Montana labor news., 1936-09-03

dBI1Culluldl dltdS, Tie lcBloCo uC
MED equal justice, and all others
upon whom the bitter pressure OF
unfair conditions falls. We are
bound to remember that it was with
such as these that BUR Master iden-
titled Himself when He said: I'm
asmuch as yet did it not unto the
least of these my brethren, we did
it not unto Me"
Curtailment of Freedom
Assailed
Second, a courageous mind.
The Christian conscience does not
make us any more nearly infalll-
BILE than other men in technical de-
tails. 1t does not equip us to speak
| Dramatically on precise political or
economic programs. But it ought
to, and does, give a clarity of CEN
trail judgment. 1t turns upon all
questions the light of m supreme
consideration. Because it believes
| that all men are the children of God,
it believes that the only right ideal
for any community is n in which
there shall be freedom for all men
to develop in thought and in action
the best that is in their %personali-
ties.
Therefore, the Christian spirit
must stand like a flaming sword
against all frightened attempts to
bring upon America that Stacking
of human thought and that sitting
of independent speech which lie like
a dark shadow on those lands where
dictatorship prevails.
The teachers oath bills intro
duced in many legislatures and
passed by some, the gag laws" in
troduced in Congress, the vicious as
saults upon academic freedom, and
| ultimately upon academic honesty,
the widespread denial of the right
t of labor to organize and bargain col
lectively, which have been launched
2 by sinister influences under the
mask of patriotism, are denials not
only of political democracy, but
of the Christian faith in the dig
| nifty of the human soul, and with
them, therefore, the Christian
church can have no part nor lot.
Peaceful Methods Urged
Third, a faith in the will of Christ
! as the one and only way for our
worlds redemption.
In these immediate days when the
{ conditions of our world have be-
= come so ominous, we need the he
roic confidence of this faith. There
: is too much bitterness already in oui
\ domestic affairs. There is too much
u bitterness between the nations
The conflicts of economic interes
. and the antagonists between eco
" nomic classes are turning ava.
from patient reasonableness TOWARD
; forcible repression on n side ant
{ violence on the other.
; Many today believe that u sos
L cial unrest will lead to revolution
4 and that the old hatreds between
y the nations are leading inevitabl,
ST to new war. But those who follow
II Christ will yield to no such impoten
a fatalism. In thought, in converse
&c ton, and in our influence on pub
lie policy, we must set forward an,
persistently support those measure
* of cooperation and constructiv
service through which a better socis
It order may be ~peaceably achieved.
We must resist the policy of il
creased ornaments and the growt
of military control, and unflaggine
ly urge the participation of tn
United States in study and adjus
ment among the nations Of those il
CAPABILITIES, political and economi
from which wars take their rise.
=. Christians should follow the pic
III neering example of those who, lih
~ Kagawa, make love the controllir
principle in personal, economic, ar
- international relationships. SUE
q men may be hated, misunderstood
~ prosecuted, executed even; but the
can be the seed for the futur
~ Though the pathway lead to a GRO
we remember that the 0 is Il
NV sign not of defeat, but of final tt
,er umph.
IL