The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1921-09-02
Church and the Workers

them, cannot be realized, then you
| have a condition that is intrinsically
and essentially and fundamentally
wrong. 1t is the duty of governments
and the duty of statesmen to work
towards the realization of these three
fundamental rights of humanity.
| You men of this convention, through
your organization, have been the
most powerful influence in this direc-
ton. You, through your organiza-
tion, have accomplished more towards
realizing this ideal condition of hui
manity than all other agencies put
/ together. God bless you for what
you have done in the past, God speed
you towards the accomplishment of
the many more things that remain to
be accomplished by your organiza-
ton.
In this country church and state
are separate; it is well that they are !;
but in the great work of human well
flare, church and state must needs
unite and make common cause. The
way of working may be different with
the church and different with the
state, but both have the same object
and purpose in view-humanity's well
| fare-and church and state, Mr. Pres
ident and delegates, stand back of you
in convention assembled Church and
state say to you that no one, no mat
ter who he be or where he may be.
shall oppose your laudable purposes.
| Church and state say to those that
| want to oppose: "You shall not de-
| grade the dignity and the rights of
labor; you shall not bring back the
days of slavery to our blessed land;
you shall not chain the laboring man
| like a slave to your chariot of indus
try; you shall not stand in the way
of that progress humanity is making
| towards the higher and better things;
you shall not convert the great Amer
lean home into a sweatshop; you shall
not enter the sacred precincts of that
home and from that home steal away
the queen and bring her into. your fac
tory; you shall not take from that
same home the boys and girls and
stunt and dwarf them in their growth;
you shall not rob the cradle to get an
employe for your factory; you shall
not take from the strong, sturdy
shoulders of the husband and father
the burden of supporting the wife
and children of his love. He wants to
bear that burden, and you shall not
say that he shall shift that burden on
| to the weak, frail back of the wife and
mother of his children, not even
grown" All, gentlemen, it is an in
suit to the manhood of America. If
we cannot support our homes, then
God pity America-it is only mat
| ter of time when the end shall come.
| The American man, above all men
in the world, ought to be able, and is
able, under proper conditions, to sup
port his wife and children in decency
and ordinary comfort and to give them
those things to which they are entitl-
ed by the consent of public opinion
and the traditions of the world of the
past. You shall not enter those
homes and destroy the family life by
sending man, wife and children into
the workshop; you shall not tie the
hands of the laboring man, the worlds
saviour say it advisedly, the la
boring man, the worlds saviour-you
shall not bind his hands by restric
tions and legislation as to member
ship in unions or organizations such
as he may choose to select in order
to further the interests of his craft,
or of his particular needs and desires,
or simply to exercise that fundament-
al, universal right of all Americans
that right to organize for any and all
purposes except those purposes be
manifestly and nefariously wrong.
You shall not bind his hands and
prevent him from being a member of
an organization; you shall not WELD
the lash over the bare back of labor
that bears the burdens of humanity by
insisting upon unreasonable hours or
i To ont q
makes it impossible to labor with any
degree of satisfaction. You shall not
bring the strong American man to an
early decrepitude and to an untimely
grave You shall not press upon the
brow of labor the crown of thorns by
making labor more difficult than it is
absolutely necessary that it should be.
Gentlemen, you stand for this great
proposition that labor and humanity
shall not be crucifed upon the cross
of greed and profit.
ia Ia Ea
Perhaps the reason you have made
good only in small way is because
you have never had any real opposi-
tion to overcome, nothing to make you
put in your best licks.
"a - E
1t is said "trickery is the work of
the devil" You "trick" yourself as
we'll as your fellow workers when you
do not demand the union label.