Montana labor news., 1936-09-03
BY A. F. of L. News Service

By A. F. of L. News Service
Strongly worded criticism of a
number of the anti-social aspects OF
our industrial system and emphasis
on the importance of mobilizing
Christian influence for the elimina-
ton of many recognized evils and in
support of measures having in view
the realization of a better social or
der feature the Labor Sunday Mes
sage for 1886 issued by the Depart
ment of the Church and Social Serv-
ice, Federal Council of Churches of
Christ in America, from the Coun-
ellis headquarters in New York
City.
Among outstanding evils which
Christians should not tolerate the
message includes the widespread
denial of the right of labor to or
ganize and bargain collectively"
economic conditions which create
wealth for the few and poverty for
the masses, unemployment, under
nourished children in families on re-
lief, sweatshops, child labor, and
underpaid sharecroppers.
The text of the Councils message
follows:
On a day in the spring of this
year this wireless message came
from London: Edward VIII, after
visiting the great new liner, Queen
Mary and the squalid Glasgow
slums, turned to someone near him
and asked, How do you reconcile
world that has produced this mighty
ship with the slums we have JUS
visited? "
That question has to do with more
than an accidental contrast. It TO.
cuses the drastic interrogation
which the Christian mind and hear.
must direct to our whole civilization
now.
/ "SOft Compromise Must Be
Avoided
How can we reconcile a WorlC
t which provides, on the n hand
luxury and freedom for the few
and a sordid, drab, and pinched ex
istence for the many? For tn,
| Christian conscience there can be n
reconciliation while these facts re
t main. We cannot merely look tn
2 other way. Rather, we must loo
straight at the harsh reality an
4 never be at rest until we have sc
S in motion redeeming social purpose
which can change old facts to neN
p ones, juster, fairer and more kind.
Our danger today is that the dis
: content with social and economi
evils which these recent tragic year
have reused may try to satisfy itse.
It with soft compromise. We are |
: danger of looking at the ship an
S forgetting the slums. As the fir
signs of industrial recovery begi
IS to appear and mems energies launc
out with a reviving boldness, W
may think that we can leave b.
hind us the dark record of the d.
preston years. We may imagir
that unemployment, poverty, Il
IN disintegration Of families and Il
IS disillusionment Of millions of PEI
pie, old and young, will someho
take care of themselves. The shil
e. Of our economic fortunes are on Il
high seas again, we think. New
as mind the cost at which they we
E put there.
End "Cramped Existence" for
ut Masses
&c But this cost we must mind. 1t
Id intolerable to the Christian spil
that we should forget the humi
ia havoc which economic depressit
ne has caused, and which no haphaza
DIS business revival can possibly Gun
Out of the crucible of these rece
Il. years, one iron purpose should
ne forged; namely, the will that not
ing shall divert us from the contin
ing effort to find those necessa
he ways of readjustment - wheth
e. through voluntary cooperative {
ganizationc, through taxation,
= through other practicable social &C
H.