Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-12-01
THE CHURCH
AND INDUSTRIAL
DEMOCRACY
continued from Page u

case and that often amounts to a
practical denial Of justice. Too often
technicalites are permitted to defeat
essential justice. We are very sensl-
tive TO crimes against property but
too callOus 70 crimes against people.
The poor devil who steals out Of a
freight car goes to the penitentiary
but the rich rascal who steals a rail
road, well, he may 90 to the United
States senate.
Having achieved democracy in poll
teal, religious and educational realms,
will the people remain content with
autOcracy in the Industrial realm
Nay, nay, it is written in the stars
that democracy Is 10 complete itself.
Some day steel king or coal baron
will be as great an anachronlsm as
Louis XIV would be today with his,
Il am the State" In finding our
way out of the present economic
wilderness, two extremes are to be
avoided. On the one hand capitals
tic reactionism, and on the other hand,
sociaIistic radicalism. We may ex-
pect scant guidance from those who
stand for the status quo in industry;
from those who set property above
personality and who profit by the
present economic regime. On the
other hand, we may expect little from
radical socialism. | know socialism Is
not the bugaboo ii was in other days.
There is truth in the dictum of John
Stewart Mill, I'VE are all socialists
nowadays" By that Mill meant not
that we had adopted the Marxion So
cialism but that we had abandoned
quite definitely the Laissez Faire doc
trine which long was the orthodox
political economy. The evils OF UNI
restricted competition were so great
that there has been an inevitable re-
action. Ana all over the world today
there is a movement toward larger
measure Of social control. But | can
not make myself believe that Marxion
socialism points the way to a better
day. fear it would stifle individual
enterprises; that it would develop
bureaucracy with fearful possibilities
of corruption and that it would break
down through the cupidity Of human
nature. The fallacy of socialism is
that it proposes to accomplish by
economic change what can be attained
by nothing less than spiritual regen-
Grafton. There is truth in the remark
of Bishop Creighton that, Socialism
will only be possible when we are all
perfect and then it will not be need
ed" Capitalism and socialism are
extremes; between them stands in
dustrial democracy. II combines the
strength of both and the weaknesses
of neither. Such measures as collec-
tive bargaining, the employers liza
biity, the abolition of child labor,
the minimum wage, profit sharing,
the Whitly plan, employee representa-
ton in industry and provision for
safe and sanitary conditions under
which to work are measures that
look toward industrial democracy.
Now what should be the attitude
of the church toward this democratic
in industry? If she is an
tagonistic or Indifferent, to this great
human struggle, she will be pushed |
aside and regarded as relic of a
bygone age. Jesus has been called, !
"The first great Humanist." His |
church dare not be Indifferent where |
vital human interests are at stake.
The economic question is more than
matter of bread and butter, of dollars
and cents, of wages and hours. 1t is
question of human values. II means
AM opportunity for millions to live
decent, human life. | offer three sug
gestions as to what the church should
do:
/. The church should denounce in
justice wherever and whenever 1t ex-
lists. She should cry out against the
social wrongs of the age with all the
passion of the Hebrew Prophets.
Some people count the Inter-Church
World Movement a failure. But |
declare to you that the impartial and
scientific investigation of the United
States Steel Industry by the Inter-
Church World Movement, that alone
would have justified all the expense
involved in the enterprise. Nothing in
recent years has done more to re-
habilitate the church in the confidence
of the toilers than that investigation
and its publication. The church
SHOULD fearlessly denounce injustice
wherever and whenever it exists.
2. The church should deal with
the dynamics rather than the mechan-
les of industry. Her field is not
methods but motives, not policies but
principles. The church as church
should never advocate specific econo-
mic program, whether single tax OF
Socialism or lndividualism or what
not. She should preach persistently
Jesus Christs principles of justice
and fraternity and leave their practi-
cal application to the economist, the
publiciSt and the legislator. Too long
the church has been content to mop
up the floor. Now she should insist
upon the turning off of the spigot.
She should demand that causes be
dealt with rather than mere symp-
toms. She should demand that the
unpriVileged classes be given not
tainted charity but clean justice.
3. The church should produce So
cial climate in which economic wrong
will wither away. She should Christ
issues. Slavery and duelling passed
away before an awakened Christian
conscience. So in an atmosphere OF
friendship and good will, industrial
wrongs will become intolerable. They
will disappear as the dew melts be-
fore the rising sun. The task OF the
church is to generate the spirit of
good will in the hearts Of men and
that spirit will inevitably come to
social expression.
As yet the movement toward in
dustrial democracy is in its beginning.
But the significant thing in industry
is not where We are but the direction
in which we are moving. The drift is
steadily toward a more democratic
type of industry. In England the
Whitley Plan has met with splendid
success. If you will read book like
Ida Tarbells, Industrial Idealism,'
you will be surprised to learn the ex-