The Connecticut labor news., 1921-06-17
.EPISCOPALIANS FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH:
 BISHOP HANDICAPPED
Big Business" Loses Fight on De troit Prelate Who Stood
 for Justice.

] Efforts Ot Big Business to suppress ! liberal Churchmen who are speaking out | against industrial autOCraCy are meeting | just the contrary result The most re- ! cent instance of the refusal of the church. l to seal the lips of Clergymen was the action of the diocesan convention of the ' Protestant Episcopal Church at Detroit ] when that body went on record as "url- l qt1alihedly for the American right of free ! speech on the part of the bishop and the
 clergy"
 This action was precipitated by the
 resignation of Bishop Charles D. Will E jams, of the diocese of Detroit, one of | the best known and most fearless liberal i churchnen in the country, when he was facing criticism of a solemn statement of his beliefs concerning the obligations of the church toward social and industrial problems. The convention refused to consider his retirement and approved res olutiOns supporting his right to speak freely on subjects that have been dec1ar-
 rd taboo by the Manufacturers Associa-
 tion and other organizations of labor
 baiting employers.
 Early in April Bishop Williams made memorable address before the ariSto- cratic congregation of the Cathedral of I\St. John the Divine in New York City This wonderful edifice was erected with the money of millionaires, including J. P. Morgan.
 Bishop Williams declared that the United States is today in the control of Ian invisible government" and that we are in a reign of commercial conscience
 and the rule of the American business man" He denounced the boycott of a financial drive of the Y. w. C. A. by Pittsburgh employers as one of the foul est pages in Americas history" Big Business carried its grievance to the diocesan convention in Detroit where
 Bishop Williams restated his principles Eand again referred to the employers boy colt of the Y. w. C. A. campaign, Challenge IS plain,' he said. Either
 the church must abandon the Well-consid- \ered, fair and sane message which she \has formulated on social and economic \qucstions and suppress her proclamation 'of 1t, thing unthnkable for anyone who | has a conscience and convictions or she > must enlarge and democratize the basis
 of her support so as not to be dependent
 on or subservient to any class high or low; or she must be content with more meagrc support and restricted operations. { Her Master was poor and persecuted,
 but free. and 1t may be that He IS now calling His church to follow in His foot steps,
 Later. at an executive session behind closed doors, after he had offered his resignation, Bishop Williams said
 My own choice IS made I must abide by it. I can not promise to refrain in the future from speaking as 1 have spoken i'll the past. But 1 am not will ing to embarrass the diocese or hinder its work.
 The resolution refusing to permit
 Bishop Williams to retire concluded with the statement that this convention de- sires to go on record as standing unquali-
 fiedly for the American right of free
 speech on the part of the Bishop and the clergy. regardless of our respective in- dividual points of view, believing with confidence in the ultimate power of the gospel of Christ and desiring only that that shapp prevail in all the phases of our modern life