Evening star., 1950-02-17
Protestant Churches
To Make 3-Year Study
OF Economic Ethics
By Cospor Nonnes
Sior StoH Correspondent


stor stafT Correspondent
DETROIT. Feb. 17.-Detailed
plans Of three-year study of the
ethical side of economic activity
were revealed here today by spe-
cial committee of the Federal
Council of Churches.
The study has been made pos
sible by a 100000 grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation. Charles P.
Taft of Cincinnati, chairman Of
the committee, said.
According to Mr.. Taft, the
study is aimed to meet the fol-
lowing objectives:
/. To clarity the ethical and
technical side of private and pub
lie economic policy.
Will Formulate Principles.
@ To formulate Christian prin-
ciples as applied to economic af-
fairs in modern society.
3. To show how these principles
may be applied to everyday private
and public economic affairs.
The study will be under taken
by top leaders in agriculture, husi-
ness, labor and the church. 1t
will be under the direction of the
Federal Councils Department Of
Church and Economic Life.
The study committee announced
the plans after holding a special
meeting here during the National
Study Conference on the Church
and Economic Life.
Meanwhile, the church and eco
nomic life conference split into
study groups today in preparation
for conference statements to be
issued tomorrow and Sunday.
The $50 delegates from % Pro-
testant denominations and 10 al
lied religious bodies were divided
into three groups, each group to
submit a report for action by the
conference. These groups are THE
Individual: Conflicting Motives
and Claims; "Organized Groups:
Freedom of Enterprise and Social
Controls" and The World. The
American Economy in Relation to
World Needs and Resources"
A fourth topic, THE Churches:
Their Program in Relation to
Economic Life" will be discussed
by the conference as a whole to-
morrow.
Reuther Spotlights Issues.
Walter Reuther, president Of
the CIO United Automobile Work.
ers, yesterday called for meeting
of labor, management and agri-
culture to threSh out such basic
issues ,as civil rights, unemploy-
ment and food surpluses. The
labor leader declared a similar
conference called several years ago
by the Government was window
dressing" because those who came
agreed not to discuss any of the
basic issues.
Urging a positive rather than
negative approach to our prob
lens. Mr.. Reuther declared the
Taft Hartley Act was an "An ex-
ample of negative approach to
a positive situation
I'm police state you can
achieve stability without justice. -
he went on, "but in a society of
free men stability is a product
of social and economic justice.
Instead of talking about the well
fare state and raising phony is
sues to cloud the horizons, we
should be going to groups with
the basic problems that face
them. Too often we are working
on a negative approach to these
problems.
Strife Penalties All.
1--WE have said that collective
bargaining should reflect the
progress of the community and
not be made at the expense of
the community he added. IF
we are going to make our
democratic system work, labor
and management must find a way
to elevate collective bargaining
above completing pressure groups.
Unless we do that, the whole
community is constantly penalized
by recurring periods of warfare
between labor and management"
Mr.. Reuther said "the Com
munists did not succeed in China
we failed. We made the tragic
mistake of believing that demo-
cratic battles could be won on
battlefields instead of rice fields.
You cannot fill empty bellies with
piouS sayings"
A preliminary draft of the pro-
posed conference statement on
the meeting, read by Methodist
Bishop G. Bromley Oman of New
York, declared the Christian
faith is relevant to the economic
ORDER 1t is the church's duty to
confront the economic life as ''the
teacher of the principles of con-
duct. a voice of Judgment, and
the herald of new day."