The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-09-05
Life StorYOf
Continued from Page One)

and Co., which he declined. His chief
interest was still in the welfare and
improved conditions of Labor.
He then organized the Labor De-
partment of the national Presbyterian
Church, the first of its kind to be es-
tablished by any Church in this
country, and which he directed for ten
years. Among the various enterprises
he set up was the Labor Temple in
lower New York, which served as a
forum to discuss .Labor's problems.
This Institution became internationally
famous, and is still in operation. He
has organized and addressed some of
the largest meetings Of workingmen
ever conducted in this country, his
audiences frequently numbering from
$1,000 to 10000 men.
He made intensive studies of hun
dreds of cities to find out about liv-
ing conditions of the workers. He
served as Chairman of Arbitration
Boards in settling industrial disputes,
notably in the newspaper offices in
New York City. He was the Director
of Relief and Emergency Measures
for the Mayors Committees on I'm
employment in New York City during
one of it's periods of depressions, and
he has constantly addressed a great
variety of audiences in colleges, busi-
ness and advertising conventions, re-
ligious assemblies, open forums, Chau-
tauquas, women's clubs and other or
ganizations, presenting the problems
of the workers.
In order to have the preachers of
the country become familiar with La
boris problems, he inaugurated the
plan of sending ministers to meetings
of Central Labor Bodies as fraternal
delegates. This plan was at one time
in operation in over $50 cities. He
was personally accepted for about a
dozen years as fraternal delegate at
the annual conventions of the A. f.
of l.. which he addressed each year,
through which he became acquainted
with hundreds of the outstanding la
Dor officials in this country.
Recognized as an authority on in
dustrial matters, he served as 4scoen->-
sellor for many organizations, and
helped in the Inauguration of con-
structive programs for national bodies
and in local communities. In recog-
milton Of services of this character,
Cumberland University, of which Sec
retary Hull is a graduate and Trustee,
conferred upon him the degree Of
doctor of Laws" several years ago.
"Who's Who in America" has for
many years given him large space in
it's annual publication, and he has
been widely quoted in various re-
ports and documents showing the
progress of industrial workers.
This, briefly, is the story of the East
Side boy, who was newsboy, messen-
ger, street peddlar, bus-boy, and ma
chinist, before he became an interna-
tional figure in helping to set in mo-
tion programs and organizations in
order to dignity Labor and to give it
the place in the life of the nation
which it deserved. Samuel Gompers
once said to him that he might have
anything within the gift of Organized
Labor if he cared to express his wish.
But he has preferred to do the job in
his own way. And Organized Labor
has favored him, not by giving him
a job, or any kind of public recog-
milton, but by making him one of La
boris most generally accepted friends
and counsellors through the medium of
the labor press.
This is one of the highest compli-
ments that Labor can pay to any man,
but the compliment that Dr. Stelzle
values equally is that paid him by a
noted metropolitan newspaper editor
who wrote concerning him: "He has
met and worked with the most ia, g,
nous men Of his time, but he never
lost the common touch" He has ad-
dressed audiences which included the
greatest men in America, including
Presidents Of the United States, sew
eral of whom have called upon him
for counsel and advice, but he is hap
piest when he meets and talks with
some Of the shopmates who served
their apprenticeship with him fifty