious industrial disorganization and
confiicting schemes OF reorganization.
He referred to the fact that the Fed
eral Council of the Churches of
Christ in America had put forth de-
tailed social and industrial creed. 1t
was founded on the principles of JUS
tice and brotherhood. The Christian
church claimed that there was So
luton TO revery problem arising be-
tween capital and labor, and in re-
spect to work and wages, as based on
these principles.
| Getting down to specific questions
and situations Mr. Mills discussed law
and order, strikes the organization of
industry as in labor unions and col
lective bargaining, and hours and
wages and management and profits.
Personally Mr. Mills said, he sym
pathized with the employer who OBJ
jected to the walking delegate" He
thought, If he we're an employer in an
old community like this, and had sus-
tanned personal and friendly rela-
tions with the men and women in his
factory or shop. whom he met on the
bstreet and reorganized and spoke to
by name, and in whose getting ahead
With home and a family and savings
| IN the bank he was honestly and sym
pathetically interested-he thought,
| If he were that sort Of employer in
such a town as Bennington. he would
resent with a good deal of indignation
d strangers coming in and by visit
| ing around and public speech unset
Ting the disposition of his employees
and finally bringing them to the point
of breaking with him or making de.
mands that seemed to him unreason-
able and perhaps impossible to meet
liz he was to continue his business
with success. That would be his hui
man nature, Mr. Mills said,--he could
not be blamed for it, and perhaps he
Itice on his side.
At the same time, Mr.. Mills said,
an employer was to remember if he
were Christian, that he was more
than a business man, manufacturers
or superintendent of "A mill or shop.
He needed to do a deal of hard think
ing, and to look out beyond the con
fines of his own town. out into the
country and the world, and know
something besides his own business;
he needed to have some social con-
seriousness, which would be increas-
ing all the time through reading and
study and observation.
Now the Christian program. how
ever one might best settle his own
local difficulty for the time being,
did call for the recognition of the fact
that just as combinations of capital
We're regarded as good business so
were also the combinations of labor
for the protection and promotion of
the interests of the laborers. II was
not fair to concede the right of one
competitor to organize and deny the
right OF the other to do So Collec
tive bargaining, on principle as
tulHhS WtTt, ulu llOL HldNt an uuldlT
motive and method. Labor Unions
have raised the standard of wage
workers. The Christian church ad-
mits their right to exist and strive for
the bettering of labor conditions.
AS for the local situation Mr.. Mills
said, that the groups of the workers
and the employees should not stay
apart. There was always possible a
settlement in a fair, reasonable and
fraternal way. Facts are facts, and
they could be brought to the light
every time. There ought to be a
show down for everybody, for open.
ing up other books for proving or dis
proving the argument. Let the lead
ers get together around council
table as the nations do. If the diff
Guilty can't be adjusted in that way,
submit 1t to rbitration-picking for
arbitration men with knowledge and
conscience believed in and trusted
by both sides.
The church is not on one side or
the other, until one party or the other
is proved to be wrong. It stands for
the welfare of all, for the prosperity
of the community The church wants
peace, the peace of Righteousness.
That will onrno hu tbo UNIV Of it,ctfoo