RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 556, 10 July 1909, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

CHURCH AND LABOUR. FOUR " SQUARE DEALS." "A square deal W the Church, a square deal for tho Traxlo Unions, a square deal for tho Socialist, and a square deal for tho Anarchist," is tho expressed desire of the Rev. Charles Stelzle, ; a New York minister, who Ims dono much to reconcile tho Church and Labour ill America, and is at present visiting' Great Britain. Mr. Stelzlo was a newspaper runner, and gained all his education at night schools. He entered a cigar factory and endured miserablo conditions, and finally, after an apprenticeship, settled dq.wn as a mcthanic in tho great machine shops of the Hoe Printing Company. Whilo working as a machinist, ho became a sincero Christian, and when in after years, after-studying at tho Moody Institute, he entered the Presbyterian ministry, ho had the unique distinction ; of being the only man who has : ever received ordination in that connection without collegiate)'graduation. And through his honourable career as a minister ho has till.this hour remained a member of the Machinists' Trado Union, carries his ticket about with him, and could at any moment go, back to earn his livelihood at the bench. He glories both in his position in the Christian Churcli and also in his associations as a friend. of trado unionism!.■ The great aim of his life, enforced, with impassioned earnestness and irrepressible energy, is to act as a mediator between the Churches and. the masses at a juncture when there is a tendency v to alienation which it would be absurd to deny. What tho Four Deals Moan. Explaining his four deals to a recent interviewer, Mr. Stelylo said: —''Of course, I havo s to make it clear that I referred in this last .particular only to the : Philosophic Anarchist, who pleads that ' we must aim at attaining tlio condition in which people at large will havo been so educated to keep tho law, that society ivill be able to do without law.' i Many Socialists have'said to'me ,that Socialism is only a step to.'Philosophical Anarchy, or the use of law till wo do not need law. It is because of this plea that I include Anarchy in my claim for a square deal. But, of course, it is tho other threo positions that really aro worth discussion—tho positions of the Church, of Trade Unionism," and of Socialsm. And it is of the utmost importance that tho claims based on these three positions , should bo fairly considered and squarely and frankly met." -.. . .. . Would you please define your square deal? asked the interviewer." . '■■■" v "

Larger vision Wanted. "Well, I maintain, that a larger vision is wanted on both sides, if . you - take the Churches and tho trade uniouists into account. ' Employers and labourers, are too closo to their own side of the problem to understand it. There are in my country multitudes of folk who fatuously imagine that if they could abolish, the: Labour Union, they could wipe out the labour question. But this same' question includes many millions of\Socialists, daily increasing. It includes vast questions in other great countries;' it includes the Russian peasant - problem and the' issues contended for by the German' Social Democrats; and ib is related indissqlubly to the .social unrest in Britain, France'/ Austria, Belgium, as well as in America. This is the era of the comnian man. Slowly but surely the masses aro coming to their own. Wo Christians dare not be side-tracked by specious arguments against tho Labour Union, for if it could bo wiped away tho stupendous labour. question would still remain. And tlie ' fundamental principles on which trado unionism is' organised aro right, and.it his come to stay. The' question now is whether unionism >is going in its development and growth to be good or bad —Christian or antagonistic to Christ. Take the Church to tho Workers. "My ultimate aim is not to get tho working men to go to church (continued Mr. Stelzle), but to get the Church to go to tho,-working men, l am enforcing ; tW principle that the Church niusfc drop talking about building up the Church, and take lip in earnest tho ' idea of the building up of tho For tho. old-timo democracy is pass-, frig awaj'j to bo'superseded by fa clearly.articulated: class system, v We are waging, war against class-consciousness. The serious and ominous fact that hastobe faced is this, that tho millions of working men- of .tho .great Republic are, as. working ° men, solidifying their ranks; while the employers'arenas employers, 'likewise drawing together, joining also with; those allied to 'their interests, all unconsciously, it may be, forming a distinct class. . Tho'ugntful Americans are everywhere) asking whether there is to be an aristocracy at.tho top of our social system, resting inevitably upon the labouring class below. Now the goal of my,labours is to avert this malign consummation, and to retain the fine old American fashion which made one man as. good as But: this can only be achieved, I conceive, by one method. That method is to interpret tho,Church to working men, to interpret working men to tho Church, and to interpret employer and cmployee to eacli other, through education, inspiration, mediation, evangelism, add twentieth century modes of work." ' Tho One Solution,. i Then, Mr. Stelzle, said tho interviewer, your method is exceedingly simple. It is to get tlie classes together, and to help each to belieyo tho best of tho other. / , "Exactly;.: and for this reason, that' there can bo no solution ,of the comprehensive industrial problem until, in. mutual sympathy, employer and employee come to understand each other and. to work together for somo common goal. • To this end both must bo brought under the melting, and fusing power of : the teaching, example, aaid spirit of tho Nazareth Carpenter; It is no idle' religious phrase to declare that only Christ can.solve the labour question, and that only Christ can solve the perplexing social problem. Therefore, I constantly speak to meetings of. working men upon Christ as 'labour's Champion.', Better still, I proclaim Him as 'humanity's Champion.' But my great object ever is, as a speaker and'a writer, to try to counteract the prevalent, one-sided, and prejudiced sentiment in each' section of'the community." .