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Show THE CHURCH AND THE WAGE EARNER DRAWING TOGETHER ByWJETTLAUCK Former Secretary National War Labor Board THE world-wide teudeney toward industrial indus-trial democracy which has followed in the wake of the w a r has recently received a remarkable impetus from churches of all de-riuminatious. de-riuminatious. At the present time the most signiheaut feature of the labor problem in iis larger aspects consists of the moral element which hns recently been injected by the pi onouueements of numrrous Christian organizations. or-ganizations. This activity of the church is rot only extraordinary because of the revolutionary revo-lutionary change compared with its previous position, hut for the reason that it portends a radical change in the attitude of the wage-f;iruor wage-f;iruor l;i;ns(!f toward Christian teachings Bud institutions. The net result will undoubtedly be the development of u great moral and spiritual force back of the movement move-ment toward liberal economic and social veform. THK pronouncements of. the churches have not been limited to generalise.,, however, but elaborate and detailed constructive programs pro-grams have been put forward for the purpose pur-pose of a3'ording a practical application ot the general conceptions of the church, working work-ing funds are being collected and individual members have h'-eu called upon and urged to .work fur the realization of these constructive policies. Strictures have also been imposed upon the pre-war industrial regime. "Wages, the churches h?e stated, must be adequate nut only for subsistence but for reasonable comfort, long hours of work have been con- d'Mnued, the principle of collective bargaining bargain-ing has been aihrmed, political democracy, it Las been asserted, must be supplemented by a more direct control over industry by the worker, find the wage-ear ner must be accepted by the employer in a r.-pirit of partnership part-nership and receive a greater participation in the output of mims and factories. Tlie pronouncements are no', only characteristic f-f the hading lYot-'sfant d'-nominatioii'-, but include as well 1 Ik Roman Catholic Church. No be( fer insight, into the si I ua t ion ( a u be r ff oi-ded than by quoting some of the ig -i i Mca n t, port ions of I he yr:i--u I. f r 1 1 ; i ;i I i i i ! d'.cumM,!;-. d'-aling with ii.du- t -ial rrf'.rm :. A AL a jh' .-i j ii lir-h in r.iiffaln on .May I-5 1010, the board of bishops of the Methodist Kpiscopal Church issued a pastoral letter dealing with social reconstruction addqessed to ministers and laymenof the church. After urging the adoption of Christian principles princi-ples as a guide for the solution of social problems, the letter continues: It is increasingly manifest that there must be progress away from selih-h competition com-petition to unselti -h co-operation' in that struggle for daily brpad which is the largest single fact iu the life of the majority ma-jority of men in any community. If this progress is to be orderly r.a nd not. violent we must leave behind us the evils which lead to deplorable violence or counter-violence counter-violence by (Mllier party. If Christianity is a driving foref. making for democracy, we cannot put a limit upon the extension of democracy ; we must recognize the inevitability in-evitability of the application of democracy to industry. "While we rejoice in the adoption adop-tion in all such ameliorative measures as better housing and various forms of social insurance, we cail for the more thoroughgoing thorough-going emphasis on human freedom, which will make democratic progress mean the enlargement and enrichment of the lite of the masses of mankind through the sclf-diri'tive sclf-diri'tive activity of men themselves. A'e favor an equitable wage for laborers, which will have the right of way over rent . interest and profit s. "We favor collective bargaining as an instrument for the attainment of in (his -trial justice and for training in democratic dem-ocratic procedure. And we alM) I'avor advance of the workers work-ers th"jnsrtves throng!) profit, sharing and through positions ou boards of directorship. director-ship. In the discussion of all such matters we i; rge all individuals and groups to hold fa :it the t'd'-raure which comes out of mutual respect and to keep always iu mind tliaL the richest source of sound social idealism is the Gospel of Jcoiis ' Christ. Tilt General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in (hp United States, at its meeting meet-ing in St. Louis un May -1, PUP, resolved that it "docs heartily approve of the President's Presi-dent's courageous, wi.-e, and timely deliverance." deliver-ance." to (he elTcol, that, "the object, of all reform in this essential matter (the labor problem ) inn; I. be the genuine d''inoTa tia -t ion oi" i od ti -1 r. . I ia serl u pun a fu 1 1 reoogui -t mil of I he r i.Ljli t ot I hose who work, in vital need, however, the report asserts, u for a new spirit. Neither the moderate reforms advocated in this paper, nor any other program of betterment or reconstruction, will prove .reasonably effective without a reform in the spirit of both labor and capital. The laborer must come to realize that he owes his employer and society an honest day's work iu return for a fair wage, and that condit ions cannot be substantially im -proved until he roots out the desire to get a maximum of return for a minimum of service. The capitalist must likewise get a new viewpoint. He needs to learn the long-forgotten truth that wealth is stewardship, that profit-making is not the basic justilicat ion of business enterprise, a ud that there are such things as fair profits, fair interest and fair prices. Above and before all. he must cultivate and strengthen within his mind the truth which many of his class have beguu to grasp for the first time (hiring the present war: namely, that the laborer is a human being, not merely an instrument of production; pro-duction; and that t ho laborer's right to a decent livelihood is the first moral charge upon industry. The employer has a right to get a reasonable living out of his business, busi-ness, but he lias no right to interest on his investment until his employes have obtained at least living wages. This is the humau and Christian, in contrast to the purely commercial and pagau, ethics of industry. AT A meeting uf the General Confer --O. ence of the Methodist Church of Canada nt Hamilton, Canada, in 10 IS. it was resolved re-solved that "As followers of the Carpenter of Nazareth, we sympathetically seek to understand un-derstand the problems of life as they confront con-front the classes of labor in Canada, and thus rightly estimate the pleas they make for justice, and find in them allies in the struggle to realize the ends of fair play, humanity and brotherhood. rj'iie war is the coronation of democracy. The last century democratized politics; the twentieth century has found that political democracy means little without economic democracy. The democratic control of iu-iluslry iu-iluslry is just and inevitable." The present M'pnnilion between caprla! and labor, it was nsserl ed. should be follow ed "by co- opera -lion or goveriinot ownership. 1 This h- the policy set fori r 1v t h" L'v:i I .1:iIm- orim - s izations, and must not be rejected because it presupposes, as Jesus did, that the normal human spirit will respond more readily to the call to service than to the lure of private gain." Twenty representative British Quaker employers em-ployers mets iu 1017 and 10.LS and spent four days in the discussion of the wage systems, status of wage earners, security of employment uuder the present industrial system, sys-tem, the social life of workers and the uses to which surplus profits should be devoted. The statement issued after their meetings declared that the minimum wage of men of average capacity in average industries should he sufficient to enable them to marry, to live in a decent house and to provide the necessaries of physical efficiency for a normal nor-mal family, allowing a reasonable margin for contingencies and recreation. "Wages above the minimum level should be loft to collective bargaining, but employers, in making mak-ing such wage contracts, should remember "that the pleasures and varieties of life are just as dear to the workers as to himself and that they, too, need comfort, rest and change of eccivv' As to the relation of the workers to the control of industry the report, -slates that "with the commercial and financial as- pects of the business the worker is not aC present, so directly concerned, although indirectly in-directly they alTect him vitally. But in th industrial policy of the business he is directly di-rectly and continuously interested, and ho is capable of helping to determine it." His participation in this direction of industry, the report then points out, may be realized through shop committees, industrial councils coun-cils or other forms of joint control of industry. in-dustry. Surplus profits of industry, after the payment of wages, and the interest ou upitul invested, belong to neither labor nor capital, but should be taken by taxation for the common if vul. If (be surplus profit of industry is e absorbed in the form of f taxation, "we think," the report. state;i, "that i( should u- regarded by lho.se itit d whose hand"; it !Vas:.c-i a;, lie h! iu t i-,:s, the OOll.MMUliU "1, . JBJ--V. i whatever rank, to participate in some organic way in every decision which directly affects their welfare or the part they are to play in industry." In order further that the Presbyterian Presby-terian Church might co-operate efficiently in making such a program effective, it was further fur-ther resolved by the General Assembly that the house mission board be instructed to "make a thorough study of the whole industrial in-dustrial problem, and to prepare, based npon such study, an outline of practical, remedial steps, which shall be recommended both to churches and legislative bodies." No formal statement has been issued by the Episcopal Church. Its joint commission commis-sion on social service has, however, reprinted re-printed a digest of the principal ecclesiastical ecclesiasti-cal and secular reconstruction programs relative to labor. In issuing this booklet on March i, 1010. it made the following significant comment : All ( programs) alike, however, agree that now is the time when something must be done to insure to the workers and the generally less favored classes a far greater approximation to substantial justice as between man and man than has Ihus tar. even uiHer fne stress of war, bcu achieved. Front these programs in general emerges the (dear conviction that labor throughout (he world is less and 'ess satisfied with increased wages, decreased hou rs and im proved coiidi t ions of tuil , and is more and more insist ent ou a greater share, it not the greater share, in the control as well as the proceeds of industry. It is really industrial democracy democ-racy in the fullest sense to which even the international programs or "planks" of labor are primarily directed. If would be folly for the church In ignore them, 'art iou iarly to be commended for st utly are t hi' Church of Kim laud's report ou indusl ry , wdiieh lie re fid lows the program and resolutions of the Pritish Labor party and the statement id' i n I era Hied labor aims as taking in genera I the sa me economic eco-nomic ground, and the various reconstruction reconstruc-tion st at em ent s of the A me idea n ( ':i t holic "War Council, the ( 'a nad ia u Me i hod is t, 'on fere t ices, the Kngl is h Friends and the Knglish Church Socialist Fea'ic, 'I ;' re I igioiiH ii 1. 1 era fire-'. v 'ih i.ndi' by any reconstruction conference or agency. ".'he Right Reverend Charles David "Williams. "Wil-liams. Episcopal bishop of Michigau, in a sermou delivered at Grace Church, New Turk, on July 20. J0I0, appealed to all members of the Episcopal Church to assist iu the movement toward the democratization democratiza-tion of industry. "The church," he stated, "must wake up. The crisis is upon us. "Unless "Un-less we face our responsibilities and meet the issue wb ich has been th rust upon us, -c e may as well put up our shutters and go out of business, Democracy's fundamental funda-mental creed is confidence in the innermost worth of (he undermost man. "We have got to have that belief if wc are going to dis-. dis-. charge our duty in the new day which is upon us. Christ had that, vision. The whole gospel is based upon it, and if the Episcopal Church is going to be true to itself it will not falter now. In the democratization ef labor and the league of nations I see the greatest hope for the future, and it is the duty of the church to be allied with every cause which makes for humanity's betterment." better-ment." Perhaps the most, practical and comprehensive compre-hensive reconstruction program from eccle-sjast eccle-sjast iea 1 sources in t his count ry has been put forward by the National Catholic "War Council through a report of its committee on special war activities. This report, which was issued in ,1 a unary of this year, is essentially es-sentially concerned with moderate and practical prac-tical reforms such us the permanent establishment, es-tablishment, of the United Stales employment, employ-ment, service, the continuance of the national na-tional war labor board, the establishment establish-ment of adequate wage standards, the maintenance main-tenance of war rates of pay,' the provision of 'proper housing facilities for industrial workers, legislative measures for social insurance, in-surance, (he elimination of child labor, and I ii (V (o-eept a nee of t rn ije un ion ism . colled i ve " barga ining. and the p-n-i ieipat b,n of liXf i in industrial ma n;igciin;u I , t' -aI. |