The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-07-03
BY r. CARLETON

tion Of our profit-motivated social
order, as public enemy No. 1
Equally insistent have we been IN
demanding a new social order
founded upon production for use'i
and adjusted to a more fair and
equitable system of distribution.
AS far back as 1916, the General
Conference of Methodist church.
with delegates from. every state in
the Union and many foreign ma
lions, inserted in it's discipline the
following resolutions: 1--WE call
upon all employers, investors and
wage earners to do everything
within their power, first. to grant
living wage as a minimum in
every industry; second, to make
the most equitable division of the
products of industry that can ulti-
mately be devised" Every sue
/ ceeding General Conference since
1916 has made still more drastic
pronouncements against the social
1nJustlces of our capitalistic order.
For the past two decades the
Methodist church has consistently
raised a voice of healthy protest
against the vast inequalities of So
ciety with special accent upon the
unfair distribution of our produc-
ing agencies.
Today our ultra conservative
leaders are demanding that we
haul down our progressive banner,
repudiate the teachings of twenty
years, sound an instant retreat and
scrap every vestige of socialized
christianity. The higher ecclisiasts
of the church are terror stricken
at the threat of a few rich lay
men to Withdraw financial support,
If the new social order is not i'm
mediately Soft-pedaled into in
nocuous quietude. Is the prophet
martyr spirit dead among US?
Have we grown a bunch of play
actors to adorn our pulpits? Have
all our swift invectives against
the profit system been an empty
gesture, mere pulpit pyrotechnics
to amuse the mob? Has the
Methodist Episcopal church offer !
ed itself for sale to the highest
bidder? Has the church, like the
nation, surrendered to an oil
garchy of wealth?
The General Conference Of 1916
at Columbus, Ohio, displayed a de-
reactionary complex, which /
meant a disavoweI of
It's progressive teachings. Money
spoke eloquently at this confer
snce. Wealthy Methodist laymen
dominated its findings. Church
members differ little from outsid-
RS when measured in terms of
profit, money or power. Never
10 we find the scion of wealth ad-
7ocating new social order when
lie can hire some seemingly dis
Interested person to do it for him.
DR.. L. c. Clifford, religious edu-
ational director of the State of
1ontana, and a progressive, writes
hat determined effort is being
made by the reactionaries to take
he Methodist church out of the
program of creative social recon
tructlon. A general reorganiza-
ION of the church by conserva-
ives has already been begun.
'ome of the most advanced lead
rs of the church in the program
f social rehabilitation have been
opposed from office and substitu-
ons made by those who insist
lat the church must adopt a ret
ogressive progrm.
The leaders of the church, like
ne laws of the Modes and Per
ans change not during the flow =
the centuries. Ever their flan-
lg ensign has been, "save the
lurch." The basic teachings of
llrlstlanity mean little to them
hen predatory wealth threatens
Withdraw from the church. The
ghest ecclesiasts of the church.
ON the days of Amos down thru
e centuries, have been the enc
les of social reform. NV Dis
lcC superintendent recentlv wrote
e a letter accusing me of a fail
e TO get the sympathy of the
urcn In my efforts to create q
lr:lstlan social order. If he were
litgle more familiar with church
story he would know that few
clal reformers have gained the
of the church in the
ltlal movement, largely because
urch pontiffs have been fearful
monetary losses to the church.
REFORM movement in human
story has ever been initiated bv
1rch ecclesiasts. They reserve