Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-09-18
LADOP'S SERVICE TO
NATION ENTOLLED IN
LARGEST CATHEDRAL

By international Labor News Service.
NEW YORK CITY, Sept. liza
Dor and the religious world will long
remember Labor Sunday, 1926, as
day of tribute to the dignity, the i'm
portance and the future of organized
labor as reflected by the American
Federation Of Labor.
The vesper service in the Cathedral
of st. John the Divine, the massive
Protestant Episcopal edifice being
completed on Morningside Heights as
Church for all people" was crowded
with union workmen and friends of la
Dor who heard Bishop Manning pay
tribute to the Drawn which reared the
massive structure thus far completed
and urge labor to take the place in the
councils of all churches ito which it is
clearly entitled,
William Green, president of the
American Federation of Labor, re-
spending on behalf of the labor move
ment to Bishop Manning's admonition
that labor's cause will have the sup
port of the religious world when its
aims are in accord with the standards
of the 'tDivine Laborer" said: at is
significant that He was mindful of the
physical needs of the people in that He
fed them before he preached"
I President Green was receptive to the
powerful influence of the churches to
bring about industrial justice and &C.
cord in industry and said that only by
the acceptance of the principles of
equality and fair deal for which la
Dor strives can ''the great mass Of
mankind be brought nearer to the en-
joyment of life"
Workers Inspect Cathedral
Long before the hour of the service
arrived carpenters, bricklayers,. stone
masons and men and women from the
miscellaneous trades were on hand to
look over the huge edifice, to judge
the solidity of the concrete founda-
tions, sunk deep into the bedrock of
Manhattan Island, the great support
ling buttresses for the cathedral roof,
the massive stone columns, faced with
sandstone, and the dome rounded out
with brick, the highest form of skilled.
craftsmanship.
In the congregation were many
workmen not yet recovered from acct
dents. On one aisle seat sat a man
whose head was swathed in bandages.
In front pew was a mechanic with
his arm in a plaster cast, and near
him man with a crushed foot.
Pays Tribute to WOrkmen
The debt owed to organized labor by
the cathedral was acknowledged by
Bishop Manning, who said:
"No part of the great building win
be more significant or more sacred
than that which will stand as the Wis
IDLE symbol of labor's share in it."
Bishop Manning's address, in part,
follows:
II want to pay my tribute of honor
and respect to your late leader, Sam
uel Gompers, who, in my judgment,
earned the grateful appreciation of all
Igood Americans by his courageous adj
vocacy of the cause of labor and by his
iequally courageous opposition to those
revolutionary and destructive influ-
iences with which he had to contend,
and with which you are now rightly
dealing. With his whole heart Samu-
ell Gompers stood for the cause of la
Dor, and with his whole heart also he
was true and loyal American citi-
zen. 1t is right that we should pay
honor to his memory today.
81 want to express my warmest and
heartiest good wishes to your present
honored and trusetd leader, William
Green, to whom we are shortly now to
listen and whose presence here es-
pecially welcome as a symbol of the
close relations which ought certainly
to exist, and which, thank God, are
coming much more fully to exist be-
tween the church and labor.
Church Is Spiritual Leader
'It is not the function of the church
to speak as an expert upon intricate
industrial and economic problems. It
is the function of the church to bring
the spirit of Christ, the spirit not of
warfare but Of fellowship and cooper
alton, into the problems which capital
and labor have to solve.
There are three guiding principles
which think the church should con-
stantly and fearlessly uphold before
the conscience of our people.
First, that the true purpose Of hu-
imam labor is not to enable this or that
lperson or group of persons to possess
inordinate wealth, often to their own
Injury. The true purpose of labor is
to produce those things which are nee
essary for the sustenance, the happi-
ness and the development of mankind,
and is this beautiful and noble work
all should have proper share and just
reward.
Second, that our industrial system
should be so ordered as to give each
one as nearly as possible that equality
Of opportunity which the Constitution
Of our country intends him to have.
That a way must be found for men to
labor together for the common good,
cooperating in fellowship, not Compel
ing in suspicion and hostility, so that