New-York tribune., 1919-10-04
Investigating Committee Of
the Protestant Federation
Will Be Named To-day;
Conference Is Adjourned
Principles Are Declared
Collective Bargaining Is
Indorsed by Delegates
After Plea by Bishop

times so bitter that fear was expressed
the conference would end without ar
irving at definite conclusions, the meet
ing called by the industrial relations
committee of the Interchurch World
Federation yesterday adopted a pro-
gramme for the intervention OF the
! Protestant churches in the social and
industrial crisis. The committee which
will investigate the steel strike was or
dered to begin its investigation imme-
diately upon receipt of acceptances
from its members. They will be named
to-day.
The instructions also direct the COM
mittee to present proposals to both
SIDES IN the controversy, with a view
to bringing about conferences looking
to a settlement of the strike. In addi-
ton, the committee is instructed to
make public "all its findings, and to
give them such wide circulation that
ultimately the whole of the facts will
be in the hands of every Christian min
ster and layman in the United States"
Repeated efforts were made to COM
NIT the conference to a resolution that
would condemn the United States Steel
Corporation for not agreeing to such
conferences, but, on the Intervention
of John II. Walker. the resolution was
withdrawn. His point was that any def
milton of the stand Of the conference at
this time would pre- judice the steel mill
owners against their investigation.
Walker Urges Proposals
1t was on Mr.. Walkers motion that
the substitute resolution calling for
submitting proposals to both sides, with
view to arranging conferences was
adopted.
A declaration of principles, the re-
suit of hours of constant labor by the
Findings Committee, the chairman Of
which is DR.. Frank Mason North, prcsi-
dent of the Federal Council Of Churches
of Christ in America, was submitted.
After a long debate it was adopted
with some amendments. The declara
tion was preceded by a statement that
"The Church is deeply and seriously
concerned in the industrial situation,
because all questions which involve
human beings are fundamentally cthi-
cal. The present economic and indus
trial system has worked hardship to a
substantial portion of the workers of
this country, and of the world at large,
and has encouraged even in the best Of
men the spirit of cOvctousncss and the
lust for power Men on both sides are
the victims of the system. Tne present
industrial system is on trial. We make
this appeal to the principles of reli-
gion not merely because Of the suffer
ings of the workers or the tyranny of
organized capital or the tyranny of or
ganizcd labor, but because of desire
for substantial economic and social
righteousness. and for the sake of our
national character and human happi-
ness
Collective Bargaining Indorscd
The declaration of principles recog-
nizes the principle of collective bar
gaining. When this section of the dec
laration was read the debate started
Ii was argued that the statement was a
generalization and that it should be
made to apply to something specific
At this juncturc Dr.. Fred b. Fisher
executive secretary of the industrial
relations committee of the Inter
Church World Federation, called attcn-
tlon to the fact that an address by the
pres sding officer had enumerated the
same principles embodied in the dec
laration and moved for its adoption as
the sense of the whole body. This
shifted the debate for time. but
finally the motion was adopted by ac-
clamation.
Bishop f. J. Mcconnell, of Denver,
OF the Methodist Episcopal Church,
made an address. in which he empha-
sized that before the Church could
have her maximum influence with
thinking people she must recognize the
principle that her own practice is more
important than her preaching. He
called attention to the fact that by the
accumulation of huge funds-he named
three that totalcd nearly $500, 900 600
the Church had to be regarded as tied
up to an existing economic system, mo
matter what it may be-"
Wise Spending Urged
The bishop then said:
"Now, since that is true, there are
certain things that we have to Law
down. 1t seems to me, for our practjce.
and the first is this: We have to think
of the Church in the first place as a
spender of money. If that kind of a
!. sum, that amount of money, is to come
INTO the hands of the Church, then GER
talnly there should be the utmost wis
dom IN the spending of the money.
Ihe church then must under the
obligation to give these invested funds
the closest scrutiny.
"The Church is now and will bc-
come more and more an cmplover of
iabof. we must remember that We
nave enterprises of various kinds. pub
lshlng enterprises, enterprises of all
kinds, by which the Church comes di
rcctly into the field as an cmplovcr
of labor. How much good is it going
10 90 US TO get together in meetings
OF this kind and vote resolutions and
all that sort of thing about the rccog-
nltlon OF the labor movement and then
sno" an absolute unwillingness to deal
with these particular situations az they
arise within our own scope?
Problem of Nations
Il have heard labor leaders saw time
and time again that in dealing with
church enterprises they were perfect
~ wiling not to insist upon the out
right closed shop but to come to some
KIND OF an arrangement themselves
with those concerns that recognize the
peculiar nature Of religious industry
and recognize it is not being operated
alone for private profit
"Collcctive bargaining, whore the
men are collected by employers and
where the collectors select tho mon
who are to speak,'i not very much of
collective bargaining. at least from the
STANDPOINT of the laboring man. Now.
we come to something else, and that
is very important, it seems to mo. and
IS this. In this new church movement.
as we look out to the nations Of the
earth, we may just as we'll remembe,
this that the great problem in tho
present days ls not merely the problem
l..