The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1921-09-02
Address by
Bishop J. Henry Then

Denver A. F. of L. Convention
(The church and the workers stand
united on the proposition that labor
and humanity shall not be crucified
upon the cross of greed and profit.)
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle
men: | deeply appreciate the honor
extended to me by the invitation to
address you this afternoon, and one
of the ways in which I shall show my
appreciation is in the brevity of my
remarks. | shall make very short
address indeed.
No man who loves his country can
be Indifferent to the conditions of la
Dor in his country. The welfare of his
country forbids such indifference. The
prosperity of his country forbids such
Indifference. The prosperity and hap
piness of nation can be gagged by
the condition of labor in that nation,
and SO also can the nations standard
of civilization be gauged by the same
criterion.
| Labor is the source of wealth, but
it is only the labor of the free that
Is cause of prosperity and happi-
ness. The labor of the slave and of
the peon, the labor of the prison and
of the sweatshop, and the labor of the
women and the children, all these al
most automatically work for an in
crease of wealth, but they do not con-
tribute one particle to the nations
prosperity and happiness. Nay more,
they take away from the prosperity
and happiness of nation.
You gentlemen have come together
in convection for the purpose of aid
ing labor to the best of your ability
| by systematic, scientific, organized
effort You are the Representatives of
organized labor throughout the world,
1t is to the interests of every country
and of the entire world that organiza-
tions which promote the best inter
ests of humanity shall be furthered
! and that power which is beneficent
shall be exercised. He who has power
for mankind's good and fails to use
that power for that purpose commits
crime against his fellow-man.
All the country is deeply concerned
in what you men are going to do here
today, and it ought to be equally in
terested What is it that has brought
you here? 1t is your conviction that
| the condition of labor ought to be
made as nearly ideal as it is possible
| to make the condition of labor. The
lot of laboring man, God knows, is
hard enough even under the most fav-
orable conditions; and / have often
| thought that if all the world could
take its turn at hard labor that, ah,
then, indeed there would be more
sympathy and less opposition to the
efforts that organized labor make in
order to do away with the unneces-
sary hardships that are connected
with labor throughout the world.
From the beginning, labor has been
considered a curse. In Rome of old,
in Greece, in Egypt, in all the Orient,
and even in our country of America,
to some extent, there was a feeling
that labor was degrading, that it was
unworthy of a free man, that it was
the province of the slave, and that
only the slave should be called upon
to perform it. You members of or
ganized labor have raised the stand
ard of labor, you have pointed out
to the world in most effective way
its dignity and its grandeur.
Gentlemen, that you here in your
convention are animated by the best
of intentions and by the noblest of
purposes, only your enemy will deny.
That you have the prudence, the wis
dom and the ability to legislate sue
cessfullly along the lines of the pur
poses of your organization, that,
gentlemen, is proven by the history of
the past, and this present convention
shall again demonstrate that fact.
So long as you base your delibera-
tions and your legislation upon the
fundamental basis of love of the fell
low man, of justice, of honesty, of
truth, and of your legislation are 60
ing to be successful and efficient, be-
cause, based upon this foundation, the
measures must needs be those that
will benefit humanity and benefit the
members of your organization, per
haps, in special manner.
There are three fundamental, in
alienable rights which attach to every
man from the simple fact that he is
a human being. The first of these is
the right to life, or the right to ex-
istence; the second is the right to |
his species, that is, the
right to a family life; and the third is
this: that because he is human be-
ing he is entitled to so much of the
worlds goods as are necessary to keep
himself and family in decency and in
ordinary comfort. These three fun
iamental propositions no man can de-
ny without denying humanity itself.
There is no man but that is entitled |
to these three things and whenever