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THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 
 AND THE SOCIAL ORDER 
 
Cfje Social #rtier 
 
 LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE COURSE IN 
 
 PASTORAL FUNCTIONS AT YALE 
 
 DIVINITY SCHOOL, 
 
 1908-1909 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CHARLES S. MACFARLAND 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN.: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 LONDON: HENRY FROWDE : : MCMIX 
 
 ^ 
 
»1?^ 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 Yajle University Press 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 
 mem^i. 
 
 Printed in the United States 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE lectures in this volume were selected from a 
 supplementary course of constant instruction in 
 1908-9 at Yale Divinity School, which attempted to 
 cover, as far as possible, the entire field of pastoral work. 
 They were chosen out of many, not on the ground of 
 comparative merit, but solely on the basis of the 
 subjects herein treated, which may be comprehended 
 under the relation of the minister to the order of 
 human society. 
 
 They do not adequately represent "the Coiu^e in 
 Pastoral Functions," but only one aspect of the wide 
 and comprehensive nature of the course. It is also 
 impossible, in a book, to give anything like complete 
 expression to the work of the lecturers. In all cases, 
 these instructors used what might be called the "case 
 system," setting before the student actual examples of 
 the way in which these principles have been carried out 
 in the pastoral work of the instructors. Indeed, the 
 chief intent of the course is to open up to the theological 
 student the definite, concrete tasks and problems which 
 await him. Thus, this volume can only intimate the 
 deeper nature of such a method of instruction and 
 can but partially exhibit the lectiu^es themselves, which 
 were so intimately personal and so peculiarly illustra- 
 tive as to preclude actual reproduction. 
 
 195094 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 The wide-spread interest, however, in both this em- 
 phasis on the method of instruction and the particular 
 subjects selected for this volume, has called forth so 
 many requests for publication that it has been deemed 
 worth while to publish the book. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Introduction — A Significant Element in Theological 
 
 Education The Editor 1 
 
 The Part and Place of the Church and the Ministry 
 IN the Realization op Democracy 
 
 Rev. Charles S. Macfarland 11 
 
 Trade Unions: The Causes for their Existence 
 
 Henry Sterling 45 
 
 The Work and Methods op Trade Unions 
 
 Henry Sterling 63 
 
 An Exposition and Interpretation of the Trade Union 
 
 Movement John Mitchell 83 
 
 The Opportunity of the Minister in Relation to In- 
 dustrial Organizations Rev. Charles S. Macfarland 113 
 
 The Church and the Wage-Earner 
 
 Rev. Edvnn B. Robinson 145 
 
 The Opportunity and the Mission op the Church and 
 Ministry among Non-English-Speaking People 
 
 Rev. Ozora S. Davis 169 
 
 The Minister and the Rural Community 
 
 Rev. Wilbert L. Anderson 199 
 
 The Essentials of a Ministry to Men 
 
 Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. 223 
 
 The Ministry of Mental Healing Rev. Oeorge B. Cvtten 241 
 
 The Minister in Association with International Move- 
 ments Rev. Frederick Lynch 269 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 A SIGNIFICANT ELEMENT IN THEOLOGICAL 
 EDUCATION 
 
 By the Editor 
 
^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 A SIGNIFICANT ELEMENT IN THEOLOGICAL 
 EDUCATION 
 
 THE institution of ''The Course in Pastoral Func- 
 tions" at Yale Divinity School undoubtedly evi- 
 denced the serious systematization of an important 
 method in theological instruction. While it may be 
 said that this kind of teaching has always been used 
 in a supplementary way, this is among the early 
 attempts to make it complete and systematic and to 
 adjust it to the regular work and study. 
 
 There has been a growing feeling that our theological 
 schools do not have that close and operative relation 
 with the life of the churches and of human society that 
 they ought to have. They have been more or less 
 exclusively academic. While the graduates went forth 
 to their work thoroughly grounded in the underlying 
 principles of their ministry, they were not so thoroughly 
 prepared for the immediate vital and practical prob- 
 lems and opportunities which awaited them. They 
 were often unacquainted with their more definite, con- 
 crete duties. 
 
 Our standard theological schools have not been 
 wanting in strong intellectual equipment. Their fac- 
 ulties have been adorned by illustrious names. Upon 
 this side there has been no serious diminishing. The 
 
 3 
 
4 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 
 
 permanent faculties are now composed of eminent 
 scholars. So far as the inculcation of fundamental 
 principles is concerned, no one has felt that there was 
 any general deficiency. Nor is it to be supposed that 
 there would be any advantage in the disparagement of 
 this intellectual training. First of all, the minister must 
 have a great message, and his scholarship needs to be 
 deep and broad. It would be a serious mistake to 
 lose any prestige in this respect. Theology in all its 
 branches, using the word broadly, should remain as the 
 essential feature of preparation for preaching the gospel. 
 The so-called practical work is necessarily dependent 
 and complementary. The lectures in this very course 
 continually emphasized the work of the minister as a 
 student. Yale has not been behind the other schools of 
 learning in her practical work, but it is probably true 
 that they all have need of some revision in this interest. 
 
 There has been, therefore, at least a certain inter- 
 rogatory attitude as to whether or not there was a 
 certain lack of practical preparation. Did the men go 
 out ready to cope with the great problems of the church 
 and especially of human society? Did they know men 
 as well as books? Were they prepared to put into 
 inmiediate and effective practice the great principles 
 which they had learned? Men need to know how to 
 act and what to do, as well as how and what to 
 think. They must imderstand the world of life as 
 well as the imiverse of principles, and be as familiar 
 with intimate effects as with remote causes. 
 
 Other professional schools, such as those of law and 
 
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 5 
 
 medicine, have always, or at least for a considerable 
 time, had faculties composed very largely of men 
 engaged in the active practice of their professions. 
 The clinical method and the case system have been 
 important features. Normal schools are also adopting 
 the same idea. These new theological courses seem to 
 be analogous. The men who have been appointed as 
 instructors are active, and in most cases, remarkably 
 successful ministers, in average pastorates. They come 
 to the class-room fresh from their work. It is expected ■ 
 that they will make the point of connection between the 
 great principles taught by the regular members of the 
 faculty, and the actual conditions, needs, and oppor- 
 tunities which society presents to the minister when he 
 enters upon his active hfe. All other departments of 
 education have found it necessary to subject them- 
 selves to the processes of modification and substitution, 
 and there is no reason why this department should not 
 be amenable to these necessary means of progress. 
 
 Moreover, this course of instruction seems to indicate 
 a large conception of the church and the ministry. 
 Apparently the minister is not simply to be sent out to 
 shepherd a particular flock. He is to do this, but more 
 than this. He is to serve his community, and human 
 society at large, in any and every way by which his 
 personality may be brought to bear. He goes out into 
 the kingdom of Grod rather than solely into a church. 
 He is to do more than administer ecclesiastical functions. 
 The idea seems to be that, from his standing ground as 
 a pastor, he is to engage in all great social movements, 
 
6 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 
 
 and is to make his church a directing factor in such 
 movements. He and the church together are to serve 
 the world. This is what may be read between the lines 
 of this system of instruction. It is indicated by such 
 subjects as that of service among non-English-speaking 
 people, by Dr. Davis; the relation of the minister to 
 national and international movements, by Mr. Ljnich, 
 and the work of civic reform, industrial organizations, 
 political life, and social movements. The course was 
 evenly balanced in this regard. The care of his church 
 is not overlooked. He is to look after the flock, but 
 also to have other sheep not of that fold. 
 
 It seems as though this ought to have a marked effect 
 in making the Christian ministry attractive to strong 
 men. It cannot be denied that it has been deemed 
 unattractive. Was this because the minister was sup- 
 posed to be confined to a limited round of relatively 
 small functions? Was it because his profession, to a 
 certain extent, seemed to shut him off from the great 
 movements of mankind? Undoubtedly there has been 
 some such feeling, and it has probably had very much 
 to do with the diminishing number of men seeking this 
 great profession. If, however, the ministry of the 
 gospel is to be so large a thing as this scope of prepara- 
 tion indicates, if the minister from henceforth is to be 
 a power in civic life, an influence in solving the great 
 problems of our democracy, then we may venture to 
 predict a very speedy renaissance. 
 
 At any rate the new ministry will be effective. If we 
 read this programme aright, it means that our Divinity 
 
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 7 
 
 schools are, first of all, to turn out strong men, men of 
 action. They are to go out and make strong churches. 
 They are to make themselves and those churches the 
 directors of great social movements. It is a splendid 
 programme. 
 
 For example, instruction should be given in the con- 
 versational use of foreign tongues. Suppose the min- 
 ister can thus make a point of contact with the great 
 masses of foreigners who are coming into almost every 
 community? He might save them from being led 
 about and unworthily used by selfish leaders. Why 
 might he not step in and be their guide rather than 
 the cheap politician? It seems as though there ought 
 to be a great deal in all this. 
 
 This method of systematic practical instruction will 
 undoubtedly go farther in years to come. It must go 
 farther if young ministers are to go out into the world 
 ready to become effective leaders in society. This 
 element of teaching will imquestionably be amplified 
 and broadened and given increased space in the theo- 
 logical curriculum of the future. The coiu'se, however, 
 from which the lectures in this book have been selected, 
 was fairly comprehensive. In addition to that portion 
 which is represented in this volume, the following 
 subjects were also presented : 
 
 "The Minister's Work in Civic Reform, in Politr 
 ical Life, and in Municipal Betterment," was given 
 considerable attention. "The Sunday School" was 
 treated by Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D., of New York, 
 and "The Midweek Service" by Rev. Frederick B. 
 
8 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 
 
 Richards, of Boston, a graduate of Yale Divinity School 
 in the class of 1891. The problem of ^'Church Adminis- 
 tration and Finances " was opened up by Rev. Henry 
 A. Stimson, D.D., of New York. ''The Methods of 
 Caring for Church Benevolences " were set forth by 
 Secretary Cornelius H. Patton, D.D., of the Class of 
 1886. The "Methods of the Emmanuel Clinic " were 
 explained by Rev. Elwood Worcester, D.D., of Em- 
 manuel Church. Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, D.D., of 
 Brooklyn, instructed the students in the important but 
 often neglected requirements of "Professional Courtesy." 
 The bringing in of labour leaders like John Mitchell, 
 Henry Sterling, and several other social leaders, in 
 the course in Sociology, is marked evidence of the 
 seriousness of the work in hand, the idea being to 
 open up to the students the hearts and consciences of 
 men who represent great bodies of wage-earners, and 
 who guide the destinies of other humanitarian move- 
 ments. Ought not the minister to join forces with 
 these men at the very beginning of his ministry, or at 
 least know them, their work and their ideals? Several 
 well-known business men, including Henry Clews and 
 Rossiter Raymond, were also brought into this order, 
 which was carried out under the Department of Soci- 
 ology. Commercial problems, from another point of 
 view, were also presented in another series of Uni- 
 versity lectures, by business leaders.^ 
 
 1 Such as " the Page Lectures," published by the Yale University 
 Press, and including, for example, "Corporate and Other Trusts," 
 by James McKeen. 
 
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 9 
 
 It is interesting to notice the way in which the various 
 lecturers supplement each other's work. For example, 
 while one instructor treated the matter of getting into 
 touch with great outside bodies of wage-earners, in 
 order to associate them with the church and its ministry, 
 another, Mr. Robinson, showed what we must do with 
 them and for them within the church itself. 
 
 Not the least among the good results has been that 
 the academic shades of the school have been lightened 
 by the wider opening of the doors and windows to the 
 vital throbbing life of the world of men and deeds. 
 Thought and contemplation have been brought into 
 contact with action and achievement. Truth and fact 
 have come together for adjustment. A certain new 
 warmth and feeling have been noticeable. 
 
 The end is not yet. This has been only a beginning, 
 although a serious one. When this method is carried 
 out to completion it will mean a great joining of forces. 
 The regular faculties are, and should remain, great 
 scholars, thinkers, men of ideals. These supplementary 
 instructors are men of action, leaders, doers of the 
 word that has been taught, men of ideas. 
 
 The following up of the lectures by personal inter- 
 views between the students and the instructors will 
 offer a further opportunity of helping the students to 
 get into personal relations with ministers of experience, 
 and may also acquaint the instructors with present 
 day theological thought. Indeed, no little of the gain 
 is to the lecturing visitors themselves. 
 
 Undoubtedly, also, the custom will follow, of putting 
 
10 THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 
 
 the students out under the care of such ministers, as a 
 part of their education. This will help solve the problem 
 of pecuniary aid, as the students may thus render ser- 
 vice to the pastors and chm-ches in return for the scholar- 
 ship funds. This, as a part of the whole scheme, will 
 help to keep the churches and the schools of theology 
 in close touch with each other, as they should be. 
 
 The theological school should thus be closely asso- 
 ciated with the college on the one side and with the 
 churches and the Hfe of the world on the other. Adapt- 
 ing itself to its twofold environment, it is thus fitted 
 to fulfil its function as the refigious interpreter and 
 moulder of human society. There ought to be a mighty 
 movement when these great streams of thought and 
 streams of action fairly meet. 
 
 It ought also to help solve the question of supplying 
 the ministry with men. It would seem that the strong 
 young men in our colleges cannot fail to be attracted 
 by so splendid a conception of the ministry as imder- 
 lies this system of training. 
 
 Charles S. Macfarland, 
 
 of the Alumni Advisory Committee of 
 Yale Divinity School, 
 
 The Congregational Parsonage, 
 Smdh Narwalk, Conn., May 15, 1909. 
 
THE PART AND PLACE OF THE CHURCH 
 AND THE MINISTRY IN THE REALI- 
 ZATION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, Ph.D. 
 
 A graduate of Yale Divinity School in 1897, and the 
 pastor of the Congregational Church in the manufacturing 
 and cosmopolitan city of South Norwalk, Connecticut, 
 
THE PART AND PLACE OF THE CHURCH AND 
 
 THE MINISTRY IN THE REALIZATION OF 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 IT becomes my task, in this course, to take you out- 
 side the work of the pastor in relation to his own 
 church and parish, and to consider some of the oppor- 
 tunities for influence and service which the minister 
 may find in the corporate life of the city, state, and 
 nation and of human society at large. We are to 
 consider how he may deal with men in masses and 
 societies. 
 
 I do not mean that this shall be interpreted as any 
 disparagement of the closer circle of his duties as the 
 shepherd of his own flock, but, Uke the Master, he must 
 have other sheep who are not of that fold. 
 
 Nor do I mean, in urging these great practical and 
 utilitarian considerations, to underestimate the value 
 of consecrated scholarship or the effect of the preaching 
 of the gospel. I am assuming that the minister has the 
 work of his own church in hand, and that he has com- 
 mand of all its forces. I take for granted that he is 
 meeting the requirements of his pulpit and his pastorate. 
 These assumptions are necessary. He must first of all 
 make his church, and himself as the leader of that 
 church, a strong central power from which his wider 
 
 13 
 
14 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 influence must radiate. His forces must be both cen- 
 tripetal and centrifugal. 
 
 For example, if he is to fill this larger place which I 
 am to describe, he must have, first of all, the intellectual 
 power to dominate the minds of men. He must have 
 spiritual influence in order to reach and change their 
 hearts and must, above all, win their allegiance and 
 affection. 
 
 While there are many petty functions from which he 
 must teach and induce his people to be large enough 
 to release him, he must not neglect to conserve the 
 forces of his own church as the centre of his power, in 
 order that he may thus have an unshaken platform 
 from which to speak to the more distant and uncertain 
 multitudes. While the electrical forces of his person- 
 ality must extend to vital touch with every department 
 of human life, the unfailing battery must be in his own 
 church and study. 
 
 Thus you must realize, at the outset, that I am not 
 misleading you to substitute the circumference for the 
 centre. I shall fail of my object if I lead you to suppose 
 that you are to dissipate your forces and spread your- 
 selves out thin. The real fact, therefore, is, that it is 
 only the man who is strong in his own church who can 
 maintain his strength in the larger life of his community. 
 Indeed, to a large extent, he must work out his influ- 
 ence, not by direct contact, but through other person- 
 alities. Those personalities must be the men, and the 
 women also, of his own church. 
 
 With this understanding, I will now proceed to open 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 15 
 
 up to you, if I can, some ways in which the minister 
 may become a vital factor in his city, a man to be 
 reckoned with in every great movement, a man to be 
 consulted upon all important questions affecting the 
 life of the people, a dominant force in the making and 
 the moulding of the democratic order. 
 
 He will not find this position already waiting for him. 
 If he will allow himself to be ignored he will be pretty 
 much left alone within the narrow circle of his own 
 parish. He must create his own power. He must seek 
 and find his larger opportunities. To do this he will 
 need to become a keen, observant, energetic, instant, 
 moral opportunist. 
 
 All the great movements of mankind, in the social 
 and the political orders of our great and divine humani- 
 tarian interests, may be comprehended as the struggle, 
 in which our own nation is leading, for the reahzation 
 of a true democracy, a Christian democracy, the effort 
 to actually realize human brotherhood under the divine 
 fatherhood. 
 
 You enter upon your ministry under very new and 
 different conditions from those which your fathers, or 
 even yom* elder brothers, faced. You look out upon a 
 very complex life and civilization. Your parishes, and 
 your communities still more, you will find, in a large 
 sense, will be made up of many alien peoples and many 
 divergent minds and movements. They ought to be so 
 constituted. The more they are so, the better. 
 
 If you thus look out upon the life around you with a 
 thoughtful and serious heart, you will at once be faced 
 
16 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 by great and perplexing problems. How is all this 
 social chaos to be made a moral cosmos? How are we 
 to bring all these widely differing peoples to live to- 
 gether in mutual understanding and affection? How 
 shall the employer and the wage-earner be brought to 
 obey the Master's command that men should love one 
 another? How shall our political and civic life be 
 transformed into a true theocracy? How shall all its 
 great evil powers be destroyed and its forces of right- 
 eousness be brought to prevail? He who looks out 
 upon human affairs thoughtfully will share the varying 
 and contrasting moods of the great psalmists. Such a 
 man faces a world which often makes him shudder, fills 
 his soul with horror, at times with depressing doubts, 
 and even, occasionally, with flashes of despair. He is 
 sometimes tempted to lay aside all our modern idealism 
 and be satisfied with getting a few choice souls into the 
 ark of safety, letting the floods prevail. For he wit- 
 nesses on every hand the damning sordid greed of gold. 
 Upon all sides the world's bribes, its prostitutions of 
 sacred trusts, its usurious profits, the binding of heavy 
 burdens grievous to be borne, its manifold representa- 
 tions of Dives at his table and Lazarus at the gate, its 
 whited sepulchres filled with dead men's bones, its 
 specious, haggard codes of both individual and corpo- 
 rate conduct, its heartless social castes. The man whose 
 soul is not occasionally cast down can hardly have a 
 soul to be cast down. 
 
 All of these great problems are too much for him 
 without God. His ultimate conclusion is either of two 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 17 
 
 unevadable alternatives — it is either God and infinite 
 hope, or atheism and absolute despair. If, in the face 
 of his tremendous undertaking, he holds to the former, 
 he becomes a man of power, with both ^Hhe vision and 
 the task." Thus, like the psalmist, he must lift up 
 his eyes unto the hills, his mood must change, and 
 while he remains a thoughtful realist attempting the 
 problem, he must also become a great and glowing 
 idealist, beHeving in God, and believing also in mankind. 
 For, when lighted up by a radiant idealism, our 
 democracy assumes a splendid view. As I look out of 
 my study window, from the hilltop, I look upon a 
 glorious sight. It is not only that of the beautiful 
 waters of the sound; I love still more to look down 
 upon the smoky factories with their busy hum, and out 
 upon the great industrial life down yonder in the dis- 
 tricts where the peoples from all nations of the world, 
 and the islands of the sea, have come that they might 
 find truth and freedom. It is a resplendent vision just 
 because it does give men a splendid problem to solve 
 and a great work to do. It fills the minister with a 
 deep and responsible joy as he looks out upon those 
 great difficulties with the splendid consciousness in his 
 own heart and soul that he, and he in a certain way 
 almost alone, has the key to their solution in the great 
 gospel of his Master. He knows that where there is 
 no vision the people perish. He must look out upon 
 the heavenly horizon and witness the mirage. As he 
 looks down upon the hfe of his city he sees there, with 
 his splendid idealism, the new Jerusalem coming down 
 
18 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 from God. His glorious task is not merely to save a 
 few fragments of human society, but to make his city 
 that new Jerusalem descending out of heaven, a holy 
 city. Thus every preacher's study should become an 
 Isle of Patmos. 
 
 Then there is another way of looking at this great 
 industrial and social order. He goes out, and as he 
 walks about the street and hears the rh)rthmic hum of 
 the factories, especially at dusk, when their lights are 
 shining, he thinks of the patient men and women in 
 there making, for their fellow men, the clothing that 
 they wear. Then the whirling wheels are music to his 
 ears and the curling smoke from the chimney-top is 
 like incense ascending to heaven. As he passes the 
 busy store he sees the weary girl with her aching back, 
 waiting upon and serving her fellows. He meets the 
 tired teacher of the public schools just going from her 
 arduous ministry, the lawyer who has just been trying 
 to gain justice for his clients. He passes the doors of 
 the hospital where the physician and the nurse have 
 kept their night-long vigil. He takes the street car, or 
 the train, and finds men ready to serve him and carry 
 him about upon his errands of mercy. As he returns 
 to his home by night he passes the policeman faithfully 
 and shiveringly protecting human life. In the mid- 
 night hour he hears the loud alarm and knows that 
 men are ready to protect his home from the dread 
 ravages of fire. Thus, ever5rwhere, on every hand, in 
 this great democratic life of ours, he sees that men and 
 women are serving each other, according to the Master's 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 19 
 
 law, even though they know it not. Now, then, he 
 must make them to see this great vision of their own 
 life, he must show them that thus they do receive by 
 giving, save by losing, and that in their common toil 
 they are all bearing one another's burdens. They, too, 
 must see and feel as he does. To do this the minister 
 must transform his glowing ideals into practical and 
 realizable ideas. And he must gain the power to realize 
 them. This is the way to look at human hfe. 
 
 The minister of to-day, I say it guardedly and thought- 
 fully, who does no more than serve his own church, 
 preach to his own congregation, and exert an influence 
 upon his own little flock, may be doing a great deal, 
 but it is only a suggestion of the power that he may 
 possess. Indeed, there never has been an age when 
 the opportunity of the high-minded, large-hearted, and 
 great-visioned preacher was anywhere near so great 
 as it is to-day. While he must be faithful to the church 
 of Christ, he must see that it is now only one department 
 of the great Kingdom of God. That Kingdom of God 
 exists in all these great movements, in our industrial 
 and social Hfe, towards the realization of brotherhood, 
 of democracy. There may be no other gospels than 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ; for his was the gospel, not 
 of the church, but of the Kingdom. But there are 
 other gospels than that which the church herself has 
 directly taught. There is the great gospel of Labour; 
 every Sunday afternoon, all over the world, great bodies 
 of men are getting together and are preaching this 
 gospel and loving this gospel of theirs. They are sacri- 
 
20 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 ficing for it and its great ends. Although these men 
 do not know it, it is the gospel of Christ, and we must 
 show them that it is the gospel of Christ, and that, 
 therefore, they must have nothing in their gospel which 
 is unchristlike. But we must first see that this great 
 evangel for the uplifting of the great multitudes of 
 mankind who labour with their hands, the gaining for 
 them of larger leisure for the cultivation of their minds, 
 and of larger compensation for the rearing of their 
 homes, is a great gospel. With all its limitations, there 
 is a splendid sense of brotherhood in it, and these men 
 are preaching it with a fire and a fervour and a great 
 serious earnestness from which we, as preachers, may- 
 learn much. 
 
 There is also the great gospel of Socialism. Men and 
 women are even gathering together their socialist Sunday 
 schools, all over the land. This, too, is a splendid 
 gospel, whatever we may say of its limited equipment, 
 of its mistaken means and methods. It is a gospel 
 with a splendid idealism. It is an evangel which is 
 proclaiming, with its stammering tongue, this new 
 Jerusalem which is descending out of heaven. I do 
 not mean that all its leaders so teach it. I mean that 
 its highest and best leaders may be so interpreted. 
 Like all gospels, it has its false prophets. 
 
 There are these and countless others. The gospel of 
 Anti-Tuberculosis, the gospel of the Fraternal Orders, 
 such and many others, we must think about, nay, more 
 than this, we must have our part and place in them. 
 It is all these, together with the gospel of the church, 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 21 
 
 that makes up what Christ calls, in the light of his 
 infinite vision, the Kingdom of God. My thesis, then, 
 is that the minister is to become the minister, the guide, 
 the director of all these great movements of mankind. 
 
 While it is true to-day that in some ways the church 
 has lost her place and power as these other gospels have 
 arisen, we must remember that, after all, she and her 
 gospel have given rise to these. The great stream of 
 which the Christian church is the source has overflown 
 her banks. In other words, just as Jesus prophesied, 
 the church is becoming the greater Kingdom of God. 
 I profoundly believe that she and her gospel must 
 remain as the source and the centre of these great 
 movements. Unless she does, they are likely to become 
 false gospels, and to do great harm, even though they 
 intend, suggest, and prophesy great good. 
 
 Christ is interested in all these great problems. He 
 is concerned about the way men treat each other. He 
 is asking these men of capital and these men of labour 
 to come out on the mountain side with him. Over 
 against their mutual selfishness and their conmaon law 
 of the survival of the fittest, he puts his new command- 
 ment before them. Then he asks them all to get down 
 to pray, and as they pray, to say "Our Father.'^ And 
 so, in his name, we must do, and we must find the way 
 to do it. 
 
 Thus, the place of the church and the ministry in the 
 realization of democracy must be a place of directing 
 power and influence; the minister must become the 
 mover and the moulder of this great social order. In 
 
22 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 some way he must become its minister. The Christian 
 chm*ch ought to become a great clearing-house for all 
 these humanitarian transactions. All men and women 
 should look, both for the righting of their wrongs and 
 the adjustment of their differences, to her and to her 
 ministry. 
 
 These great multitudes of mankind are looking to-day, 
 and are longing, even though they know it not, for the 
 right leadership. Again and again, as Isaiah said, 
 'Hhey that lead these people cause them to err, and 
 they that are led of them are destroyed." 
 
 The present moment is one of chaos. The forces are 
 mainly unregulated and opposing compulsions. In days 
 gone by, when the rich man rode by in his magnificent 
 equipage, the poor man doffed his cap. Now, as he 
 avoids his automobile, he grinds his teeth. I had 
 almost rather he would do the latter than the former, 
 but it is the business of the Christian minister to show 
 him that he must do neither. 
 
 Only a little while ago, nearly 400,000 men in the 
 great city of New York, who were looking for a leader, 
 a great social leader, took a man who offered himself, 
 although he proved to be a very base, unworthy man. 
 We must find a way of offering ourselves so that they 
 will take us as their guides, philosophers, and friends. 
 
 First of all, it is the business of the minister to be, 
 himself, their guide, but he must also send out men 
 from his own circle who shall be great, strong, and 
 righteous leaders. He must send out men of business 
 who will set themselves lovingly and unselfishly to 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 23 
 
 adjust these great problems. He must send out from 
 his church wage-earners who will go to their unions 
 and wrest them from their bad leadership. He must 
 send out men who, in a spirit of righteousness, will 
 control and direct our political order. 
 
 We talk a great deal about something which we call 
 " public spirit." What is it? It is always the conscience 
 of the individual, or of the group, awakening, moving, 
 and dominating the people. It is thus only that the 
 voice of the people becomes the voice of God. 
 
 The important question for us is. How may we 
 relate this order to the Christian church and the Chris- 
 tian ministry? This is the real problem of church and 
 state. The dominant individual should be the minister. 
 The regulating group should be the church. 
 
 It will not do to tell organized mankind, in general 
 terms, that they ought to have a conscience. In large 
 measure we should be their conscience. In this sense 
 we should be a dominating church and an authoritative 
 pulpit. Oh, again and again has the church lost her 
 chance and failed of her opportunity. She has spent 
 her time playing her theological fiddles while Rome 
 burned. She lost her opportunity in the days just 
 before the abolition of slavery. She is in danger of 
 losing it again to-day in our great struggle to reaUze a 
 democracy. She is losing it in relation to our industrial 
 situation. She has been all too largely and too long a 
 looker-on. 
 
 But she lives in the midst of a magnificent, historic 
 opportunity. Whether the issue shall be weal or woe 
 
24 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 depends on the last resort of summoning, arousing, com- 
 bining, and imposing the great latent moral forces in 
 her midst. These great moral forces are in a state of 
 balance. The spirit is, "I will if others will." There 
 are a great host of business men who are facing both 
 ways and are ready to turn either way, and either make 
 a stand for commercial integrity or give up trying to 
 be Christian men altogether. We must decide them. 
 
 The moral conscience of society awaits the group. 
 The group awaits the individual. The supreme ques- 
 tion for us is. Shall the Christian church be the group, 
 the "Servant of Jehovah," the saving remnant, the 
 moral leaven of the nation and the world? The still 
 nearer question is : Shall the personal, individual, initia- 
 tive force in human society be the Christian ministry? 
 Shall the church be the imposed conscience on society? 
 Shall the conscience of the prophet become the imposed 
 conscience on the church? Shall they both have, first 
 of all, a great, burning conscience themselves? Florence 
 groans and travails for her San Marco. San Marco 
 awaits her Piagnoni. They, in their turn, await the 
 voice of Savonarola. Such is the waiting attitude of 
 democracy to-day, as it awaits the advent of you men. 
 
 First of all, the minister must begin with his own 
 church, for it, too, needs a new conception, a new vision, 
 a new conscience, and a new constitution. The church 
 cannot control democracy until she herself is demo- 
 cratic. Just now she lags behind. 
 
 What is the Christian church? How does it differ 
 from other human organizations? How shall it be con- 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 25 
 
 stituted? The basis of selection in all other societies is 
 upon some ground of classification. Men come together 
 in other fraternal circles because of intellectual sym- 
 pathies or social congenialities. But can the church do 
 this? 
 
 Another question we may ask: Does the Christian 
 church exist for the sake of herself, or for the sake of 
 humanity? What is the church for? We answer: To 
 help men live right. How then can we do it best, by 
 having them on the inside or by keeping them on the 
 outside, by exclusion and probation, or by fellowship 
 with them? 
 
 If the church is a society for the good, who are the 
 good? Who is to determine, in the Hght of the great 
 problems of heredity and environment? Who shall 
 answer the question? Who is empowered to make the 
 selection? Who is able to read the intentions and mo- 
 tives of men's hearts? Have we the right to exercise 
 the prerogatives of the judgment day? 
 
 Or shall we think of the church as a hospital for men's 
 souls? One of the finest books of instruction ever 
 written for a minister issued from this school with the 
 beautiful title, ''The Cure of Souls." Suppose the hos- 
 pital should put up a sign outside its doors: Only those 
 who are well enough are admitted here. We liken the 
 church to the school. Suppose the school should say: 
 You must learn first before you can get in here. It will 
 take only a httle thought to show us that the church 
 must have an absolutely open door, without any condi- 
 tions whatever to its entrance. 
 
26 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 We have not done this. We have not dared to soil 
 our phylacteries. We have created a wrong impression 
 among those whom we should seek. Democracy has 
 waited outside so long that she has turned her back. 
 Or, truer, has gone on ahead, without us. 
 
 If we are to follow Christ, there is only one attitude 
 for us to take. The church cannot adopt a policy of 
 protection, she must have a free and open market. 
 She must have no restriction of immigration to her 
 shores. She can require no certificate of moral stand- 
 ing, no guaranty of moral health; she can have nothing 
 but an open door. To the unbeliever we must say, 
 Come in and learn that you may believe. To the man 
 who says he has had no rehgious '* experience," we 
 must say, Come in and share the warmth of this fel- 
 lowship, and let your affections be touched by Christ. 
 To the man of moral weakness we must say, Come in 
 and share our strength. If he says: I am too weak and 
 unwell, we must respond. This is the abiding place of 
 the greatest of physicians. If he persists and tells us 
 he is afraid that he may fall again, we must say: 
 If you do, we will lift you up, even four hundred and 
 ninety times. The church cannot be a Castle Garden 
 with its officers on guard. It cannot have any quaran- 
 tine-station. If there is any ground of exclusion what- 
 ever, it must be only that which excludes the Pharisee, 
 who thinks that he is good enough. 
 
 The supreme question for us to-day is. Does the church 
 dare to eat with pubhcans and sinners, to invite them 
 to her own table, to let the sinful women in with their 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 27 
 
 alabaster boxes, to welcome sinners, not simply to seek 
 the righteous, to heal the sick, and not the whole who 
 need no physician? She must open her doors, not the 
 doors of wood, but the doors of her closest fellowship, 
 to every human child of the Father who knocks; and if 
 he is too weak to knock, we must knock for him. 
 
 Shall she go on gathering from the world for the sake 
 of herself, or shall she give herself for the sake of the 
 world ? Shall she invite to her table not only the worthy, 
 but the needy? Let us no longer shut up the Kingdom 
 of Heaven with the rusty keys of doctrine. Let us get 
 absolutely rid of our lingering idea of the Christian 
 church as a collection of those who may thank God that 
 they are not as other men are. 
 
 Does this mean a church that ignores truth, neglects 
 religion, and countenances sin? By no means! The 
 open-door church must be a strong church, with earnest 
 seekers and upholders of truth, with symbolism that 
 shall appeal to the imagination, full of a religious con- 
 tagion, and above all with men and women of great 
 moral strength. The ideal church will have in its fel- 
 lowship both the strong and the weak in faith, in sense, 
 in religious feeling and in moral character, in order that 
 the strong may be there to help the weak; and the 
 weak, that they may receive the strength of the strong. 
 
 We must distinguish between our constituency and 
 our ideals. The invitation cannot be too broad nor the 
 ideal requirements too exacting. We must remember 
 the inequalities of privilege and opportunity in the 
 exaction of actual requirements. 
 
28 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 We must take the publicans and sinners with us to 
 hear the searching sermon on the mount. But we must 
 have them "with us." Every church must have her 
 seventy lesser disciples as well as her eleven faithful 
 apostles and her Johns. 
 
 Why do we not reach the great masses of needy men 
 and women? Why, just because we do not reach them. 
 We have tried to do it at arm's length. They are both 
 afraid of us and in doubt about us. We have put up 
 impassable barriers, and beckoned to them from our 
 alleged summits. If we are going to cure the sick we 
 must let them into the hospital first. 
 
 We shall make the church strong when we thus make 
 it for the weak. We can risk it. The Gospel of Jesus 
 is the solvent that will bring coherency out of inco- 
 herency. Its leaven will do its work. The strong men 
 of the church will become stronger by having the weak 
 beside them, and by the giving of their strength. The 
 weak will become stronger from the touch of the strong. 
 But the touch must be, not of the finger-tips, but of the 
 whole hand. It must be the touch of loving contact, 
 not of mere example; it must be that of fellowship and 
 conmiunion. 
 
 Our present church people must be shown that they 
 are the children of privilege, that, however true it may 
 be ideally, men are not actually born free and equal, 
 that they must consider the great influences of heredity 
 and environment, they must put themselves in other 
 men's places. As they look out, for example, upon 
 their alien neighbours, they must look across the sea and 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 29 
 
 witness the surroundings from whence they came. 
 They must think of all the things that have entered 
 into their own Hfe which these other men have not. 
 They must do all this when they think of the sociahst 
 and his mistakes, of the labour union man and his blun- 
 ders. They must remember that to us have been en- 
 trusted the oracles of God, and that, 
 
 " The world sits at the feet of Christ, 
 Unknowing, blind and unconsoled." 
 
 And yet there is often a loftier human idealism and 
 infinitely more Christian passion in a Cooper Union 
 audience than in a Christian congregation, and if you 
 do not beUeve it, go to a city church some Sunday 
 morning and to Cooper Union in the evening. 
 
 The church must be shown that all this social tumult 
 is because Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and that 
 these multitudes have seen him and are reaching out for 
 him, even though they know not what they seek, and are 
 often like 
 
 "An infant crying in the night. 
 An infant crying for the light, 
 And with no language but a cry.'* 
 
 We must ourselves see, and we must show our people, 
 that this world is filled with Bethesda pools by which 
 men wait for some one to help them in. 
 
 When the people (as we call them) make their great 
 and grievous errors, we must remember the shining face 
 upon the Cross, and hear above the thunder and the 
 rending rocks a voice, '^Father, forgive them, for they 
 
30 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 know not what they do," and then we must show them 
 this Christ. 
 
 You will find, if you go out inspired by some such 
 conception as this, that you will need to create in your 
 people a very new conception of the church and the 
 ministry. You must show them that you are not there 
 just to serve and run about for them, but that you and 
 they are there together to serve the world. They will 
 not see this at first, they will want you to give yourself, 
 your time, and your talents, to a great many very small 
 things in their behalf. You must give them a larger 
 view. Preach them a sermon, if necessary, upon the 
 "tithing of Mint and Cummin." You may need to 
 take the other text about "the serving of tables." 
 Give them a new vision of the church of to-day, show 
 them the democratic environment in which they live, 
 and that the Christian church must correspond to this 
 environment if it is to endure. You will need to show 
 them that the Christian church has not been demo- 
 cratic, but that it has been, without meaning to be so, 
 aristocratic. 
 
 We must thus change the church from a gallery of 
 fine arts to an asylum; for the weak-minded in faith, 
 for those who have fallen in moral weakness, for frail 
 sinning men and women, for the sick, the lame, the halt, 
 the blind. The deeper the need, the warmer and closer 
 must be the fellowship. We need to-day a magnificently 
 reckless church, who will not be afraid of her reputation, 
 even though it may bring her to the cross. He bore the 
 sins of men in his own body on the tree; so it has been 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 31 
 
 said of Christ. The church must bear the sins of men 
 in her own body, by the side of the cross. Let her 
 dare to give and lose her life, for thus only, accord- 
 ing to her Lord and Master, can she save her Hfe by 
 losing it. 
 
 As a worldly newspaper reporter said to me a few 
 moments ago, the church ought to be "a wide-open 
 proposition," as he put it. 
 
 I went into a hospital the other day. I witnessed a 
 parable. A pale, weak, bloodless man was carried in. 
 He was not strong enough to walk. He did not even 
 come of his own volition. Following him came a great, 
 strong, stalwart man, glowing with health. They 
 brought them together. They bared an arm of each 
 man. They brought them into fellowship by a con- 
 ductor which carried the rich blood of the strong into 
 the frail body of the weak. That should be, at least, 
 the spirit of the church. 
 
 Abolish, as fast as you can, no matter how cultured 
 the church, pew-rents, and so-called free pews. Gret 
 your church to appropriate for missions some of the 
 money expended for the expensive quartette. Any- 
 thing that is in the way of democracy should be hewn 
 down. 
 
 The only way the church can save her life is by losing 
 it. For example: the other evening I think we helped 
 save an important situation by closing our week-night 
 prayer-meeting and asking the men to go to the town 
 meeting in the interest of our public schools, which are 
 perhaps the finest expression in the world of a true 
 
32 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 Christian democracy and a finer expression in many 
 ways than the church itself. 
 
 One of the great needs of your church men will be a 
 closer contact and a larger personal allegiance to Jesus 
 Christ, a great affection for him as the sovereign pos- 
 session of the human mind. Talk to them a great deal 
 about Jesus of Nazareth, make him become to them the 
 sjnnbol of a great unutterably noble life. Show them 
 how the Gospels glow with moral courage. Learn to 
 paint them vivid pictures of the splendour of the man- 
 hood of Jesus, for you will find that the great trouble 
 with your men will be the haunting fear of cowardice. 
 Like the aged and infirm, they are "afraid of that 
 which is high." Impress upon them the attractiveness 
 of the imperial spirit of the Master. You will find that 
 your men will be fearful, even under your bold leader- 
 ship, to come out and wrestle like Christian warriors 
 with these great problems which you have dared to face. 
 
 It is perfectly clear that we can no longer make dis- 
 tinctions between any particular questions which the 
 church may or may not discuss and settle. It is plainly 
 to be seen that even our pofitical questions are all moral 
 questions and that all moral problems are at heart 
 religious. The modern minister is called upon to wield 
 political influence. In part it must be direct and open; 
 in still larger part he must do it through his influence 
 upon the character and actions of his men. He must 
 train up, in his church and in his city, through his 
 influence, great leaders of thought and action. He 
 must do it by every means — by appeal, by rebuke, 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 33 
 
 by exhortation, by condemnation, by persuasion, by 
 every weapon or seduction at his hands. It is a splen- 
 did thing for a man to feel that he thus dominates the 
 political, the social, and the civic life of a city — that 
 he is a general commanding the very forces of the 
 universe. 
 
 This new conception of the ministry calls for a new 
 training. That training must be, first of all, deeply 
 intellectual. The modern minister must dominate the 
 minds of men by his own intellectual power. But he 
 must know men as well as books. We must have a 
 theological course in human sympathy. The supreme 
 need in the ministry to-day is men who combine pro- 
 foundly thinking minds together with great pulsating 
 hearts, who know and see and feel and do. 
 
 The air of our theological schools should be vibrant 
 with sympathy, with burning hearts. The ministry 
 needs men who unite wise judgment, sweet reasonable- 
 ness, clear light, and great unquenchable passion, men 
 who both deeply think and intensely live. He must 
 have a training which fires him with the great and 
 splendid sense of democracy. He must go out as the 
 pastor of all the people. It must all be very practical. 
 He must know not only how to think deeply, but to 
 act readily and masterfully. He must be a catalyst. 
 
 I now therefore pass to the question which is raising 
 itself in your minds. How is the minister to get access 
 to all these elements of democracy? How is he to gain 
 this power over the minds, the hearts, and the actions 
 of all these peoples? I will, therefore, by way of mere 
 
34 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 suggestion, throw out a few hints. Above all things, 
 such a minister needs to be (of course in the higher 
 sense of the term) an opportunist. 
 
 Is it the important question of gaining power over 
 foreign-speaking peoples, so that he, and not the cheap 
 politician, may influence them in their united action, 
 for their action is and will be, very largely, united? A 
 very few little things will do it. Let him learn, for 
 example, to conduct funeral services, we will say, in 
 German. It will give him access to the German people 
 all over his city. How those people love to hear it roll 
 out: "In meines Vaters Hause sind \dele Wohnungen." 
 How it reaches their hearts! He will be kept busy 
 conducting such funerals. He will find at those funer- 
 als the German Singing Society. Let him give an 
 illustrated lecture on Germany at his church, and have 
 those singers up there to sing in the language of the 
 fatherland. 
 
 Not long ago I was sent for to see a sick and dying 
 man who had great influence among German people. 
 He was a stockholder in one of our hat factories. I 
 am to-day acting as his attorney and taking care of his 
 business affairs. He has bequeathed to me his wife 
 and children. I simply throw these out as suggestions 
 of opportunism. 
 
 Let the minister claim all the men he can get hold of 
 for his parish. If you meet a man, find out about his 
 church relations. You will find that he has none. Go 
 right home and put his name down on your parish list 
 and the next time you send out a pastoral letter, send 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 35 
 
 him one signed "Your affectionate pastor." This is a 
 splendid way to get hold of men. 
 
 It will be necessary to make some enemies as well as 
 friends if you stand for civic righteousness, but it is 
 very easy to find ways of making the friends so many 
 that the enemies will count as a cipher. 
 
 Above all things, get hold of men. Never mind so 
 much about the women, you will get them anyway 
 without trying, and at any rate you will get them if 
 you get their husbands and brothers. But this is not 
 all, you must get men together. Upon this, I refer you 
 to our Men's Chiistian Inquiry Club, which gets together 
 every Sunday noon in our church. It is composed 
 about as follows, as I look over the names of its fifty 
 members, — merchants, manufacturers, corporation pres- 
 idents and secretaries, military men, retired men, archi- 
 tects, real estate men, promoters, doctors, lawyers, 
 judges, skilled wage-earners, unskilled wage-earners, 
 overseers, bosses, etc., etc. They discuss mainly eco- 
 nomic and social questions, for these are about the only 
 questions to-day upon which you can get men together. 
 Our Roman Catholic priest remarked, the other day, 
 that the reason the Congregational Church was the 
 strongest in town was because its men had the faculty 
 of getting together. 
 
 Get them together in the parsonage, over coffee, and 
 cigars (perhaps), to talk things over. In the parlours 
 of our home a few evenings ago, at a little social gather- 
 ing of men, we had the chief of police, a deputy sheriff, 
 members of the City Government, presidents of cor- 
 
36 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 porations, lawyers, judges, doctors, the head of the 
 largest cigar factory in town, the secretary of the Cigar 
 Makers' Union, a chauffeur, and several large employers 
 of labour together with both skilled and unskilled work- 
 men. It is important for a minister to learn how to 
 mix men up and to make them mix up. 
 
 Another important matter is that of accessibility. I 
 confess that I am more than doubtful about the frequent 
 custom of placing a notice on the calendar, requesting 
 people not to come to the parsonage to disturb the 
 minister at certain hours. I think he must learn to 
 find time to do his work while at the same time he holds 
 himself open to any and every call. I prefer a notice 
 something like this: 
 
 "The Pastor is always at the service of the people. 
 The Parsonage is open to any call, at any time of day 
 or night, when he may render such service. He will 
 respond to any request of any kind. He will call, upon 
 request or suggestion, for any purpose desired. During 
 the day and evening, when at the parsonage, he is close 
 to the telephone and never too busy to respond to an 
 opportunity to be of service." Be, as my friend the 
 reporter put it, ''an open proposition." 
 
 Take an interest in men and learn about their in- 
 terests. For example, if some business man fails and 
 has to go into bankruptcy, write him a sjonpathetic 
 letter. 
 
 Use the newspapers, and through them, as well as 
 through your pulpit, be the open champion of popular 
 and righteous democratic causes. When you invite the 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 37 
 
 president of the factory to dinner, put one of his 
 workmen on the other side of the table. Do any- 
 thing and everything you can to get hold of men 
 and movements. 
 
 In almost every community you will find a population 
 of various foreign peoples. Get among them, talk to 
 them about citizenship, learn their customs and ways 
 of doing things and conform to them. If, for example, 
 you go to a gathering of Swedish people to talk to 
 them about the obligations and the opportunities of 
 American citizenship, they will hear you with much 
 more sympathetic interest if you have learned enough 
 Swedish to join with them in the singing of the Swedish 
 national air which precedes your address. Say a good 
 word for the Jews. Get in touch with the black men. 
 
 Use your pulpit to give appreciations of the work of 
 the various servants of human society. Take Hospital 
 Sunday, for example, to speak of physicians and nurses 
 in ideal terms as the ministers of Christ. 
 
 Invite the graduating classes of the public schools to 
 come to your church the Sunday before graduation and 
 preach them an annual sermon. One very effective 
 key to democracy will be through the public school 
 teachers. Attend the gatherings of their association 
 and talk to them frequently about their ideals and 
 moral opportunities. Take up such work as the artistic 
 decoration of the school buildings. 
 
 Father such institutions as the Grand Army of the 
 Republic. Help them in the observance of Memorial 
 Day. Go with them and help them to decorate a few 
 
38 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 graves, in the heavy rain, it may be. Drop in on the 
 firemen and policemen once in awhile. 
 
 Do not forget ^'the other half." Keep in close and 
 sympathetic touch with the Rescue Mission in your 
 city. Go down occasionally and spend an evening with 
 the poor fellows whose only home it is. Keep in asso- 
 ciation with the Salvation Army. 
 
 Besides using your pulpit through sermons, use it 
 through the prayer. Pray for men openly; for your 
 city judges, that they may judge in righteousness; for 
 your lawyers that they shall uphold the truth. Pray 
 not only for the President of the United States, but 
 also for the mayor of your city. Remember the police- 
 men as the protectors of human life and interest, and the 
 firemen who risk danger for the sake of their fellowmen. 
 
 Remember in your prayers those who work in the 
 factories and stores. Pray for employers that they may 
 be considerate and generous, and for the labour unions 
 that they may be faithful and just. At least, on some 
 Sunday morning during the year, each of these elements 
 of human society ought to be openly prayed for. At 
 Christmas time you might gather them all up into one 
 prayer and it will do no harm if it is printed in the 
 Christmas morning edition of the daily paper. You 
 may find that the firemen, for example, will gather in 
 their rooms on Christmas morning and have their chief 
 read it to them. I have known such things to happen. 
 As you go about among the homes of people you may 
 find it mounted upon cardboard and hanging upon their 
 walls. 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 39 
 
 These are only casual suggestions. Find these and 
 any other ways of gaining the moral confidence of the 
 democratic order through your open expressions of sym- 
 pathy and affection. These are the ways to get access 
 to democracy. 
 
 All this is preparatory to other great and important 
 influence. It will give you power and votes when you 
 are called upon to participate in political Hfe and civic 
 reform. As society is constituted to-day you will be 
 almost a cipher in the moving and the moulding of the 
 moral social order, unless you become a vital factor in 
 the background of political life. There is little use 
 in a minister attempting the work of civic reform 
 unless he first gains a powerful influence over masses 
 of men. 
 
 With this backing you may also be a great inspira- 
 tional force in municipal betterment. You will be able 
 to improve the appearance of your city; to institute 
 many movements for making your city beautiful. You 
 ought to be able to successfully contest for this influence 
 with the cheap political boss, and not let him run the 
 city. 
 
 I have set before you what I believe to be a large aim 
 and opportunity. It is really a recurrence in one sense 
 to the old idea of the ministry which prevailed in the 
 earlier days of New England. In those days the min- 
 ister and his church dominated the public life. In 
 these latter days most of this authority has been tem- 
 porarily relinquished, but we must gain it again. 
 
 There is, however, this essential difference: in those 
 
40 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 early days it was a certain reverence for outward author- 
 ity; it was a certain institutional power; there was a 
 touch of superstition in it; the minister was heeded often- 
 times simply because he was the minister. That sort of 
 authority will never be regained and never should be 
 recovered. But I am calling you to exercise an infi- 
 nitely higher authority. It is that of intellectual, moral, 
 and spiritual power. It is that of personal character. 
 
 Therefore I urge upon you this large and compre- 
 hensive conception of the ministry. You are to become, 
 and you are to make your church become, the mover 
 and the moulder of the entire social and democratic 
 order. In your hands the Master has placed the keys 
 to the solution of the great industrial problems of our 
 time. It is your business to bring the employer and 
 the employed together in the name and spirit of the 
 Master. You are not to leave political life to be domi- 
 nated by wretched selfish demagogues. You are to 
 contest political leadership with them. 
 
 It is not simply your business to gather a little eclectic 
 group of saints within the church that you may minister 
 to them. It is your holy task to make of your whole 
 city a new Jerusalem descending out of heaven. You 
 are also to give these moral and spiritual institutions, 
 after you have made them moral and spiritual, a beau- 
 tiful physical habitation. The city which you are to 
 make glorious in its inner life must also be made beauti- 
 ful in its physical body. 
 
 In order to accomplish these great ends you must 
 absolutely give yourself to everything and everybody. 
 
THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 41 
 
 Without for one moment lowering the dignity of your 
 high calling, you must be a thoroughly democratic man. 
 You are to find some point of contact with every element 
 of the life of your community. 
 
 I was very much pleased the other day when I was 
 asked to go down and give a few words of counsel and 
 advice to the Hat Trinmiers' Union of over three hun- 
 dred working women. When I told the secretary that 
 I would come she said, "When this question was raised 
 one of our members, a Roman Catholic, asked the 
 question, 'Do you suppose he will come?' and one of 
 the members spoke up and said, 'Yes, he mil do any- 
 thing you ask him to do J" I was equally pleased on 
 being introduced to that meeting to have the president 
 introduce me as ''our pastor." 
 
 Thus, and thus only, will you fulfil the larger vision 
 of the Master. It is to be remembered that he never 
 once mentioned the Church. He always talked about 
 the Kingdom. I have been trying to give you some 
 glimpses of the modern ministry of the Kingdom, our 
 field as the world, our parish as our town or city. 
 
 I must stop to remind you again, that, first of all, you 
 must become a strong preacher and pastor in your own 
 church. You cannot do this larger work until you have 
 mastered your own church, and then, too, I have been 
 reminding you all along that this is reactionary. All 
 this work that you do outside reacts upon and greatly 
 strengthens your own church. This is especially true 
 when you carry your own people into these things with 
 you. The field is white for harvest while the labourers, 
 
42 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 
 
 the men who have grasped this conception of the min- 
 istry, are few. 
 
 The Master is calling to this church of his, which, in 
 these latter days, has been toiling night after night and 
 taking very little, "Launch out into the deep and let 
 down your nets." He wants us to continue unselfishly 
 until it be that the kingdoms of this world are become 
 kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. 
 
 I have dared to set before you a large task because I 
 believe that the broad and generous spirit of this Divinity 
 School is calculated to make men of large mould with the 
 loftiest of ideals. 
 
 Do you see the point? If the minister is to have a 
 large influence in the realization, the making, and the 
 moralizing of our democracy he must get his points of 
 contact. He must have electric wires extending out 
 all through the community. He must be able to press 
 the button at the parsonage and make things happen 
 at his will. Get power, political, civic, social, any kind. 
 Get influence, with the judges on the bench, the teachers 
 in the schools, with anybody and with everybody, in a 
 true and splendid sense, "the power of the keys." 
 
 Thus only may we become to mankind the inter- 
 preters of its own life, in the light of moral and spiritual 
 vision. The order is, first, the gaining of the good-will 
 and moral confidence of men, and of men in large groups 
 and societies. Then out of this we must gain our power 
 over them. Then, and thus only, shall we be able to 
 interpret for them their own best impulses, and we may 
 do it so that even the man with the muck-rake may 
 
OF THE 1^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY j 
 
 THE MINISTER AND DEMOCRACY 43 
 
 learn to look up and see the celestial crown of his diviner 
 meaning. 
 
 My brethren, it is no small work to which you are 
 called. It is not simply to serve a church, to preach a 
 gospel, it is to make that church and that gospel effect- 
 ive, it is the development of something that is infinitely 
 larger than the church. Our task is to transform 
 democracy into the Kingdom of God and nothing less 
 than this should be the aim and the ideal of the modern 
 minister. And they are wrong who say, so flippantly, 
 that the day of our authority has gone. It is before us 
 if we will only find its way. 
 
 Our field is the world, our parish is our town or city, 
 our people are the people. And this field is white for 
 harvest, while the labourers are few, and I am pra5dng 
 the Lord of the harvest that he may send you forth. 
 
TRADE UNIONS: THE CAUSES FOR THEIR 
 EXISTENCE 
 
 BY 
 
 Henky Sterling 
 
 Mr. Sterling J of Medford, Massachusetts, is a compos- 
 itor on ^^The Boston Daily Globe J' He was formerly the 
 Secretary of Typographical Union No. 13, of Boston, and 
 has been long known as a wise and loyal labour leader. He 
 has served on the Board of Aldermen in his city and in 
 many other positions of trust and responsibility. 
 
TRADE UNIONS: THE CAUSES FOR THEIR 
 EXISTENCE 
 
 DR. MACFARLAND has asked me to tell you 
 how you may help in the realization of the higher 
 ideals of organized industry. My first answer would be 
 to ask ministers of the Gospel to learn and know the 
 inside history of union labour, and the actual conditions 
 under which wage-earners live and work. I think too 
 few of them know much about these things. 
 
 One of the most striking things in the industrial world 
 is the number of men out of work. At any time, in 
 any place, large nimibers are suffering enforced idle- 
 ness. Any sort of a job, at any kind of wages, will find 
 any number of takers. The misery, want, and demor- 
 alization that result from this condition are appalling. 
 No agony is so acute, no anxiety so intense, as that of 
 the penniless man out of work with a family dependent 
 upon him. It blasts hope, ambition, aspiration. It 
 destroys the moral sense and paralyzes the intellectual 
 powers. Its victim becomes incapable of mental exer- 
 tion or moral aspiration. Manliness is undermined, and 
 the wretch vainly seeking a job becomes an abject, 
 cringing, shrinking creature, submissive to any indig- 
 nity, any oppression or extortion, if only it will bring 
 him the means to live. The courage and enterprise 
 that might enable him to strike out for himself are lost; 
 
 47 
 
48 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 it is useless to try new lines of work, for all are over- 
 crowded; and if there is no room for him in the calling 
 in which he has some skill, what chance has he in the 
 calling in which he has none? 
 
 Millions endure this agony daily. Statistics are not 
 available, as the personnel of the out-of-works is con- 
 stantly changing, yet it is safe to say that not less than 
 one twentieth of the workers are constantly out of 
 emplo5Tiient. In periods of depression the proportion 
 is greater. 
 
 For their woe there is no alleviation, no redress. 
 Statesmen, churchmen, philanthropists, economists, — 
 all turn from them. Charity alone doles out a sop to 
 save them from starvation. They ask the highest 
 political authority in the land what to do, and receive 
 for a reply, "God only knows." 
 
 This horror is needless. It is the primary and para- 
 mount crime of society against the workers, for there 
 are abundant opportunities for labour, for all, in this and 
 every land. The soil is the source of all emplojnnent 
 of every kind. Until every foot of it has been put to 
 its utmost intensive use, there is no righteous excuse 
 for involuntary idleness. Mines by the thousand are 
 unopened; fields by the million are unbroken; above 
 all, city lots without number — opportunities unlimited 
 for stores, factories, homes — lie untouched, naked, and 
 useless, a shame to us and our civilization, while the 
 crowded slums fester, and idle men walk the streets in 
 despair. Every city shows more of its area idle than 
 used. 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 49 
 
 It is not for lack of opportunity to labour that men 
 are idle. Nature is no niggard. God has provided for 
 us an abundance of material blessings. 
 
 Plainly, our first great crime against humanity is our 
 system of tenure of land, which restricts, abridges, and 
 denies to men the chance to work. The man out of 
 work is a guest as at a feast spread by the Father of all, 
 yet by his fellow-guests denied an opportunity to satisfy 
 his necessities. His sufferings, anxiety, misery, and 
 degradation are needless and uncalled for, and are not 
 to be blamed upon God, who has plentifully provided 
 for all. Rather we, his creatures, are to blame, having 
 intervened with pernicious laws between labour and its 
 opportunity, and separated the creature from the 
 bounties of his Creator. 
 
 But the evils that flow from non-employment do not 
 stop with those who are idle; they extend themselves 
 to all who work. Low wages for all are the direct 
 result of the enforced idleness of some. The com- 
 petition for jobs drives the pay to a point below the 
 demands of justice, below the demands of physical 
 necessity. Higher joys are out of the question, or are 
 pinched from the necessities of the physical. It is 
 only when men break away from manual labour early 
 in life that there is any hope of mental growth or 
 intellectual attainments. The mass of working men 
 are little better than mere machines, to be used or 
 discarded as profit or inclination dictates. 
 
 Then, the fear of idleness makes men submit to 
 brutally long days of labour. A mistake has arisen 
 
50 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 from lack of apprehension of the difference between 
 work and labour. Work is ever a joy to the normal 
 man, but labour is always a burden. To accomplish 
 some desirable thing by mental or physical exertion 
 is pleasurable work, which should better the whole 
 man and add to his happiness; but to drudge unceas- 
 ingly at a toilsome task, hour after hour, day after 
 day, year in and year out, to the point of physical 
 exhaustion, without pleasure in it, without proj&t 
 pecuniary or otherwise, without relaxation or hope of 
 release except in death — indeed, release would bring 
 the greater ills of idleness and want — with no oppor- 
 tunity for the exercise of any faculty other than the 
 one employed on a wearying task — this is labour. 
 We recognize the difference in common speech. Of a 
 plan, or a machine, or a system, we say it works well; 
 of a ship in distress, in danger of destruction, we say 
 she labours. The difference between work and labour 
 is the difference between pleasure and toil. 
 
 Low wages, and fear of idleness and want, drive men 
 to long hours of labour that exhaust them physically, 
 morally, and spiritually. Again, fear of losing a job 
 induces a species of servility, a submission to petty 
 tyranny and exactions, that is wholly foreign to a 
 manly spirit. Ready, prompt, cheerful obedience to 
 proper orders is a virtue that becomes a man, but 
 he whose necessities compel submission to indignity 
 and imposition is a pitiable object indeed. Men take 
 much pride in calling non-union men free and independ- 
 ent, but for workmen there is little if any approach 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 51 
 
 to freedom or independence in any other than a 
 union shop, and frequently not as much there as there 
 should be. 
 
 One other great and bitter wrong remains to be noted 
 — society seems to be in a conspiracy to pilfer from the 
 labourer as much as possible of the meagre wage he 
 receives. No one holds land that he himself is not 
 using except for the purpose of getting wealth without 
 work; interest money and dividends are unearned by 
 the receiver; profits from artificial and other monopolies 
 are incalculable; tariff and patent laws seem specifically 
 designed to allow easy methods of creating monopolies 
 to force tribute from industry to idleness; ground rents, 
 interest, dividends, and monopoly profits are all ab- 
 stracted from the workers. No other source exists from 
 which they can be drawn. Wealth is not a spontaneous 
 growth, nor is it produced by magic, or sleight of hand, 
 but only by labour applied to land. Every dollar not 
 earned by useful work is taken from the wages of those 
 who toil. 
 
 John Wanamaker, in an official statement made 
 when he was Postmaster General, showed that "an 
 investment of $1,000 in 1858 in Western Union stock 
 would have received, up to 1890, stock dividends of 
 more than $50,000 and cash dividends of more than 
 $100,000." 
 
 Nearly every item of necessity, of food, clothing, 
 shelter, heat, fight, transportation, and communication is 
 enhanced in price by the extortions of monopoly. Great 
 fortunes are built by picking the pockets of the poor. 
 
62 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 Not less than a quarter of the meagre sum the wage- 
 earner receives is yielded as a tribute to the exactions 
 of monopoly. 
 
 These are not fanciful pictures or rhetorical exag- 
 gerations, but the bare, cold facts of our civiHzation. 
 We create an artificial scarcity of opportunity of work. 
 The resulting competition for jobs lowers wages below 
 decent living conditions, and uncertainty of employ- 
 ment demoralizes all classes of labour. Lastly, we allow 
 monopoly to filch away a large proportion of the pitiful 
 wages paid. 
 
 The race has outgrown many superstitions, and among 
 them is the belief that God gives to one man riches and 
 another poverty. God's bounty has provided plenti- 
 fully for all. By cunning, greed, extortion, and hard- 
 ness of heart riches are drawn from the labour of others. 
 What a picture of blasphemy is presented by the man 
 who not only shuts his heart to the needs of his fellows, 
 but plunges them into deeper distress by using his God- 
 given talents to wring from them every penny that 
 monopoly can extort, and then ascribes his wealth to 
 the favour of Divine Providence! The public announce- 
 ment of such doctrine now covers its advocate with 
 contempt. 
 
 Not one of the leading institutions intelligently con- 
 demns these deep, far-reaching, fimdamental, demoral- 
 izing wrongs. Press, pulpit, and party ignore them. 
 Presidents, preachers, professors, politicians, and leaders 
 of labour all discuss what they call the labour problem, 
 but none state what it is, or define or analyze it, or 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 53 
 
 make any allusion to these three obvious iniquities 
 which create it. 
 
 Yet the existence of these three artificial wrongs — 
 scarcity of employment, low wages, monopoly extor- 
 tions — is responsible for the existence, not only of 
 trade unions, but of all the other striking social phe- 
 nomena that distress and perplex us. That deep 
 poverty which breeds ignorance, vice, brutality, crime, 
 degradation, is the direct outgrowth of these wrongs, 
 which we ourselves have created. Consumption is one 
 of the punishments of poverty. Intemperance, with all 
 its misery, is another of its baneful fruits. People are 
 not poor because they drink, but rather they drink 
 because they are poor. 
 
 Contemplate the awful results of this trinity of wrongs! 
 Vast masses of humanity are kept perpetually without 
 the material means or possibility of anything above a 
 mere animal existence, without enough at any time to 
 satisfy reasonable physical needs; woman labour, with its 
 robbery of unborn generations, and child labour with its 
 pitiful horrors; death's ghastly harvest among the babes 
 of the poor; the meagre, starved childhood; the toiling, 
 suffering manhood; the shortening of the narrowed life 
 — these are fruits of lack of work, low wages, and private 
 monopoly. The joy of work and of Hfe depart; art, 
 science, Uterature, to the working poor are dead; home 
 is but a name; education and culture are unknown. 
 Long hours of toil, exhausted energy and meagre reward 
 destroy vitaHty, hope, and aspiration, and make a higher 
 life impossible. A few of exceptional endowment, with 
 
54 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 good fortune and determination, have overcome and 
 risen above adverse conditions; but the masses die on 
 the plane on which they were born. 
 
 Wages largely measure intelhgence, elevation, civil- 
 ization. The country with the highest level of wages 
 has the highest degree of happiness and the highest 
 standard of citizenship, and the peoples of the lands with 
 low wages are abject in their misery, degradation, and 
 serviUty. The employment of the unemployed, the 
 elevation of wages, and the destruction of private mon- 
 opoly should be the first thought of statesmen. Chris- 
 tians, philanthropists, labour men — of all who desire 
 progress, who love their fellows, and who long for a 
 higher, cleaner, more just civilization. 
 
 He who depresses wages or makes the conditions of 
 labour harder and the hours longer is an enemy to hu- 
 manity, who for selfish ends robs little children, defiles 
 and degrades woman, and debases man. Instead of 
 love, he sows hatred, distrust, and dishonesty; instead 
 of lightening loads and relieving distress, he deepens 
 the misery and adds to the burdens of those who have 
 already more than they can bear. 
 
 These ills are enough to create and justify trade 
 unions. Indeed, men are not rational who fail to 
 imite against wrong. The labour movement is a protest 
 against evil conditions and the expression of aspira- 
 tion for a higher life. It is the embodiment of the 
 labourer's desire and hope for better conditions and 
 environment for those who follow him, even though 
 he himself may not attain to them. The strength 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 55 
 
 of the labour movement is the pledge of a nobler 
 civilization. 
 
 Not that the imions have attained any deep insight 
 into the causes of labour's ills, or their cure. They have 
 not. Their vision is short, their efforts — noble, self- 
 sacrificing, partially effective — are largely misdirected. 
 The whole force of the union attack is against low 
 wages, long hours, and bad labour conditions. The fact 
 that the non-employment of some is the immediate 
 cause of these ills is never noted. Feeling that they are 
 justly entitled to a larger return for their labour, the 
 union seeks to unite all the workers in each industry 
 in a demand for higher wages. It sets a minimum 
 wage, and urges all to refuse to work for less. It fixes 
 a maximum length of day, and urges that none work 
 more. It holds conferences with employers, urges the 
 justice and benefits of its demands, and finally a strike 
 is ordered. But all the while the fact that the market 
 is glutted with idle labour is wholly ignored. Workmen 
 hungering for a job are plentiful. The employer has 
 but to suffer the inconvenience of a change in the work- 
 ing force, and the workman who sought a gain has lost 
 all. Frequently the employer is a gainer by the strike, 
 for the newcomers will generally submit to a further 
 reduction. The men who took the places of the strikers 
 are bitterly denounced, but whatever caused their idle- 
 ness defeated the strike. Not imtil the union has fully 
 considered the man out of work and the cause for his 
 lack of employment will strikes be as effective as their 
 promoters hope. 
 
56 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 When all have equal share in and equal access to the 
 soil, the gift of God, idle labour, idle lands, low wages, 
 and the "worthy poor," will disappear — and not till 
 then. 
 
 But above all else, we need a sufficient enlightenment 
 of conscience to realize that to gain wealth without 
 work is to steal it from the worker. And we need to 
 see that we ourselves are as guilty as the ones who 
 benefit by the theft. Had the Good Samaritan and the 
 priest and the Levite watched without protest the rob- 
 bery of the victim, — they would have done exactly 
 what we are doing to-day. We need no fanciful or 
 Utopian scheme to overcome the wretchedness of pov- 
 erty, with all its concomitant vices. We need only 
 justice, to do as we would be done by. The point to 
 keep in view is that it is caused by involuntary idleness, 
 low wages, and the extortions of private monopofies. 
 Involuntary idleness is needless, and if abohshed other 
 reforms would follow. 
 
 Here is the remedy offered by organized labour for 
 wrong social conditions: Unite for better wages and 
 hours and working conditions. The first part, organ- 
 ization, is not only rational and commendable, but evil 
 conditions never can be overcome unless men unite and 
 act together against them. The second part, better 
 wages, hours, and conditions, can never be obtained 
 completely while the cause of low wages and bad con- 
 ditions — that is, enforced idleness — remains. 
 
 Now this remedy is so short-sighted as to be pitiful. 
 It promises no end whatever to the struggle. Indeed, 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 57 
 
 leading labour men at times express themselves as seeing 
 no prospect but that labour troubles, more or less acute, 
 must continue on and on indefinitely. There is no 
 promise that evil industrial conditions will be finally 
 abolished by the tremendous sacrifices being made along 
 the lines now pursued. 
 
 But the remedy of the trade unions has the merit of 
 being of practical value. Their efforts do relieve con- 
 ditions and make life more tolerable for milhons, while 
 the remedies offered by the accepted authorities of 
 society are not only useless, but if generally applied 
 would be positively injurious and aggravate the suffer- 
 ings now undergone by the poor. Consider them: 
 Greater diligence, Greater thrift. 
 
 Now of what avail is it to urge men who are already 
 overworked, who break down and become old before 
 their time, to more strenuous endeavoin*? Of course 
 individuals of unusual ability or endurance may benefit 
 therefrom by extra exertion; but if all could and should 
 follow the same course, none would be benefited. The 
 output might be greater, but wages would not rise, for 
 they depend on the amount of idle labour available. It 
 is as if persons in a race were told that they would win 
 by increased effort; one might, but the heart-breaking 
 pace would in no wise benefit his competitors, and must 
 soon break him down. To urge more strenuous effort 
 is simply to set up a more bitter competition as to who 
 can do the most for httle pay, when all are overworked 
 and underpaid already. It is to break down the less 
 efficient still earlier, without any probability of any 
 
58 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 benefit to come to labour. For wages constantly tend 
 to the lowest point at which labourers will consent to 
 subsist, and any increase of product created by extra 
 effort or efficiency would only further enrich those who 
 now enjoy the products of labour without working for 
 them. 
 
 Greater thrift would be still more cruel and disastrous. 
 With less than enough for actual needs, excluded by 
 lack of means from the elevating influences of education, 
 literatiu*e, art, music, drama, science, the labourer is 
 glibly told to save always some portion of his pitiful 
 ten dollars or less per week. No matter if the children 
 need better food, and clothing, and shelter, and educa- 
 tion, which the meagre wage will not possibly buy — 
 save. Whatever the privations and sacrifices and 
 meagreness and narrowness of the life of the overworked 
 wife and mother — save. And if the poor man is for- 
 tunate enough to escape sickness, and accident, and 
 bereavement, and the financial sharks that beset such 
 as he, he may have a pittance left for old age — if he 
 reaches old age. 
 
 Not such is Christ's advice, ''Take no thought for the 
 morrow," "Lay not up for yourselves treasures." There 
 is a deeper economic philosophy in those injunctions 
 than is often thought. Men in high stations, with 
 comfortable incomes, should be exceedingly cautious 
 how they advise the lowly to save. Not that the com- 
 mon people will invite disaster by adopting such a 
 course: their common sense and necessities make that 
 impossible; but the advice reflects on the intelligence of 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 59 
 
 the adviser. Thrift may elevate a few financially at 
 the expense of others. It would ruin the race if uni- 
 versally applied. 
 
 Cooperation has been recommended. But we co- 
 operate now, to the fullest extent, in manufacturing and 
 handling goods. It takes the work of hundreds of per- 
 sons to make the simplest article. The difficulty lies in 
 the division of the product. Some get much for doing 
 little or nothing while some receive little — very little 
 — for doing all. 
 
 Better wages, hours, and labour conditions are the 
 things essential for a better civilization. The union 
 makes no mistake when it demands them. The error 
 is that it fails to consider the cause of low wages — idle 
 labour — and remedy that. 
 
 The trade union, seeking higher wages for its mem- 
 bers, finds its first foe in the employer. But he is not 
 the real opponent. The employer may fight the battle, 
 but the whole social body is against the labourer. It 
 has always hated the taint of manual labour, and has 
 always held the labourer in one or another form of 
 subjection. 
 
 Charity may freely flow, and sympathy for the 
 "worthy" poor is abundant: but the imworthy poor 
 have most need of sympathy and love, and the existence 
 of "worthy" poor is simply a proof of social injustice. 
 But society resents the presumption of a demand for 
 higher wages, or better working hours or conditions, 
 while the imion insists that these are the vital points. 
 Philanthropy and an awakening pubUc conscience may 
 
60 THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 
 
 multiply educational facilities, but of what avail are 
 they to the man worn down by long hours of physical 
 labour, without time or money to take advantage of 
 them? 
 
 Here, then, are the advxiting motives of the trade union, 
 the feelings that call it into heijig — a protest against exist- 
 ing conditions with an earnest conviction that they are 
 unjust, and a deep aspiration for a fuller, broader, larger 
 life. 
 
 Its methods are ultra-conservative. It rejects with- 
 out courtesy all new or radical propositions, and all 
 "remedies." SociaUsm, single tax, cooperation, philo- 
 sophical anarchy, prohibition, free trade, protection — 
 all these and many more ideas have been forced upon 
 the attention of organized labour, but it would have none 
 of them. It has clung closely to its old methods^ 
 organize, ask advances, confer, arbitrate, if arbitration 
 is wanted, strike, boycott. All these methods were 
 practised ages before the Christian era. Modern trade 
 unionism has added but one weapon to its armory — 
 the imion label. It has lost one weapon — the sword. 
 The ballot was given to it, but as yet the workmen have 
 no conception what it is for, or how to use it to defend 
 or advance their own rights and interests — nor has any 
 other class of society. Direct legislation — that is, law- 
 making by ballot, by which process laws bearing unjustly 
 upon the workers might be changed without the inter- 
 vention of secret, sinister influences — is endorsed by 
 organized labour. But leaders, national and local, turn 
 their backs upon it, and they thus leave their followers 
 
THE CAUSES FOR TRADE UNIONS 61 
 
 defenceless before their enemies. They have wandered 
 deeper and deeper into an endless judicial and legislative 
 quagmire, from which nothing can ever extract them 
 but a direct voice in law-making. 
 
 To summarize: Labour, by law, is so restricted in 
 opportimities for employment that an unnatural com- 
 petition between labourers for jobs forces wages to the 
 lowest possible point, and the monopolist pilfers at 
 least 25 per cent of what little the labourer receives. 
 The trade union attacks these conditions with a demand 
 for better pay, hours, and working conditions. Its con- 
 tention is just. 
 
 To the trade unionist the wage-scale is the all-impor- 
 tant point. To raise it is to elevate, to lower it is to 
 degrade humanity. Its ideal is, that each man should 
 enjoy the full fruits of his own toil. Poverty, with all 
 its vices and its woes, and superfluous wealth, with its 
 pride, arrogance, greed, selfishness, and wicked vanities, 
 would both disappear could the union fully succeed. 
 
 This is the goal toward which organized labour is 
 striving. It is not for me to indicate your line of policy, 
 or to force upon your conscience the thing that seems 
 right to mine. But I exhort you to examine earnestly 
 into the truth of the statements I have made to you. 
 I may at least instruct you that it is your duty to gain 
 a sympathetic knowledge of these men and this move- 
 ment. And it is to be remembered that sympathy is 
 absolutely essential to true knowledge. 
 
THE WORK AND METHODS OF TRADE 
 UNIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 Henry Sterling 
 
THE WORK AND METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 WE now have to observe that the union labour 
 movement is not only voluntary, but spon- 
 taneous. The impression of some that the perfervid 
 oratory of agitators has stirred up discontent and caused 
 men to seek in union they knew not what, is wholly 
 wrong. Not all the eloquence that ever flowed could 
 avail to create the smallest union, had not the men 
 been impressed by a conviction that they were suffer- 
 ing from deep injustice. Most unions are the outgrowth 
 of casual rehearsals of grievances, on the street, in the 
 shop, or elsewhere. Some one suggests that a meeting 
 be held to talk matters over. One or two individuals 
 volunteer to find a meeting place, and generally, after 
 much irregularity of procedure, sending of a committee 
 to the employers is broached. Sometimes a commit- 
 tee is named, but more frequently those present de- 
 cide that they are not well enough experienced or 
 organized to venture on such a step. Then some one 
 proposes that a union be formed, and the evening's 
 work usually concludes with the appointment of a 
 committee to consult with a union official or some one 
 active in the labour world, as to the proper course to 
 pursue. Another meeting is called and the labour 
 "leader" comes, generally at his own expense, and 
 relates in simple, homely language the hardships which 
 
 65 
 
66 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 he and his fellows suffered, and what progress the union 
 has made in bettering conditions. The speaker reaches 
 his hearers because he talks to them of every-day 
 things that have hurt both him and them. To them 
 the little advances that his union has made are pictures 
 of things hoped for, but never expected. A resolution 
 is passed to form a union, perhaps names are attached 
 to a promise to join, a committee is authorized to 
 attend to the details, and the hat is passed to pay ex- 
 penses. In this simple manner most unions are born. 
 
 The work of the trade union movement has been 
 mainly along three hues: influencing of pubUc opinion, 
 legislative effort, and the direct improvement of the 
 labour conditions of its members. This last line of work 
 has absorbed most of its time and energy, and its suc- 
 cess has been gratifying, though not so great as it might 
 have been had its efforts been directed against causes 
 instead of effects. 
 
 Its greatest, most beneficent and far-reaching work 
 has been in the realms of pubhc thought and legislation. 
 The church, of course, has enunciated high moral prin- 
 ciples; but to the trade unions belongs the credit of 
 making such partial apphcation of those principles to 
 industrial conditions as has been attained in our age. 
 "As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
 so unto them," said the church, and organized labour 
 called upon all the world to look upon fainting woman- 
 hood and blighted childhood in industry, and asked, 
 "Is that as ye would be done by?" "The hfe is more 
 than meat and the body more than raiment," proclaimed 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 67 
 
 the church. But the labourer gives up life for less than 
 enough meat to sustain it, and his raiment is the poorest 
 worn. ''Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self." 
 Then cease to maim, and mangle, and kill, and poison, 
 in dangerous industries and insanitary workshops. 
 The church announces the fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of men. "Then give our injured and 
 striking brothers the same rights in the courts and under 
 the law that other citizens enjoy," reply the trade unions. 
 
 These appeals have not been in vain. The unions have 
 aroused the public conscience until the best thought 
 of the time has turned toward economic subjects. The 
 wide-spread, earnest discussions of all phases of the 
 problems of poverty and labour give sure promise of 
 progress toward their solution. 
 
 The great failure of the unions in the realm of thought 
 and conscience is that they have not yet taught man- 
 kind that to get wealth without work is to rob the 
 worker. 
 
 One of the highest achievements of organized labour 
 is the acceptance and practical appUcation of the golden 
 rule among men seldom reached by church or school. 
 Among union men, working together, every act of one 
 toward his fellows is judged by the question, "Is that 
 good unionism?" Which, being interpreted, means 
 simply, is it doing as you would be done by? Not that 
 the men have attained perfection in this or any other 
 regard — indeed, I have heard union men reproach 
 each other with being as mean as church members — 
 but the question is always there, and men ask it of them- 
 
68 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 selves, and they are constantly growing more kindly 
 and forbearing, more considerate of each other's feelings 
 and welfare, more zealous for the common good, more 
 ready to subordinate individual will, or opinion, or 
 interest, to the will, or opinion, or interest, of the 
 majority. 
 
 Notable good has been accompUshed in the legislative 
 field. Remove from the statute books of the civilized 
 world the laws suggested and supported by organized 
 labour, and nearly every vestige of humane legislation 
 will be gone. Life and limb have to some extent been 
 safeguarded, little children have been taken from labour 
 and sent to school, insanitary shops have been made 
 tolerable, indecent conditions in factories have been 
 abolished, women have been protected, regular pay- 
 ments in actual money provided for, fines prohibited, 
 sweat shops diminished, operations of money sharks 
 restricted, mechanics' liens secured, free schools and 
 free text-books urged for children freed from the mills. 
 
 These measures apply to all workers. In its legis- 
 lative work, at least, organized labour has been supremely 
 unselfish. The good that has come from its efforts is 
 being enjoyed by millions who repudiate it. It has 
 asked nothing for itself alone. It has sought the good 
 of all. 
 
 As an educational force, the benefits of the imion are 
 frequently acknowledged. These men meet by the 
 thousand, with no education, no books, no instructors. 
 Gradually, by observation, reason, a little reading and 
 much exercise, they develop an ability that frequently 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 69 
 
 makes them the peer of the brightest. The tumultuous 
 assemblages become orderly gatherings, with a pro- 
 cedure and decorum the equal of many more noted legis- 
 lative bodies. There is deep' feeling there, and strong 
 passions, and a force that leaves no place for intellectual 
 weaklings, but seldom do they break the bonds of 
 accepted parliamentary practice. 
 
 Note the change in the status of organized labour. 
 A few years ago, up to 1824, membership in a imion 
 was a criminal offence. Now organization is allowable, 
 even commendable, and men may even strike, for any 
 cause which to them seems good. They may not boy- 
 cott, although the boycott has been in constant use 
 since the day when the Lord turned away from the 
 burnt-offering of Cain, and that individual in jealous 
 rage slew his brother. 
 
 In the industrial world these two weapons, the strike 
 and the boycott, have always been the right hand and 
 the left of organized labour. No victory or advance has 
 ever been possible in that field without them. Con- 
 ferences and arbitration seem to have accomplished 
 much, but neither conference nor arbitration is ever 
 granted unless the men are thoroughly organized and 
 ready to strike and boycott. Committees from work- 
 men were spurned with contempt until strike after 
 strike compelled respect. The long struggle of the 
 manual labourer for a share in the blessings of civiUza- 
 tion has not been an easy, triumphant march. Every 
 step has been fought inch by inch. Every concession 
 has been wrung by force from unwilling hands. It is 
 
70 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 not a thing of the past few years. It began thousands 
 of years ago, when every man who worked with his 
 hands was a chattel slave, when men and women were 
 worked together hke common beasts, and beaten or 
 slaughtered with no more consideration. Throughout 
 the ages of agony these two weapons are the only ones 
 that stood him in good stead. The sword proved his 
 destruction. With the ballot he has betrayed himself. 
 The strike and the boycott, actively in force or passively 
 in reserve, alone have proved effective. 
 
 The methods to attain the end desired are simple. 
 Organize, formulate demands, strike if refused, boycott 
 if the strike is lost. Brutal programme, is it not? All 
 force. Yet what else prevails? What effective method, 
 other than this, has ever been suggested, even by the 
 greatest minds, to gain for labourers a share in what 
 an advancing civilization has to give. Aspirations for 
 knowledge, wisdom, education, art, science, Hterature, 
 culture, bloom in the poor man's heart as well as in the 
 rich. Must he forever forego these things because of 
 lack of leisure and means? Not if long and painful 
 struggle will attain them. And he will use the only 
 weapons he has. It rests with objectors to suggest 
 better. 
 
 The union label has come largely into use since the 
 late eighties. It has created a certain demand for 
 goods known to have been made by imion labour. It 
 is a sign that the workers who produced the article on 
 which it appears received reasonable wages and hours, 
 and fair treatment. It has bettered the industrial con- 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 71 
 
 ditions of many thousands. The purchase of goods 
 bearing the union label is a direct and effective method 
 of assisting the work of organized labour in giving the 
 workers and their children a better chance in the world. 
 The imion label cannot, however, be a solution for the 
 labour problem, because of the complications that arise 
 in its use, and the fact that only a few unions can avail 
 themselves of its benefits. 
 
 Criticism is not nowadays directed against the organ- 
 ization of labour. It has come to be acknowledged that 
 labouring men have the same right to organize for mutual 
 improvement and betterment as professional men, or 
 merchants, or manufacturers. But much fault is found 
 with specific acts of the unions. 
 
 First, it is said that many of the demands made are 
 imreasonable. When viewed from the point of the 
 employer, doubtless they often seem to be unreasonable; 
 when the value of the work to society is considered, 
 and the needs of the men and their famiUes, the justice 
 of the demand is apparent. In reality, the employer is 
 simply an agent between the two parties, the general 
 public and the labourer. When the conscience of the 
 people declares that manual labourers are receiving too 
 small a return for their toil, the employer has to pay 
 more and recoup himself as best he can. Sometimes 
 less hours or more pay brings greater efficiency in the 
 men themselves; sometimes new or improved machinery 
 or processes are devised; sometimes the employer passes 
 the cost along to the consumer, and sometimes the 
 tribute to the landlord, or usurer, or monopolist is 
 
72 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 diminished or checked. However he does it, the em- 
 ployer must recoup himself, or the business passes into 
 more competent hands. The advances are sanctioned 
 by the public conscience, or they could not be gained. 
 Consider if you know of any class of labouring men who 
 are being paid more than they should justly receive. 
 
 It used to be declared that all these advances to 
 union men decreased the wages of non-union men. 
 That is, that the employers recouped themselves for 
 those advances by reducing the pay of the imorganized 
 workmen. But as the wages in unorganized trades have 
 shown some reflection of the increases in organized 
 industries, that contention has been abandoned. Now 
 it is claimed that the increase is passed along to the 
 consumer. In some few instances it is; if the employer 
 enjoys some form of monopoly, it always is, with some 
 increase for passing it, as in the case of the coal trust. 
 But in most instances the increase is offset by increased 
 efficiency of production or a restraint on those who 
 reap where they do not sow. When the price for any 
 commodity has unduly advanced, it is almost invariably 
 the fact that a monopoly of some kind has secured 
 control. 
 
 Some people delight in calling organized labour a trust. 
 If there had been two or three victims on the road to 
 Jericho, and they had joined together to resist the dep- 
 redations of the robbers, they would have been in the 
 identical position of labour to-day. The only monopoly 
 they could have would be such weapons and strength 
 and skill as united they possessed. Their only 'Hrust" 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 73 
 
 would be in God, each other, and a righteous cause. 
 For them there could be no expectation of gain, their 
 only hope being to retain some part of that which 
 rightfully belonged to them; and so it is with the unions. 
 United and resisting, they retain a httle extra of the 
 product of their own labour, and for this they are de- 
 nounced as robbers. 
 
 Unions restrict output, it is said, and doubtless it is 
 true that occasionally a man has been restrained for 
 the general good. But it was an act of mercy, and not 
 of laziness. Because one man has imusual strength, 
 or greed, or a desire to curry favour with the boss, or 
 receives a dollar extra, is no reason why he should be 
 allowed to set a pace that breaks down his fellows with 
 overwork. The hypocrisy of the criticism is seen when 
 no word is said about the trusts shutting down mills 
 to enhance prices, or about the men who monopolize 
 hundreds of thousands of acres of coal, iron, copper, 
 and other mineral lands, and allow no portion to be 
 dug. These restrict output to a greater extent in a 
 minute than organized labour does in a lifetime. And 
 theirs is not an act of mercy. Their distinct purpose 
 is to extort more wealth without work, extract more 
 of the flesh and blood of the poor, without anything in 
 return. The same is true of those who restrict output 
 by grabbing timber lands, agricultural lands, and water 
 ways. More emphatically is it true of those who hold 
 vacant lots in cities. Here are grand opportunities for 
 a magnificent output of homes to relieve the congested 
 slums and disease-breeding tenements; and chances to 
 
74 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 build factories in which the festering population of the 
 slums might earn a decent livelihood. But the specu- 
 lators sit tight. Their taxes are nominal, and they can 
 make a handsome profit by restricting the output of 
 homes, and factories, and business places, which in 
 turn restricts the output from the mines, forests, quar- 
 ries, brickyards, farms, and from all the industries 
 that go to feed, and clothe, and shelter the multitude. 
 Why, these restricters of output who hold idle the nat- 
 ural opportunities of labour are the prime cause of all 
 our economic woes. 
 
 "Ye strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.' ^ The 
 grafters are not the $500-a-year labourers, but those who 
 secure wealth without work, and it is not the labourer, 
 but the monopoHst, who restricts output. 
 
 Union men want imion shops. They want to exclude 
 strike-breakers and non-union men from them. Why 
 shouldn't they? By devotion, and labour, and sacri- 
 fices, the imion men made the positions in those shops 
 desirable. They increased the wages, decreased the 
 hours, and bettered the working conditions. And now 
 they are asked to give up the places they have made 
 desirable to strike-breakers. Why should they? What 
 have these traitors to the common cause done to merit 
 the best places? They have betrayed their fellow- 
 workman in a critical struggle. They have injured him 
 and his family. They have sacrificed the general good 
 for personal gain. And now it is proposed that union 
 men shall give up these desirable places to those who 
 struggled against making them desirable. The proposi- 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 75 
 
 tion is immoral. Aside from the sinister desire to dis- 
 rupt the union while making a plea for fairness, omitting 
 consideration of the right of a man to refuse to work 
 with those obnoxious to him, the intent is to rob the 
 union man of the fruits of his work and sacrifice. He 
 struck for better wages, hours, and conditions; let him 
 enjoy them. The strike-breaker helped to retain low 
 wages and long hours; let him go and work where those 
 conditions prevail. 
 
 Of course the ulterior motive of the cry for the open 
 shop is to cripple the union. To see the strike-breakers 
 in good jobs, with special favours, no dues and no lay- 
 offs in dull times, may discourage and weaken the 
 loyalty of union men. It does. And so the union men 
 resist the mixed shop — part imion and part non-union 
 — because it is unfair to them and inimical to the com- 
 mon good. 
 
 Much criticism has been aimed at restriction of ap- 
 prentices. Many employers hire boys and young women 
 at under pay, with the pretext of teaching the trade. 
 The learner is seldom, if ever, taught anything, in the 
 true sense of the word, but is set at some minor task 
 pertaining to the business and kept at it until a decent 
 wage is demanded, and then cast adrift, and another 
 hired, and similarly treated. Some estabhshments have 
 employed alleged apprentices far in excess of the jour- 
 neymen. Unions have sought to correct these abuses, 
 and have been partially successful, but great difficulty 
 is encountered in inducing even employers of union 
 men to treat the apprentices fairly. Low pay and 
 
76 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 hard, menial work, most of it at tasks not an essential 
 part of the trade, is the lot of too many apprentices. 
 Profits on apprentices are lost if a journeyman loses 
 time teaching them. Unions have attempted to fix a 
 ratio between apprentices and journeymen that would 
 provide for the natural expansion in the industry and 
 for the losses by death and otherwise, and insure each 
 apprentice fair opportunity to master the trade. Pos- 
 sibly self-interest has set the ratio too low. It is said 
 that some unions prohibit apprentices altogether. Such 
 a regulation, if it exists, cannot be too bitterly de- 
 nounced. If the ratio is too low it should be increased, 
 and employers should be urged to deal justly with the 
 young persons they secure at low wages under promise 
 to teach the trade. 
 
 Of labour injunctions it is difficult to speak without 
 betraying something of the deep feeling which pervades 
 the labour world. The process is of recent birth. Indus- 
 trial struggles have gone on for ages, but until recent 
 years no one dreamed that any power lay latent in an 
 equity court to intervene in them in such a way as to 
 summarily decide them against the strikers. The exer- 
 cise of so new, and novel, and unexpected a power may 
 naturally be looked upon with suspicion. But the sur- 
 prise caused by the issue of labour injunctions by the 
 ordinary powers of the courts was greatly increased 
 when the Sherman anti-trust act was found to enlarge 
 those powers. An act passed to curb monopoly has 
 been found effective only in curbing the exercise by 
 working men of fimdamental, essential rights. So in- 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 77 
 
 junctions have flowed in a stream from the national 
 and state courts, imtil their number is beyond remem- 
 brance, and everjrthing a workman on strike might 
 dream of doing has been at one time or another for- 
 bidden by judge-made law. 
 
 In October, 1897, when the stream was just gaining 
 a portentous headway, Hon. W. H. Moody, since a 
 member of the President's cabinet, said: "I believe in 
 recent years the courts of the United States, as well as 
 the courts of our own commonwealth, have gone to the 
 very verge of danger in applying the process of the writ 
 of injunction in disputes between labour and capital.'' 
 They have gone much farther since. 
 
 The first wrong in the labour injunction is that it is 
 procured by false pretences. The petitioner alleges 
 under oath that certain property is in immediate danger 
 of irreparable injury. The writ of injunction is prayed 
 for to protect it. But all the world knows the injunc- 
 tion is desired not to protect property, but to defeat a 
 strike. It is intended and expected that the injunction 
 with its involved and undefinable wording, its prohibi- 
 tions impossible to understand or limit, will so confuse, 
 dismay, and dishearten the strikers as to force them to 
 submit. And it does. 
 
 That these injunctions are procured, not as sworn to 
 in the petition, to protect property, but to defeat strikes, 
 and that it is a conscious purpose on the part of the 
 petitioner to deceive the court and prostitute its powers, 
 is shown by the following extract from a circular signed 
 by the secretary and chairman of an employers' asso- 
 
78 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 elation, issued shortly after a great strike in one of our 
 large cities : 
 
 ^'It would have been impossible to terminate this 
 strike successfully without the aid of the courts, through 
 the process of injunction. The courts were our bulwark, 
 the injunction our only weapon when all other means 
 of defence had been exhausted. Without it we should 
 have failed. This is significant, and cannot be too 
 strongly emphasized at the present time, when the 
 power of the courts is being assailed by demagogues." 
 
 Now the property alleged by the petitioners for such 
 injunctions to be in danger is the capacity of the em- 
 ployer to conduct his business, and the good-will of his 
 customers. But the capacity of a man to labour in that 
 business, and the good-will of such as might employ 
 him, his customers, is not property, according to the 
 courts. (Worthington v. Waring, 159 Mass. 421, Dec. 
 1892.) The personal and constitutional rights of the 
 labourer seem to be of no account in the eyes of the 
 court if the employer alleges his (intangible) property 
 is in danger, and the exercise of many of the ordinary 
 rights of citizenship has been unceremoniously denied 
 him. Of these the most important are freedom of 
 assemblage, of the usual use of public highways, free- 
 dom of speech and of the press; and the operation of the 
 injimction is to menace punishment for innocent acts, 
 and to deny a trial by jury if accused of a crime or mis- 
 demeanour. 
 
 It might not be proper to comment upon the cele- 
 brated case now pending in Washington, but here is an 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 79 
 
 extract from a similar injunction touching the freedom 
 of the press, issued in a Massachusetts case : 
 
 "We, therefore ... do strictly enjoin and command 
 you ... to desist and refrain from interfering with the 
 complainant's business by printing, publishing, or cir- 
 culating, or causing to be printed, pubUshed, or circu- 
 lated, a certain paper or circular . . ., and from printing, 
 publishing, or circulating any other paper, circular, or 
 printed matter intended or designed to deprive the 
 complainant of customers . . ." (No. 3736 Eq., Sup. 
 Court, Mass.) 
 
 And here is a clause from the constitution of the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts: 
 
 "Art. XVI. The liberty of the press is essential to 
 the security of freedom in a state; it ought not, there- 
 fore, to be restrained in this commonwealth." Further: 
 
 "Art. XX. The power of suspending the laws, or the 
 exercise of the laws, ought never to be exercised, but by 
 the legislature, or by authority derived from it, to be 
 exercised in such particular cases only as the legislature 
 shall expressly provide for." Equity courts suspend 
 the constitution to defeat strikes. 
 
 The exercise of ordinary rights is denied, and the 
 execution of the laws interrupted, for what? To defend 
 property? No; to defeat a group of strikers struggling 
 to escape from an intolerable economic condition; to 
 force them into submission. 
 
 The courts cannot continue to deny the right of a 
 man pubHcly to state his grievances. The courts seem 
 to draw a distinction between freedom to denounce 
 
80 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 wrong in the government, politics, politicians, and public 
 men, and freedom to denounce wrong done by concerns 
 whose business may be hurt if the truth be told about 
 them. The most effective way to right a wrong is to 
 tell it to the pubHc. It a man's business can be hurt 
 by telling the truth about it, the quicker it is told the 
 better for the public welfare. But if in telling his 
 grievances the workman speaks falsely, he should be 
 subject to the same procedure, the same laws, and the 
 same punishment, as other citizens are subject to, and 
 not be forbidden to speak, and railroaded to jail for 
 contempt of court if he opens his mouth. 
 
 The workmen injured while at their emplojnnent, 
 the courts have placed in a class by themselves and de- 
 nied every right of recovery enjoyed by other citizens. 
 The legal doctrines of fellow workmen, assumption of 
 risk and contributory negligence deny any adequate 
 satisfaction for damage done to the employe, whatever 
 the cause. The result could have been foreseen. The 
 employer reheved from proper responsibility in dam- 
 ages to his injured workman, our industrial world has 
 become a shambles. It is cheaper to kill a man than a 
 mule. Men are killed and maimed and mangled at a 
 rate unknown anywhere but here. Millions of deso- 
 lated homes are the direct outcome of the Massachu- 
 setts decision in the early forties that the engineer 
 injured by the carelessness of the switchman could not 
 recover because they were fellow servants. 
 
 Autocratic authority, wherever it may reside, is 
 destructive of liberty and progress. Judges in equity, 
 
THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 81 
 
 and in the interpretation of the constitution and the 
 common law, exercise such power. So do legislators 
 within ill-defined limitations. 
 
 When the law is under control of the whole people, 
 through the power of legislation directly by them when 
 they so choose, the right of the lowly can be safeguarded 
 — and not till then. We need a further extension 
 of the franchise, to measures as well as men. Some 
 progress can then be made toward more just industrial 
 conditions — and not till then. 
 
 I know of no institution of our civilization whose aim 
 is to secure justice for the lowly, except the trade union. 
 The church dispenses alms, but not justice; the press 
 seeks its own power and enrichment; the courts and 
 legislatures are so engrossed in the defence of the rights 
 of property that they forget that humanity has rights 
 which ought to be respected, if not by them maintained. 
 Organized labour's sole purpose is to defend and advance 
 the rights and interests of the workers. It is doing a 
 great work, but it will fail, and will lose much of the 
 ground it has gained, and many of the rights formerly 
 secured, unless it bends earnestly to the attainment for 
 the whole people of still greater rights — the enlarge- 
 ment of the franchise, the right to the earth, freedom 
 from the exactions of the monopolist and the money- 
 lender. 
 
 I often think that the parable of the man who went 
 down from Jerusalem to Jericho has a more important 
 significance than is usually attached to it. The man 
 seems to me to typify Labour — he fell among thieves, 
 
82 THE METHODS OF TRADE UNIONS 
 
 was robbed, stripped, wounded, and left for dead. And 
 the priest and Levite of that day passed by on the other 
 side. The union has not restored the stolen goods, but 
 it has relieved the distress somewhat. It has striven 
 to uplift, comfort, and defend all whom it could reach. 
 It has stayed somewhat the hand of the despoiler. It 
 has invited to its folds all who will come, to share its 
 toils and sacrifices, and to enjoy its blessings — except 
 the man or race who would lower wages. Even the 
 strike-breaker is welcome, if he bring forth fruits meet 
 for repentance. 
 
 Are your fellow men victims like the man on the way 
 to Jericho? Not only at the last day, but every day of 
 your lives, you will be judged by the Word, "Inasmuch 
 as ye did it unto these, ye did it unto Me." 
 
 Some complaint has been made that working men will 
 not attend the church. Had the victim on the road to 
 Jericho found in some of the chief seats in the synagogue 
 the men who robbed him without mercy, and at the 
 altar the priest and Levite who looked upon him with- 
 out pity, doubtless he would have gone his way sorrow- 
 ful. 
 
AN EXPOSITION AND INTERPRETATION 
 OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 John Mitchell 
 
 Vice-President of the American Federation of Labour; 
 chairman of the Trade Agreement Department of the 
 National Civic Federation; formerly President of the 
 United Mine Workers of America. 
 
AN EXPOSITION AND INTERPRETATION OF 
 THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT 
 
 1AM very happy to be afforded the opportunity of 
 discussing before the students of the Yale Divinity 
 School some phases of the industrial problem. I shall 
 not, of course, even attempt to suggest a panacea for 
 the ills of which society so bitterly complains, but I do 
 wish to point out some of the things which the organized 
 workmen of our country are doing to ameliorate the 
 conditions under which wage-earners live and work. 
 And I hope that in discussing these questions I may 
 succeed in dispelling some of the erroneous impressions 
 which have been given wide circulation by the critics 
 and opponents of the organized labour movement. Per- 
 haps the most that I can add to the good instructions 
 which Dr. Macfarland is giving you is to explain our 
 movement. What ministers and all others most need 
 to have is a sympathetic understanding of us. 
 
 To understand the philosophy, the piu-pose, and the 
 ideals of the trade union movement it is necessary that 
 we understand the history of industrial development; 
 that we have a clear comprehension of the complex 
 problems that characterize modern industrial life; that 
 we keep in mind the fact that the purpose of the trade 
 imion movement is not so much to secure the advance- 
 
 85 
 
86 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 ment of the exceptional workman as to bring about the 
 general and gradual uplift of the great mass of the wage- 
 earners; and to imderstand the actions of the organized 
 workmen it is necessary to consider the evils which the 
 trade unionists, by such actions, seek to eradicate. 
 
 In early times the struggle for existence centred in 
 the problem of production. So long as the human 
 race depended upon the simple and crude implements 
 of the agriculturist, the himter, and the shepherd, so 
 long as the family raised its own food and made its own 
 clothes from the fleece of its own sheep, it was necessary 
 that men, women, and children work from early morning 
 until late at night in order that by their combined efforts 
 sufficient food and clothing could be produced to sustain 
 and protect fife. The question of distribution was not 
 a great factor in determining the wealth, health, or 
 happiness of the human race. It was not until the 
 invention of machinery, the advent of the factory 
 system, the use of steam, and the application of new 
 processes, it was not until society was organized, as it 
 is to-day, on the basis of a minute and complicated 
 division of labour and an extended change and inter- 
 change of commodities, that the question of distribution 
 became the problem, the solution of which has taxed the 
 ingenuity of the world's economists and statesmen. 
 
 No one can understand the true nature of trade 
 imionism without understanding the industrial revolu- 
 tion and what it accomplished. The history of man- 
 kind has been more vitally affected by changes in its 
 machines and in its methods of doing business than by 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 87 
 
 any action or council of statesmen or philosophers. 
 What we call the modern world, with its huge popula- 
 tions, its giant cities, its political democracy, its grow- 
 ing intensity of life, its contrasts of wealth and poverty 
 — this great, whirling, restless civilization with all its 
 vexing problems — is the offspring largely of changed 
 conditions of producing wealth. It is vain to deplore, 
 as many have done and as many still do, the passing 
 of the old order of things and the old methods of pro- 
 duction. Whether for weal or for woe, the change was 
 inevitable and reform could only be found in further 
 development, not in a return to the past. 
 
 The evil conditions produced by the factory system 
 have brought in part their own corrective, and the 
 creation — through production on a large scale — of a 
 separate working class with separate working-class 
 ideals, formed the origin and the basis of trade unionism 
 as it exists to-day. 
 
 To the average man of affairs inmiersed in his business 
 and the daily routine of life, trade unionism may seem 
 a bewildering maze of conflicting ideas and divergent 
 doctrines; as a matter of fact, however, in its funda- 
 mental principle trade unionism is plain and clear and 
 simple. It starts from the recognition of the fact that 
 under normal conditions the individual, unorganized 
 workman cannot bargain advantageously with the 
 employer for the sale of his labour. Since the working 
 man has no money in reserve and must sell his labour 
 inmiediately; since he has no knowledge of the market 
 and no skill in bargaining; because he has only his own 
 
88 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 labour to sell while the employer engages hundreds or 
 thousands of men and can easily do without the services 
 of any particular individual, the working man, if bar- 
 gaining on his own account and for himself alone, is at 
 a very great disadvantage. In the individual contract 
 between a powerful employer and a single workman 
 the labourer will secure the worst of it; such a contract 
 means that the condition of the poorest and lowest 
 man in the industry will be that which the average 
 man must accept. To find a substitute for the indi- 
 vidual bargain, which militates against the welfare and 
 happiness of the whole working people, trade unions 
 were formed, and from first to last, always and every- 
 where, they stand unalterably opposed to the indi- 
 vidual contract. The difference between the individual 
 and the collective bargain is simply this: that in the 
 individual bargain one workman of a hundred refuses 
 to accept a reduction in wages, and the employer retains 
 the services of ninety and nine, whereas in the col- 
 lective bargain the employes act in a body, and the 
 employer retains or discharges all simultaneously, and 
 upon the same terms. There can be no permanent 
 prosperity to the wage-earner, no real and lasting 
 progress, no consecutive improvement in conditions, 
 imtil the principle is fully and firmly established, that 
 in industrial life — especially in enterprises on a large 
 scale — the settlement of wages, hours of labour, and all 
 conditions of work must be made between employers 
 and working men collectively, and not between em- 
 ployers and working men individually.' 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 89 
 
 It is frequently charged against the union that in 
 policy and practice it reduces to a dead level all the 
 men employed in a given trade; that the most efficient 
 and the most ambitious are reduced to the level of the 
 incompetent and the sluggard. This charge is a Ubel 
 and a pretence. The trade union fixes a minimum 
 wage, not a maximum wage; and the employer is at 
 perfect liberty to reward the especially efficient or 
 ambitious workman by paying him higher wages than 
 are fixed by the union. The union does, however, 
 object to one workman being rewarded by an employer 
 when the reward is extracted from the pay envelope of 
 another workman. As a matter of fact, however, the 
 employers usually fix a maximum wage at the same 
 point at which the union fixes the minimum wage; and 
 what is true of wages is also true when applied to hours 
 of labour or other conditions of employment. 
 
 This principle of trade unionism will explain many 
 of the seeming peculiarities and many of the numerous 
 rules of labour organizations. It will supply an answer 
 to the question, so often asked, why the union will not 
 allow a man to accept two dollars a day, while all other 
 workers in that trade are receiving three dollars a day; 
 or to accept forty cents for mining a ton of coal when 
 the minimum scale is fifty-six cents. It is the necessity 
 of equal pay for equal work, and the need of protecting 
 the standard of living that compels trade unions to say 
 to employers, "Either you shall pay three dollars to 
 the man who is willing to accept two dollars, or we shall 
 not work for you. We recognize your right to employ 
 
90 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 or not to employ whomsoever you wish, but either you 
 must pay at least three dollars or all the members of 
 our union will refuse to work for you." 
 
 In the course of an address delivered before the 
 National Civic Federation, Mr. Taft, then President- 
 elect, stated: "Time was when everybody who employed 
 labour was opposed to the labour union; when it was 
 regarded as a menace. That time, I am glad to say, 
 has largely passed away, and the man to-day who 
 objects to the organization of labour should be relegated 
 to the last century. It has done marvels for labour, 
 and will doubtless do more; it will, I doubt not, avoid 
 the reduction to a dead level of all working men." 
 
 The average wage-earner has made up his mind that 
 he must remain a wage-earner; he has abandoned the 
 idea that he will become a capitahst, and he asks that 
 the reward for his work be given to him as a working 
 man. He understands that working men do not evolve 
 into capitalists as boys evolve into men or as cater- 
 pillars evolve into butterflies; neither is he unmindful 
 of the fact that out of the great mass of the people 
 some here and there will by superior ability, intelli- 
 gence, and application, and others by accident, rise to 
 positions of wealth, distinction, and influence; but he 
 is more concerned with the gradual and general uphft 
 of all the working men than with the rapid ascent of 
 any one of them. 
 
 Those who look only at the surface of things and 
 judge trade unionism by an occasional glimpse are 
 likely to fail to appreciate the uphfting influence of 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 91 
 
 this institution upon the character of the wage-earner. 
 Many who admit that trade unions have been successful 
 in raising wages, shortening hours, and improving the 
 material conditions of the worker's Ufe, still believe 
 that their effect upon his intellectual and moral tone 
 has been either bad or entirely negative. To all, how- 
 ever, who do not view these matters superficially, it 
 must be evident that trade unionism has had exactly 
 the opposite effect. The increased wages and short- 
 ened hours of labour have in themselves brought about 
 a vast improvement in the mental and moral status 
 of the workers. Workmen who formerly went from 
 their twelve hours of labour to the nearest saloon now 
 spend their time with their famiUes, improving their 
 minds or enjoying sensible and sane recreation. In 
 most instances increased wages and shorter hours have 
 meant the education and the gratification of the intel- 
 lectual and artistic sense of the workers; have meant 
 books and pictures; have meant a few additional rooms 
 in the house, and more decent surroundings generally; 
 have meant a few years' extra schooling for the chil- 
 dren; have meant, finally, a general upHfting of the 
 whole working class. Trade unionism has benefited 
 the worker and raised his whole moral and intellectual 
 tone by the emphasis which it has laid upon the welfare 
 of the working man. The employer has been interested 
 chiefly in the amount of production; he has forgotten 
 the producer in the goods produced. Trade unionists, 
 on the other hand, have thrown the emphasis, not on 
 the goods, but on the man by whom and ultimately for 
 
92 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 whom they are produced; it is no longer the machine, 
 but the man at the machine, that is taking the "centre 
 of the stage" in economic thought. 
 
 Trade imionism does not stand for paternaUsm, but 
 for a broad, all-inclusive fraternaUsm; it does not stand 
 one-sidedly for the loyalty of the workman to his em- 
 ployer, but for a fair, reciprocal contract between these 
 two parties. It does not stand for the recognition of a 
 difference in species between employer and workman, 
 but it insists upon the substantial equaUty of all men, 
 and upon the right of the workers to secure all they can, 
 consistent with trade conditions. Finally, it does not 
 accept the doctrine of the employer who in giving work 
 to a man assumes that he is conferring a benefit upon 
 him, any more than it stands for the opposite doctrine 
 — that the acceptance of work confers a favour upon the 
 employer. The ideal of trade unionism is that of two 
 separate, strong, self-respecting and mutually respecting 
 parties freely contracting with each other, with no hmi- 
 tation upon this right of perfect and absolute freedom 
 of contract save that which a community in its wisdom 
 may determine to be necessary for its own protection. 
 
 In the pursuit of his ideal — the general upHft of the 
 working class — the working man has sought strength 
 in union, and has associated himself in labour organiza- 
 tions, through which he strives to secure: 
 
 First: A minimum wage which will enable men and 
 women to live in a manner conformable to American 
 standards, to educate their children, and to make ade- 
 quate provision against sickness and old age; 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 93 
 
 Second: The eight-hour workday, which will give 
 opportunity for the cultivation of home life, the enjoy- 
 ment of books, music, and wisely employed leisure; 
 
 Third: Legislation making it unlawful for children of 
 tender years and frail physique to be employed in 
 gainful pursuits; 
 
 Fourth: Laws providing for the safeguarding of the 
 lives and hmbs of workers engaged in dangerous occu- 
 pations and for compensation for injuries; 
 
 Fifth: The progressive improvement of the sanitary, 
 working, and housing conditions of the wage-earners; 
 and 
 
 Sixth: The preservation of the constitutional guaran- 
 tee of free speech and a free press. 
 
 As a means to the attainment of these laudable and 
 legitimate desires, the unionist declares for the trade 
 agreement, for conciliation and arbitration; and failing 
 in these, he resorts to the strike and the boycott. 
 
 There is no one phase of industrial life that is so 
 much discussed and so little understood by the average 
 citizen as the strike. To understand the moral influ- 
 ence of a justifiable strike it is necessary to consider the 
 ideals of the working people; and to understand the 
 strike itself it is important that explanation be given 
 of some of the stereotyped criticisms directed against 
 the strike and which are the outgrowth of prejudice or 
 of unreliable information. 
 
 A strike is simply a method of bargaining. If the 
 grocers of a city should refuse to sell their sugar for 
 less than seven cents a pound, and the consumers should 
 
94 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 refuse to pay more than six cents, exactly the same 
 thing would occur that happens in an ordinary strike. 
 Until the buyer and the seller of any commodity are 
 agreed as to price and conditions, no sale can be effected ; 
 hkewise, until the wages and conditions of employment 
 are agreed upon and acceded to by both employer and 
 workman, the industry must stop. The proper con- 
 ception of a strike or a lockout is that of workmen or 
 employers exercising their imdoubted right to refuse 
 to enter into contracts when the provisions of the con- 
 tracts are not satisfactory to them. 
 
 One not infrequently hears it proclaimed that the 
 strike is an un-American relic of barbarism that should 
 not be tolerated in civilized communities, and that 
 those who engage in strikes should have laid upon them 
 the heavy hand of the law. Yet ninety-nine out of 
 every one hundred strikes have been inaugurated and 
 prosecuted, either against a lowering of wages, and a 
 consequent lowering of the standard of hving, or for 
 the purpose of securing higher wages, or some necessary 
 improvement in the conditions under which work is 
 performed. In the pursuit of these aims the working 
 man is justified in adopting such lawful measures as 
 are necessary to their attainment. If the consumma- 
 tion of these ideals would make for the moral uplift of 
 the working man and the improvement of society, then 
 the lawful means by which they are achieved would be 
 a contributing factor in his moral advancement. 
 
 As an evidence of the moral influence of strikes upon 
 workmen, it may be interesting to relate the conditions 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 95 
 
 preceding and the conditions following the great coal 
 strike in the anthracite field. The hard coal fields are 
 largely populated by immigrants from southern Europe. 
 These men represent nearly all the divisions of the 
 Slavonic race; they were divided into as many hostile 
 factions as there are divisions in the territory from 
 which they came, and even within the groups them- 
 selves most intense bitterness prevailed. To make a 
 homogeneous people out of this heterogeneous mass 
 was absolutely necessary to the success of the strike, 
 as it was essential to the assimilation and amalgama- 
 tion of the people themselves. When the strike was 
 called these warring forces seemed to realize for the 
 first time in their lives that it was imperative, if they 
 hoped to succeed, that they unite, not only in the strike 
 itself, but in the acceptance of a common industrial 
 and social ideal. And it is interesting to know that as 
 the strike proceeded and after it was brought to a close, 
 the animosities and the friction which had for genera- 
 tions kept them apart had entirely disappeared, and 
 they became and are now a harmonious, united people. 
 No doubt as a result of the conditions under which 
 they lived in their own countries, these non-English 
 speaking people looked upon the guardians of the law 
 as the oppressors and persecutors of the toiling masses; 
 a uniform was to them the symbol of tyranny. I recall 
 one occasion during the strike, when, for the first time, 
 I visited one of the mining centres, a town in which the 
 foreign-born population was in the predominance. 
 The train was met at the station by a great concourse 
 
96 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 of men, women, and children, numbering, I dare say, 
 not less than forty or fifty thousand people. In order 
 that I might pass through the crowd and reach the 
 carriage which was waiting, it was necessary that the 
 police hold back the anxious workmen, and after the pro- 
 cession had started, to wend its way through the prin- 
 cipal streets of the city, a cordon of police walked at 
 each side of my carriage. I was surprised to note 
 that many of the foreign workmen, instead of being 
 interested in the parade, seemed to be eyeing the police- 
 men suspiciously, and as it was growing dark, I observed 
 that many of them produced revolvers and cudgels. 
 When the parade was over, I made inquiry of some of 
 the English-speaking men as to the meaning of this 
 demonstration, and was told that the ''foreigners," as 
 they were called, feared that the policemen might do 
 me injury, and they felt it incumbent upon themselves 
 to protect me. After the meeting was over and I had 
 returned to my room, I could see that a considerable 
 number of these foreign workmen had stationed them- 
 selves at points from which they could watch the hotel; 
 and in the morning when I awoke and looked from my 
 window, I could see, stationed here and there on the 
 opposite side of the street, some of the men who had 
 followed my carriage the night before, still standing 
 guard to see that no harm came to me. 
 
 The prevalence of strikes, as of all dramatic occur- 
 rences, is grossly exaggerated. Tragic, dramatic, or 
 startling events are so impressed upon the mind that 
 we fail to realize that they are highly exceptional. 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 97 
 
 While we may read daily of the threatened outbreak 
 of strikes or of the declaration of lockouts, the average 
 working man engaged in industries in which strikes 
 occur loses less than one day each year in this manner. 
 A strike lasts, generally speaking, about twenty-three 
 days, but the average employer peacefully carries on 
 his business for thirty years without the outbreak of a 
 strike. 
 
 It is frequently said that trade unions desire strikes 
 because — it is alleged — they are organized for that 
 purpose. This, however, is not true. The trade imion 
 is organized for the purpose of securing better conditions 
 of life and labour for its members, and, when necessary, 
 a strike is resorted to as a means to that end: but it 
 can no more be said that trade unions desire strikes 
 because they are equipped for them than that the 
 United States government desires war because it has 
 an army and a navy. It is true, that, in a general way, 
 strikes occur most frequently in those countries which 
 are most progressive, and in which trade imionism is 
 strongest. In proportion to population, there are more 
 strikes in the United States than in Great Britain; 
 more in Great Britain than in France; and more in 
 France than in Italy or Austria. In fact, strikes are 
 most frequent in those countries having the greatest 
 industrial development, and in which civihzation is 
 most advanced. 
 
 It is admitted on all sides that strikes are to be avoided 
 in all cases where the object desired can be obtained 
 by peaceful negotiation: there is nothing immoral, how- 
 
98 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 ever, in the working man's striking, just as there is 
 nothing immoral in his wanting higher wages. The 
 statement is often made that workmen should never 
 strike when the injury to be avoided or the gain to be 
 secured is less than the cost of the strike; but if men 
 were not willing, at least occasionally, to make great 
 sacrifices to prevent even small losses, unreasonable 
 employers would take advantage of their unwillingness 
 to strike. Strikes, it is frequently said, do not pay; 
 we hear it stated often that by a strike working men 
 lose more in a month than they may hope to gain in 
 years. It seems to me that such a judgment — which 
 is based upon a mere calculation of dollars and cents 
 — is inherently wrong, because incomplete. One might 
 just as well impugn the common sense of the farmers of 
 Lexington, because the cost of a war with Great Britain 
 was a hundred-fold greater that the whole amount of 
 taxation without representation. There is more in a 
 strike than wages or hours of labour, and a strike may 
 be a loss from a money point of view, and a great gain 
 in a higher and nobler sense. Said Abraham Lincoln, 
 referring to the strike of the New England shoe-workers 
 in a speech delivered at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1860, 
 ''Thank God, we have a system of labour where there 
 can be a strike. Whatever the pressure, there is a 
 point where the workman may stop." 
 
 There is a wide-spread impression that bloodshed and 
 disorder, riot and lawlessness, are invariable accom- 
 paniments of industrial disputes. As a matter of fact, 
 the amount of violence actually committed is greatly 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 99 
 
 magnified, and that which is fairly traceable to the 
 officials of trade unions is almost infinitesimal. What 
 little there is should be visited with the strong dis- 
 approval of public opinion; but the justifiable practices 
 of trade unionism should not be assailed on account of 
 occasional violence, or because of illegal acts committed 
 in its name. There are more men killed on the Fourth 
 of July from explosions or from resulting lockjaw than 
 have been killed in all the strikes in the United States 
 since the signing of the Declaration of Independence; 
 more men are killed in election brawls, and more vio- 
 lence is committed on election day than can be charged 
 to the account of all strikes in the United States during 
 the whole year; there are more arrests made in the city 
 of Chicago or in the city of New York in one month 
 than have been occasioned by all the strikes in these 
 United States for the past twenty years; and every 
 year more men are killed and injured in the innocent 
 game of football than suffer a hke fate as a result of 
 strikes during the same period of time; yet no one 
 would argue from this that the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence is at fault, or that elections should be abol- 
 ished, or that the Mayor of New York or of Chicago 
 is responsible for the criminal acts of individual citizens, 
 or that your Yale College athletics should be discon- 
 tinued. 
 
 As an evidence of the character of information through 
 which the pubUc judgment is so often formed, I cite 
 just one instance of reported lawlessness which came 
 under my personal observation. An enterprising news- 
 
100 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 paper man being sent to the coal fields of Pennsylvania, 
 to secure information as to the supposed reign of law- 
 lessness prevailing there during the strike in 1902, and 
 finding affairs as tranquil at that time as they were 
 under normal conditions, conceived the brilliant idea 
 of manufacturing a riot which would furnish the theme 
 for a most sensational, up-to-date newspaper story. 
 He proceeded to put into execution his plan of modern 
 journaUsm by employing, for a nickel a piece, a large 
 number of breaker boys, and at a slightly higher scale 
 a few thoughtless men and women. When these people 
 had been carefully posed and the camera focused, hos- 
 tilities began, and for ten or fifteen minutes a typical 
 riot occurred. After it was over the participants started 
 for the nearest confectionery store to enjoy the fruits 
 of their labours, the newspaper man wrote his story, and 
 despatched his pictures to the metropolitan dailies, 
 through the columns of which an anxious public was 
 informed the next day of all the harrowing details of 
 an industrial riot. 
 
 The trade unionist, whether he be conscious of it or 
 not, constantly makes war upon disease and death. 
 Through his organization and through legislation he 
 seeks to protect himself and his fellows from dangerous 
 machinery, and from the contagion and infection which 
 come as a result of bad sanitation in workshop and 
 home, poorly ventilated and badly lighted houses and 
 factories, underfeeding, lack of proper rest, overwork, 
 and similar causes. Every successful struggle that is 
 made for higher wages, for shorter hours, and for better 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 101 
 
 conditions of life and labour strikes a telling blow against 
 the advance of these insidious foes. In order to point 
 out more specifically the effect of trade union effort 
 against one disease, let us take the cigar-making 
 industry. 
 
 In 1888; a time when cigarmakers were employed 
 in unsanitary shops and amidst unhealthful surround- 
 ings, 51 per cent of all the members of the Cigar Makers' 
 Union who died were victims of tuberculosis. In 1890, 
 49 per cent of all deaths in this organization were caused 
 by tuberculosis, while at the present time, as a conse- 
 quence of the progressive improvement in the condi- 
 tions of employment, the death rate from consumption 
 among the members of the Cigar Makers' International 
 Union has been reduced to 24 per cent. In 1888 the 
 average length of fife of members of the Cigar Makers' 
 Union was 31 years, 4 months, and 20 days; in 1905 
 it was 46 years, 10 months, and 24 days. That this 
 marked reduction in the death rate from tuberculosis 
 is due to the improved conditions of life and labour 
 secured by the Cigar Makers' Union is clearly demon- 
 strated by the fact that there has not been a propor- 
 tionate diminution in the number of deaths from this 
 disease among non-union cigar makers. And what is 
 true of the cigar-making industry is in large measure 
 true of other industries. 
 
 If trade imionism had rendered no other service to 
 humanity it would have justified its existence by its 
 efforts in behalf of working women and children. Un- 
 fortunately, society does not seem to feel itself capable 
 
102 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 of conducting its industries without the aid of its weaker 
 members. With each advance in production, with 
 each increase in wealth and the capacity of producing 
 wealth, women and children, in ever larger numbers, 
 are drawn into the industrial vortex, and the home, 
 the natural and moral sphere of the woman, has been 
 shattered by the invasion of the machine and the fac- 
 tory system. Through constant association with it we 
 have become hardened to the degrading and humiliat- 
 ing truth that in our society as at present constituted, 
 hundreds of thousands if not millions of women and 
 girls, depending exclusively upon their own resources, 
 are compelled to work unduly long hours and for beg- 
 garly wages. The trade union seeks to protect the 
 woman morally, physically, and industrially; it demands 
 that she shall not be employed amidst surroundings 
 that are destructive of her moral and physical health; 
 it demands that she shall not be employed at night 
 work or for excessively long hours; it demands and 
 insists that women shall receive equal pay with men 
 for equal work. In demanding equal pay and healthful 
 surroundings for women the union not only protects 
 the woman and the home, but it also protects the stand- 
 ard of living for all wage-earners. 
 
 Even more important than the benefits conferred by 
 trade unionism upon women workers have been its 
 efforts in behalf of the toiling children. It is hard to 
 reconcile the humanity and vaunted intelhgence of this 
 era with the wholesale employment of children in in- 
 dustry. Childhood should be a period of growth and 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 103 
 
 education; it should be the stage in which the man is 
 trained for future effort and future work. With each 
 advance in civilization, with each improvement of 
 mankind, the period of childhood should be extended, 
 in order that the men and women of the next genera- 
 tion may be mature and developed. In the factory the 
 spring of the child's Hfe snaps and its spirit is com- 
 pletely broken. The outlook upon life of a child emerg- 
 ing, illiterate and listless, from five or six years of work 
 at deadening and monotonous labour, is not at all en- 
 couraging, and it is not to be wondered at that many 
 children with such a task develop into tramps and 
 criminals. 
 
 Apart from the particular and special evils of the 
 system as it exists to-day, the policy of extracting work 
 from children and exploiting their slow-growing strength 
 is vicious and self-destructive. A state of society might 
 be conceived in which poverty was so general that even 
 the little children would needs be drafted into the 
 industrial army in order to produce enough to enable 
 society to eke out its existence, but in a nation which 
 has its millionaires — almost its bilhonaires — in a 
 society in which production is so far in excess of con- 
 simiption that thousands of strong men can find no 
 work to do, and in which we are building up a per- 
 manent army of unemployed, it but emphasizes the 
 evil of a system which permits the exploitation and 
 degradation of children. It seems almost an absurdity, 
 a reflection upon our intelligence, that women and 
 children are compelled to work while strong men chafe 
 
104 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 in idleness. Thousands of men who tramp about the 
 coimtry and live off society instead of living for it are 
 products of a system of unregulated child labour. 
 
 Another evil of modern industrialism which cries 
 aloud for correction is the insecurity of the worker's 
 hold upon existence. The bread of the labourer is 
 eaten in the peril of his life. Whether he work on the 
 sea, on the earth, or in the mines underneath the earth, 
 the labourer constantly faces imminent death; and his 
 peril increases with the progress of the age. The vic- 
 tories of peace have their price in dead and maimed, 
 as well as do the victories of war. With each new 
 invention the number of killed and injured rises; each 
 new speeding up of the great mechanisms of industrial 
 life, each increase in the number and size of our mighty 
 engines, brings with it fresh human sacrifices. Each 
 year the locomotive augments the number of its victims; 
 in each year is lengthened the roll of the men who enter 
 the dark and dampness of the mine never again to 
 return to their homes and loved ones. And many are 
 killed without violence: thousands of men, women, and 
 children lose their Hves in factories, mills, and mines 
 without the inquest of a coroner. The slow death 
 which comes from working in a vitiated atmosphere, 
 from inhaling constantly the fine, sharp dust of metals, 
 from labouring unceasingly in constrained and un- 
 natural postures, from constant contact of the hands 
 or lips with poisoned substances; lastly, the death which 
 comes from prolonged exposure to inclement weather, 
 from over-exertion and under-nutrition, from lack of 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 105 
 
 sleep, from lack of recuperation, swells beyond compu- 
 tation the unnumbered victims of a restless progress. 
 
 However sure the precautions, however perfect the 
 arrangements, it is inconceivable that the gigantic 
 industrial movements of the American people should be 
 conducted without some fataUties. The industrial 
 structure is a huge machine, hard running and with 
 many imguarded parts, and many of the fatalities, 
 many of the deaths in general, are simply and solely 
 the result of conditions beyond human control and 
 inseparable from the ordinary course of existence. But 
 thousands of easily preventable accidents and fatalities 
 occur each year, and it is from these that we strive to 
 secure reUef . 
 
 In the United States the number of persons killed 
 and injured is not even counted, but from the records 
 at hand it is estimated by the United States Depart- 
 ment of Labour that in 1906 — the latest date for 
 which computations have been made — between thirty 
 and thirty-five thousand persons were killed in industry, 
 and approximately not much less than two million were 
 injured. As a matter of fact, however, the death roll 
 of industry is longer than is evident from official figures. 
 No one can compute, of course, the number annually 
 yielding up their lives or who are seriously injured 
 and often compelled to become a burden upon their 
 friends or relatives, or dependent upon the charity and 
 munificence of society, who have come to their death 
 or disabiUty as a result of disease contracted in their 
 occupations. It is a strange commentary upon our 
 
106 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 boasted American civilization, that more men are killed 
 and injured in industry in the United States than in 
 any other country in the world. By this I mean that 
 more persons are killed and injured per thousand 
 employed. 
 
 It is not my purpose to decry the institutions of my 
 own country, because I beUeve that with all our failings, 
 with all our sins of omission and commission, we have 
 by far the best and greatest government ever insti- 
 tuted among men; but I cannot bUnd myself to the 
 fact that in the matter of providing protection for the 
 life and the safety of the workman and compensating 
 him for the injuries sustained in the course of his em- 
 ployment, we are lagging far behind the nations of the 
 Old World. It may be said that this is not a parental 
 government, and that the state should not be called 
 upon to regulate our affairs; and while I believe that 
 they are best governed who are least governed, I con- 
 tend, nevertheless, that it is the proper function of a 
 government to throw around the weakest of its citi- 
 zens all the safeguards and all the protection possible. 
 Strange as it may appear, our courts have almost in- 
 variably held that workmen could not collect damages 
 from employers for accidents occurring in the course of 
 their employment, and these decisions are based upon 
 the supposed liberty of the wage-earner to work when, 
 where, and under whatever conditions he may please. 
 Too often the courts have granted to workmen lib- 
 erties they do not want, and denied them the protec- 
 tion of laws necessary to their safety. 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 107 
 
 In a letter to the Exposition of Safety Devices and 
 Industrial Hygiene, held recently under the auspices 
 of the American Institute of Social Service, Mr. Roose- 
 velt, then President, expressed thus his views upon 
 the subject of the protection of workmen: 
 
 "As modern civilization is constantly creating arti- 
 ficial dangers of life, limb, and health, it is imperative 
 upon us to provide new safeguards against the new 
 perils. In legislation and in our use of safety devices 
 for the protection of workmen we are far behind Euro- 
 pean peoples, and in consequence, in the United States, 
 the casualties attendant upon peaceful industries exceed 
 those which would happen under great perpetual war. 
 Many, even most, of these casualties are preventable, 
 and it is not supportable that we should continue a 
 policy under which life and limb are sacrificed because 
 it is supposed to be cheaper to maim and kill men than 
 to protect them." 
 
 In the matter of the health and safety of the workman, 
 society has not yet learned its full lesson. There was a 
 time when the criminal law was a matter of private 
 settlement, and a man could reheve himself of respon- 
 sibility for the murder of his neighbour by making a 
 "blood payment" of so much money to the kinsmen of 
 the murdered man. Our attitude toward preventable 
 accidents is still much the same. If the employer pays 
 a ludicrously inadequate sum to his injured employ^ 
 or to the widow of a workman who has been killed, 
 society assumes that he has performed his full duty, 
 and that his concern in the incident has ceased. As a 
 
108 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 matter of fact, most large employers relieve themselves 
 of financial responsibility for the death or injury of their 
 workmen by a system of insurance in employers' liabil- 
 ity companies. In consideration of the payment of a 
 small fee for each person employed, these companies 
 guarantee to defend in the courts all suits instituted for 
 damages, and to pay to the plaintiffs in such suits any 
 judgment which may be rendered against the employer. 
 Because of this protection it is frequently less expensive 
 to kill or maim a workman than to provide adequate 
 safeguards against his injury. 
 
 The commission or permission of preventable acci- 
 dents should be considered a public crime, an injury 
 not only to the workmen, but to society at large. The 
 factory and mining laws, of all states — which are at 
 the present time frequently inadequate and sometimes 
 remain a dead letter upon the statute books — should 
 be greatly extended and should be enforced with the 
 utmost vigour, and when men are killed or injured by 
 railroads, in factories or in mines, through a violation 
 of the plain letter of the law, the employer should not 
 only suffer in damages, but should be Hable to prosecu- 
 tion for a criminal offence. 
 
 In the pursuit of its ideals, trade unionism has justi- 
 fied its existence by such good works and high purposes. 
 At one time viewed with suspicion by workmen and 
 employer alike, it has gained the affection of one and 
 the enlightened esteem of the other. Slowly and gradu- 
 ally it has progressed toward the fulfilment of its ideals. 
 It has elevated the standard of living of the American 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 109 
 
 workman, and secured for him higher wages and more 
 leisure; it has increased efficiency, diminished accidents, 
 averted disease, kept the children at school, raised the 
 moral tone of the factory, and improved the relations 
 between employer and employed. In doing so it has 
 stood upon the broad ground of justice and humanity. 
 It has defended the weak against the strong, the ex- 
 ploited against the exploiter; has stood for efficiency 
 rather than cheapness, for the producer rather than 
 production, for the man rather than the dollar; it has 
 voiced the claims of the unborn as of the living, and has 
 stayed the hand of that ruthless, near-sighted profit 
 seeking which would destroy future generations as men 
 wantonly cut down forests. It has aided and educated 
 the newly-arrived immigrant, protected the toil of 
 women and children, and fought the battles of the poor 
 in attic, mine, and sweatshop; it has conferred benefits, 
 made sacrifices, and, unfortunately, committed errors. 
 I do not conceal from myself that trade unionism has 
 made its mistakes. No institution fully attains its 
 ideal, and men stumble and fall in their upward striving. 
 Trade unionism will not cease when conditions are 
 improved; on the contrary, the higher wages become, 
 the more humane and reasonable the conditions of work, 
 the greater will become the need of trade unions and the 
 clearer their justification. Trade unionism is not only 
 negative but positive; it is both the sword and the 
 ploughshare. The great and noble aspirations of trade 
 unionism will not blind its adherents to the problems 
 of the immediate present or the difficulties in its way. 
 
110 TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 One must keep his feet upon the ground, though his 
 eyes are upon the stars. It is necessary to pursue the 
 path slowly and painfully, at the same time keeping in 
 mind the ideals which will be ultimately reahzed. Prog- 
 ress is always slow and accompanied with great cost in 
 tears and blood. Evolution is long, and life, both of 
 man and of man's institutions, short. There will be 
 recessions and progressions of the trade union move- 
 ment like the ebb and flow of the tide; the movement 
 will be helped on in days of prosperity and retarded in 
 days of adversity, although the moral chastening and 
 the hard lessons learned in the period of adversity con- 
 stitute, perhaps, the truer and surer progress of the 
 two. There can be no doubt, however, that the move- 
 ment is onward and upward. It takes generations to 
 implant dignity in the human breast, but once im- 
 planted it is ineradicable. Said Thomas Carlyle: "This 
 that they call the organization of labour is the universal 
 vital problem of the world." 
 
 And now, in conclusion, may I not depart from the 
 discussion of these varied accompaniments of industrial 
 progress to indicate what seems to me to be the relation- 
 ship of the ministry to the problems of social and in- 
 dustrial life? 
 
 It is a matter of general comment that large numbers 
 of the working men have apparently become indifferent 
 or even unsympathetic to the voice of the ministry as 
 it expounds the doctrines and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 If it be true that the wage-earners have in large num- 
 bers disconnected themselves from the church organiza- 
 
TRADE UNIONS: AN INTERPRETATION 111 
 
 tions, there must be a reason which at least seems to 
 them to justify such action. There can be, of course, 
 no fundamental antagonism between the church and 
 the labour union, because each in its own sphere works 
 to the same end; that is to say, both the church and the 
 organizations of labour make for the moral and intel- 
 lectual uplift of mankind. And surely the fact that 
 the lowly Nazarene was himself a working man and a 
 mechanic, that he was known to have been in sym- 
 pathy with and to have loved the poor and the op- 
 pressed, should make working men above all others 
 feel welcome and at home in the house where his divine 
 truths are taught. And equally manifest should be 
 the sympathy with labour, yea, even the advocacy of 
 its cause, on the part of those who were commanded 
 by him to go forth and preach his gospel to all men. 
 May we not learn much from each other? 
 
 If I were asked to propose a solution of the whole 
 vexed problem of modern industrial life, I should un- 
 hesitatingly advise a Hteral application of the Golden 
 Rule — "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
 you, do ye even so to them." 
 
THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE MINISTER IN 
 
 RELATION TO INDUSTRIAL 
 
 ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, Ph.D. 
 
 .. O*" THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 ./FORNAf^ 
 
THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE MINISTER IN RE- 
 LATION TO INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 THERE are two ways of working with men. There 
 is the method of approach to the individual man; 
 there is also the opportunity of reaching men in the mass. 
 We must use both. We must be lovers both of men 
 and of mankind. 
 
 You will keep in mind that my task is to speak to 
 you with regard to the minister's relation to mankind, 
 to human society. I have already sought to intimate 
 the part which the minister may take in the realization 
 of our democracy, by obtaining power and influence 
 with the varied elements and subordinate organizations 
 of men which go to make up that democracy. We 
 were dealing with men in masses, trying to show how, 
 oftentimes, we may gain the sympathy of large bodies 
 of men, often at a single stroke. And, it is to be re- 
 membered, this will enable us the more readily to get 
 later access to individual men. I now mean to take 
 industrial organizations as one illustration of this oppor- 
 tunity of the minister to participate in the realization 
 of democracy. 
 
 I invited you to remember that you must begin by 
 making your own church, your own ministry, and your 
 own pulpit strong in order that you may have a future 
 
 115 
 
116 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 hold for this larger work, but that you would not fulfil 
 the command of the Master unless you did seek to 
 transform the entire organization of human society into 
 % the Kingdom of God. You are not simply to partici- 
 A^ pate in social movements, you must become their guide 
 and director. Men must learn to look to you for the 
 righting of their wrongs. 
 
 I urged you, first of all, to get access to these great 
 bodies of men, and then to get power and influence 
 with them and over them that you might become the 
 interpreters of the higher ideals which many of them 
 so blindly follow. 
 
 I reminded you that other gospels than that of the 
 church were being preached and that there were other 
 prophets and preachers than those who are ordained to 
 the ministry of the church. Among these I mentioned 
 the gospel of Labour, an Evangel which is being preached 
 with great fire and fervency, which is being industriously 
 circulated by both mouth and pen. We have, in our 
 industrial organizations, one of those several great 
 humanitarian movements which go to make up what 
 we call the Kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 You will notice that I am approaching the question 
 of the relation of the church and minister to wage- 
 earners from a somewhat different point of view from 
 that of my colleague in this course, Mr. Robinson. 
 He is to deal more with the individual, and still more 
 with the wage-earner as a member of the Christian 
 Church and of the minister's parish. It is my task to 
 show you how the influence of the minister may be 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 117 
 
 extended beyond his own immediate parish, and how 
 he may become the minister of still other parishes 
 outside his own. 
 
 We have an incomparable opportunity in the organ- 
 izations of labour to reach men in the mass. In the 
 Labour Unions of the State of Massachusetts, with which 
 I am most familiar, there are at the present time more 
 men than the total membership of all the Congregational 
 churches of Massachusetts, including men, women, and 
 children. 
 
 But we are considering one of those movements of 
 men upon which there is a wide difference of opinion, 
 around which closes much controversy, even bitterness 
 and warfare. Therefore, the question arises, has the 
 minister of the gospel any right or call to recognize, as 
 a body, the organization known as the Labour Union? 
 If so, how and under what aspects of its aim and work? 
 Shall he openly express personal and professional sym- 
 pathy with it and, if so, on what grounds? You will 
 find that men will differ in their answer to this question; 
 some men in your own churches. It calls for a careful 
 combination of tact and frankness, of the serpent's 
 wisdom and the harmlessness of the dove. 
 
 To be sure, the minister expresses open s5Tnpathy 
 with other organizations and institutions upon whose 
 character men vary in their judgments; he takes his 
 definite attitude towards the saloon and towards the 
 Civic League, and feels no necessity for taking an im- 
 partial position. 
 
 Yet there is a good deal of questioning, to-day, as to 
 
118 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 what business the minister has to enter upon the dis- 
 cussion of industrial, commercial, and political ques- 
 tions. There are those who would refuse him that 
 right. To be sure, the men who deny him the privilege 
 are those who exercise it the most vigorously them- 
 selves, but some pressure will be brought to bear upon 
 you to silence you in these things. You will be told 
 to "preach the Gospel," by some men who themselves 
 know very little about what the gospel is. 
 
 It was just so in the days of the slavery agitation, 
 and we know to our shame that many ministers and 
 chm-ches yielded to the pressure and became mere 
 lookers-on upon the great conflict. Others yielded still 
 more and took the wrong side, to the everlasting dis- 
 grace of the church and the ministry. 
 
 Now, as a matter of fact, any man who to-day can 
 consider the industrial situation as a disinterested and 
 impartial economic student could pursue the study of 
 botany upon the grave of his mother. The whole 
 thing throbs too much with justice, humanity, and 
 righteousness. 
 
 I want you to get, first, my point of view. As a boy 
 I was reared in the home of a wage-earner, and for 
 many years endured and witnessed the wretched suffer- 
 ing of such homes in the ''old-fashioned" days when 
 organized labour had not gained its present influence. 
 Following this I became a wage-earner. Then, for 
 several years before entering Yale, I was also a con- 
 siderable employer of labour. My first pastorate was 
 spent among wage-earners. I am now the pastor of a 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 119 
 
 church whose constituency is coming to be fairly equally 
 divided between employers of labour and wage-earners. 
 Dming all these varied experiences, I have sincerely 
 tried to gain a fair understanding of the industrial 
 situation. I own as my confidential and trusted loyal 
 friends many large employers of labour, and I have also 
 been upon sufficiently intimate and friendly terms with 
 the leaders of Labour Union movements to know some- 
 thing of their motives and their ideals. After all due 
 allowance has been made for hasty impulse and all 
 other necessary considerations, it remains true that the .^ 
 best judge, on the whole, of the needs and rights of the*^' 
 wage-earner is the wage-earner himself. And what is 
 this but to say that the poet can best appreciate poetry, 
 and the musician music? What you learn about these 
 men you can only acquire by getting at their hearts. 
 
 Inasmuch, however, as this personal element thus 
 admittedly enters into my consideration, I will refer to 
 another note of personal history. While seven long, 
 hard years of my boyhood were spent in rigorous toil, 
 these were followed by the six other years as an em- 
 ployer of labour, so that I may also claim to know the 
 other side. And, here is a most significant thing; — 
 the prevailing influence in my profound belief in organ- 
 ized labour was not the earlier experience, but my later 
 years as an employer. The causes which led me into 
 my present work of the ministry were many, but not 
 the least among them was the moral heartache caused 
 by the necessity, through an unfeeling and inhuman 
 business competition, that seemed to force me to win 
 
120 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 my own living at the expense of men and women work- 
 ing night and day for the miserable pittance which 
 business competition allowed them. And that is one 
 reason why I came to Yale Divinity School. I saw the 
 need of the gospel I try to preach. 
 
 Of course this does not mean, and would be foolish 
 if it did mean, that I stand ready to approve everything 
 that has been done in Labour's name or supposed in- 
 terest. It does not mean that I do not think there 
 ever was a strike that was unwise or wrong. I with- 
 hold for myself, on every special case, the right of 
 private judgment. There are things to commend and 
 other things to condemn. We must lead these men, 
 not follow them. 
 
 The Labour Unions have their faults, but still I believe 
 in them. They avail themselves of the divine right 
 conferred upon human beings, of making mistakes. 
 We all know that there are ''walking delegates" who 
 ride a mighty sight more than they walk, just as there 
 are preachers who do not preach much and ministers 
 who do not minister. 
 
 But the Labour Union has its place somewhere in the 
 order of social and moral evolution. If it is a backward 
 eddy, a reverse movement in the cychcal process of 
 evolution, it will be left behind in the general progress. 
 If, on the other hand, it be a culmination of upward 
 forces, it will permanently endure, or at least will exist 
 imtil it develops into something higher or gains its moral 
 ends. A historic review will affirm, or at least suggest, 
 its moral part and place in human progress toward the 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 121 
 
 one far-off divine event towards which the social order 
 moves. 
 
 I will cease now to be simply the plain simple believer 
 in the faith and become the historic and philosophic 
 student. My question shall be : does a study of history 
 and society vindicate and confirm this faith? In other 
 words, can I justify an open attitude of sanction, sym- 
 pathy, and cooperation with Labour Unions, upon your 
 part and mine? We will pass over the earlier stages of 
 the history of the race, and begin with our own era. 
 When Jesus of Nazareth was working at the carpenter's 
 bench, all working men, both skilled and unskilled (and 
 they were, then, as now, the majority of men), were 
 slaves. The moral and humanitarian estimate of a 
 man of toil is found in the advice, by one of the greatest 
 of morahsts and reformers of that day, to get rid of 
 worn-out working men just as men got rid of worn-out 
 oxen. I am not sure, however, that employers then 
 were not more careful about wearing them out than 
 some have been since. 
 
 Laying aside, for the moment, the moral and religious 
 influences which entered in, the movement towards the 
 abohtion of this slavery had its economic impulse in 
 the growing realization that to make the workman the 
 natural and bitter enemy of his master was bad eco- 
 nomics and bad business. Under this economic law, 
 and the parallel humanizing through the gospel, slavery 
 gave place to serfdom. It was a higher order and 
 worked better, but was finally seen to be transitional. 
 When we trace the causes for its abohtion back to their 
 
122 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 ultimate economic cause, we find it to be the natural 
 grouping of working men for mutual aid and protection. 
 The knell of serfdom was sounded when the primitive 
 Labour Union was formed. 
 
 The place of the Labour Union, then, in economic and 
 social liistory is this : it was the beginning of the move- 
 ment which has made working men free men. As its 
 result we have the working man choosing his own abode, 
 his own occupation, and his own employer. This is its 
 place in history. 
 
 In its very methods it is rooted and grounded his- 
 torically. Dean Hodges recently said, "The exodus of 
 the people of Israel out of Egypt was a strike. It was 
 an industrial evolution of the working men of a great 
 nation. They stopped work and betook themselves out 
 of the land, to the consternation of capitaUsts." Of 
 another union method Dr. Hodges avers: ''A similar 
 foreshadowing of modern manners is to be found in 
 the Book of Judges, in the agreement of the tribes to 
 have no dealings with the Sons of Benjamin. They 
 boycotted the Benjaminites. That is, the strike and 
 the boycott are implements of warfare which are com- 
 mon to nature and are as ancient as hands and feet." 
 I know that strict economists deny the strict validity 
 of the comparison, but it is a fair likeness. 
 
 But have these industrial upliftings any association 
 with moral and spiritual evolution? Here are some 
 parallels which are full of meaning. John Wy cliff e, 
 leading a religious revolution, stands side by side with 
 the workman erecting himself from serfdom, and cries, 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 123 
 
 ''Father he bade us call him, and masters we have 
 none." This historic economic evolution I find to be 
 the attempt to express the spirit of the Christian Gospel 
 in the terms of industrial relations. We find the work- 
 ing people of England receiving the impulse and the 
 instruction for their trade union movement in John 
 Wesley's chapels and class meetings. 
 
 On every hand we may see the clear evidences of the 
 close relation between the struggle for moral and reli- 
 gious freedom and the effort for social and industrial 
 betterment; and thus, historically, the trade union 
 movement takes its place in the history of morals, 
 religion, and the Christian Gospel. 
 
 Henry Sterling is right when he tells you that many 
 things the Church has preached, the Labour Union (of 
 course to a limited and imperfect degree) has tried to 
 put in practice. 
 
 Not only is there similarity and identity of aim. 
 The methods, the means, and the weapons are measu- 
 rably the same. Wherever there has been a protest 
 against what was deemed a tyranny, religious and 
 industrial revolutions have been inseparably finked, and 
 it is clear, from any point of view, that they are elements 
 together in the historic moral order. Martin Luther 
 issued the orders for a strike, and, in his theses, posted 
 the order in terms that were no less defiant than those 
 of the most virulent of labour leaders. These orders 
 found their deepest response in the people who were 
 oppressed under the woeful industrial condition of their 
 time. The great refigious movements aiming towards 
 
124 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 a truer application of the gospel have arisen and thrived 
 among the working people, and again and again their 
 voice has been the voice of God. Side by side, upon 
 the pages of history, in the deepest mutual relation, have 
 the revolutions which have wrought for moral and 
 spiritual advance been parallel with those for such 
 things as better wages and more leisure. It is out of 
 the mouths of babes and sucklings that God has ordained 
 strength. 
 
 The truth is brightly dawning upon all but the blindest 
 of employers and the most one-sided of students, that 
 any system of industry which makes the workman the 
 sullen obeyer of his employer is not only morally but 
 economically unsound. The laws which once forbade 
 working men to combine, and which made their con- 
 sultation a criminal conspiracy, passed away, not only 
 because wrong, but because of their economic failure. 
 As an economic measure, the Labour Union came into 
 being simply and clearly because it was an absolute 
 necessity for the securing and maintaining of righteous 
 conditions. When the employer became a great and 
 powerful corporation, and the employe remained a 
 single individual, the latter was absolutely at the mercy 
 of the former. It is as clear as the cloudless sun at 
 noonday that the union came into being because the 
 employer abused the power. It is true that some did 
 not abuse it. But history records that predominatingly 
 they did. 
 
 Wages were beaten down and hours increased with 
 little or no regard to human health, morals, and life. 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 125 
 
 In many respects the situation was worse than the 
 previous one of slave or serf, who when starved and 
 killed could not easily be replaced. No sane thoughtful 
 man who has read the history of the growth of capital- 
 istic combination can deny that the Labour Union was 
 an absolutely necessary economic measure for self-pro- 
 tection and preservation on the part of working men. 
 A ruthless power simply had to be met by power. The 
 Labour Union was not first in the field. It came after 
 much patient submission and many false hopes and vio- 
 lated faiths. Indeed, that its existence is economically 
 justified is sufiiciently evidenced by its present and 
 increasing protection by legislation. 
 
 Compared with the record of many blind and blun- 
 dering employers, that of the employed is to be won- 
 dered at. In all the countries where the impulse to 
 improve conditions has found opportunity, the working 
 people have been the most diligent students of economic 
 ways and laws. I have few employers of labour of my 
 acquaintance who have more than a glimpse of the eco- 
 nomic vision of the higher leaders of labour, or who can 
 begin to discern as they do, the moral meaning of eco- 
 nomic principles. Great as have been the blunders of 
 unions, and they have made many, they certainly are 
 not worse than the economic errors blindly made upon 
 the other side. It has not been the men of larger 
 culture, so much as the conmion working men, who have 
 created a new and better economic order. Granting 
 all its alleged errors, I know of nothing in the history 
 of economic institutions that has more intelligent eco- 
 
126 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 nomic law and principle behind it than the American 
 Federation of Labour. From an economic standpoint 
 the working men have been, on the whole, the leaders 
 and the teachers of their masters in their crafts. 
 
 I have already called attention to the fact that moral 
 and industrial betterment have appeared in history as 
 companion movements. There was something more 
 than sympathy in this; there was identity. The Labour 
 Union movement has a deep, underlying moral signifi- 
 cance. It is clear enough that the innate demand for 
 righteousness and justice has been the prevaihng im- 
 pulse that has sustained the weaker side in this long, 
 hard warfare. Physical conditions have their close 
 relation to moral culture, and I believe the best of men 
 upon the Union side have sought and striven for better 
 wages and more leisure with a moral aim and for a moral 
 end. In point of time the economic needs of larger 
 compensation and fewer hours of toil came first, and 
 as means, not as ends in themselves. But it has been 
 the larger moral aim that has lent strength and per- 
 manency to the movement. The supreme question is, 
 when these are gained what shall men do with them? 
 Shall they be used for the gratification of appetite and 
 indolence, or for the deepening of the moral life? Here 
 is the vital question for the Labour Unions of to-day. 
 We must see that they answer it rightly. Secondly, 
 then, it is, as I conceive it, ideally, a moral movement. 
 Its ultimate demands are moral justice and righteous- 
 ness in the carrying on of business, and its ultimate end 
 is moral culture. 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 127 
 
 Our task is twofold : to help them to gain opportunity 
 and then to teach them how to use it for moral and 
 spiritual ends. And, with these men, you might as well 
 whistle for the wind as to try to guide them in the 
 latter without helping them in the former. 
 
 Again, among the most significant of all the lessons 
 of history is this : that no institution, however great and 
 powerful, has ever survived unless it had a deep, under- 
 lying moral content. It is, I believe, because it had 
 this content, that the cause of labour has become potent 
 and will be permanent. My investigation of strikes has 
 led me to this conclusion, that, in general, whenever a 
 strike deserves the moral sympathy of the people, it 
 succeeds, and when it does not, it fails. Real success 
 is often apparent defeat. The newspapers told us that 
 the last strike at Fall River failed. The newspapers 
 were wrong. It was a magnificent moral success. For 
 six long months, with untold suffering, those men and 
 women gave, first of all, a magnificent example of 
 devotion to a principle and sacrifice for a cause. Every 
 temptation to violence was incessantly besieging them. 
 Through it all, they stood a splendid example of Chris- 
 tian patience, fortitude, long-suffering, temperance, and 
 wisdom. Whether or not they were unwise in calling 
 a strike, they won a moral victory. I know of nothing 
 like it in history for order, sobriety, patience, and 
 dignity under the severest provocation to violence and 
 disorder. 
 
 But has organized labour won any great victories that 
 were more than economic? It has at least played a 
 
128 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 great part in them. First of all, it has destroyed that 
 miserable old idea of an inherent difference between the 
 work of head and hand and has estabhshed their equahty 
 in the betterment of the world. I think the most 
 damnable heresy that ever existed was that the head 
 worker belongs over here and the hand worker over 
 there. 
 
 I would like to see, and I am not sure that I may not 
 see, university degrees for craftsmen. The Labour Union 
 has given dignity to work. It always does me good to 
 see a bootblack who calls himself ''Professor," because 
 it is an intimation that faithful service, equally rendered, 
 in one sphere of work, is equally entitled to recognition 
 with service in any other sphere. 
 
 It has also saved the factory system, as it has arisen, 
 from being a source of evil, so that it gives us, as Carroll 
 D. Wright has declared and shown, a great body of 
 moral strength. Without organized labour, it would 
 have been a morally pernicious system. 
 
 Whenever great national and world issues of a moral 
 naure have arisen, it has almost always been on the 
 right side, and that right early, as in the old abolition 
 days. 
 
 Its own great issues, such as sweating, the sanitary 
 and other conditions of labour, the regulation of indus- 
 trial relations between the sexes, its influence in inducing 
 men not to neglect the divine right of suffrage, its sense 
 of brotherhood, its magnificent work in behalf of women 
 and children, are all great moral issues. Its splendid 
 provision for sickness and death benefits are both moral 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 129 
 
 and divine. Its influence in obtaining reduction of 
 Sunday labour has greatly benefited both labouring men 
 and the Christian church. At such a point as this we 
 have a splendid chance to join forces. Economists are 
 also agreed upon its influence in behalf of temperance. 
 
 But I go further than this. It has not confined its 
 work within its own confines. When legitimately used 
 it protects the good employer from his unscrupulous 
 enemies. 
 
 Its moral influence is world-reaching. The binding 
 together of the wage-earners of one country with an- 
 other will do much to settle International Peace, for 
 when thus joined they will refuse to fight each other 
 without justifiable reason. 
 
 But I go farther still. When the political economists 
 declared that under conditions of neglect wages would 
 be higher, because proper care of men and women would 
 be expensive to employers, and would lead to less wages, 
 the unions accepted the alternative and agreed to abide 
 by the issue, if it should thus be that spiritual gain 
 meant material loss. Again and again, when the sup- 
 posed issue has been that of exchanging the material 
 for the sake of higher things they have dared to take 
 the risk. 
 
 Indeed, the very things that have been most con- 
 demned reveal sometimes most clearly the moral ele- 
 ment. Are strikes an evil? Yes and no. There have 
 been revelations of self-sacrifice in them that bear the 
 glow of Calvary. Again and again and again have men 
 resisted the temptation to profit at the expense of their 
 
130 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 fellows and have chosen Christ rather than Barabbas. 
 I agree that the strike calls for great though tfulness. 
 Yet it may be, and at times has been, the simple obe- 
 dience to the demand of the Master that we do for others 
 the things we would have others do for us, even when 
 the application has been a mistaken one. 
 
 The great Coal Strike was a great moral event and a 
 great moral victory. Here it was : — President Baer said, 
 "Mining is a business, and not a religious proposition." 
 John Mitchell said, in effect, that it was a religious 
 proposition, although he did not use those terms. As 
 Mitchell says, ''If the morals of a man may be gauged 
 by his willingness to sacrifice, then the uplifting influ- 
 ence of unionism must be acknowledged." 
 
 Out of this great movement, and inspired by its higher 
 ideals, a multitude of things are developing. I wish 
 you could go to Colorado and visit the splendid home 
 for disabled printers. The various crafts are thus pro- 
 viding for their aged and infirm far more thoughtfully, 
 it must be admitted, than the Christian Church has 
 done for her own. Witness their willingness to provide 
 in these ways over against the grudging way in which 
 our churches respond to an appeal for a fund for aged 
 ministers, for example. 
 
 They are developing their own industrial schools 
 because Yale and other great institutions have been so 
 slow in placing their great resources at the disposition 
 of wage-earners with the passion to make themselves 
 skilled in their crafts, and thus to serve the world 
 better and more largely. 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 131 
 
 Over against the difficulties that our Mission Boards 
 experience in getting our churches together to think 
 about the great concerns of the kingdom, contrast the 
 international convention of one of these bodies, with 
 its deep seriousness, its splendid enthusiasm, and its 
 wise and careful adjustment. Again and again as I 
 have looked upon these bodies of men, I have wished 
 that we could bring our men of the churches together 
 with equal seriousness and sacrifice of time and thought 
 to that which they give to their department of God's 
 kingdom. 
 
 In the town of Norwalk there stands upon the hill a 
 well-equipped hospital. Upon looking up its history, 
 in order to preach a Hospital Sunday sermon, I dis- 
 covered, not only that the labour organizations have 
 their private rooms where their members may be freely 
 cared for, but that this institution, of which our town is 
 so proud, was started by the Hat Trimmers' Union of 
 Norwalk, which is now in the midst of one of the most 
 serious strikes that we have had for years. 
 
 I find that these men and women are also very ready 
 in their response to all appeals to public spirit. One of 
 the things with which we are contending in Norwalk is 
 the excessive individualism which characterizes its well- 
 to-do men, but among the men of labour I find a ready 
 response to all movements affecting the public good. 
 For example, as the chairman of a High School Com- 
 mission for the furnishing and decoration of a new 
 building, I find them responding far more readily than 
 the more well-to-do organizations. 
 
132 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 In all this one can discover great latent moral power. 
 iThe most important thing they need is to have their 
 jpown great movements interpreted to themselves. Thus 
 the minister must, first of all, come to see the splendid 
 idealism of this movement, that he may show it to them 
 and thus help them to transform their means and 
 methods to correspond with their ideals and ends, and 
 this is the work to which I am trying to call you. 
 
 Let me warn you against one fallacy. One of the 
 dangers to labour to-day lies in the direction of the phil- 
 anthropic shops and employers. It is because some of 
 these employers try to buy off the labouring men and 
 get them to forsake their unions, by offering them 
 lunch counters, porcelain bath tubs and ready-made 
 houses. These expedients can never satisfy the demand 
 for simple justice, equality in collective bargaining and 
 the other mutual considerations which organized labour 
 demands. Ministers should not allow themselves to be 
 fooled by the shops that offer to coddle labour at the 
 expense of its united power and manhood. 
 
 The appeals which are made to wage-earners by such 
 men as Mr. Post of Battle Creek are sometimes sub- 
 versive of the larger moral ends of trade unionism. 
 They are constantly appealing to men to leave their 
 unions for glittering promises which, after organized 
 labour is weakened, they may or may not keep. In 
 making their appeal they base it upon the principle of 
 the survival of the fittest. They forget that there are 
 other workmen to be considered besides 'Hhe highest 
 grade workmen" to whom they appeal. The vital 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 133 
 
 principle of organized labour is not the survival of the 
 fittest. It is the survival of the fittest for the sake of | 
 those who are not the fittest. It takes into considera- 
 tion the fact of variableness in the matter of competency. . 
 It seeks to help ^Hhe under dog." 
 
 They say to the union men of exceptional and good 
 ability: Quit your fellows, never mind those who are 
 getting down to the bottom or who are nearly there; 
 find a Dayton or Battle Creek heaven for yourselves 
 and get safely in. Organized labour says, on the con- 
 trary, to such men: We know you can do better for 
 yourselves by such recourse, but we plead that we all 
 stand together until the other fellows have also gained 
 their rights. On the whole the spirit of imionism is 
 less selfish than the spirit of this appeal. The so-called 
 welfare employer often says to one class of working men : 
 Leave the conflict, desert your brothers, and save your- 
 selves. On the other hand, organized labour says: Let 
 us stand together and suffer together until all our 
 brethren may gain equal or proportional privileges. 
 Speaking in ideal terms, those are often the two different 
 points of view. 
 
 I believe the Labour Union has taken high moral 
 ground against the seductive plea of the philanthropic 
 shop, even though it has seemed ungrateful, and 
 although some welfare work has been thoroughly well 
 meant and well done. 
 
 There are also many imknown or forgotten facts. 
 Only 60 per cent of the strikes from 1890 to 1900 were 
 by the unions. The unions are the preventers of strikes 
 
134 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 as well as their instigators. Only 3 per cent of strikes 
 are sympathetic. Only IJ per cent are in support of a 
 demand for recognition of the union. 
 
 Many of the union leaders, for greatness of mind and 
 character, have no superiors among business and pro- 
 fessional men. Their '^rehgion of himianity" is a real, 
 even when a partial, divine religion. They have some 
 preachers ordained of God. 
 
 I am aware that in all this we are dealing in an ideal 
 way. Of course organized labour falls short of its ideals, 
 far short, especially in many of its mistaken methods. 
 But how about the past victories of the church! How 
 about her use of force! How far does she lag behind 
 her ideals? We must, I told you, be idealists. Thus 
 only can we interpret this movement to those who are 
 in it. They must be made to see it this way, and that 
 is one of the splendid tasks I set before you. 
 
 We ministers grow tired of men who constantly 
 criticise the church instead of acknowledging and glori- 
 fjdng her ideals, her better self, and trying to bring out 
 her best. Why should we wonder if Labour Union men 
 feel the same towards us? 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose they will not Hsten to reason 
 or criticism. On the whole I think they hear it as well 
 as their employers do. My growing acquaintance with 
 their leaders reveals a splendid ideahsm which those 
 who do not know them do not suspect. And I never 
 spoke severer or more searching words to men in my 
 life than I have spoken to their assemblies. They will 
 receive such words from men who have gained their 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 135 
 
 confidence, but not from others. If we are to gain this 
 great and important body of the most intelligent of our 
 wage-earners, it will not be by beginning with too much 
 hostile criticism of their mistaken means, but by a great 
 ideahstic and open sympathy with their truer aims and 
 ends. 
 
 Whenever any definite occasion arises upon which it 
 is clear to you that they have a just and righteous 
 cause, you should become the open champion of that 
 cause. This does not mean that you are of necessity 
 to take up every point that arises. I am referring to 
 great and important occasions when the course of 
 justice is clear. There are many such opportimities in 
 relation to the labour of children and women, Sunday 
 labour, and other similar matters. The use of the 
 injunction is a critical question. The maintenance of 
 freedom of speech and freedom of the press is another 
 important issue. Arbitration and conciliation is a wise 
 course to urge. 
 
 It is also your duty and right to have and to express 
 your mature conviction regarding the ultimate prin- 
 ciples by which tliis great question is to be solved. I 
 mean on such matters as the general right of wage- 
 earners to unite in their mutual interests, the question 
 of profit sharing, and other similar ways by which you 
 come to believe an ultimate imderstanding may be 
 reached. 
 
 Certain it is that before very long the wage-earners 
 as a body and the trade union will be practically iden- 
 tical. Thus, if organized labour becomes estranged from 
 
136 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 the church, it means the loss of the wage-earner. And 
 if you do not beheve this, use your eyes, when you go 
 to church, even in a community of wage-earners. Where 
 are they? At the Union. How are you to get them? 
 YouVe got to find your way there first. 
 
 Thus the Christian church and the union of labour, 
 in their best motives, and in the will and heart of God, 
 belong together. And "what God hath joined together 
 let no man put asunder." Estrangement between the 
 two means the ultimate degradation and dissolution of 
 both. The Gospel gives the impulse and the aim. The 
 Union furnishes some practical machinery for gaining 
 it. We must bring the two together. 
 
 And to any man, I say it unhesitatingly, I say it 
 solemnly and in the name of God, to any man, be he in 
 the church or out of the church, be he in the union or 
 out of the union, to any man who will seek, in bitterness 
 of spirit, to separate the two, I apply the words of Jesus 
 Christ: "It were better for him that a millstone were 
 hanged about his neck and he were cast into the depths 
 of the sea." 
 
 There is no reason in the world why ministers of the 
 Gospel should be behind such employers as Filene of 
 Boston and the late Mark Hanna, behind legislation, 
 behind the great masses of the people, in expressing 
 open sympathy with the Labour Union in its ends and 
 ideals, and by so doing placing themselves in a position 
 where they may be of influence in guiding its methods. 
 
 But the most important question is how to do it. 
 You will not find an open door. Sad it is that they 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 137 
 
 sometimes speak of men as being "mean as church 
 members." You will find that the union men will 
 regard you with suspicion. They will often be even 
 supercilious toward you. I have been insulted by them 
 more than once. Theu* suspicious attitude towards the 
 Christian church is largely because they feel that it is 
 dominated by the men of what they call "the other 
 side." Then, too, it is also because, as President Faunce 
 put it in his Lyman Beecher lectures, last year, "In all 
 questions affecting industrial or commercial life the 
 church has been strangely silent." Therefore, it will 
 never do for you to take a harsh attitude towards these 
 organizations. You should not even correct them until 
 you have gained their sympathy. You will need to 
 learn the heart and the conscience of these men. You 
 will then find underlying it all a great moral enthusiasm 
 which you are called upon to guide and direct. You 
 will find beneath many imfortunate methods of express- 
 ing them, great ideals. It must be your task to show 
 these men how they may give a better consideration to 
 those ideals and how they may be brought to pass in 
 better ways. 
 
 It will never do for you to take a patronizing or 
 paternal air. You must go to them simply as a brother- 
 man, and you must go to them for they will not come 
 to you. A Ph.D on the end of your name does not 
 induce any awe and veneration. 
 
 You must become again an opportunist. You should 
 first of all attend some of their meetings and conventions 
 in the Central Labour Union, and in the national gather- 
 
138 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 ings, where you will find yourself in company with many 
 splendid men. Whenever they raise a great issue that 
 you can endorse you must openly endorse it. 
 
 Space forbids an attempt to mention the many par- 
 ticular ways in which you may get access to the situa- 
 tion. You should cultivate an intimate acquaintance 
 with wage-earners, so as to know about them and their 
 life. Talk with them frequently. Wlienever you find 
 cases of misunderstanding, be the means of explaining 
 them on both sides. ^Bring these problems into your 
 preaching. Do it in such a way as to unite both parties 
 to the issue in a spirit of sympathy. Remember these 
 men in your public prayers, that God may guide them 
 in the course of justice and wisdom. Cultivate union 
 men and get them associated with your church. 
 
 I must tell you frankly that you will find other forces 
 arrayed against you in your effort to get hold of these 
 masses of men. You will find them, in the very nature 
 of the case, utilitarian in their very idealism. The 
 saloons and the brewery concerns are trying to get hold 
 of them, for example, by showing them that the anti- 
 saloon league, if it is successful, will throw many of 
 them out of business. They have their Bartenders' 
 Union bringing its pressure to bear. You will have to 
 be very considerate upon these matters. But they can 
 be won. You can get their confidence. You can get 
 it and get them en masse. I advise you, this year, 
 while students, to get in touch with some of these men 
 and organizations in this city. 
 
 But I must not forget to answer your natural inquiry^ 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 139 
 
 How about their employers? What shall be our atti- 
 tude towards the men in our churches who are to a 
 large extent in controversy with the unions of labour. , 
 It is at this point that you will require both the wisdom 
 of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove. You 
 will need to remember that you must play the part of 
 mediator between the two. 
 
 What then shall you do with the employer who, while 
 on the one hand he gives generously for the support of 
 the Christian church, on the other hand has a very 
 bitter spirit towards this movement of which you must 
 be in a sense a champion? 
 
 You will find many business men who have both rea- 
 sonable and unreasonable grievances against the Labour 
 Union. Here is some man who, in some particular 
 instance, has innocently suffered at their hands. Some 
 particular imion or some particular union man has 
 done them injury which they did not deserve. They 
 have taken this particular instance, or perhaps several 
 such instances, and because of this they are against the 
 whole movement. You must show them that move- 
 ments which on the whole are good are at the same 
 time imperfect. Many union men, and many unions, do 
 things which violate the conscience and the constitution 
 of organized labour as a whole. There are men who are 
 my dearest friends who differ from me in this matter. 
 This is the real test of true friendship. Men need to 
 learn to love one another while, at the same time, they 
 differ in their judgment. They must learn to do it with 
 patience, consideration, and sympathy for each other. 
 
t 
 
 140 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 It is to be remembered that the sheep are not all on 
 one side, nor the goats all on the other. You will find 
 business men who will feel restless because you address 
 the Labour Union meeting, who would not feel at all 
 disturbed if you were to speak before a Board of Trade 
 or a Merchants' Organization. They must be made to 
 see that it is your business to keep in sympathetic rela- 
 tion with both elements. 
 
 First of all, then, regarding the employers, you must 
 get the same moral confidence and personal friendship 
 of these men that you seek from the others. If they 
 love you as their pastor, respect you, believe in you, 
 and have a warm personal allegiance for you, they 
 will bear a great deal from you. They will think you 
 are misguided and very unpractical. They will then 
 attribute your mistake to the fact that you have some 
 enlargement of the heart. They will think that you 
 do not know quite as much as they do about business. 
 Very well, let them think so. Perhaps it is so, some- 
 times. You must be patient with them. They may 
 need to be patient with you. You must learn how to 
 stir their consciences while at the same time you retain 
 their affection and allegiance. 
 
 The average business man needs to see more clearly 
 than he does the difference between the general ideal of 
 organized labour, which is good, and some of its particular 
 methods which are wrong. You ought to teach business 
 men that the thing to do is to guide and direct the 
 union, not to crush it. They need to be told that they 
 do not cultivate a sufficiently sympathetic relation with 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 141 
 
 the men who work for them. Many industrial diffi- 
 culties are caused almost solely by the neglect on the 
 part of employers to keep in personal friendly touch 
 with their men. 
 
 One of the best things to do with this perplexing 
 situation is to find ways to bring the men of both sides 
 together, as I have already reminded you. The min- 
 ister has a splendid chance to be a "mixer," not only 
 that he himself is to get into close touch with all kinds, 
 but he must bring all kinds of men into touch with 
 each other. Above all, employers should be large- 
 visioned enough to see that it is in the interest of their 
 just rights for you to have influence with labour. 
 
 Above all things, try to be fair. Cultivate sympathy 
 with the difficulties and the problems of both of these 
 elements of mankind. Do not abuse business men. 
 Hold up to both of them their truest ideals. You must 
 regard them as workers together, the one with the same 
 right to sell his labour as the other has to buy it, and 
 upon absolutely equal terms, neither owning the other 
 as his lord and master. 
 
 In treating this subject I have sought, first of all, to 
 impress upon you the fact that the minister must be an 
 idealist. This is especially necessary in his considera- 
 tion of industrial organizations. He must be able to 
 discriminate between the higher moral ends sought and 
 the particular immediate means and economic methods 
 by which men seek to gain those ends. If he has suffi- 
 cient clearness of vision to look through the clouds that 
 have gathered in the working out of these problems he 
 
142 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 can see in trade unionism a splendid ideal. His task 
 and duty is to show these great bodies of men this ideal, 
 keep it ever before them as their guiding star, and to 
 show them that they must conform their means and 
 methods to it. 
 
 In the second place I have tried to impress upon you 
 that at the present moment these men are very widely 
 estranged from the Christian church, that they will not 
 come to you, but that you must find access to them. 
 
 Then you are also to remember that your ultimate 
 intent is to bring them and their employers together in 
 mutual sympathy and consideration, not simply to 
 champion their cause. 
 
 So far as the church is concerned it is to be remem- 
 bered that the imion and the wage-earners are becoming 
 more and more identical. Therefore if it should happen 
 that these great bodies of men, as bodies, should be 
 lost to the church it would mean that we should lose 
 the wage-earners as a whole. This would mean serious 
 disaster for both. 
 
 I told you that in its onward march, democracy had 
 passed by the church and had gone ahead. This is 
 especially true with regard to industrialism. The church 
 has looked on all too long. It is also true, as Mr. Ster- 
 ling says, that when the good Samaritan has gone into 
 the synagogue, he has sometimes seen ministering at the 
 altar, the priest and the Levite who passed by on the 
 other side, and some of the highway robbers sitting 
 in the chief seats with the saints. I admit it is a great 
 task to bring these men together with Jesus on the 
 
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 143 
 
 mountain-side, and to get them to kneel down side by 
 side and to pray ^^Our Father." But it is our task 
 and duty. 
 
 During the week my eye caught this editorial in one 
 of the newspapers of the State: "Yale divinity students 
 who listened to the Rev. Dr. Macfarland, of South 
 Norwalk, and still did not regret their choice of the 
 ministry as a profession, must be made of pretty good 
 stuff. He knocked all the professionalism out of it, 
 and, without robbing it of its dignity, clothed it in 
 overalls, and armed it with the implements of labour; 
 and yet while he did this, he emphasized the need of a 
 broader education and a wider knowledge of men. 
 Plainly, he would have extraordinary men for this 
 extraordinary work." 
 
 I need not accept this as an adequate summing up of 
 my message to you, but I do accept the imphed chal- 
 lenge. We do have in the modern ministry '' an extraor- 
 dinary work which calls for extraordinary men," and it 
 is my fond hope that Yale Divinity School may be the 
 leader in sending out men imbued with this spirit, 
 inspired by this ideal, and ready to attempt this splendid 
 task. Men who, as they look out upon the social order, 
 upon the great ocean of democracy with its waves and 
 billows, but also with its splendid wide horizon, are 
 willing to hear the call of the Master to those who have 
 toiled and taken nothing, "Launch out into the deep 
 and let down your nets." 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE WAGE-EARNER 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Edwin B. Robinson 
 
 Mr, Robinson, a graduate of Yale Divinity School in 
 1899, is pastor of Grace Congregational Church ofHolyoke, 
 Massachusetts, located in the manufacturing section of the 
 city, and remarkably successful in adapting itself to its 
 environment and engaging the loyalty of the people to the 
 pastor and the church. 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE WAGE-EARNER 
 
 1 RECALL that after I had been engaged in institu- 
 tional work long enough to count many wage- 
 earners among my close companions and trusted friends, 
 I chanced to visit the class at Amherst College, taught 
 by the late Professor Garman. During the discussion 
 of some point in sociology a senior exclaimed: ^'Pro- 
 fessor Garman, it's all right for us to hear these things, 
 but what would happen if the working people should 
 hear them?" At the close of the period I referred to 
 the incident and offered to arrange for a visit, from 
 any one of a respectable number of my acquaintances 
 among the wage-earners, to whom the problem in ques- 
 tion was an every-day one, and who had read more 
 broadly, and thought more deeply, on the question 
 than any man in that senior class had done or would 
 ever be Ukely to do. 
 
 When the term wage-earner is used you will blunder 
 badly if you draw your picture with lines suggested by 
 the newly arrived Pole, or by the immigrant just here 
 from Russia. The wage-earner may be a man of wide 
 reading and much thought. It often happens that he 
 is very familiar with the writings of some one great 
 author. Again, he may be a musician, whose attain- 
 ment reaches even to the point of creditable composing. 
 Among this class may be found men to whom the forest 
 
 147 
 
148 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 is an open book, and who find the keenest joy in ob- 
 serving, collecting, and studying their treasures. It 
 must not be forgotten that among our wage-earners 
 are men and women doing amateur dramatic work 
 of the highest order. Thousands of them are taking 
 advanced courses in correspondence schools, not to 
 speak of the throngs in the Y. M. C. A. and other night 
 schools. In like manner, thousands of wage-earners 
 are daily studying economic and industrial problems. 
 Were there time I would say something in regard to 
 the unselfish spirit of true brotherhood which has in- 
 spired me, as at times I have seen wage-earners take 
 upon themselves awful burdens to give a square deal 
 to those who are their brothers and sisters in industry. 
 
 I do not contend that all wage-earners are either 
 good or ambitious — some of them, on the contrary, 
 are ignorant, selfish, brutal. With them, as with the 
 rich, some are sottish and bestial. Many are bigoted, 
 conceited, small of vision, lacking in initiative, or tyran- 
 nical in a petty but exceedingly troublesome way. 
 
 After seven years spent in a mill city, with a parish 
 made up largely of wage-earners, I only hope that 
 propitious fortune will always cast my lot among sur- 
 roundings as helpful and stimulating, and where the 
 opportunities for service are as great. 
 
 Of the American working man. Rev. Charles Stelzle 
 says: "He may live in a tenement, but he is the back- 
 bone of this Republic. He is the most highly skilled 
 artisan in the world. The American working man is an 
 independent, free-acting citizen; he hates patronage or 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 149 
 
 paternalism. The American working man is not a law- 
 less revolutionist. He is the champion of little children 
 in his fight against child labour. The American working 
 man is helping to Americanize the immigrant. He is 
 breaking down antagonisms that separate men of differ- 
 ent religious creeds." 
 
 You are learning from Dr. Macfarland how to get 
 hold of organized labour, and it becomes my task to open 
 up the other problem of relating wage-earners directly 
 to the church and its work. I will urge the following 
 reasons why the church simply must have a large 
 wage-earning element both in its membership and in its 
 leadership, if the ideal of Jesus is to be at all attained. 
 
 The wage-earning class is, of course, the most nu- 
 merous class in society. We need in our churches this 
 numerical strength. Revival meetings illustrate the 
 stimulus of crowded churches. 
 
 Working people can be led to render financial aid, 
 which is badly needed by the church. "The great 
 charitable enterprises of the world are maintained by 
 associated poverty." An idea of the muckle in church 
 finance which many mickles might make, is gleaned 
 when one ponders over the enormous sum collected 
 from wage-earners by the great central labour organiza- 
 tions of our land. Large gifts are notoriously unde- 
 pendable, while a reasonably steady income may be 
 counted upon, when a great number of people give 
 regularly, because of intelligent, loving interest. 
 
 The liturgical ability of the wage-earner is well known. 
 In the following words, Beecher praises congregational 
 
150 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 worship: "No splendour of organ music, no skill of 
 solo or quartette, no elaboration of beautiful sounds, 
 rendered by chosen voices, for the dumb listening 
 multitude, can compare with the glorious volume of 
 heartfelt praise from the hearts and lips of a great 
 congregation." This ideal of Beecher's is, among the 
 wage-earners, far more often attained than elsewhere. 
 A familiar story tells how disgusted an Episcopalian was 
 with his guest, who, attending worship with him joined 
 in the creed with but scant skill, constantly lagging 
 behind the rest. At dinner the host exclaimed: "For 
 Heaven's sake, the next time you go to church with 
 me descend into Hades' with the rest of us!" The 
 wage-earners know how to keep step. They "descend 
 into Hades" together, to apply our story. Preaching 
 to them is not like preaching to gravestones, for their 
 enthusiasm and spontaneity are most inspiring. 
 
 We must look to the working class, to a large extent, 
 for office bearers, and for sons to be given to the 
 ministry. In some wealthy churches, the difficulty of 
 obtaining men of wealth to serve as deacons is acute. 
 Manufacturers and capitalists are increasingly shrinking 
 from taking such positions. In one city, when a prom- 
 inent millionnaire was elected to the diaconate of his 
 church, papers far and wide gave so much space to the 
 fact that the recipient of the honour felt obliged to 
 decline it. 
 
 The material for religious education is being found 
 to-day, largely in the homes of wage-earners. Sunday 
 schools of wealthy churches are, all too often, notori- 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 151 
 
 ously small. As a rule, it is the wage-earner who has 
 the large family of children, and it is his boys and girls 
 that are being gathered into schools for religious edu- 
 cation. The scholars in our church summer schools 
 come almost entirely from the homes of working people. 
 In a time when religious education is not generally 
 found, in either the public school or the home, this 
 point deserves careful consideration. 
 
 In order that Christianity may spread, the church 
 must have the aid of this great element of society to 
 act as unordained missionaries, to spread the Gospel 
 while at their daily toil. The mill gives startling oppor- 
 tunities for aggressive Christian work, such as thousands 
 of Christian wage-earners are doing daily. As "the 
 servants of Caesar's household" propagated the Gospel 
 in the early days of Christianity, so are wage-earners 
 doing to-day. 
 
 I must not fail to remind you that in the working 
 people we have those to whom spiritual things most 
 naturally make the strongest appeal. Other things 
 being equal, the church of wage-earners will be the 
 spiritual church. To the working people comes, with 
 pecuhar force, the prophet's assurance: "They that wait 
 for God shall renew their strength." "They shall walk 
 and not faint," means everything to the Christian 
 wage-earner in the eternal walk, the grind and drudge 
 which is so vital a part of much of our industrial life. 
 
 In referring to the church, I speak especially of the 
 socialized type, which reahzes that its mission is to 
 serve, and where opportunity is provided for the exer- 
 
152 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 cise of latent powers. With this qualification in mind, 
 we must ask the question, what special need of the 
 church has the wage-earner? We have already made 
 it plain that he is indispensable to her true life — can 
 she help him? 
 
 The institutional church lifts the tone of all life's 
 activities. I may illustrate from what is a familiar 
 experience in my hfe, — when our dramatic clubs bring 
 their plays to be censored. From long experience I 
 expect that the manager will say something of this 
 sort: "Where it is going to be given under the auspices 
 of the church, don't you think that it would be better 
 to change it so and so?" It is certain that working 
 people need the higher tone which comes into their 
 amusements and recreations the moment that the touch 
 of the church is felt upon them. Even a slight famil- 
 iarity with Saturday night dances, cheap theatres, pool 
 rooms, and the Hke, emphasizes the need of a powerful 
 Christian influence to be exerted for the betterment of 
 the amusements of working people, and the further 
 need that, at least for the present, the church take an 
 active part in supplying clean yet interesting amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 Wage-earners need the opportunities for initiative 
 and the opportunities to do useful work in the world, 
 which the institutional church supplies. 
 
 "Work for the work is better 
 Than what you work to get/' 
 
 is the keynote of Mrs. Browning's "Aurora Leigh," but 
 the lines would bring only bitterness to many as they 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 153 
 
 think of their daily toil. One of the most unfortunate 
 features of our modern industrial system is the fact that 
 thousands upon thousands are doomed to be but cogs 
 in a machine. Year after year, for hordes of people, , ^ 
 there is, in their mill work, no variety, no change. Inl | 
 the sociaHzed church, opportunities to think, to plan, 
 to lead, are innumerable. Many millions are doomed 
 to perform work which is not interesting, and which is 
 frightfully monotonous. For them, the work of the 
 church presents an adventure worthy of all their wit 
 and daring. It is idle to urge that such industrial con- 
 ditions are not ideal. They exist — we must seek a 
 mitigation of the damage which they involve while we 
 pray for a solution of the problem. Among humane 
 conditions of employment President Eliot insists upon 
 "the opportunity to serve generously and proudly the 
 institution with which the labourer is connected." As 
 things are, it is simply impossible, in many cases, for 
 sane men to grow enthusiastic over their work, or 
 vitally interested in it, save for its financial return. 
 To such, the church with its countless doors of oppor- 
 tunity is a priceless boon. 
 
 Wage-earners need the financial and fraternal aid 
 which the church graciously renders. Again and again 
 families have been reduced to actual need, through no 
 fault of their own or of their employers. The church 
 stepped in quietly — it helped, but did not pauperize. 
 The fraternal orders, good as they are, usually say: 
 "Do you belong?'' The church, if it is a true church, 
 says: "Do you need?" 
 
154 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 For any real solution of the industrial problem the 
 working man must have the aid of the church. The 
 Kingdom of God will come in its fulness only with 
 the aid of him who taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom 
 come," and with the aid of the church that bears his 
 name. Lowell has finely said: "Christ was the first true 
 democrat that ever lived." Let me quote this remark 
 by Stelzle: "The success of any of these great reform 
 measures, which are being presented to working men, is 
 dependent upon high and imselfish character. Chris- 
 tianity makes a speciality of the development of this 
 character; that is its chief business." Listen to Wash- 
 ington Gladden: "There can be no adequate social 
 reform, save that which springs from a genuine revival 
 of religion; only it must be a religion which is concerned 
 about fitting men for their proper work on earth." 
 
 "The disease of society," says Dr. Horton, "is the 
 lovelessness of men." God working through his church 
 is sufficient for this staggering task of teaching men to 
 love. We see, then, that the wage-earner needs the 
 church not only for the betterment of his own life, but 
 also for the aid which she can render in bettering indus- 
 trial conditions. The church has done more than has 
 been generally realized to prepare the way for true 
 democracy. It is the church that has preserved Christ 
 to the world, — the Christ whom almost all working men 
 profess to honour, — and it is the church alone that can 
 make man like him. When this task shall have been 
 accompHshed, the industrial problem will be no more. 
 Then will have been realized change in conditions 
 through change in men. 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 155 
 
 I wish there were time to show how the church aids 
 the wage-earner by teaching him hfe's real meaning, 
 and to speak of the help which the chm-ch is rendering 
 the working man by its sturdy fight against the liquor 
 traffic; and of the benefit which the church renders its 
 working people by keeping them from the sourness which 
 spoils the fives of many working people to-day. 
 
 But to advance — in what relation do wage-earners 
 as a whole stand at present to the Christian church? 
 The answer is not easy. Doctors differ widely. If 
 Holyoke, a mill city of mill cities, were taken as a basis 
 for discussion, outside of the socialist group, one would 
 have difficulty in finding any special separation between 
 the working man and the church, for in most of our 
 churches wage-earners are decidedly in the majority, 
 and without the wage-earners almost all of our churches 
 would have to go out of business. It would be fairer to 
 say that a gulf exists between society folk and the 
 church, than between wage-earners and the church. 
 Our great Roman Cathofic churches are overwhelmingly 
 made up of working people. I have never seen any 
 antagonism against church or clergy so bitter that it 
 has not yielded before Christian friendliness. From all 
 that I read and hear I am coming to feel that nationafity 
 counts for a great deal, and that the gulf between the 
 church and the wage-earner yawns wider when one 
 works among those of certain nations who, in their 
 homes across the sea, have been oppressed by a State 
 church. Conditions also vary widely according to the 
 type of pastors and leaders that a church has chanced 
 
156 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 to have in its earlier years. Is it not true that those 
 who are trying at first hand to solve the problem are 
 more hopeful than are those who look at it from the 
 outside, and are not in the thick of the strife? 
 
 Washington Gladden laments: ''The fact must be 
 admitted that the wage-earners of this country are 
 largely outside the churches. This break has been 
 steadily widening, conditions are worse than they were 
 ten years ago." Looking across the sea, we find that 
 Richard Free, in the fascinating book, "Seven Years 
 Hard," although he is a rector in the Established Church, 
 labels one chapter "Christianity a Failure." Its open- 
 ing sentence is "Christianity does not count in the 
 East End (of London)," but after painting a noble 
 picture of what ideal conditions in the East End would 
 be, and after having pointed to the Master as the in- 
 spiration which will transform that dream to reality, 
 he dares to reply to one that says, "It is a noble dream," 
 in these words of optimism: "It will be a nobler real- 
 ity." In Brown's "The Social Message of the Modern 
 Pulpit," we read: "Labouring men do not feel that it 
 is better for them to work for a Christian than for one 
 that denies the obHgations of Christianity. They do 
 not rejoice when they learn that a railway magnate, 
 in whose employ thousands of their numbers stand, is 
 a regular attendant in an Orthodox church." 
 
 On the other hand, Rev. Charles Stelzle says: "Never 
 before in the history of organized labour has there been 
 presented to the church such an opportunity to secure 
 the interest of working men as exists to-day. Whereas, 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 157 
 
 ten years ago, the opposition to the church by working 
 men was most bitter, to-day the spirit is one which will 
 permit the church to do some things which would have 
 been spurned a few years ago. Everywhere thoughtful 
 labour leaders are endeavouring to secure the sympa- 
 thetic interest of the church. I can see no reason why 
 working men should not again rally around the church 
 of Christ, accepting him as their leader and champion." 
 Let me call your attention to some encouraging signs. 
 During the dreadful coal famine. Rev. Daniel Evans, 
 of Cambridge, did much good by going here and there, 
 telling the truth about the strikers, and urging their 
 rights. His action was but a conspicuous example of 
 the practical interest in the working man felt by the 
 vast majority of our younger clergy. Men like Doctors 
 Gladden and Brown are proving their sympathy by 
 castigating modem Pharaohs, and by bringing to the 
 rich, who are willing to learn, visions of worthy service 
 which they can render if they will. It must be ad- 
 mitted, however, that the church lags behind the clergy, 
 and I believe the laymen have food for thought in the 
 following incident. "The country clergyman is the poor 
 man's only friend," wrote a rector's wife to Ruskin. 
 "Alas, I know it too well. What can be said of more 
 deadly and ghastly blame against the clergy than that 
 they are the poor man's only friends? Have they, 
 then, so betrayed their Master's charge and mind in 
 their preaching to the rich, that after 1200 years' in- 
 terpretation of the Gospel to them, there is no man in 
 England who will have mercy on the poor but they?" 
 
158 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 State associations of churches are becoming alive 
 to the problem. Compare, for example, the amount of 
 time given to this problem, in the recent meetings 
 of the Massachusetts Association of Congregational 
 Churches, with the amount of time devoted to any 
 other theme, and the comparison will prove most en- 
 couraging. All over the country chm'ches are coming 
 more and more to use the Sunday nearest Labour Day 
 as a time for attracting great congregations of working 
 men, and as an opportunity for the discussion of some 
 phase of the industrial problem as related to the ethics 
 of Jesus. The Connecticut Conference of Congrega- 
 tional Churches has just requested Rev. Charles S. 
 Macfarland to report to the next state meeting with 
 recommendations concerning the relation of the churches 
 to industrial questions. 
 
 It is pleasing to hear the testimony of the lamented 
 Professor Wyckoff, author of "The Workers," who 
 testified that for months he went constantly to church 
 — and generally to the most fashionable churches — 
 in the garb of a very poor working man, and that he 
 was "never received in any other manner than that of 
 the utmost cordiahty and friendliness." 
 
 That the attitude of Trade Unionists has changed is 
 evident from the fact that for the first time in the twenty- 
 six years of its history the last annual convention (1908) 
 of the American Federation of Labour was opened with 
 prayer, to the evident gratification of its membership, 
 and that on the first Sunday afternoon of the same 
 session a labour mass meeting was addressed by a clergy- 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 159 
 
 man. The speaker, Rev. Charles Stelzle, was intro- 
 duced to the two thousand working men by John 
 Mitchell, who told the audience that the opposition of 
 many working men towards the church was based upon 
 a false idea of the true spirit of the church. At a recent 
 mass meeting in Music Hall, South Norwalk, addressed 
 by Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, under the auspices 
 of the Central Labour Union, the singing included 
 "Nearer My God to Thee," and "Onward, Christian 
 Soldiers." 
 
 I must now suggest what, in my experience, has 
 helped to make a church useful to wage-earners. In 
 the first place, its spirit should be strongly evangelistic. 
 This point should be remembered in connection with 
 all that I shall say. I am convinced that the methods 
 of Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman should be perfectly familiar 
 to any one who essays to do the best type of work among 
 wage-earners. This by no means implies "the old 
 time religion is good enough for me" attitude. It 
 rather means this, that a church to be of the most 
 value to the wage-earner must be tremendously in 
 earnest in the matter of bringing men to definite con- 
 fession of Christ, and into definite service for him. It 
 should be a church where prayer is wont to be made 
 by others as well as by the clergy. It will have a 
 prayer-meeting for men, held on Sunday morning before 
 the regular service, and led by a layman : it will assert 
 the importance of real prayer in the mid-week service, 
 it will have a school of prayer. In a church of this 
 type the Bible must constantly be used as a lifting 
 
160 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 |power. Biblical sermons and lectures are imperative 
 pn the wage-earners' church. The wage-earner likes 
 ^biblical preaching. Though we must not yield to his 
 prejudice for proof texts, we should make an effort to 
 use biblical illustrations whenever we can properly do 
 so. In like manner, the wage-earner likes concrete 
 preaching, and, so long as the preacher shows a kindly 
 spirit and avoids personalities, he can speak with great 
 bluntness. Working men demand virility in the one 
 that would preach to them, and a martial, aggressive, 
 forward note as well. The preacher must be abso- 
 lutely sincere. A soft spot for the rich is fatal — and 
 I might add, for the poor, either. It must never be 
 forgotten that the wage-earner has a heart. In the 
 theatres where the better class of melodrama holds the 
 I boards, the preacher has a fine opportunity to study 
 the proper and the improper emotional appeal. 
 
 There should be variety in the character of the Sunday 
 night service, each Sunday evening having a special 
 programme, and the plans for a considerable number of 
 weeks being announced in advance. It is advisable to 
 call in a large number of speakers from outside to aid 
 in making these services noteworthy. A stereopticon 
 is indispensable. A series of picture services on church 
 history is very helpful; we started with a careful study 
 of the Life of Jesus; then followed the lives of the major 
 Apostles, tracing with care the missionary journeys of 
 Paul. After this we studied, in turn, the age of the 
 Martyrs, the Crusades, the building of the Cathedrals, 
 and afterwards spent some time with the Puritans and 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 161 
 
 the Pilgrims. After this, in the same series, we studied^ 
 the modern work of the church, taking up, on the one 
 side, the recent developments of Foreign Missions, and, 
 on the other, various manifestations of the spirit of 
 social service. Some of the titles we have used, in 
 addition to this course on church history, are as follows : 
 "The Tissot Pictures"; "The Parables of Christ"; "The 
 American Civil War"; "Quo Vadis"; "Ben Hur"; 
 "Lincoln and Washington"; "Evangeline"; "The Sign 
 of the Cross"; "Westminster Abbey"; "Savonarola, 
 The Martyr Monk of Florence"; "The Ancient Religion 
 of the Nile"; "With John Bunyan from the City of 
 Destruction to the City Celestial"; "Pompeii — a 
 Buried City"; " Oberammergau — Its Portrayal of Our 
 Lord's Passion"; "The Brave Huguenots"; "Rome — 
 City of Apostle and Pope"; "Palestine — The Glory of 
 all Lands." 
 
 Dramatics should play a prominent part in the life I 
 of a socialized church. In the preparation of suitable ' 
 plays, young people find a training which is of rare 
 value in many ways. Besides this, the relatives and 
 friends of the members of the cast are brought into the 
 church building, for they will not miss the presentation 
 of a play in which those whom they know well have a 
 part. In general it is well to merely seek for plays that 
 will entertain, though Sylvester Home's church at 
 London, England, has produced a dramatization of 
 "In His Steps." The Biblical dramas arranged by 
 Revs. Harris G. Hale and Newton M. Hall, D.D., may 
 be used to advantage; as was clearly shown in the pro- 
 
162 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 duction of "Joseph and His Brethren/' by students of 
 the American International College. 
 
 Outings are a helpful feature. Trips to neighbouring 
 points of interest, such as mountains, pleasure resorts, 
 colleges, and historic spots should be made at frequent 
 intervals through the summer. Whenever possible, the 
 party should go on a special trolley car, each person 
 paying his share of the expense. 
 
 Every effort should be expended upon developing the 
 musical talent of the young people of one's own church, 
 thus accomplishing a double purpose of bringing to the 
 surface the latent talent and character of the singers, 
 and, at the same time, greatly increasing the drawing 
 power of the services. Wealthy churches are sometimes 
 willing to lend their vested choirs for a Sunday evening 
 each year. Care must, however, be exercised lest one's 
 young people come to feel that their own usefulness is 
 imderestimated. In the institutional church, the object 
 must be to get all the members possible to do all that 
 they can possibly do toward making their church, not 
 a mission church, but rather, a missionary church; 
 where the general spirit is one of service. 
 
 The dining-room of an institutional church should 
 also be used as a gymnasium, when there is no special 
 gymnasium connected with the plant. Sufficient appa- 
 ratus can be purchased for $100, while the instruc- 
 tion is not a source of expense, as teachers may 
 readily be found from among the ranks of young 
 college graduates or advanced students in Y. M. C. A. 
 gymnasiums. 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 163 
 
 In the newspaper the institutional worker has a strong 
 ally. Wage-earners are famous devourers of newspapers 
 and, for better or for worse, a newspaper is apt to have 
 for them, authority. A pastor should mould public 
 opinion by frequent contributions to the papers con- 
 cerning moral issues. In a city of moderate size, these 
 contributions will often be used in the same unsigned 
 way as articles written by members of the staff. Often 
 the attitude of a paper toward a reform issue, of vital 
 concern to the wage-earner, depends largely upon the 
 attitude taken by the ministers interested in the reform 
 toward the editor and reporters of the paper in question. 
 No interesting item concerning the work of an institu- 
 tional church should fail to reach the city editor promptly 
 and presented in the proper form. If it is "headed'' 
 in what, through observation, one has learned is the 
 type of "headers" that the paper in question likes; and 
 if the story is not padded, very likely it will be sent at 
 once to the hnotype. Copy should be sent in for use 
 on the nights when the paper in question carries the 
 fewest advertisements, and so can the better welcome 
 the copy. When a sermon of wide public interest is 
 preached, a brief abstract should be sent at once to the 
 city editor. The pastor of a working people's churcli 
 should subscribe to the official organ of the Central 
 Labour Union, and should contribute to it as time will 
 allow. Institutional work appeals to most editors, and 
 they like to have handed to them photographs illus- 
 trating unusual features, from which cuts can be made. 
 Church news is news of the first magnitude — the plans 
 
164 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 and work of a church can never be so holy that proper 
 publicity will degrade them. 
 
 While the church is eager to aid in making true Amer- 
 icans, it is desirous that the adopted American citizen 
 should retain the good in his own national heritage. It 
 is best that those of each nationality should be at least 
 somewhat familiar with the religious heritage of those 
 of every other nationality largely represented in our 
 population. It is well, for example, to hold a service 
 to which all the English orders in the city are invited, 
 the sermon being possibly on ^'England's Contribution 
 to the World's Religious Life.'' A similar Scotch service 
 might lead a pastor to preach on ''Knox, Livingstone, 
 Drummond — Scotch Ambassadors of Christ." In a 
 cosmopolitan parish it would be well to have a German 
 night, Luther's life being made vivid by the aid of pic- 
 tures. In such a parish there should be, some evening, 
 a lecture on Dante; if possible, by such an interpreter 
 as Dr. Charles A. Dinsmore, and at that service it would 
 be well to have an Italian musician aid with the music. 
 Where there are a large number of Hebrews in the 
 vicinity of a church, it would be advisable to have a 
 Jew for the orator on the Sunday evening nearest the 
 Fourth of July, and his theme might well be ''An 
 Adopted Citizen's Love for Old Glory." In ways like 
 these, the love and respect of adopted citizens can be 
 gained for the church in the new land, while, at the 
 same time, we inculcate the spirit of brotherhood and 
 teach respect for the heritage and achievements of 
 those of all nations. An English Tea Party; a German 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 165 
 
 Supper, and a Scotch Soiree should be on the programme 
 of social events in a parish made up of people from 
 many lands. 
 
 If a minister is to do successful work among wage-, 
 earners, he must be willing to speak at mill meetings, 
 and at out-of-door services held in the parks during the 
 summer. In ways like these the toilers come to feel an 
 interest in him and in his message, with the almost 
 certain result that if he makes good they will, sooner 
 or later, visit his church. 
 
 No pastor of a wage-earner's church should be im- 
 familiar with the following vote passed by the American 
 Federation of Labour: 
 
 "Resolved: that the American Federation of Labour 
 recommends that all affiliated state and central bodies 
 exchange fraternal delegates with the various state and 
 city ministerial associations, wherever practicable, thus 
 assuring a better understanding on the part of the 
 church and the clergy, of the aims and objects of the 
 Labour Union movement in America." 
 
 When there is a college within a radius of a dozen 
 miles, the aid of its students should be invoked to assist 
 in making successful the institutional features. Work 
 of this sort not only enables a church to broaden the 
 range of its activities, but also enables the students to 
 keep their balance, and to retain contact with real 
 life. Members of the faculty can also aid by giving 
 occasional lectures before various clubs and classes. 
 
 At the start, in a conservative community, three 
 stock objections will be urged against the methods 
 
166 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 which I have mentioned. Some man will urge: "It 
 will not do to have the chm*ch open every night. We 
 cannot meet the expense; we shall need a policeman; 
 all our furniture will be destroyed." Experience proves 
 that the bills for fuel and light are not surprisingly 
 large, that property is not destroyed to any serious 
 extent, and that, on the other hand, after such methods 
 are adopted, the revenue of a church increases mate- 
 rially. Most people appreciate the spirit of service 
 displayed by an institutional church. Another objector 
 will urge: "It is not right to have anything but worship 
 in a church building." Here the "baked bean" proves 
 our salvation. "How about suppers?" we reply. 
 About the only answer that can be made to this ques- 
 tion is, "Well, all churches have them." Another will 
 urge: "If we only had a parish house, it would be all 
 right to use these methods, but it is certainly wrong to 
 use the basement of a church building as a gymnasium 
 or as a theatre." Our reply will be: "Stop fooling with 
 God's business. What difference is there between 
 having your parish house beside the auditorium or 
 beneath it? The greatest difference is, that, in the 
 latter case, you avoid wasting money sorely needed 
 for the extension of the Kingdom." The true institu- 
 tional church goes to extremes in teaching reverence 
 for its auditorium. In one institutional church there 
 has been placed on the wall a Worship Tablet bearing 
 the following inscription : 
 
 ON YOUR WAY TO THE LORD's HOUSE 
 BE THOUGHTFUL, BE SILENT; OR SAY 
 
THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 167 
 
 BUT LITTLE, AND THAT LITTLE GOOD. 
 
 SPEAK NOT OF OTHER MEN's FAULTS — 
 
 THINK OF YOUR OWN — FOR YOU ARE GOING TO ASK 
 
 FORGIVENESS. 
 
 WHEN YOU REACH THE CHURCH NEVER STAY 
 
 outside; go in at once, time spent WITHIN 
 
 IS exceeding precious. 
 
 IN CHURCH, BOW DOWN AT ONCE, VERY HUMBLY, 
 AND PRAY. SPEND THE TIME THAT REMAINS IN 
 HOLY THOUGHT. 
 
 IN PRAYER, REMEMBER THE PRESENCE INTO 
 WHICH YOU HAVE COME ! NEVER LOOK ABOUT 
 YOU TO SEE WHO ARE COMING IN, OR FOR ANY 
 CAUSE WHATEVER. IT MATTERS NOTHING TO YOU 
 WHAT OTHERS MAY BE DOING; ATTEND TO YOURSELF; 
 FASTEN YOUR THOUGHTS FIRMLY ON THE HOLY SER- 
 VICE ; MISS NOT ONE WORD. THIS NEEDS A SEVERE 
 STRUGGLE, SO YOU HAVE NO TIME FOR VAIN THINGS. 
 THE BLESSED SPIRIT WILL STRENGTHEN YOU IF 
 YOU PERSEVERE. 
 
 DO NOT COVER YOUR HEAD UNTIL YOU ARE OUTSIDE 
 — THE CHURCH IS GOD's HOUSE, EVEN WHEN 
 PRAYER IS OVER. 
 
 ON YOUR WAY HOME, BE CAREFUL OF YOUR TALK; 
 THE WORLD WILL TOO SOON SLIP BACK INTO YOUB 
 MIND. 
 
 LOVE PRAYER AND PRAISE BEST; PREACHING IS 
 BUT THE HELP TO THAT HEAVENLY WORK. 
 
 Sometimes still another objection is raised to these 
 methods. "Is not," they question, "the institutional 
 church a worldly, unspiritual church?" I will recall to 
 you Washington Gladden's comment on this objection : 
 "Is it true that the reUgious life of the churches adopt- 
 ing these measures has been weakened? The testimony 
 
168 THE CHURCH AND WAGE-EARNERS 
 
 seems to be clear that such is not the case. The preach- 
 ing of most of these pulpits is said to be exceptionally 
 fruitful in the presentation of spiritual truths; the 
 percentage of additions to these churches by conversion 
 is far larger than is the average in the other churches 
 in the country." The church must come to realize 
 that Christ came to redeem the entire personality. He 
 abolished the distinction between the sacred and the 
 secular. The sanctification of all life is the great busi- 
 ness of the church. 
 
 Contact with aggressive Christians which comes about 
 through the use of these methods, results inevitably in 
 constant additions to church membership, and also by 
 contagion, produces a splendid corps of church workers. 
 "Character is more effectively moulded by frequent 
 \ touches/' 
 
THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE MISSION OF 
 THE CHURCH AND THE MINISTRY 
 AMONG NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING 
 PEOPLE 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Ozora S. Davis, D.D, 
 
 President Davis was until recently the pastor of the 
 South Congregational Church, of New Britain, Connecti- 
 cut, and the director of its comprehensive work among 
 the large foreign-bom population of the city. 
 
THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE MISSION OF THE 
 CHURCH AND THE MINISTRY AMONG NON- 
 ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE. 
 
 THE Christian churches of America are facing a 
 unique opportunity and privilege in the work 
 of giving adequate religious care to the immigrant 
 population which is seeking a home in the United 
 States. It is better to consider this in the light of an 
 opportunity rather than to discuss it as a problem. 
 
 The purpose of these lectures is to outhne the ex- 
 tent of the opportunity and to offer certain sugges- 
 tions as to the way in which it may be met by the 
 minister and the church. 
 
 The popular interest in the svibjed is remarkable. — 
 Our churches and people have been growing keenly 
 interested in it during the past three years. There 
 is an element of romance and of the heroic and novel 
 thrown about it all. It offers a pleasant relief from the 
 routine of the ordinary appeals made in our churches. 
 This is encouraging, since it shows that the church 
 is loyal to the claims of the kingdom of Christ in all 
 its relationships. It gives a basis upon which a min- 
 ister can build as he strives to lead his church into 
 new lines of service. 
 
 When we come to explore the depth of this inter- 
 
 171 
 
172 
 
 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 est; however, we discover that when it is brought 
 squarely up to the stern demand of service it has a 
 tendency to wane quickly. It is too academic and 
 emotional. The difficulty lies in the seriousness of 
 the work which is to be done. No passing sentiment 
 is sufficient warrant for the business in hand, when the 
 Protestant church sets itself to the religious care of the 
 foreign-speaking people. Ministers must recognize 
 both the worth and the worthlessness of the present 
 interest in the foreigner. 
 
 There are new factors in the immigration of to-day. — 
 There has come a somewhat radical change over the 
 character of recent immigration and the work before 
 the churches is greatly changed if it is not essentially 
 modified. This is shown by a slight study of the rec- 
 ords of the ports of entry. Let us take the records of 
 four of these as they have to do with the source of 
 recent immigration. 
 
 Port 
 
 Per cent from N. W. 
 Europe 
 
 Per cent from S. E . 
 Europe 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 45 
 
 20 
 
 70 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 99 
 
 Boston 
 
 49 
 
 New York 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 A still more instructive study of conditions may be 
 made by taking a map of continental Europe and 
 drawing a line from Genoa to St. Petersburg. Such 
 a line passes near the boundaries of Austro-Hungary, 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 173 
 
 Germany, and Russia, and divides the land mass of 
 the continent into two sections which we may desig- 
 nate northwestern and southeastern Europe. 
 
 In the year 1906 there came to us from northwestern 
 Europe only twenty [and one half] per cent of the im- 
 migration of the year; while from southeastern Europe 
 came seventy-one [and a little over a half] per cent. 
 Other countries gave us less than eight per cent of the 
 total influx. It takes but a very superficial glance to 
 show how very significant is this change in the sources 
 of immigration supply. In the northwestern section 
 of Europe lies the home of the Scandinavian and the 
 Teutonic races. Here is the ancient fatherland back 
 to which the great majority of the modern Americans 
 trace their origin. Here is the home of those political 
 ideals and peculiar moral sanctions which have been 
 wrought into our political institutions. Here, too, is 
 the home of the religious systems that grew out of the 
 Reformation and have survived with the greatest vigour 
 and effectiveness. 
 
 On the other hand, when we turn to the countries 
 that lie in the southeastern section we find that we are 
 in a strange atmosphere. Here are the difficult lan- 
 guages whose mastery by us is well-nigh impossible. 
 Here are the despotic governments and the surviving 
 institutions of the middle age. At the very outset 
 we are betrayed into the tendency to misjudge the 
 people who live here. The attitude of contempt and 
 scorn is evoked by their strange ways, and before we 
 know it we join in with those who speak fluently of 
 
174 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 the "offscourings of Europe" being dumped upon us 
 by every incoming ocean liner. 
 
 Give me a moment at this point, therefore, to speak 
 a few words of solemn warning against allowing our- 
 selves to make this mistake. These people are not all 
 alike. Their strangeness does not carry with it the 
 sure conclusion that they bring no strength with them 
 when they brave an ocean voyage, — hard enough yet 
 in the steerage of a great steamer, any one knows who 
 has crossed with them, — and take up life in a new land. 
 
 If the meaning of the past, and if the lesson of a 
 wider culture has anything to say to us, at such a time 
 as this, there is need for a suspended judgment and a 
 kindlier temper. Some of these men are the represen- 
 tatives of races that boasted a civilization when our 
 ancestors had passed scarcely out of barbarism. They 
 may be backward and belated now; but they bring us 
 gifts and we can do them good. It is more important 
 to know that we can give them something than it is 
 to know that they can give something to us; but we 
 must not lose sight of the fact that these men and 
 women are an economic and a social asset to us, as a 
 people, as they throng the so-called "pens" at Ellis 
 Island. The Christian attitude toward them is never 
 that of contempt or scorn. The truth is that human 
 beings are all very much alike in the fundamentals of 
 their common life and being. Love and hope and 
 yearning are not the possession of any race or class of 
 men. The immigrant is a brother man and not an 
 alien to the common life of all. 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 175 
 
 The time has come for the church to begin to do with 
 some measure of statesmanship and devotion the great 
 patriotic work to which she is called, and to recognize 
 the fact that she holds the key to the future through 
 her command of the religious motive which determines 
 the relation of man to his total environment. 
 
 We are repeatedly asked the question, whenever we 
 appeal for adequate care of the immigrants on the part 
 of the American churches: Are not these people already 
 Christians? Why should we disturb them with the 
 preaching of a doctrine which has been made offensive 
 to them? Is not this a call to become mere partisan 
 proselyters? 
 
 These questions are asked by earnest members of 
 our Protestant churches. They do not spring out of 
 any seeking for excuses whereby stern service may be 
 avoided. They are the natural expression of an age 
 that has grown kindly and tolerant and seeks to give 
 to every man the liberty which it claims for every 
 man. 
 
 No Protestant doubts for one moment that there is 
 eternal truth beneath the creeds and the institutions 
 of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches. In these 
 churches a great number of men and women have 
 found genuine religious life. All this we understand 
 very clearly. On the other hand, there is no man who 
 knows all the facts fully, and is true to the conclusions 
 to be drawn from those facts, who does not know 
 beyond any doubt whatever, that, to the vast majority 
 of the baptized and confirmed members of these 
 
176 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 churches, the essential meaning of the Gospel of Christ 
 and of the Christian religion, as we understand them 
 historically, is not known or experienced. This is not 
 a harsh or censorious judgment. When the conception 
 of religion in which men and women have grown up is 
 essentially ecclesiastical and sacerdotal, it is impossible 
 that the teaching or the work of Jesus should assume a 
 central position in the thought or the life of the mem- 
 bers of such a church. 
 
 The great mission of the church and of the individual 
 Christian is to preach and to bear witness to the gospel 
 among those who do not know it. So began the preach- 
 ing and the witnessing of the apostolic church and so 
 must the modern church continue. If men and women 
 who bear the Christian name do not know what the 
 Christian gospel essentially is, then to them must it 
 be preached. 
 
 Proselyting, as an attempt to disturb those who 
 find true religious life in the church of their childhood, 
 no Christian man will undertake. If through the preach- 
 ing of the gospel there comes such a disturbance, we 
 cannot avoid it and we must not shrink from it. Work 
 among immigrants for the mere purpose of making 
 perverts from a venerable church order no Christian 
 man will do. Our purpose must be to preach the gos- 
 pel as we understand it, which is the good news of a 
 new life made possible to the soul through faith in the 
 Redeemer. To hear that gospel will injure no man in 
 whatever church order he may be. Any person who 
 does not know it ought to hear it, irrespective of the 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 177 
 
 church which he may claim as the mother of his 
 soul. 
 
 We must revive the conception of Paul as he gave 
 it in his first letter to the Corinthians: Christ sent me 
 to p-each the gospel and not to give names or create par- 
 ties. If we make the matter of evangelization first and 
 are utterly loyal to it, the matter of proselyting will 
 take care of itself. The better citizen will be made 
 when, through the transforming power of the gospel, 
 the new man is created to good works in Christ Jesus. 
 We can respect our work and ourselves only as we 
 approach the problem in this positive way. 
 
 Miich preparatory work is necessary in undertaking 
 this service. — It is a mistake to rush into this work 
 before the field has been studied and the sentiment of 
 the church in regard to it has been cultivated and 
 appreciated. Therefore the first task is that of sur- 
 veying the field. In beginning work for foreigners, 
 the first task of the pastor is to learn fully the condi- 
 tions of the field. He must know how many people he 
 has to deal with, what races they represent, and what 
 possible point of contact there is between him and them. 
 
 Interest and readiness for service within the church 
 itself must also he induced. — The second work which 
 must be done before the ordinary church will defi- 
 nitely engage in religious work for immigrants is to 
 evoke a genuine interest in them on the part of the 
 members of the church itself. There is no masking the 
 fact that there is such indifference broad spread among 
 the people. A romantic interest is indeed to be found 
 
178 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 and we may well be glad that this is so, but so deep or 
 so well informed an interest as warrants a pastor in 
 launching his work for these people will very rarely 
 be had without long and patient preUminary train- 
 ing. 
 
 More harm than good may be done by endeavouring 
 to do this work before the church itself is ready to fol- 
 low the pastor in it. If we launch so serious a piece of 
 work as a mission to immigrants, either outside the 
 church or within it, we must remember that it is bound 
 to be a long, difficult service and that it will call for 
 all the reserves of our patience and practical support. 
 When we recognize this great fact, we shall see that 
 unless we can count on the majority of the soUd mem- 
 bers of the church behind us, we shall hardly be war- 
 ranted in beginning this service. 
 
 Therefore, a campaign of education must awaken in- 
 terest in the religious care of the immigrant. — It must 
 begin with the pastor himself. It is obvious that his 
 interest and earnestness is the first point in order of 
 importance. There are cases in which it is not the 
 pastor, — the more is the pity! — but a layman, who 
 has borne in upon him the sense of responsibility for 
 this work. 
 
 There is only one way in which to gain an interest 
 in the problem and the opportunity. It comes back 
 at last to the meaning of the gospel and the grip that 
 it has won upon us personally. If the commandment 
 of Jesus is valid and if the gospel is necessary to the 
 life of every man, then there can be no question about 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 179 
 
 the concern that the minister will feel for the foreign- 
 born people of his parish. The only way in which the 
 minister is to gain the desire to do this work, in case it 
 does not appeal to him naturally, is to make serious 
 search of his own heart as to how fully he does really 
 beheve the gospel and how much he is willing to do for 
 its extension to every person who has not received it 
 in its purity and power. 
 
 The pulpit must have a large place in this campaign of 
 education. — One of the ways in which to begin to 
 awaken interest in the work is to plan certain sermons 
 that will direct the thinking of the people toward the 
 truth underlying the appeal for support which the 
 pastor intends to make. Begin with one or two Home 
 Missionary sermons. 
 
 Material is now easy to be had through the publica- 
 tions of the different missionary societies. 
 
 Points of contact must next he made. — Having sur- 
 veyed the field and found out the thing to be done, 
 and having worked up enough interest in the church 
 to warrant procedure, the minister will now look for 
 the points of contact through which he may begin his 
 missionary endeavour. 
 
 In some cases it may be that he can begin with one 
 or more children who may have come into the Sunday 
 school, through whom he can gain acquaintance with 
 parents and estabhsh the personal connection. Always 
 keep in mind the value of the children of foreigners as 
 the agents through whom to work for adults. 
 
 The school for learning English may he the first insti- 
 
180 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 tution. — In general it will be the school which will 
 make its immediate appeal to the younger and most 
 promising among the immigrants. There are none of 
 them really ambitious who do not recognize the fact 
 that only by learning EngUsh can they hope for ad- 
 vancement in their commercial hfe. Promotion in the 
 factory and everywhere depends upon their mastery of 
 the English language. So they are ready to respond to 
 the invitation to attend a school to learn English. In 
 many cases the first problem in developing the mission 
 will be the equipment and support of a school to teach 
 English. Therefore I now take up a line of practical 
 suggestions for the organization of a school. 
 
 The grading of the school is important. — If a layman 
 is ready to undertake the supervision the pastor will be 
 relieved of it, although he can keep his hand on the 
 general work of the school. 
 
 Call the school together and make grades according to 
 simple language tests. The classes can be changed if 
 necessary, but I have found that there is considerable 
 group-consciousness in the classes, and that it is well 
 to keep them together as much as possible. The prob- 
 lem of sensitive feelings looms large in the conduct of 
 the church school. Indeed this is in many ways the 
 heart of the difficulty. It is not easy to know how to 
 get on with the feelings of these people, and it is diffi- 
 cult to understand one another. 
 
 The problem of teachers comes next. — In a school such 
 as must be organized in a church or mission hall, per- 
 sonal relationship between teacher and pupil is most 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 181 
 
 important. The instruction to be given will be of the 
 most elementary character, and therefore special train- 
 ing in methods is not necessary. Young people from 
 the Christian Endeavour societies are adapted to this 
 work, even if they are not quaUfied to teach in the pub- 
 lic schools. Classes should be small. The difficulty of 
 discipline is almost entirely removed, for those who 
 come to the school are there because of earnest desire 
 to learn, and they do not vex the teacher by disorderly 
 conduct as a rule. In our young people's societies 
 there is an abundance of material for the work of teach- 
 ing, and the minister will have no great difficulty in 
 securing an adequate teaching force. By calHng for 
 volunteers, and presenting the opportunity for service 
 which the school opens, the pastor will probably be 
 gratified at the response of his young people. He 
 must use judgment in assigning the different teachers 
 to their classes. His own practical wisdom will show 
 him what to do in this regard. 
 
 There is, perhaps, a sense of reluctance sometimes, to 
 trust girls of seventeen and eighteen to this work of 
 teaching groups of foreign-speaking men. So far as I 
 have known the practical results of this work, I never 
 have discovered a case of disrespectful treatment or 
 of the least presumption on the part of foreign-speaking 
 men toward their teachers. They have held them in 
 the highest personal respect, and have been gentlemen 
 in every instance. I do not think there is any well 
 grounded reason for hesitation in entrusting, under the 
 wise guidance of the superintendent, the work of teach- 
 
182 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 ing in the church school to girls of seventeen and eigh- 
 teen years of age or over. 
 
 Text-hooks should he carefully selected. — Adequate 
 literature is not yet at hand. However, there are cer- 
 tain text-books to which I shall call your attention and 
 which you will find useful in your work.^ 
 
 Various other lines of service may now he undertaken. 
 — As we come to close quarters with the great work to 
 be done, we are aware that there is no single line of 
 service through which the opportunity can be success- 
 fully met. The following are all necessary and profit- 
 able agencies through which the work must be done: 
 
 I. The mission under the control of the State Mis- 
 sionary Society or the City Mission. With this the 
 individual pastor has only indirect connection and we 
 shall not need to speak at any length concerning it. 
 
 II. The mission under the control of the church, but 
 with its paid missionary staff and meeting in its own 
 hall or in the church. 
 
 With this the connection of the pastor is much closer, 
 although the presence of the paid workers relieves him 
 of much personal care and anxiety as to the success of 
 the work. 
 
 III. The individual church imdertaking service for 
 
 * The following were shown and commented upon: 
 "English-Italian Language Book." 
 
 Howard's "American History, Government, and Institutions." 
 " First Book in Language for Foreigners." 
 System of the Young Men's Christian Association designed by 
 Secretary Peter Roberts. 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 183 
 
 the religious care of the immigrant in its own building 
 and by the aid of its own workers. 
 
 It is here that the responsibility of the pastor becomes 
 greatest. 
 
 Work hy the individual church is the key to the prob- 
 lem. — While all these lines of work are necessary, it 
 seems to me that the key to the whole situation is the 
 individual church undertaking work in its own build- 
 ing and by the means of its own workers. I venture to 
 ask you to consider the following reasons for this judg- 
 ment: 1. We have buildings ready for use. 2. We have 
 workers adequate to the service. 3. We have methods 
 suited to the work. 4. All this can be done without 
 impairing the work that the churches are now doing. 
 
 Organizing the mission is next in order. — All educa- 
 tional and social activities are simply preparatory to 
 the equipment of the distinct mission for foreign-speak- 
 ing people where the gospel shall be preached and 
 there shall be a definite aim at conversion and training 
 in the Christian life. The final purpose of all our activ- 
 ities is this: to bring these people into personal rela- 
 tionship with Christ the Saviour of the world. 
 
 The scope and function of the mission need to be care- 
 fully considered. — As soon as there is awakened a gen- 
 uine and permanent interest in the work which will 
 seem to warrant support, it will be necessary to define 
 the function of the mission. This must be a different 
 matter from the preaching station or the Sunday school 
 in the outskirts or the slums of village or city. We 
 know just how to go about the establishment of such 
 
184 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 an endeavour. There is enough experience behind us 
 in this sort of work to point the way even to a novice. 
 So, too, if it were to be the work of a rescue mission 
 we would know how to proceed. For years our 
 churches have been engaged in such enterprises and 
 they know what to do. 
 
 We can appeal to no such body of practical experi- 
 ence for a mission to immigrants. The whole work is 
 still in the stage of experiment. Shall we seek first of 
 all to preach and teach the gospel as we understand it? 
 Or shall we begin with instruction of a more secular 
 character, trusting thereby to win the confidence of 
 the people and endeavouring later to bring them face 
 to face with the claim of the gospel? How large an 
 element of training in the ideals of American citizen- 
 ship shall we introduce into our work? All these are 
 questions that we must seek to answer before we are 
 ready to proceed with the work. 
 
 Let us not, however, think that we must have clear 
 light on them all before we begin. This kind of work 
 is so much a matter of experiment that the best way 
 to work out the problem in any field is to gain a fair 
 measure of certainty on the points that I have men- 
 tioned and then proceed, knowing that the definition 
 of methods will come as the work progresses. It is 
 better to do something even if it is not done in the best 
 way, than to let the opportunity slip past and do 
 nothing at all. 
 
 So the way to begin is to begin. Do something and 
 let the successes and the failures of the work point out 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 185 
 
 the best methods and teach the lessons that can be 
 learned only in the school of experience. 
 
 1. A mission on the conventional lines of a preach- 
 ing place and a Sunday school will not meet the de- 
 mands of this peculiar work. To hire a hall or to give 
 up a room in the church to the mission and then to use 
 only the general methods which we have found suc- 
 cessful in work for English-speaking people will not 
 at all answer. 
 
 It is very likely that there will be necessary the intro- 
 duction of some sort of club features with sick benefit 
 elements. This must be worked with exceeding care 
 in order that there may be no stigma of financial mo- 
 tives or of graft connected with the work of the mis- 
 sion. 
 
 There might be some sort of a clearing-house for the 
 securing of work for the members of the mission; yet 
 here also the greatest care must be exercised in order 
 that there may not be a seeking of the mission too 
 much on the ground of the loaves and the fishes. 
 
 2. I feel very strongly that there must be at the heart 
 of the mission, as its one creative and organizing prin- 
 ciple, the steadfast desire to preach the gospel and to 
 train the members in the practical life that the gospel 
 inspires. 
 
 I have but very scant sympathy with the general 
 and all-round "settlement" idea as calling for the time 
 or the service of the church. I have no criticism of 
 the settlements and esteem them very highly in love 
 for their work's sake; but the settlement method is 
 
186 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 not the one that I bring to you as the necessary method 
 in dealing with this problem. Our desire is to preach 
 the gospel. I would use all the institutional features 
 that have commended themselves to the best workers 
 everywhere, so long as there is kept perfectly clear and 
 definite the one purpose to preach the gospel and to 
 bring men to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. I cannot 
 make this point too strong as the one central element 
 in the mission for the religious care of the immigrant. 
 The advocate of the institutional work and of the settle- 
 ment may say that the religious factor is the one that 
 he does not wish to bring to the fore and he has perfect 
 right to this opinion; but with the church the religious 
 purpose is perfectly defined and there is not the shadow 
 of a doubt concerning the fact that it is legitimate and 
 that it is vitally necessary to the work that the church 
 has to do. 
 
 So I would not for one moment undervalue or obscure 
 the function of the mission. It is designed for the 
 conversion of men and women to Christ, and this is 
 the only purpose that will warrant the minister in 
 appealing for it or the church in supporting it. 
 
 The leader of the mission should he carefully sought. — 
 If the first great problem in beginning work for immi- 
 grants is to create and maintain interest in the work 
 on the part of the church itself, the second problem 
 surely is concerned with the leader. To find an ade- 
 quately trained man, who shall be strong enough to 
 command the respect of his fellow countrymen, and 
 humble enough to be directed somewhat in his endeav- 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 187 
 
 our, — to secure character and common sense and 
 consecration and culture, — this is the hardest item 
 in the entire proposition. 
 
 It is interesting to notice how exacting the most 
 ignorant man or woman may be on the point of the 
 intellectual capacity of their religious leaders. They 
 have been trained in the belief that the priest knows 
 everything and they demand that their minister or 
 missionary shall know ever3rthing. They themselves 
 may know very little; they may not even know enough 
 to know whether their leader knows much or not; but 
 they know that they want to know that he knows 
 everything. They are very hard to suit. It is some- 
 times easier to fill a ten-thousand-dollar pulpit than it 
 is to suit a httle group of foreign-speaking evangelicals. 
 
 Gathering the congregation comes n£xt. — It is not an 
 easy task to gather a permanent congregation of for- 
 eign-speaking people. In the first place they are fear- 
 ful of the church. They have been taught that this is 
 a place of spiritual danger, and that they must not 
 enter it. They do not understand our purpose. They 
 are suspicious of us. This is an underlying character- 
 istic with which we must always reckon. Sometimes 
 I think that a large part of our work is simply overcom- 
 ing suspicion and disarming prejudice. Congregations 
 of foreign-speaking men are subject to variation and 
 shift. They are irresponsible. They come when they 
 happen to. They will promise glibly to be present and 
 will not appear. They will come in a shoal and then 
 they will drop off suddenly. The influence of the 
 
188 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 priests will be felt and the congregation will dwindle 
 and then will come back. All these things must be 
 reckoned with, and we must not be discouraged at the 
 variation and the irresponsible character of the people. 
 I believe it is possible to use the stereopticon with great 
 effect, especially among the Itahans. 
 
 Make the place of meeting attractive. — One of the 
 most near-sighted policies of our American churches 
 in attempting this work is displayed in the furnishing 
 of mission halls and church rooms. Even the peas- 
 antry of southern and eastern Europe come from towns 
 and cities in which are great churches with marble 
 decorations and furnishings of precious metals, and it 
 is almost impossible for them to understand how we 
 can have religion without symbolism. To them indeed 
 the symbol has become an essential rather than an acces- 
 sory religious object, and we must lead them to under- 
 stand the purity of spiritual worship. On the other 
 hand, we cannot expect them to be satisfied with no 
 symbols by which appeal may be made to their relig- 
 ious emotion. A few pictures and the cross are almost 
 invaluable in furnishing the place for the meeting of 
 the mission. We shall not be yielding any essential 
 point to ceremonial and ritual if we give to these people 
 a few simple symbols which will minister to their high- 
 est life. 
 
 Utilize the church festival and national days. — Our 
 recent immigrants come from countries in which almost 
 every village has its patron saint. The saint's day is 
 observed as a holiday, with its processions and its 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 189 
 
 festivals and its curious combination of a country fair, 
 a patriotic festivity, and a religious ceremonial. To 
 shift from these conditions to our bleak American ways 
 of observing special seasons and days in church life is 
 a wrench to the immigrant. It is time for us to reckon 
 with this condition and make all we can of Christmas 
 and Easter and the greater feast days of the church. 
 Also it is possible to make note of the national anni- 
 versaries of these people and observe, for instance, 
 with the Italians, the 20th of September, and make 
 the day count for the good of the mission, as well as 
 for the instruction of the people in the ideals of Amer- 
 ican citizenship. 
 
 Preaching must he done by the minister. — He will be 
 obliged to bear a large part in the preaching which 
 must take place in the mission; for the primary con- 
 cern of the mission is to bring the gospel to those who 
 do not know it. The minister must keep constant 
 oversight of the work of the missionary and he must 
 bear a hand personally in the work of preaching. Under 
 these circumstances I have thought best to put together 
 a few suggestions regarding the matter of preaching to 
 immigrants. 
 
 Preaching to foreigners has its own elements. — The 
 little group of foreign-speaking men gathered in the mis- 
 sion presents a most interesting problem to the preacher. 
 The things that he can take for granted with his Sim- 
 day congregation he cannot take for granted with these 
 people. Their attitude toward him is different. In 
 some respects they venerate him more than does his 
 
190 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 ordinary congregation. In other respects they are 
 more suspicious of him and his approach to them is 
 more difficult. After four years of experience in speak- 
 ing to various classes of foreigners by means of an 
 interpreter and occasionally directly in English, I 
 venture to suggest the following general principles: 
 
 Preach the gospel themes in their simplicity. — Two 
 subjects are supremely important : 
 
 (a) Presenting the earthly life and character of Jesus 
 and showing him as the Redeemer from sin and a 
 living Lord to be followed in practical life. Not only 
 can this be made most fruitful with the stereopticon, 
 but it gives vivid, concrete, and simple matter for a 
 narrative style of preaching. It holds the interest of 
 foreigners whose conception of religion we have already 
 noted as primarily concerned with the church, the 
 priest, and the ritual. It is very important with these 
 people that we tell the story of the earthly life of Jesus 
 and that we express simply the great outlines of his 
 consciousness. 
 
 (6) The theme of salvation by faith. — Remembering 
 always that salvation is regarded by the majority of 
 immigrants as a matter of baptismal regeneration, 
 confirmation, and the performance of the duties and 
 ceremonies prescribed by the church, we shall always 
 attempt to present to them in our preaching the fun- 
 damental essential theme of the gospel, salvation by 
 faith. This is more difficult than it is to preach on 
 the earthly life of Jesus. Men can understand how 
 they are to sustain a personal relationship to the living 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 191 
 
 priest and to an objective institution. They can see 
 the confessional; they can pay the penance; they can 
 hear the spoken word of pardon. To trust in an un- 
 seen Father; to offer the sacrifice of a contrite spirit; 
 to hear the souFs whisper of assurance in the experi- 
 ence of pardon, — these are the great calls of the Chris- 
 tian hfe for all sorts and conditions of men. When, 
 however, from infancy religion has been represented 
 by the external and the concrete, it is extremely diffi- 
 cult to make real the truly spiritual content of the 
 Christian hfe. It takes line upon line of expression 
 and encouragement to compass the result which we 
 are seeking. 
 
 Illustrations must he used. — Preaching to immigrants 
 must necessarily be concrete as well as simple, and 
 illustrations are of superior value in this particular 
 line of work. I suggest the following: 
 
 1. Make much use of the great leaders and of the 
 national history of the people to whom you are speak- 
 ing. In preaching to the Italians, for instance, I have 
 been able to use illustrations from the lives and works 
 of their great artists and leaders with excellent results 
 in the way of impression. The heroism, love of coun- 
 try, and loyalty to God shown in the past history of 
 these people touches them deeply when they hear a 
 reference to them from the lips of an American preacher. 
 
 2. In the same way, illustrations from American 
 life and history can be used most advantageously in 
 preaching to immigrants. They are as a rule deeply 
 interested in the men who have made America great, 
 
192 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 and they respond to suggestions from the hves of Wash- 
 uigton and Lincoln. 
 
 3. I have made it a point to touch upon the daily 
 work of the men in the factories and to show very 
 practically and concretely how their religion must be 
 related to their daily Hfe. 
 
 Factory superintendents complain not only that 
 these men are slow and incompetent, but that they 
 steal and are imtruthful. Foreigners have no monop- 
 oly of these vices; but there is a very special demand 
 that the members of the foreign mission shall commend 
 the gospel by an upright hfe. It is on this rock that so 
 many of our ventures are wrecked. Therefore the 
 ethical must be kept to the forefront and asserted again 
 and again. Effort must be made to bring the gospel to 
 bear plainly and urgently upon the daily Hfe of the 
 people. 
 
 Use an interpreter. — In the majority of cases it will 
 be necessary to preach to immigrants through this 
 mediiun. It requires practice on the part of the speaker 
 to do this efficiently; on the other hand, a good inter- 
 preter is exceedingly hard to find. Either the inter- 
 preter is too free or too full; or he is too concise and 
 imperfectly presents the thought. Of course in a case 
 where the speaker does not know an)rthing of the lan- 
 guage, he is absolutely at the mercy of the interpreter. 
 If he is fortunate enough to be able to follow the drift 
 of the interpreter's words, he can tell what justice is 
 being done him. It is only with a few of the simpler 
 languages that he can enjoy the latter experience. The 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 193 
 
 Slavic tongues are too difficult to permit their mastery 
 to a slight degree even by the minister in a parish. 
 
 The following suggestions may be of service in using 
 an interpreter : 
 
 a. Give the interpreter if possible a complete thought 
 each time. That is, speak in paragraphs. A sentence 
 at a time is too Httle. Three sentences or four are the 
 maximum, each sentence containing, at the most, not 
 over two clauses, or a simple proposition with perhaps 
 two phrase modifiers. It will require considerable 
 careful study and mental quickness on one's feet to 
 meet these conditions. If you remember that your 
 first duty is not to impress an audience but an inter- 
 preter, it will be more simple. You must suffer from 
 divided attention while you look at the audience and 
 also give the interpreter now and then the benefit of 
 rather direct address. 
 
 h. Let an illustration follow a proposition and make 
 the illustration so simple that if possible it can be 
 interpreted in one passage. This is remarkably valu- 
 able training in precision and conciseness. I have 
 found it valuable at times to have an object in my 
 pocket or within reach by which to illustrate a thought. 
 
 c. Hold your own attention. The heart of the 
 problem is to hold your own attention upon your 
 theme and keep your interest in it while it is being 
 jerked out of you and away from you by this constant 
 interruption. Now and then you will find yourself 
 wondering what is happening to your subject, and you 
 will lose your grasp of it yourself. At first you might 
 
194 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 think it would be easy; you have only to give an idea 
 and then while that is being explained you can think 
 out another. On the other hand, it is supremely im- 
 portant that you know what you are to say at the out- 
 set, and hold yourself to it until the conclusion. 
 
 Be prepared for surprises. I have made a most 
 serious proposition and found that it was awakening 
 mirth in the audience. Just what had happened I 
 did not know; how to set it right I could not tell; 
 whether to begin over and try to correct it I was not 
 sure. The best way I know is to keep going and trust 
 that if one paragraph suffers shipwreck your whole 
 battle fleet will not go down. It is difficult business; 
 but in reality it is most interesting and practice makes 
 perfect and brings assurance and courage. Every 
 minister ought to try it for his own welfare. I remem- 
 ber my first attempt to make an address through an 
 interpreter in Bohemia, and I would have been glad at 
 that time if I might have received even the fragmentary 
 suggestions which I have tried to give you. 
 
 You will certainly do well to avail yourselves of 
 your courses in the conversational use of foreign lan- 
 guages, as offered in this school. 
 
 The foreign-speaking church will ultimately he organ- 
 ized. — When the converts of the mission begin to 
 increase we are brought to the question as to what we 
 shall do with them. According to the congregational 
 system we know only the independent church, and it 
 is a very serious question whether these men are able 
 to take up the administration of their own affairs. Is 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 195 
 
 it not better to incorporate those who come into the 
 Christian life through the mission into the membership 
 of the church that supports the mission, and keep them 
 there, rather than to trust them with the organization 
 of a church of their own? The question has many sides. 
 
 In the larger church of EngHsh-speaking members 
 they will find very scant fellowship. They do not 
 know the language and they covet the hearing of the 
 mother tongue. The members of the English-speaking 
 church may be never so kind; but they cannot be the 
 fellow-members to these strangers that they would like 
 to be. Of course the best of them will do something; 
 but on the whole the stranger will miss the air and the 
 manner of his own people. 
 
 On the point that they cannot be trusted with the 
 administration of their own affairs, it is to be said that 
 with wisdom and kindness on the part of the larger 
 church there is no reason why they may not be trusted 
 with their own church affairs. They may make some 
 mistakes, but they will be on the whole as competent 
 as most congregations. On the whole, wherever it is 
 possible, I believe in the organization of the foreign- 
 speaking church. 
 
 The cultivation of parish neighbourliness must grow 
 out of all this. — Thus far we have been concerned with 
 the mission work carried on in the church or chapel. 
 We have taken up the equipment and the methods 
 and the workers in the schools and meetings. There 
 now arises a very much larger question which must be 
 faced by the pastor and his workers. 
 
196 WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 
 
 What can be done to cultivate a genuine sense of 
 neighbourliness, and how can there be a general min- 
 istry to these people by the members of the church? 
 
 The question is exceedingly important. We can 
 obtain results in the meetings of the mission; but how 
 is it possible to get our people to neighbour up to these 
 strangers who have in many cases come to live in the 
 same street and block? 
 
 Into this problem enter the differences that sunder 
 us all; and it is one of the most difficult pieces of work 
 that the pastor can have to do to bring about a gen- 
 uine spirit of neighbourliness in the parish. It is so 
 easy to cherish a very genuine and laudable feeling of 
 interest and sympathy with the Armenian sufferers 
 from massacre or the Sicilian victims of earthquake, 
 but to be willing to visit the home of such a family in 
 the parish and to try to know and encourage its mem- 
 bers is quite another matter. 
 
 In the most tactful and kindly manner the pastor 
 must work to lay this sense of responsibility upon 
 the hearts of the parish. It is not best to appeal over- 
 much to sympathy or to pity. These people do not 
 need to be pitied. They have their ambitions and 
 their loves and their children. If one is seeking for 
 happiness he need not confine his search to the more 
 wealthy and cultured members of the congregation. 
 There is healthy joy and supreme moral worth among 
 these people of the working, rising immigrant classes. 
 Make the fact clear that these people are really very 
 much like us. They are. At the last analysis, human- 
 
WORK AMONG IMMIGRANTS 197 
 
 ity is the same and the members of the parish are 
 not asked to be friends and neighbours to men and 
 women who are essentially peculiar or objects of pity. 
 They are given the privilege of being the friends and 
 helpers of men and women who are worthy of the ser- 
 vice and the friendship of the best men and women 
 of the churches. 
 
 When this point of view is once established we have 
 gone a long way toward the introduction of the genuine 
 ministry of Christian neighbourliness into the parish. 
 This spirit and practice of parish neighbourliness will be 
 the finest product of the mission service and the only 
 permanent warrant for it. Here lies the secret of 
 the religious care of the immigrant by the American 
 churches. 
 
 I rejoice that this school of theology is preparing its 
 men for this splendid service. 
 
THE MINISTER AND THE RURAL 
 COMMUNITY 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev, Wilbert L. Anderson, D.D. 
 
 Dr. Anderson, of the Class of 1882 in Yale Divinity 
 School, is pastor of the First Congregational Church in 
 Amherst, Massachusetts, and the author of ^^ The Country 
 TownJ' 
 
THE MINISTER AND THE RUBAL COMMUNITY 
 
 IT is no part of my purpose to pass over to you any 
 ready-made solutions of rural problems. If I 
 accept any theory concerning ruraI_.progre§s^ it is that 
 there must be reliance upon the locaL,Mlitiative. The 
 people on the spot must work out their own salvation. 
 By local initiative is not meant leaving things alone 
 imtil somebody within the community acts, but rather 
 the local uprising to handle the situation, whatever 
 may be the source of the impulse. The State, to take 
 an example, may help the rural schools by legislation 
 in advance of local opinion; yet there can be no secure 
 progress until the people of each locality support and 
 administer their schools with genuine enthusiasm. 
 There can be no real progress which is not an expres- 
 sion of local vitality and interest. 
 
 If now it is agreed that rural communities must work 
 out their own salvation, let me point out to you a most 
 important providential means of progress. To the 
 local initiative as it is otherwise constituted is added a 
 minister — a man who comes into the community to 
 be a part of it, a man of ability, a man of experience 
 elsewhere, a man trained for leadership. This rein- 
 forcement of the rural community is, perhaps, the most 
 significant element in rural progress. Through the 
 church the people have power to bring in a leader, — 
 
 201 
 
202 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 if they please, an expert in community building; and 
 when he arrives, he has at hand a central institution 
 around which and through which to reorganize and 
 reconstruct the community. 
 
 In the country the minister is related visibly to the 
 whole community. For simplicity we will assume the 
 ideal of a single church. If it should be your fortime 
 to serve in such a field, you would have the great ad- 
 vantage of responsibility for all sorts of people, whereas 
 the urban pastor must ordinarily minister to a section 
 or to a class. In your field will be men of three types. 
 There will be the religious man, and the worldly man, 
 and the worthless man; and each of these will be of 
 many varieties. These men are in your field, even if 
 they do not attend church. In the city the worthless 
 men are off somewhere in the slum, and the worldly 
 men are great figures at banquets and the like. It is 
 not impossible that worldly and worthless men may 
 attend your church, but for the most part they might 
 as well be in the moon as in your city, for any chance 
 that you have at them. In the country these people 
 are yoiu* neighbours; it is your duty to call upon them 
 and their families. The rural environment is yours to 
 shape, and you are to scheme with it until you throw 
 it around a man as you would immesh a fish in a net. 
 
 But what do I mean by a worldly man? I mean a 
 very notable character in the country. He may be a 
 farmer; often he is a merchant; sometimes he is a cattle- 
 dealer. You will find these men in the country amass- 
 ing fortunes that run up to a hundred thousand dollars. 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 203 
 
 This rural rich man is a bit raw and crude. He has the 
 knack of making money and saving it. He is fond of 
 mortgages, through which he sometimes assists and 
 sometimes oppresses his neighbours. He lives in ma- 
 terial comfort, but without elegance. He is of strict 
 integrity, for he has capitahzed honesty and makes it 
 pay good interest. He is self-made and, within his 
 limitations, well made. He is on the wrong side of 
 educational policy; he cannot be coimted for public 
 spirit; taxes are not pleasant to him. If he attends 
 church, he may contribute ten dollars a year. Not 
 attending church, I have known him to pay two dollars 
 for preaching on some ground of promoting good order 
 and morals. He works hard and inevitably thinks the 
 minister an idler who rests quietly in the morning, and 
 saunters easily through the afternoon. You have only 
 to think of agonizing prayer for the salvation of souls 
 or of giving good money for missions to realize the 
 infinite remoteness of this worldly man from the church. 
 It is worth our while to imderstand this man because 
 he has great influence. He is the outstanding example 
 of success for boys to imitate. His word is quoted by 
 scores of firesides. His personality is of that obtrusive 
 kind that counts when public opinion comes to a deci- 
 sion. In brief, this man is the natural leader of a great 
 part of the community, if not of the whole town; he is 
 the most important sociological fact in rural life. You 
 will find him undoubtedly, and it will be your study to 
 know what to do with him, or how to do anything with 
 him in the centre of your field. I shall not try to tell 
 
204 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 you what to do with him — that is for you to find out. 
 But whatever you do, get acquainted with him. It 
 is bad for ministers to be too much in the society 
 of the saints, for that emphasizes their emphasis, 
 and a minister who is nothing but an exclamation 
 point for reUgion is useless in the new rural move- 
 ment. 
 
 When you turn to the worthless man, you cannot 
 help wishing that he might be more like his prosperous 
 neighbour. The rural degenerate is a great figure in his 
 own way. He has been investigated and exploited 
 imtil he would be spoiled, were that possible for so 
 unsavoury a person, if he knew his own prominence. 
 No two of these fellows are ahke, but all together they 
 give the country whatever bad reputation it has. The 
 rural bum is particularly atrocious because he has a 
 certain freedom to be himself. He is not kept down 
 by the police; he is not under factory discipline; he does 
 not knock against his fellows in a way to learn a Httle 
 sense. He may be merely thriftless and lawless, or he 
 may be positively vicious. Without his vices he is 
 interesting as an example of inabihty to catch the pace 
 of civilization. He shares with the poet an aloofness 
 from modernity. In another age he might have been 
 a successful hunter and trapper, or perhaps a notable 
 adventurer and pioneer. On other sides of his nature 
 he has kinship with philosophers who feel that the 
 human intellect is too fine to waste itself in a life of 
 manual labour. Often he is of the type of Socrates, 
 fond of talk and of loafing about with young men. 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 205 
 
 Where the worldly man sets the pace, it goes hard 
 with this idler. 
 
 What will you do with this worthless man? I do 
 not know, but I am confident that you do little good 
 by counting him and tabulating him and putting him 
 into studies of rural degeneracy. You are familiar, no 
 doubt, with those writers who have discovered our 
 thriftless and vicious friend. There is no question that 
 they have actually seen him. If they are untruthful, 
 it is an untruthfulness of emphasis or inference. Some- 
 times in simamer there comes a peculiar wind that turns 
 up the leaves of the trees, and we say that it is a sign 
 of rain. Those queer-looking undersides were there 
 before the wind blew, only we did not see them; what- 
 ever may be the value of the portent of rain, no one 
 really supposes that the odd appearance of the trees 
 really causes rain. Do not go through a community 
 exposing its evils. As everywhere in a sinful world, 
 draw your inferences from the vigour of right and not 
 from the diffusion of wrong. 
 
 These worldly and these worthless men are part of 
 the field of the country church. Some of them may be 
 reached directly by the converting power of the Gospel. 
 The social problem is to build the community with these 
 men as material in part; or from another point of view, 
 it is to construct a community whose influence will 
 environ all the people, good and bad, repressing the 
 evil and inducing the highest possible development of 
 individual character. Of course the religious people 
 figure yet more largely in the rural field, and they are 
 
206 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 the reliance of the minister in whatever he attempts 
 for the community. These normal men and women 
 require no special description, but it would be fatal to 
 forget or to ignore them. Were all the people religious 
 and virtuous, the task of building the community would 
 be much simplified, for there would be nothing to do 
 but to follow the ideal lines. In fact, the minister must 
 take the people as he finds them, and their defects will 
 modify every plan. He may expect to find enough 
 intelligence and character for leadership, and enough 
 also of intractable material to make the struggle for 
 improvement perennially interesting. 
 
 If now we undertake to analyze the commimity 
 structurally to find what service the church may render, 
 we are impressed, first of all, by the economic aspect. 
 In recent discussion of rural problems great emphasis 
 is given to the material support of the community. It 
 is not denied that there may be superb flowering of 
 individual character in poor surroundings, but it is 
 held as axiomatic that there can be no fine and whole- 
 some growth of social life and social institutions on 
 impoverished or barren soils or in thriftless and poor 
 populations. The more tangible argument is that there 
 must be ability to support schools and churches and 
 whatever institutions are conducive to progress. There 
 is, moreover, a subtle connection of moral forces so 
 potent that the diligent attention to material things is 
 a condition of vigorous social and spiritual life. On 
 the other hand, material prosperity does not ensure 
 fine social and spiritual development. There may be 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 207 
 
 sordid selfishness on fat lands, as everybody knows; 
 there may be a good foundation with no worthy super- 
 structure. 
 
 What may the church contribute to the wealth of thej 
 community? Of two modes of doing even conmion* 
 things the church stands for the better. Devoted to the 
 true and the beautiful and the good, her idealism com- 
 pels her to seek what is superior. The true way, the 
 good way, the beautiful way to keep a house or till a 
 field, in a world of reason, is the way of prosperity and 
 wealth. The church advocates the best and highest 
 ways in common things by a kind of instinct; even if 
 such considerations are not the staple of preaching, 
 they are ever in the background. 
 
 In our time there have been discovered new modes 
 for the farm and the farm home. It is not the province 
 of the church to teach directly the new agriculture, but 
 rather to awaken the mind of the farmer, and arouse in 
 him the spirit of idealism so that he will seek the new 
 agricultural knowledge. The church will, not say to 
 the farmer. Cultivate your farm in this new way that it 
 may pay you a larger profit, but rather this: Cultivate 
 your farm in this better way to make the most of yom 
 opportunity, to find the highest zest in your occupation, 
 and to glorify your calling. As country ministers you 
 will know less of farming in detail than your parishioners, 
 but you should know more than they of the spirit of 
 progress. Yiia should do much to soften the suspicion 
 of modern knowledge in the rural mind; you should 
 "sland boldly for appUed science. You should foster 
 
208 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 the humility that will receive education, and the 
 nobility of mind that loves the way that education 
 points out. 
 
 Material prosperity depends upon production, upon 
 marketing the product, and upon expending the pro- 
 ceeds of the sale of products. For production the 
 church teaches industry, perseverance, and ambition. 
 For marketing the church teaches honesty and mutual 
 helpfulness. For expenditure the church teaches fru- 
 gahty, sobriety, and the higher tastes. Just now the 
 crying need of rural communities is a better mode of 
 marketing products — perhaps some form of cooper- 
 ative marketing. The church should be able to con- 
 tribute that wilhngness to work together for a common 
 end that such a movement requires. 
 
 It is not necessary to draw out in detail the incom- 
 parable service of the church to the material prosperity 
 of the rural community. This has been a standard 
 appeal of home missionary addresses for many decades. 
 A well-conducted church should add thousands of dol- 
 lars to the incomes of the people and thousands more 
 to the value of real estate. We are not trying to prove 
 so evident a fact. Inevitably some financial benefit 
 accrues; it is your business to see to it that this result 
 is the largest possible in the new modern conditions. 
 This, of course, is altogether different from the pro- 
 gramme that arrays religion against money and per- 
 petually rebukes the diligent acquisition of wealth. 
 We must remember that wealth is the basis of civil- 
 ization. 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 209 
 
 Having secured as much prosperity as is needful, 
 what is the next step in developing the rural community? 
 Is it not the^awaj^ning of .a proper spirit? This spirit 
 is, first and foremost, an aspiring spirit. The danger 
 of wealth is that it may engender a sordid spirit. Not 
 money but the love of money is the root of all evil. 
 We want wealth for the good there is in it; we want it 
 as a base for higher things. We would not lift a finger 
 to increase wealth if this meant hoardings merely, 
 or avarice merely. We desire wealth for what it can 
 support, for what it can purchase. All depends upon 
 the spirit, and the right spirit is the Christian spirit — 
 the spirit of idealism, the spirit of benevolence, the 
 spirit of a noble utilitarianism. The church has this 
 critical office of making riches safe and serviceable. In 
 this there is no substitute for the church. When the 
 church fails at this, point, the worldly class increases 
 and gains leadership. There must be in the church th^ 
 power to win these worldly people to a higher mind.) 
 This is a strategic point for rural progress, and you will 
 succeed there not so much by direct assault as by the 
 continual influence of a compact body of people acting 
 by word and example in the higher way. Make it then 
 conspicuous in your ministry that you interpret the 
 Gospel as a spirit of aspiration. 
 
 To build the rural community it is important that 
 this idealism should be distinctly rural; the aspiring f 
 spirit should be a rural spirit. If you are not careful' 
 here, you will awaken ambition only to hasten the 
 flight to the city. It is but fair to keep the way open 
 
210 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 for the country boys and girls to seek their fortune in 
 the larger opportunities that the city affords; and we 
 need not deny the right of the best families to forsake 
 the old home in order to gain urban advantages. In 
 the past this migration has been promoted both by 
 industrial pressure and by personal discontent. The 
 readjustment of population to the new industrial order 
 is now nearly completed. It remains to foster the 
 love of the coimtry so that, having a fair industrial 
 opportunity where they are born, the country people 
 shall be content to pass their lives there. It is charged 
 that the school has fostered the urban rather than the 
 rural spirit. Courses of study, text-books, teachers, 
 have conspired to turn the interest and hope of the 
 brighter pupils toward the city. No doubt, the same is 
 true of the churches. Young ministers who are antici- 
 pating urban pulpits should take special care not to 
 augment rural discontent. It is now urged as a most 
 important part of the campaign for rural progress that 
 the school should definitely foster a rural spirit and 
 that the church should be a centre for the dissemination 
 of interest in rural life. 
 
 It is believed by many that the time has come for a 
 new education and a new ministry. Certainly, if there 
 is to be a community rising directly upon the land, 
 there must be a wide and deep satisfaction in life upon 
 the farm and an overmastering belief in the possibil- 
 ities of such a life. The church, more than any other 
 institution, owes it to the people to teach the apprecia- 
 tion and enjoyment of advantages near at hand. At 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 211 
 
 the least, she should inculcate thankfulness, content- 
 ment, the love of natural beauty, and joy m the actual 
 environment. It is the duty of the church to teach the 
 ideahsm suited to its location, and the country church 
 is bound to hold up to the people the highest rural 
 ideahsm. The possibiHties of rural communities are 
 now very great. If the church is to teach the people 
 how to hve, she must urge whatever belongs to the 
 highest Ufe in her special environment. The minister 
 who presents ethics as if moral principles would some- 
 time be appHcable in cities when his hearers arrive in 
 them, or religion as it is organized in urban churches 
 which they may sometime know, certainly fails in ped- 
 agogy. And if he teaches ethics and reUgion as if they 
 were for some New Jerusalem midway between heaven 
 and earth, he cannot claim to be practical. What 
 excuse can he have for not clothing his principles with 
 the facts and conditions of rural Ufe ? ' ' You do not know 
 what a skeleton is," said one small boy to another. 
 "Yes, I do," was the retort, "it is just bones with the 
 people off." You can preach ethics and rehgion with 
 the people off, but I beg you not to do that. Now if 
 you are to put the people on, let it be true coimtry 
 people in all the ideahsm of country hfe, if you are a 
 country minister, just as it should be city people in all 
 the idealism of city hfe, if you are an urban pastor. 
 
 To-day this rural spirit may be a spirit of enthusiasm, 
 and this determines one of your important tasks. The 
 pessimism that has wrought havoc for a generation 
 should be dispelled. You should understand the modern 
 
212 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 economic world and be able to explain what has hap- 
 pened. In changing from a form of civilization based 
 on hand tools to a form of civilization based on ma- 
 chinery, from the independent and self-sufficient farm 
 home to the industrial order in which all the people are 
 supported from all the farms with a vast interplay of 
 trade, rural society has suffered as radical a revolution 
 as can be conceived. This has been a severe and pro- 
 tracted stress. Nothing anywhere is as it once was. 
 You may always admit that great glory distinguishes 
 the past, and then you must insist that great glory 
 will shine again, only it will not be the same glory. 
 We never shall see again the peculiar excellence of the 
 best rural life in the early decades of the last century. 
 On every farm a family was matched against the powers 
 of nature, and it built and maintained a home abound- 
 ing in simple comfort. And this fight was waged as 
 men fought in the old days with javelin and sword. 
 As we go back to hand-to-hand conffict for the great 
 epics of valour, so it seems to me that the epical grandeur 
 of rural life reached its height in the times of our great- 
 grandfathers. Ours will be another kind of glory. 
 (To-day the rural community is the base of support to 
 the city; both city and country are in one industrial 
 order. The humblest family on the land is part of the 
 magnificent enterprise of the modern world. This rela- 
 tion is the assurance of rural prosperity. To-day the 
 basis of support in the country seems not to be ample 
 for the overgrown cities. All farm produce commands 
 a high price because there is not enough of it. Other 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 213 
 
 causes lift prices, but they could not lift them to the 
 present height if there were over-production on the 
 farms. On the other hand, the richer furnishing of life 
 returns to the country from the labour of cities. In the 
 farmer's home everything needful or beautiful or helpful 
 may be provided. In food, in clothing, in furniture, 
 in conveniences and comforts, there need be no dis- 
 tinction between the rural and the urban home. Not 
 all farmers can pay for all these advantages and adorn- 
 ments, neither can all dwellers in cities. A greater 
 proportion of the people may have this rich furnishing 
 of Hfe in the country than in the city, and that means 
 a hopeful outlook for the rural community. 
 
 The church does not create this prosperity, but she 
 builds the community in this optimistic spirit. It will 
 be your joy to be the interpreter and mediator of this 
 richer Ufe. And this enrichment is not chiefly in ma- 
 terial things. There is a new hopefulness that rests 
 upon the growing appreciation of nature, and the 
 redirection of education, and the increasing interest 
 far and near in country life. The farmer is a natural ^ 
 complainer, partly because he has passed through j 
 trying readjustments, and partly because he is at once [ 
 a small capitalist and a labourer. No other man working 
 with his hands fares as well as he, but he compares his 
 fortune with the gains of capital, and that excites his 
 jealousy. The church must teach the wrong of envy 
 and jealousy; she must teach patience and slow thrift. 
 There is no question that the present rural prospect is 
 now most inviting. There is opportunity for farm 
 
214 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 homes that approxunate ideal conditions to an alluring 
 degree. The affinity of this idylUc prospect and the 
 kingdom of heaven is very close. The church is at 
 home in interpreting, advocating, and assisting this 
 great enrichment. 
 
 The spirit of which we are speaking is further defined 
 if we call it a community spirit, or a pubhc spirit. We 
 might have all that has been suggested without cen- 
 tring it in the community. A tract of land six miles 
 square might be covered with these ideal homes, and 
 every family might find its social centre in a city just 
 over the border on one side or another. There is 
 distinct danger of losing the coromunity spirit in the 
 new world order. The growing centralization and im- 
 perialism can be resisted only by the development of 
 I local self-consciousness and local community spirit. 
 We wish, then, that our prosperous and happy house- 
 holds shall be united in a single group which shall 
 administer certain great interests collectively. I would 
 make local self-government vital in the Repubhc. I 
 would develop the town consciousness, or the com- 
 munity consciousness, to the greatest possible vigour. 
 Only thus is it possible to place the responsibilities of 
 government soHdly upon the people. It is necessary, 
 therefore, that individuals and families merge them- 
 selves in the group, cultivate the spirit of loyalty to 
 the community, and make whatever sacrifices are neces- 
 sary for the general good. And this means that the 
 detached household finds expression for a common life 
 in social institutions. These we may now consider. 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 215 
 
 The three requisites in building the community are af 
 base of prosperous families, a spirit that animates and j 
 unites, and institutions of a suitable character. I 
 believe in keeping the rural social structure very simple. 
 There is a special reason for care in this regard. You 
 are familiar with the story of rural depletion. You 
 know how startling are the facts concerning the power 
 of one man equipped with modem machinery as com- 
 pared with the efficiency of another working in the old 
 way. Multitudes of people left the country primarily 
 because there was no longer work for them. There 
 was, however, no such sweeping reduction of population 
 on the farms as the estimates of efficiency would imply, 
 for the reason that when all were counted a man and a 
 fraction of a man were found on the average farm, so 
 that the possible reduction was from that fraction of 
 a man to a smaller fraction. But it must be remem- 
 bered, also, that household manufactures have been 
 transferred to factories. There is, moreover, a sUght 
 tendency to combine two or more small and poor farms, 
 — rich farms are more likely to be divided. Taking^ 
 these movements together the aggregate result is a, 
 normal depletion of a purely agricultural community 
 from ten to forty per cent according to local conditions. | 
 Many communities have kept the ranks full by other | , 
 sustaining industries or by a more intensive agriculture. 
 In New England this depletion has nearly run its course; 
 in New York it is still somewhat marked; in the farther 
 West it is conspicuous and as yet less retarded. In the 
 country as a whole there will be some further thinning 
 
216 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 of the rural population, although the rural aggregate 
 shows amazing increase. Two or three decades hence 
 the rural exodus will be but a memory, and thenceforth 
 the typical rural community will have a denser popula- 
 tion from year to year. The support of fast-growing 
 cities seems to promise that ultimate result. Hopeful 
 as is the prospect, at present the normal condition is 
 that of depletion, from which the obvious inference is 
 that social institutions should be as simple as possible. 
 A_ di^^iiiished population must have a lighter burden 
 of responsibility; at least, it is reasonable that social 
 institutions should be readjusted to suit present needs. 
 The warning is urgent against the inconsiderate intro- 
 duction of new organizations and methods. It is 
 natural that young ministers who are familiar with 
 successful modes of social ameHoration in cities should 
 be ambitious to establish them in the country. Great 
 care should be taken not to overweight the rural social 
 structure. A typical illustration here is the County 
 Young Men's Christian Association. Fortunately, the 
 direction of this work is in the care of a very judicious 
 committee which has devised a plan for the rural com- 
 munities which is altogether different from the urban 
 methods. Yet even this modified plan must derive its 
 chief financial support from a few rich men. You must 
 always ask concerning an institution. Can the people 
 sustain it? And this is much more than a question of 
 finance, for the real support of a social enterprise calls 
 for a body of people who need it and who are able and 
 willing to bear the burden of labour that it imposes. 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 217 
 
 The disposition of the people must be carefully con- 
 sidered before an institution is launched. Here youi 
 must remember the peculiar conservatism of the rural 
 mind. This inertia sometimes is a genuine prudence, 
 for there may be a very proper fear that after a brief 
 enthusiasm there will be no adequate constituency for 
 the movement. A hustler irritates the countryman.* 
 You may be as earnest and as aggressive as you please 
 if you are quiet and well poised. The rural pace is 
 slow, and it cannot be changed suddenly. Do not 
 introduce what suits your mind; first ascertain whether 
 your project so far suits the mind of the people as to 
 win their cooperation. 
 
 And you must have regard to the sUght leisure of 
 country people. If you propose to work for the few 
 Idlers who may be found in every conmiunity, you may 
 assume as much leisure as you please. A social institu- 
 tion, as distinguished from a mere device for rescue, 
 cannot use this idle fringe of industrious hfe. A gen- 
 uine social institution must be for the busy people who 
 really constitute the community. It will be your 
 problem to secure some relaxation of the tenseness of 
 labour by encouraging congenial recreation, but you 
 can count upon comparatively httle freedom for the 
 social activities you may introduce. This means that 
 you must be a close economist in your devices, and 
 that you must choose those which promise the greatest 
 return for the least expenditure of time. To cover the 
 field with book clubs is better than to place a reading- 
 room in the village. A library is eminently a rural 
 
II 
 
 218 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 institution, for it makes no demand except for evenings 
 which are spent restfuUy at home. 
 
 Simplicity in social institutions is secured by keeping 
 as close as possible to the essential social structure. 
 Your social institutions should be structural. The 
 municipal organization — the town meeting or its 
 equivalent — is fundamental. The town meeting has 
 two chief functions — raising and appropriating money, 
 which means the support of the conmiunity, and the 
 defense of the moral order, or the guarding of the com- 
 munity. Next is the school, which transmits the tra- 
 dition of knowledge, and improves the community. 
 Then comes the church, which is the community organ- 
 ized for worship and for moral instruction and influence. 
 To support, to guard, to educate, to maintain fellowship 
 with God through spiritual and moral ideals — this is 
 all that is necessary for a community. A Ubrary is 
 desirable, but let that be the crown of the school sys- 
 tem — the means of hfelong education. Some kind of 
 social organization is helpful — an organization for 
 recreation, for intellectual conference, for practical help- 
 fulness and cooperation. These functions may be 
 assumed by the church, but on the whole it is better 
 that they should be laid off upon a community organ- 
 ization. The church, of course, will provide, as seems 
 expedient, for the social life, and here, as elsewhere, a 
 lack in the social outfit will be suppUed by the church 
 if possible. There should be in the church or apart 
 from it one comprehensive social organization for the 
 community. The grange is the nearest approximation 
 
THE RURAL COMMUNITY 219 
 
 to the ideal which we have. This, then, is the structure j 
 of rural society — the town meeting, the school, to I 
 which is attached the hbrary, the church, and some 
 social organization. To this order you should con- j 
 form. Let the town raise the great funds by taxation; 
 let the town officers enforce the laws; do not encourage 
 a parochial school; do not duplicate the pubHc library 
 in the Sunday school; neither fight the fraternal orders 
 nor concede that a social organization with a religious 
 ritual is a substitute for the church. 
 
 The wise pohcy is to strengthen these institutions. 
 There are original minds that must always search for 
 some new thing, and for variety and freshness you may 
 welcome many social inventions. You will exercise 
 your own ingenuity in these devices. Do not expect 
 any of these ephemeral things to last, and do not allow 
 them to weaken the social structure. Be content that 
 you have local self-government, a progressive school, a 
 vital church, and a serviceable social organization. A 
 battleship may be enriched variously; stripped for 
 action there remain the ship, the armament, and the 
 crew. In a community there are three essentials — the . 
 JtQwn, the school, and the church; stripped for action 
 there must be these institutions; for pleasant voyages 
 the grange, or its equivalent, is a worthy addition. 
 
 If we are to keep the social structure simple, it is 
 important that institutions should not be dupHcated. 
 Fortunately we cannot have a rump town meeting. 
 We still have the district school, the sectarian church, 
 and all manner of lodges, orders, and fragmentary 
 
220 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 associations. The ideal is a centralized school, a com- 
 munity church, and a comprehensive social organiza- 
 tion. Practically we must deal with a situation in 
 which division exceeds all justification. Local jeal- 
 ousies keep the schools apart when the pupils are insuffi- 
 cient. Vigorous churches are not likely to unite, and 
 feeble ones persist in their course to the bitter end. 
 Social ingenuity will multiply the clubs and associations, 
 each of which falls heir to the propagating spirit. We 
 are, however, in an age of consolidation; the central 
 school is coming fast; the grange is gaining the lead 
 over its rivals; the conmiunity church is much more 
 than an ideal. 
 
 It will be a notable forward step when home mission- 
 ary fimds are restricted to a single church in communi- 
 ties of less than a thousand people. I am confident 
 that the hesitation of young men to enter the Christian 
 ministry is due, in no small degree, to their fear that 
 they may be called to give their lives to a fraction of a 
 community, the whole of which they would be com- 
 petent to serve, with the consequent maiming of their 
 powers and the denial of fair compensation for labour. 
 In your choice of fields you may wisely favour the one 
 where the people beheve in the community church and 
 desire you to do your utmost in directing the community 
 life. When sectarian churches cannot secure ministers 
 in competition with community churches, perhaps even 
 denominational blindness will see a new fight. 
 
 Great is the fascination of a fifework as a constructive 
 engineer in building communities. I will not contrast 
 
OP THE \ 
 
 UNIVERSITY ] 
 
 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 221 
 
 this with the joy of saving souls^ for he who knows no 
 way of saving souls will be powerless to redirect a com- 
 munity. There is no contrast between the old and the 
 new way. You may do all that ministers ever have 
 done, and then go on to do these new things. And yet 
 why do we speak of new things? Were not the early 
 churches in New England community churches? Did 
 not the church of our fathers impose upon ministers 
 the duty of leadership? Was it not the conscious aim 
 in the old days to foster industry, and direct morals, 
 and inspire education with a view to the public good? 
 Great as was the stress upon the salvation of souls, was 
 there not also a desire to mould the minds of men for 
 citizenship and to unite them in a joyous brotherhood? 
 The new emphasis in our day calls us back to the earlier 
 ideal. Of that emphasis — whether the idea be new or 
 old — there can be no doubt. A vigorous campaign 
 for rural progress is sweeping on its way, whose leaders 
 seek a new community of a higher type than the world 
 has seen. Though many of these enthusiastic workers 
 come from the ranks of secular service and secular 
 education, with astonishing unanimity, with a pene- 
 trating insight, they declare that this progressive move- 
 ment waits upon the reinvigoration of the country 
 church, and that the coimtry minister holds the position 
 of supreme strategy. 
 
 The church is the living fountain of social forces; 
 from her go forth social wisdom and social facility. To 
 her is committed the great commandment, ^'Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself." By her sovereign power 
 
222 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 
 
 of love, begotten of the love of Christ, the church has 
 power to soften asperity, to allay jealousy, to incite 
 sacrifice, and thus is she able to rear a people capable 
 of living together in friendliness and mutual helpfulness. 
 The country people need new riches; they need a new 
 spirit of ideaUsm, of content, of hope, of cooperation; 
 they need new institutions, or old institutions raised to 
 a new vigour. All these are sure to come if the church 
 follows its peerless social leader and remains faithful to 
 the gospel of redeeming love. 
 
THE ESSENTIALS OF A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. 
 
 Secretary of Yale University and Assistant at St. 
 PauVs Protestant Episcopal Church of New Haven. A 
 gradvxde of Yale College in the Glass of 1896. 
 
THE ESSENTIALS OF A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 EVERY talent can be turned to good account in 
 a ministry to men. Musical ability, engineer- 
 ing training, fondness for nature, passion for adventure, 
 knowledge of modern science, and interest in the drama, 
 have been of inestimable advantage to different min- 
 isters I have known. Every atom of knowledge that 
 you have acquired, exery experience of your life, every 
 hobby that you have ridden, can be made to help. 
 These give points of contact with varying types of men, 
 and when the minister has found a point of contact 
 with a given man, his battle is half won. But these 
 things are all on the outer edge. They do not touch the 
 heart of the matter. They are helps, but not essentials. 
 
 Our purpose is to get at the essentials, the things 
 that a man needs to be a useful minister, the things 
 without which he cannot get along. I shall name 
 three. They seem to be of the nature of required qual- 
 ities rather than of "electives." If a man has them or 
 can acquire them, I would urge him to consider seriously 
 entering the ministry. If they are out of his reach, 
 I would hope that he would choose another profession. 
 
 They are : 
 I. Knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ. 
 II. Knowledge of and faith in one's fellow men. 
 
 III. Knowledge of and faith in one's self. 
 225 
 
226 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 I. Knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ, — To the 
 Christian minister, Jesus Christ is not merely one of 
 the world's heroes. He is the revelation of God. It is 
 on this account that he interests us absorbingly. We 
 may have difficulty in framing a satisfactory theory 
 of his person, but as ministers, in every branch of the 
 Church, we feel that he had in Palestine and has to-day 
 an altogether unique power of bringing us into God's 
 presence. And although we gladly learn from every 
 prophet. Christian and Pagan, we find that our em- 
 phasis in matters spiritual is like that of the disciples 
 at the Transfiguration, we "see Jesus only." History, 
 intellectual reasoning, the world of nature, all help us to 
 know God, but Jesus gives us a conviction of God's 
 reality greater than them all. This is not a superstition; 
 it is the result of the experience, the experimenta- 
 tion of tens of thousands of strong men during nine- 
 teen centuries. Our views of Jesus may differ greatly; 
 the words Atonement and Incarnation and Divinity 
 may mean very different things to us from what they 
 meant to our parents, but Jesus Christ — his teach- 
 ings, his life, his character, his inward motive — could 
 not have meant more to them than they do to us. We 
 may have given up verbal inspiration and a personal 
 devil and emphasis on dogmatic creeds, but we still 
 cling to the man of Galilee as the Way, the Truth, and 
 the Life. We are persuaded that without his revela- 
 tion of the character of God, without his teaching of 
 the brotherhood of man, without the manifestation in 
 his own life of the actual spiritual unity which may 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 227 
 
 exist between the Father and his children, life would be 
 immeasurably impoverished. 
 
 So it is that I place as the first essential for a min- 
 istry to men: knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ. 
 To give these is the main task of the Divinity course. 
 I should Uke you to think this afternoon of your studies 
 here as Christocentric. You study Hebrew so as to 
 read in the original tongue the books which formed the 
 intellectual and religious backgroimd for the training 
 of Jesus Christ. You study the Gospels so as to master 
 the earliest stories that have come down to us regarding 
 the deeds, the words, the life, the spirit of Jesus Christ. 
 You study Church History so as to see the different 
 tangible forms which the revelation of Jesus Christ 
 has taken through the centuries. You study Theol- 
 ogy mainly to get a view of God that squares with the 
 teachings and the spirit of Jesus Christ. You study 
 Missions so as to see the non-Christian world's need of 
 Jesus Christ and the way in which that need is being 
 met. You study Homiletics and Pastoral Care so as 
 better to understand how to bring the message of Jesus 
 Christ to men. And so I might go all through the 
 Divinity curriculum with the same result. I could 
 show you that Jesus Christ is or should be the core of 
 it all. I hope that you may consider this emphasis, 
 for to my mind the first requirement for the minister 
 is that he should so know the Master that his point of 
 view, his spirit, should become part of his second nature. 
 
 But knowledge passes over naturally into faith. A 
 man deserving of the name cannot really know Jesus 
 
228 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 without having faith in him. I do not say that knowl- 
 edge of what men have written about him necessarily 
 produces this confidence. It often does not. If you 
 had never heard of Jesus and a man should meet you 
 on your life's journey and say: Here is the Eternal 
 Christ who came into the world miraculously, and left 
 the world miraculously, and was indeed in Palestine 
 the very God Himself, you probably could not agree 
 with his belief. But if another should say: Gaze at 
 the Man of Nazareth, think of his spiritual unity with 
 God, consider the wondrous beauty of his teaching 
 regarding the Father's love, follow him and you can 
 share his divine life; you would give him your faith 
 and long to help along his cause. Christian faith, as 
 I imderstand it, is not giving intellectual assent to a 
 group of statements about Christ, although every man 
 must have some creed; it is rather accepting Christ 
 himself, living in his spirit, aiming at that purity of 
 hfe to which with his help we may ourselves attain. 
 To have faith in Christ is somewhat hke having faith 
 in the noblest of friends, but much more. It is giving 
 to him our trust, our allegiance, our devotion, our 
 loyalty, and receiving from him the calm assurance 
 of God's love. This is the faith that moves mountains. 
 It is based on an intellectual conviction of Christ's 
 worthiness to be our Master, but with formal defini- 
 tions it has little to do. 
 
 Such knowledge and such faith appeal powerfully 
 to men. A strong man likes to see a well-based con- 
 fidence and a loyal devotion. We are all at heart 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 229 
 
 hero-worshippers. Knowledge alone will not satisfy 
 men, faith alone will not convince them, but when 
 knowledge and faith are miited and have Jesus Christ 
 for their object, and he is presented in his simpUcity 
 and greatness by one Uving in his spirit, the combina- 
 tion is well-nigh irresistible. 
 
 It is not the religion of a theory that I am asking 
 you to present to men, nor the cold reUgion of conduct 
 alone. It is the religion which has as its centre the 
 strongest figure in history, Jesus, the prophet of Naz- 
 areth. I do not say that you cannot do good in the 
 world without this knowledge and faith, for you doubt- 
 less can, but your effectiveness and your peace of 
 mind will be greatly stimulated by it. Without it, if 
 you have a strong theistic behef or a distinctly spiritual 
 point of view, you may teach philosophy; without it, 
 if you have a strong ethical impulse, you may help in 
 the work of social amehoration; but in the long run it 
 is faith in Christ that is the greatest help to our beUef 
 in God, and it is the same faith which more than any- 
 thing else stimulates to social service. As a leading 
 London settlement worker, himself an agnostic, once 
 said to a friend of mine, "The more I go on, the more 
 I reaUze that it is the men of Christian faith upon whom 
 I must rely for my helpers." 
 
 My advice, then, to you, if you would be successful 
 in your ministry to men, is to cultivate Christ as the 
 open door to God. Interpret him as broadly as you 
 will, but make him the centre of knowledge and of 
 faith. 
 
230 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 II. Knowledge of and faith in our fellow men. — The 
 second essential for a ministry to men is that you 
 should know and believe in them. 
 
 The most successful ministers are marked by this 
 characteristic. Beecher, Bushnell, Brooks, Moody, — 
 the great religious forces of the last generation, — were 
 all men who knew and believed in their fellows. The 
 great problems which face the church to-day cannot 
 be solved without such knowledge and faith. 
 
 Consider first the problem of adjusting beUef to knowl- 
 edge. The minister who thinks that intelligent twen- 
 tieth-century humanity will accept things on the mere 
 say-so of church council or prelate is greatly mistaken. 
 He must be able to give a reason for the hope that is 
 in him. Men to-day do their own thinking, and a 
 theology to satisfy them must square with the results of 
 modern thought, observation, and scholarship. The 
 minister who does not know his fellow men and their 
 mental attitude will not appeal to them. I know a 
 clergyman of deep spirituality and earnestness who 
 appeals to a certain type of woman and of sentimental 
 youth, but who fails in his power to interest strong 
 men, for the simple reason that he has not associated 
 with them and cannot enter into their point of view. 
 
 Another problem is that of the church and labour. 
 The American working man in our cities has a deep 
 respect for Jesus Christ and, speaking generally, a 
 deep distrust of the church. The investigators from 
 Wyckoff to Rauschenbusch have agreed on this point. 
 There is great need of reconciliation between the repre- 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 231 
 
 sentatives of organized labour and of organized re- 
 ligion. This is equally desirable from the standpoint 
 of each. The only ministers who are helping this 
 movement are the ones who thoroughly know their 
 fellows. If a man appreciates the conditions of mod- 
 ern factory life, if he understands the ideals which 
 underlie the trade union and the various socialistic 
 movements, if he realizes the labourer's small margin 
 of possible savings and the pressure of modern indus- 
 trialism, then he can interest him in religion — other- 
 wise, speaking broadly, he cannot. A large heart 
 and great earnestness are important aids, but if you 
 would bridge the gap between the church and the 
 masses in your community, you must know the labour- 
 ing man, — his hardships, hopes, interests. Our Roman 
 Catholic brothers can teach us a lesson here. Knowl- 
 edge derived second-hand will not do. We must have 
 direct knowledge, personal touch. 
 
 A third modern problem is that of church unity. It 
 will bulk larger fifty years hence than it does now. 
 Our grandchildren will think the rivalry of present-day 
 churches, the lack of more earnest effort towards re- 
 union, and the exclusiveness of some of our religious 
 bodies, as about as unchristian as we think the burning 
 of heretics to have been. But, thank God, things are 
 getting better. We are advancing in the matter of 
 Christian unity, and when we have become one in spirit, 
 it will be much easier to become one in fact. But the 
 movement can be greatly accelerated if wisely led. 
 The average small American town has double the 
 
232 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 needed number of churches, with the inevitable waste 
 and the unavoidable friction. This condition gives 
 scoffers one of their best chances. It must be changed. 
 The remedy can come only through men who know 
 their fellows, — their differing emotional tendencies, 
 their varying intellectual powers, their inherited pecu- 
 liarities. The minister who thinks all men can be sat- 
 isfied by the simple worship of our Puritan ancestors 
 does not know many types of humanity. The min- 
 ister who thinks that the Episcopal ritual, as it stands, 
 is perfectly suited to the entire world is one whose 
 knowledge of mankind is somewhat limited. For the 
 solution of the problem of church unity a man needs 
 a knowledge of church history and of the teachings of 
 Christ, but he also needs practical psychology, the power 
 of understanding the mental attitudes and needs of 
 different types of men. 
 
 I have considered briefly three typical problems that 
 confront us — a theological problem, the adjustment 
 of faith to knowledge; a social problem, the return 
 of the labouring masses to the church; an ecclesias- 
 tical problem, the reuniting of Christendom. For the 
 solution of each of these, I might even say for the taking 
 of any step towards the solution of any of these, knowl- 
 edge of men is essential. Without it we cannot adjust 
 Christianity to the needs of the present with any success. 
 
 My original contention demanded not only knowl- 
 edge of our fellow men but also faith in them. The 
 minister who is going to help reconstruct theology to-day 
 must, if I mistake not, put down faith in man as his 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 233 
 
 fundamental postulate. Most moderns do not see 
 that Christianity has much of a message for them unless 
 it is largely a religion of humanity teaching the pos- 
 sibility of the kingdom of God on earth. The man of 
 the twentieth century realizes his own power, his des- 
 tiny, and no man who tries to develop his theological 
 teachings without understanding this will succeed. 
 The American of to-day knows the potentiality of 
 common humanity. Lincoln's life has taught its 
 unforgetable lesson and the minister must recognize 
 it. He cannot afford to be ignorant of man's large 
 powers, his essential divinity. 
 
 Again, the man who would draw back the Protestant 
 masses to the church must have faith in them. The 
 minister who talks of our "immigrant rabble," who has 
 no confidence in plain people, will never fill his church 
 with wage-earners. Whether we like it or not we are 
 more than blind if we do not see that we are living in 
 a democratic age, an age in which the people are grow- 
 ing in power and are impatient of domination from 
 "above." This being true, the minister who wishes 
 "the common people" to hear him gladly, as they did 
 Jesus of Nazareth, must have a large faith in them. 
 
 Must we not also add faith in our fellow men to 
 our qualifications if we would aid the movement for 
 church unity? It is only the man who has a hopeful 
 confidence in others who really believes that some day 
 all unworthy rivalry between Christians will cease, 
 and who will work earnestly towards that end. Think 
 of Turkish soldiers in the alleged manger under the 
 
234 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 church at Bethlehem keeping guard between warring 
 Christian sects to prevent any one from having a single 
 candle more than its quota! Is it not a cruel mockery? 
 And think of a man who wrote to a friend of mine lately 
 asking his endorsement for a vacant parish and giving 
 as one of his qualifications that he had succeeded in 
 breaking up two rival congregations by the force of 
 his preaching! That man could not have had a broad, 
 generous feeUng towards different kinds of humanity. 
 If we would really advance church unity we must 
 have faith in men, confidence in the reahty of their 
 different convictions, realizing that others have much 
 truth that we need and that the church of the future 
 must be broad enough to include all who yearn to be 
 worthy of the name of Christian. 
 
 And so it comes about that I would place knowl- 
 edge of and faith in our fellows as the second essential 
 for a ministry to men. 
 
 III. Knowledge of and faith in one^s self. — The third 
 essential for the minister to men is that he should 
 thoroughly imderstand himself. "Know thyself" has 
 been a favourite motto of philosophers from the days of 
 Greece, but ministers have not taken the lesson enough 
 to heart. Yet of all men they most need to know 
 their own limitations and their own powers. 
 
 " Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, — 
 These three alone lead life to sovereign power." 
 
 No minister is a rehable encyclopaedia of all knowl- 
 edge and wisdom, and it is best for him and for the 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 235 
 
 community that he thoroughly understand this fact. 
 The minister who thinks that he can speak authori- 
 tatively on the solution of the Hquor problem, and on 
 biblical criticism, and on educational reform, and on the 
 organization of industry, and on the race issue, can be 
 found in every community. But as a matter of fact 
 I only know two or three ministers who have studied 
 any one of these questions really deeply. A man of 
 trained judgment may act with force and intelhgence 
 in several capacities and may show his interest in 
 every good movement, but no man can speak with 
 convincing knowledge and wisdom regarding the solu- 
 tion of more than one or two great problems. It will 
 be a help to you if you realize your limitations. Strong 
 men in your community will tie up to you if they find 
 that you are humble and that you prefer to say that 
 you do n6t know to giving an off-hand solution for 
 every problem. In a small book which was handed 
 to me by an upper classman when I entered Yale 
 were the words "Modesty on the part of Freshmen is 
 the best policy, freshness the sure road to social suicide.'^ 
 Apply for the moment the term Freshmen to men just 
 starting out in the ministry, and interpret the word 
 "social" broadly, and this bit of homely student ad- 
 vice will not prove a bad one for you and for me. If 
 we are modest about the things we have not studied 
 deeply we shall carry double the conviction in the few 
 fields where we are entitled to speak with some author- 
 ity. If you men make religion your master passion, 
 your major, as you should in your ministry, and if 
 
236 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 you take up as your minor some one social field, such 
 as the liquor question, industrial education, or child 
 labour, and study it thoroughly, you will speak with 
 power, and your ministry will be richer in results than 
 if you scatter over a broad field. It comes down mainly 
 to knowing your own Hmitations and your largest 
 spheres of influence, and this means concentration, 
 for in these days of expert knowledge and speciahzation 
 few men can gain the hearing of an intelligent audience 
 in many fines. Occasionally some one with a touch of 
 genius arises who is known as a master in widely differ- 
 ent fields, such as Hopkinson Smith, in engineering, 
 Hterature, and water colours, but such cases are rare, 
 and it is well that we should know it. The great men 
 in the ministry reafize this. PhiUips Brooks used to 
 tell the students at the Cambridge Divinity School 
 not to enter largely into boys' clubs and outside 
 teaching and mission work, unless necessary for self- 
 support, for he befieved that young men needed in their 
 seminary days to concentrate on absorbing the great 
 verities of refigion from study and contemplation. A 
 distinguished preacher told me recently that he had 
 determined for the rest of his life to devote his main 
 energy outside of his regular work as a minister to 
 the single cause of Anti-militarism or International 
 Peace. Such examples should be suggestive to us. 
 Let us reafize our fimitations of time, of knowledge, 
 and of influence. Let us find some work in which there 
 is a special opportimity for us to help bring in the king- 
 dom of God, some field which appeals to our own judg- 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 237 
 
 ment and our own capacities. Then let us master it, 
 and although our sympathies and interests may in- 
 clude the whole world, we shall restrict the subjects 
 about which we speak ex-cathedra. 
 
 ''Know thyself" implies knowledge both of one's 
 limitations and of one's powers. 
 
 This latter carries us over into the field of faith. The 
 minister must be a profound behever in his own poten- 
 tiality. If you do not think that with God's help you 
 can become deeply useful to some commimity I would 
 not advise you to enter the ministry. The minister 
 like other men should be humble as he thinks of the gap 
 between his own character and that of the Master, but 
 should feel exalted as he reaUzes that there is in him a 
 spark of the divine hfe. Remember that one of the 
 greatest doctrines of the Bible is that you are created 
 "in God's image and after his likeness." The door of 
 a divine hfe is open to you in much the same way as it 
 was to Jesus of Nazareth. His experience of God is 
 repeatable to those who will follow in his footsteps. 
 Have faith, then, in yourself. Believe that with his 
 help you can have a vision as great as Paul had on the 
 Damascus road. Believe that you can have an influ- 
 ence for good on men as great as Peter had in those 
 early days in Jerusalem. Beheve that you and your 
 church can be guided of God, just as truly as the Dis- 
 ciples were guided after our Lord's death. Believe that 
 Jesus was sincere in saying "Greater works than these 
 shall ye do because I go to my Father." Believe that 
 when he said, "Be ye therefore perfect," he had erring 
 
238 A MINISTRY TO MEN 
 
 men like you and me in mind. Believe that you 
 can come into spiritual communion with God as truly 
 as Jesus did on the hills of GaHlee. BeUeve that the 
 race of prophets is not dead; that if you pray as they 
 prayed of old you, too, may wrestle with the world's 
 sin and prevail. In a word, have faith in yourself. 
 The man who speaks with authority, who knows that 
 God has chosen him to lead whether in a great battle 
 or a small one, who believes that God will use him as his 
 messenger — that man appeals to men. 
 
 This, then, is the third great need for a ministry to 
 men — knowledge of and faith in one's self. The knowl- 
 edge must include both our powers and our Umitations, 
 the faith must be based on the conviction of our divine 
 birthright which makes it possible for us to hve con- 
 stantly in the presence of our heavenly Father. 
 
 If you have followed me, you will think now of our 
 young minister going out to help men, knowing and 
 believing in Christ, in his fellow men, in himself. You 
 may think that another quahty should be added — a 
 passion for service. This is indeed indispensable, but 
 if a minister is a true follower of Christ and really 
 knows his fellow men and their pitiable condition he 
 will surely long to serve them. I use the phrase ^'pas- 
 sion for service" deliberately. It is not enough merely 
 to intend to be on the right side, you must yearn to 
 lead in the battle for the right, you must have a longing 
 to turn men to God as great as any old-time revivaUst, 
 although your methods may be, and I think mainly 
 should be, conservative. You must strive to bring in 
 
A MINISTRY TO MEN 239 
 
 the kingdom of God — the rule of righteousness and 
 peace, you must have an enthusiasm for religion, 
 you must be wholly consecrated to the spiritual life, 
 you must have some of the old prophetic fire, you 
 must have a keen interest in the spread of the Gospel; 
 but your threefold knowledge and faith should give 
 you these. They have not truly gripped you if you 
 do not feel this passion for service. 
 
 To summarize, you must know and believe in Christ, 
 and your highest hope, your deepest longing, must be 
 to get men to accept him, that is, to hear his words 
 ^'Follow me," and to reply, "Yes, Master, to believe in 
 your God, to love mankind, to Hve in your spirit, will 
 henceforth be my goal." 
 
 You must know and beUeve in yom' fellow men, and 
 must try, in season and out of season, with the use of the 
 calmest judgment, but also of the truest fervour, to lead 
 them individually and collectively to the Christian life. 
 
 You must know and beheve in yourself, considering 
 it your joyous daily privilege to help make other men 
 strong, humble, independent, reahzing themselves in 
 their own lives what it means to be sons of God. 
 
 What a noble field for service the Christian ministry 
 affords its members with such ideals as these ! It opens 
 to men of patriotism, of intellectual force, and of large 
 spirituality an opportunity to influence character that 
 can hardly be matched by any other profession. If you 
 students know and believe in Christ, in your fellow men, 
 and in yourselves, I bid you go out into the work of 
 the church confident that God will bless your ministry. 
 
THE MINISTRY OF MENTAL HEALING 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. George B. Cutten, Ph.D. 
 
 Dr. Cutten is pastor of the First Baptist Churchj 
 Columbus, Ohio, and the author of ''The Psychological 
 Phenomena of Christianity,'^ and other similar works. 
 He graduated from Yah Divinity School in 1903. 
 
THE MINISTRY OF MENTAL HEALING 
 
 MENTAL healing has attracted a great deal of 
 attention in recent years. It has appeared in 
 an increasing variety of forms, and we frequently hear 
 it referred to as a modern movement. So firmly does 
 it seem to have become intrenched in the minds of 
 many as a nineteenth or twentieth centm*y discovery, 
 that it is necessary for us to review the history of these 
 phenomena to get at all a clear understanding of them. 
 
 So far from its being a modern movement, it is char- 
 acteristic of all ages of which we have any history. If 
 we could ascertain the facts it is reasonably certain 
 that they would reveal to us that primitive therapeutics 
 consisted of little else. The talismans, amulets, charms, 
 and disgusting doses of medicine-men and witch doctors 
 could have no remedial value in themselves, but de- 
 pended for what success they had on the belief of the 
 patient. Among savages, the magician was also physi- 
 cian and priest, and certain incantations and ceremonies 
 guarded against demons and the evil eye. 
 
 As far as we are able to trace the subject into antiq- 
 uity, we find mental healing the prime factor in thera- 
 peutics. The healing touch was considered of great 
 remedial value among the early Egyptians and other 
 Orientals. The Ebers papyrus represents that an im- 
 
 243 
 
244 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 portant part of the treatment prior to 1552 b.c. con- 
 sisted in the laying on of hands, combined with an 
 extensive formulary and ceremonial rites. The early 
 Hebrews, who derived their medical knowledge from 
 Egypt, considered disease a punishment for sin, and 
 treated it accordingly. The Levites were the sole prac- 
 titioners. The Vedas, the sacred books of India, reveal 
 demonology, in that country, as a great influence in the 
 practice of, and a large part of the belief among physi- 
 cians. 
 
 The excavations of Cavvadias at Epidaurus have 
 furnished us with much interesting material concerning 
 the cures performed at this ancient Greek shrine five 
 himdred years before the beginning of the Christian era. 
 If the modern physician still recognizes -ZEsculapius as 
 his patron saint, he must have great respect for mental 
 healing. It appears certain from inscriptions upon 
 '^ stelae" that were dug up at Epidaurus and published 
 in 1891, that the system of iEsculapius was based upon 
 the miracle working of a demigod, and not upon the 
 medical art as we now know it. The modus operandi 
 was unique in some details. The patients, mostly 
 incurables, came laden with sacrifices. After prayer, 
 they cleansed themselves with water from the holy well, 
 and offered up sacrifices. Certain ceremonial acts were 
 then performed by the priests, and the patients were 
 put to sleep on the skins of the animals offered at the 
 altar, or at the foot of the statue of the divinity, while 
 the priest performed further sacred rites. The son of 
 Apollo then appeared to them in dreams, attended to 
 
MENTAL HEALING 245 
 
 the particular ailments of the sufferers, and specified 
 further sacrifices or acts which would restore health. 
 In many cases the sick awoke suddenly cured. Large 
 sums of money were asked for these cures; from one 
 inscription we learn that a sum corresponding to $12,000 
 was paid as a fee. The record of cures was carved on 
 the temple as at Lourdes to-day, of which the following 
 is an example: 
 
 "Some days back, a certain Caius, who was blind, 
 learned from an oracle that he should repair to the 
 temple, put up his fervent prayers, cross the sanctuary 
 from right to left, place his five fingers on the altar, then 
 raise his head and cover his eyes. He obeyed, and in- 
 stantly his sight was restored, amid the loud acclama- 
 tions of the multitude. These signs of the omnipotence 
 of the gods were shown in the reign of Antoninus. '' 
 
 It was not until five centuries later, when credulity 
 concerning miracles was on the wane, that the priests 
 began to study and to apply medical means in order 
 to sustain the reputation of the place, and to keep up 
 its enormous revenues. The temple sleep used at Epi- 
 daurus, and in common use among the old Greeks and 
 Egyptians, corresponded to the artificial sleep now 
 called hypnotism, and was the means of facilitating 
 the effects of suggestion. Certain churches in the 
 Middle Ages, St. Anthony of Padua, for example, as- 
 scribed considerable efficacy to a sacred sleep within its 
 walls, and not only permitted but invited patients to 
 sleep there. 
 
 A comparison between the advance in medical knowl- 
 
246 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 edge and in other branches of learning has been suc- 
 cinctly drawn by Dr. Hunger in the following words: 
 "Aristotle mapped out philosophy and morals in lines 
 the world yet accepts in the main, but he did not know 
 the difference between the nerves and the tendons. 
 Rome had a sound system of jurisprudence before it 
 had a physician, using only priestcraft for healing. 
 Cicero was the greatest lawyer the world has seen, but 
 there was not a man in Rome who could have cured 
 him of a colic. The Greek was an expert dialectician 
 when he was using incantations for his diseases. As 
 late as when the Puritans were enunciating their lofty 
 principles, it was generally held that the king's touch 
 would cure scrofula. Governor Winthrop, of colonial 
 days, treated ^smallpox and all fevers' by a powder 
 made from Hive toads baked in an earthern pot in the 
 open air.' " 
 
 Since the beginning of this era we find three different 
 classes of mental healing practised and beheved in by 
 Christians. There are those who use the formula of 
 James, anoint with oil and pray; lay on hands; or 
 simply employ prayer. A second class believe in cer- 
 tain persons as healers. Others have faith in a visit 
 to certain relics and shrines. 
 
 Most followers of Jesus believe, to some extent at 
 least, in the efficacy of prayer, but probably most of us 
 expect the answer by indirect means and employ a 
 physician. We are famiMar with this class, so it is not 
 necessary to dwell longer upon it. We should say, 
 however, that the first class, healing by prayer, should 
 
MENTAL HEALING 247 
 
 alone be classed as divine healing. The other two 
 classes are religious, trusting in healers, saints, and 
 relics, but not directly in Deity. 
 
 The miracles of healing performed by Jesus and the 
 apostles must be classed under the head of mental 
 healing regardless of our theory of the further means 
 by which they were accompUshed, or the power back 
 of them. The most orthodox as well as the most 
 heterodox must admit that in some way through the 
 mind of the sufferer the cure was performed. Modem 
 psychology has but two things to say concerning these 
 miracles, taking the accounts as we find them. The 
 first is that many cures have been performed in recent 
 years through the medium of suggestion which corre- 
 spond very closely to some of the miracles. The two 
 requisites for cure by suggestion were also found to be 
 necessary for cure by miracle, viz., faith on the part of 
 the patient, and suggestion on the part of the healer. 
 The other thing which psychology has to say is that the 
 remainder of the miracles never have, and, so far as we 
 are able to judge, never will be duphcated by suggestive 
 therapeutics. 
 
 The influence of the heahng of Jesus and the apostles 
 has been twofold and divergent. In the first place, it 
 has emphasized the desirabihty of the care of the sick, 
 an emphasis which Christians have recognized during 
 the last 1800 years. But in the second place, the 
 emphasis laid on supernatural means for cure has hin- 
 dered the development of the science of medicine more 
 than any other one thing, or all other causes combined. 
 
248 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 In common with the general view of the times, a 
 supernatural cause was ascribed to all diseases, and 
 hence a supernatural cure was necessary for their 
 amelioration. The healing of diseases for the centuries 
 following the time of Jesus was synonymous with the 
 exorcising of demons. At first all Christians were able 
 to cast out demons, and exercised the gift. They fully 
 recognized, however, the supernatural power possessed 
 by the Jewish and Gentile exorcists, but they claimed 
 to be in many respects their superiors. The power and 
 reality of demonism and of exorcism have been believed 
 in by the church since that time. 
 
 From the beginning of the Christian era to the Middle 
 Ages, while some progress was made in the study of 
 anatomy and diagnosis, there was little advance in 
 therapeutics. Whatever the disease might be, its cure 
 was largely the prerogative of religion, and any other 
 system of therapeutics was sacrilege. Being thus in 
 the thraldom of religious superstition and misapprehen- 
 sion, the science of heahng was the most backward of 
 all, and only the work of the last three centuries has 
 raised it to the level of a true science. 
 
 Perhaps we have no better example of the effect of 
 the belief in healers than that presented by what was 
 known as "king's touch." It exhibits all the phases 
 of this aspect of the subject, and may be taken as typ- 
 ical of the cures performed by healers. It was especially 
 efficacious in epilepsy and scrofula, the latter being 
 consequently known as "king's evil." 
 
 There seems to have been a great development of 
 
MENTAL HEALING 249 
 
 healers during the last three centuries. In 1662, Valen- 
 tine Greatrakes, the noted Irish soldier and healer, felt 
 that he had been given divine healing power, and seemed 
 to be remarkably successful in touching for scrofula, 
 epilepsy, ague, ulcers, aches, and lameness. About the 
 same time that Greatrakes was stirring up such a 
 commotion in London, an Italian enthusiast, named 
 Francisco Bagnone, was performing cures with great 
 success in Italy. He had only to touch with his 
 hands, or sometimes with a relic, to accomplish these 
 results. 
 
 In 1727, Gassner, a Romanist priest of Swabia, 
 thought that most diseases were attributable to evil 
 spirits, whose power could only be destroyed by con- 
 juration and prayer. He practised on his parishioners 
 with some success, and many considered his cures 
 miraculous. Gassner shared eighteenth-century honours 
 with Frau Starke of Osterode, who performed many 
 cures through stroking and touching the patients' 
 bodies, and by so-called charming. 
 
 The greatest name in mental healing in the nineteenth 
 century was that of Prince Hohenlohe, Roman Catholic 
 Bishop of Sardica. At the age of twenty-six he met a 
 peasant who wrought wonderful cures, and the prince 
 caught the enthusiasm. He aroused much attention 
 by his cures in Bavaria in 1821, his imposing names and 
 titles, both secular and religious, probably adding not a 
 little to his influence. According to the testimony of 
 the ex-King of Bavaria, who was himself partially cured 
 of deafness, the Prince, by a few short prayers and the 
 
250 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 invocation of the name of Jesus, restored the deaf, 
 blind, and lame, regardless of class, sex, or age. 
 
 Within the last half century many healers have 
 appeared, the mention of whose names is sufficient to 
 recall incidents concerning them. Some stand out with 
 more prominence. Rev. W. E. Boardman, the pro- 
 prietor of "Bethshan," in the north of London, cured 
 by anointing with oil and praying. He claimed to have 
 cured cancer, paralysis, advanced consumption, chronic 
 rheumatism, and lameness, and showed many trophies 
 in the shape of canes and crutches. Dr. Charles Cullis 
 performed many cures in Boston and Old Orchard. 
 He was followed in the latter place by Rev. A. B. Simp- 
 son, who still cures and takes up collections. George 
 0. Barnes, the so-called ''Mountain EvangeUst," healed 
 some of his converts. Not a few revivahsts, however, 
 have incidentally become healers. Wesley accepted the 
 role of exorcist, Finney tells of healing an insane woman 
 at Antwerp, N. Y., and George Fox cured a lame arm 
 by command. Some women have also been enrolled 
 as healers. In the last decade numerous healers like 
 Schlatter and Dowie have acquired a meteoric fame, 
 stirred up a newspaper commotion, and sunk into ob- 
 livion. 
 
 But miraculous cures were not ascribed to persons 
 only. A wide-spread movement developed in the early 
 church, the fruit of which was an innumerable number 
 of miracles wrought by streams, by pools of water, and 
 especially by relics. We find recorded many authentic 
 cures, real amid a multitude of shams, which have been 
 
MENTAL HEALING 261 
 
 wrought at holy places, dedicated to various saints, and 
 at places where reUcs of saints were supposed to rest. 
 While there was probably some advance when the saints 
 of the church usurped the place of the zodiacal constella- 
 tions in their government of the various parts of the 
 human body, the church prevented any further develop- 
 ment. As early as the latter part of the fourth century, 
 miraculous powers were ascribed to the images of Jesus 
 and the saints which adorned most of the churches of 
 the time, and tales of wonderful cures were related of 
 them. The intercessions of the saints were invoked, 
 and their relics began to work miracles. 
 
 St. Cyril, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and other great 
 fathers of the early church, sanctioned the belief that 
 gi'eat efficacy was to be found in the relics of the saints 
 of their age. St. Augustine tells us ^'besides many 
 other miracles, that Gamaliel in a dream revealed to a 
 priest named Lacianus the place where the bones of 
 St. Stephen were buried; that those bones, being thus 
 discovered, were brought to Hippo, the diocese of which 
 St. Augustine was bishop; that they raised five persons 
 to life; and that, although only a portion of the miracu- 
 lous cures they effected had been registered, the cer- 
 tificates drawn up in two years in the diocese, and by 
 orders of the saint, were nearly seventy. In the adjoin- 
 ing diocese of Calama they were incomparably more 
 numerous." 
 
 ''The first pilgrims to the Holy Land brought back to 
 Europe thousands of apocryphal reUcs, in the purchase 
 of which they had expended all their store. The greatest 
 
252 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 favourite was the wood of the true cross, which, like the 
 oil of the widow, never diminished. . . . Fragments, pur- 
 porting to have been cut from it, were in the eleventh 
 and twelfth centuries to be found in almost every 
 church in Europe, and would, if collected together in 
 one place, have been almost sufficient to have built a 
 cathedral. . . . Next in renown were those precious 
 reUcs, the tears of the Saviour. By whom and in what 
 manner they were preserved, the pilgrim did not en- 
 quire. . . . Tears of the Virgin Mary, and tears of St. 
 Peter, were also to be had, carefully enclosed in httle 
 caskets, which the pious might wear in their bosoms. 
 After the tears, the next most precious relics were drops 
 of the blood of Jesus and the martyrs, and the milk of 
 the Virgin Mary. Hair and toenails were also in great 
 repute, and were sold at extravagant prices. . . . Many 
 a nail, cut from the filthy foot of some unscrupulous 
 ecclesiastic, was sold at a diamond's price, within six 
 months after its severance from its parent toe, upon the 
 supposition that it had once belonged to a saint or an 
 apostle. Peter's toes were uncommonly prolific, for 
 there were nails enough in Europe, at the time of the 
 council of Clermont, to have filled a sack, all of which 
 were devoutly believed to have grown on the sacred 
 foot of that great apostle. Some of them are still 
 shown in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle." 
 
 Nearly every country had its long list of saints, each 
 with his special power over some organ or disease. 
 '^Thus the water in which the single hair of a saint had 
 been dipped was used as a purgative; water in which 
 
MENTAL HEALING 253 
 
 St. Remy's ring had been dipped cured fevers; wine in 
 which the bones of a saint had been dipped cured lunacy; 
 oil from a lamp burning before the tomb of St. Gall 
 cured tumours. St. Valentine cured epilepsy; St. Chris- 
 topher, throat diseases; St. Eutropius, dropsy; St. Ovid, 
 deafness; St. Gervase, rheumatism; St. Apollonia, tooth- 
 ache; St. Vitus, St. Anthony, and a multitude of other 
 saints, the maladies which bear their names. Even as 
 late as 1784 we find certain authorities in Bavaria order- 
 ing that any one bitten by a mad dog shall at once put 
 up prayers at the shrine of St. Hubert, and not waste 
 his time in any attempts at medical or surgical cure. 
 In the twelfth century we find a noted cure attempted 
 by causing the invalid to drink water in which St. 
 Bernard had washed his hands. Flowers which had 
 rested on the tomb of a saint, when steeped in water 
 were supposed to be especially efficacious in various 
 diseases." 
 
 Among the ancients, lunatics were brought to the 
 temples, and in our era to the churches, and subjected 
 to imposing ceremonies which were believed to relieve 
 them, and which probably had a favourable action on 
 them. Wonderful cures took place at the shrine of St. 
 Edmund, and real miracles of healing were wrought 
 upon those who drank out of the saint's cup. St. 
 Patrick healed the blind, and St. Bernard healed the 
 blind and dumb. St. Dunstan did mighty works, and 
 the mere index of the miracles of Thomas a Becket 
 requires thirteen octavo pages. M. Littre, in his Frag- 
 ment de medecine retrospective, describes seven miracles 
 
254 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 which took place in France at the end of the thirteenth 
 century at the tomb of St. Louis. Mademoiselle Perrier 
 was cured at Paris of a disease of the eyes of long stand- 
 ing, by merely kissing what was supposed to be one of 
 the identical thorns that bound the holy head of the 
 Son of God. 
 
 To combat the rising science of medicine the church 
 itself developed a ludicrous system of therapeutics. In 
 addition to this, the body was supposed to be made 
 imdesirable for a habitation for the demon of disease by 
 administering torture and all manner of vile and dis- 
 gusting doses. ^'Even such serious matters as frac- 
 tures, calculi, and difficult parturition, in which modern 
 science has achieved some of its greatest triumphs, 
 were then dealt with by relics; and to this hour the 
 exvotos hanging at such shrines as those of St. Gene- 
 vieve at Paris, of St. Anthony at Padua, of the Druid 
 image at Chartres, of the Virgin at Einsiedeln and 
 Lourdes, of the fountain at La Salette, are survivals of 
 this same conception of disease and its cure. So, too, 
 with a multitude of- sacred pools, streams, and spots of 
 earth." 
 
 The two shrines at present best known and which 
 have proved most efficacious are those of Lourdes in 
 France, and St. Anne de Beaupr6 in the Province of 
 Quebec. Over 300,000 visit the former place every 
 year, and no small proportion of them return with 
 health restored as a reward for their faith. In America, 
 thousands flock to the shrine of St. Anne annually. 
 Here are to be found bones, supposed to be the wrist 
 
MENTAL HEALING 255 
 
 bones of the saint, and many sufferers are able to testify 
 to their value in the healing of diseases. 
 
 When therapeutics as a science began its rebellion 
 against the church, healing was divided into two kinds, 
 viz., religious and non-religious. We may see the 
 gradual growth of this in the teaching of certain men 
 of the times. Paracelsus, who lived during the first 
 half of the sixteenth century, wrote these words: 
 "Whether the object of your faith is real or false, you 
 will nevertheless obtain the same effects. Thus, if I 
 believe in St. Peter's statue as T would have believed 
 in St. Peter himself, I will obtain the same effects that 
 I would have obtained from St. Peter; but that is super- 
 stition. Faith, however, produces miracles, and whether 
 it be true or false faith, it will always produce the same 
 wonders." 
 
 Notwithstanding this shrewd observation, Paracelsus' ' 
 remedies were little if any better than the reUcs which 
 he explains. For example, he cured wounds inflicted 
 with a sharp weapon by the following receipt: "Take of 
 moss growing on the head of a thief who had been 
 hanged and left in the open air; of real mummy; of 
 human blood, still warm — of each, one ounce; of human 
 suet two ounces; of linseed oil, turpentine, and Arme- 
 nian bole — of each two ounces. Mix well in a mortar, 
 and keep the salve in an oblong, narrow urn." After 
 being dipped in the blood of the wound, the weapon — 
 not the wound — was anointed with this salve, and 
 then laid in a cool place. 
 
 The divorce of non-religious from religious healing 
 
256 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 was a slow process. About the middle of the eighteenth 
 century men began to devote their attention to the 
 characteristics of the magnet, and one, Father Hell, a 
 Jesuit and professor of astronomy at the University of 
 Vienna, rendered himself famous by his magnetic cures. 
 About the year 1771 he invented steel plates or trac- 
 tors of a peculiar form, which he apphed to the naked 
 body as a cure for several diseases. In 1774 he com- 
 municated his system to Friedrich Anthony Mesmer, the 
 man who, more than any one else, drew the attention 
 of the world to mental healing. After varying fortunes 
 animal magnetism, or mesmerism as it came to be called, 
 estabhshed itself as a recognized part of science, largely 
 through the influence and work of James Braid, a Man- 
 chester physician, who renamed it hypnotism. 
 
 There are many forms of mental healing extant to-day, 
 all using suggestion in some way to effect their cures. 
 Mind curers and mental healers (in the narrower use of 
 the term) employ direct suggestions, while metaphys- 
 ical healers and Christian Scientists use more indirect 
 methods. Any of these forms which are connected 
 with religion gain their adherents almost without excep- 
 tion through the influence of their mental healing. The 
 religious or philosophical dose is neither understood nor 
 relished, but it is blindly accepted so long as there are 
 practical results in the form of cures. 
 
 Having taken up a resume of the history of mental 
 healing, it is now necessary to examine the theory under- 
 lying it. First, we should notice one form of mental 
 activity which has been much emphasized during the 
 
MENTAL HEALING 257 
 
 last few years. Only recently has its existence in its 
 present form been recognized, and, as is usual in such 
 cases, too much has been attributed to it. It has been 
 known by many names, chief among which are ^^The 
 Sub-conscious Self," and ^'The Subliminal Self." We 
 shall use the term, ^'Subconsciousness." For a plenary 
 description of this mental factor we shall have to look 
 elsewhere, but it may be well to say that controlling as 
 it does the involuntary muscles and the internal organs, 
 it is the chief factor in mental healing. 
 
 Every person who observes his experiences will easily 
 recognize two relationships. The first is the power and 
 influence of the body over the mind; the second is the 
 power and influence of the mind over the body — they 
 are reciprocal in their action. Of the first, which is an 
 important fact in our lives, we have nothing further to 
 say here; the second, however, is the basis of mental 
 healing. Probably no other phenomenon so conclu- 
 sively demonstrates the power of the mind over the body 
 as do the four hundred or more cases of stigmatization, 
 of which we have record. By allowing the mind to 
 dwell upon the sufferings of Christ, marks corresponding 
 to the wounds in the feet, hands, side, and forehead of 
 Christ appear on the body, some of which bleed pro- 
 fusely, especially on Fridays. 
 
 We must further recognize that this power of the 
 mind over the body may work in a twofold manner; 
 the body may be injured by fear, anger, imagined 
 disease, or thinking much about a slight ailment, but 
 in dealing with mental healing it is the opposite side 
 
258 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 with which we have to do, viz., the beneficial effects of 
 mental states upon certain diseases. 
 
 Pain is a mental state. The bruised finger or the 
 aching tooth does not pain; the mind feels the pain, 
 which experience has taught it to localize in the different 
 parts of the body. Now, there is no difference between 
 having pain and thinking we have it, or having no pain 
 and thinking we have none. If we have pain and can 
 think we have none, we get rid of it. Persistent pain, 
 however, is difficult to think away. Or if we can set 
 our minds upon something different with sufficient 
 force, the pain is not felt. The mind can readily attend 
 to only one thing at a time, and if filled with other 
 matters the pain is excluded. 
 
 Some people are more suggestible than others, and 
 suggestion, whether in normal or abnormal states, is 
 more effective with them. Suggestion works upon the 
 subconsciousness. In normal states the suggestion 
 must be made indirectly, so as not to have the distrac- 
 tion of continued perception. Apparently, that which 
 sHps by consciousness unnoticed is most effective with 
 the subconsciousness. Trustful expectation in any one 
 direction acts powerfully through the subconsciousness, 
 because it absorbs the whole mind, and thus competi- 
 tion is excluded. It is this which acts in mental healing, 
 although some abnormal conditions may also arise to 
 assist the suggestion. 
 
 That the healing from relics was a matter of faith on 
 the part of the patient rather than of power on the part 
 of the relic may be argued apart from the modern 
 
MENTAL HEALING 259 
 
 psychological theory. The history of some of the relics 
 unfortunately proves them not to be relics at all, or at 
 least not to be the relics which the faithful suppose 
 them to be. Notice a few instances. In a magnificent 
 shrine in the cathedral at Cologne are the skulls of the 
 three kings or wise men from the east, who brought 
 gifts to the infant Lord. They have rested here since 
 the twelfth century, and have been the source of enor- 
 mous wealth and power to the cathedral chapter. Not 
 to be outdone by the cathedral, at the Church of St. 
 Gereon, a cemetery has been depopulated, and the bones 
 thus procured have been placed upon the walls, and are 
 known as the relics of St. Gereon and his Theband of 
 Martyrs! Further competition arose in the neighbour- 
 ing church of St. Ursula. Another cemetery was de- 
 spoiled, and the bones covering the interior of the walls 
 are known as the relics of St. Ursula and her eleven 
 hundred virgin martyrs. Anatomists now declare that 
 many of the bones are those of men, but this made no 
 more difference in their heahng efficacy in the Middle 
 Ages than that the rehcs of St. Rosalia at Palermo have 
 lately been declared by Professor Buckland, the eminent 
 osteologist, to be the bones of a goat. Two different 
 investigations conducted at La Salette have shown the 
 modern miracles performed at that shrine to be tainted 
 with fraud, and the recent restoration of the cathedral 
 at Trondhjem has revealed a tube in the walls, not 
 unlike the apparatus discovered in the Temple of Isis 
 at Pompeii. The healing power of the sacred spring 
 was augmented by angelic voices which issued from 
 
260 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 supposedly solid walls. When Perkins was performing 
 such wonderful cures with his magnetized steel tractors, 
 Dr. Haygarth of Bath made wooden tractors, and 
 painted them to resemble steel ones. Four out of 
 five patients applying them were healed. 
 
 There were fashions in cures as in other things. At 
 one time a certain relic would attract and cure, and 
 shortly afterwards that relic would be deserted and 
 inefficacious, not because it had lost its power, but 
 because the people had lost their faith. Some other 
 relics would then spring into popular favour, and the 
 crowds would flock to them. We have many modern 
 instances of this kind. 
 
 That this confident expectation of a cure is the most 
 potent means of bringing it about, doing that which no 
 medical treatment can accompUsh, may be affirmed as 
 the generalized result of experiences of the most varied 
 kind, extending through a long series of ages. It is this 
 factor which is common to methods of the most diverse 
 character. It is noticeable that any system of treat- 
 ment, however absurd, that can be puffed into public 
 notoriety for efficacy, any individual who by accident 
 or design obtains a reputation for a special gift of heal- 
 ing, is certain to attract a multitude of sufferers among 
 whom will be many who are capable of being really 
 benefited by a strong assurance of rehef. Thus, the 
 practitioner with a great reputation has an advantage 
 over his neighbouring physicians, not only on account 
 of the superior skill which he may have acquired, but 
 because his reputation causes this confident expectation, 
 
MENTAL HEALING 261 
 
 so beneficial in itself. We must also include under this 
 head the therapeutic value in most patent medicines. 
 
 Notwithstanding that we know the large part which 
 suggestion plays in ordinary therapeutics, we usually 
 employ a physician, and are willing to pay for the sug- 
 gestion, being confident that if it should do less good, 
 it will also do less harm than many of his drugs. It is 
 noteworthy that many suggestionists, \m justly called 
 swindlers, have been more successful than many scien- 
 tific physicians. If male physicians are more successful 
 than their sisters in the profession, it is not on account 
 of more serious study, for on an average the women 
 stand higher in their classes. The secret is in the 
 greater power of suggestion possessed by men. 
 
 Few healers will admit this theory in regard to their 
 own treatment, but apply it very freely to others. Mrs. 
 Eddy condemns hypnotism and all other forms of 
 mental healing as frauds; the pilgrims of Lourdes look 
 with pity upon the charms of the savages; and the relic 
 worshippers scorn the suggestion of anything but mir- 
 acle as the modus operandi of their cures. Dr. Newton 
 denounced his successful pupil. Dr. Bryant, as an '^un- 
 mitigated fraud, who had no genuine healing power." 
 
 Beside the direct or indirect suggestion, certain emo- 
 tional states have great power. ' ' There are undoubtedly 
 serious lesions which yield to profound emotion and 
 vigorous exertion born of persuasion, confidence, or 
 excitement. The wonderful power of the mind over 
 the body is known to every observant student." Dr. 
 Berdoe calls to our minds the fact that ^'a gouty man, 
 
262 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 who has long hobbled about on his crutch, finds his 
 legs and power to run with them if pursued by a wild 
 bull"; and that "the feeblest invalid, under the influ- 
 ence of delirium or other strong excitement, will astonish 
 her nurse by the strong accession of strength." For 
 example, a physician ordered a vapour bath for a lady 
 suffering from rheumatism. A hose was attached to 
 the teakettle, which the nurse had filled too full, and 
 when the water started to boil, not vapour but boiling 
 water poured upon the prostrate woman. She sprang 
 from her bed, upbraided the nurse, and never suffered 
 from rheimiatism again. 
 
 These examples have been cited to show that healing 
 wrought through faith-cure, hypnotism, and similar 
 means is not very different from our every-day expe- 
 riences. Our thoughts tend to express themselves in 
 action; this is the psychical basis of will. The law of 
 mental healing is also built upon this fact, and may be 
 expressed as follows: the body tends to adjust itself so as 
 to he in harmony with our ideas concerning it. However 
 the thought of cure may come into our minds, either by 
 external or auto-suggestion, if it is firmly rooted, so as 
 to impress the subconsciousness, that part of the mind 
 which rules the bodily organs, a tendency towards cure 
 is at once set up and continues as long as that thought 
 has the ascendency. 
 
 Mental healing of any and every kind is efficacious 
 for one class of diseases, viz., the functional ones. 
 Where the organ is affected, as in a honeycombed 
 kidney or a destroyed lung, the disease is called organic, 
 
MENTAL HEALING 263 
 
 and suggestion, except in incipient cases and in an 
 indirect way, can render little aid. Mrs. Eddy declares 
 that she has cured such diseases '^as readily as purely 
 functional diseases," but it is in attempting to treat 
 cases of this kind that Christian Scientists have fallen 
 into trouble. 
 
 While all forms of mental healing aim at the same 
 result, the methods differ. Both hypnotic operator and 
 Christian Science healer seek to alleviate or remove 
 pain and disease by impressing the mind of the sufferer, 
 the one by truthfully recognizing the existence of the 
 trouble and endeavouring to bring about mental states 
 which cure it, the other by untruthfully insisting that 
 it does not and cannot exist. Both are successful at 
 times. The whole system of therapeutics may be 
 divided into two classes on this basis. What we may 
 designate as metaphysical cure denies that either 
 matter or evil exists, and heals by inspiring the beUef 
 that the disease cannot assail the patient because he is 
 pure spirit; the other class, faith-ciire, recognizes the 
 disease, but cures by faith in the power of Divinity, 
 persons, objects, or suggestion. 
 
 The question of whether or not there is ever divine 
 power manifested in faith-cure is an additional problem. 
 Suffice it to say at this point, that divine manifestation 
 would not be inconsistent with what we know concern- 
 ing the subconsciousness. The subconsciousness corre- 
 sponds to that part of the mind which the old writers 
 designated as the "heart," and is the religious clearing- 
 house. While we speak of cures coming through the 
 
264 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 subconsciousness at all times, whether the power back 
 of it is human or divine, is an entirely separate question. 
 A distinction already made may be recalled; the cures 
 brought about by healers, shrines, and relics are not 
 classed under divine, but under religious healing; prayer 
 alone is the medium of divine healing. 
 
 ''If the cure be wrought, what matters it to the happy 
 invalid . . . whether the cure is wrought by the touch 
 of the Divine hand, or the overpowering influence of a 
 great idea upon the nervous system? If our hunger be 
 appeased, it matters Uttle whether it is by manna rained 
 down from heaven, or a wheaten loaf raised from the 
 harvest field. Miraculous water from the rock does 
 not quench the thirst better than that which bubbles 
 from the village spring." And, we may add, one is not 
 more divine than the other. We must, however, lay 
 emphasis on the therapeutic value of prayer, and the 
 religious life generally, for this is fully attested by all 
 competent observers. 
 
 All of us would probably agree with what may be 
 called the modern psychological view of prayer, that 
 there is a subjective effect in the form of a reaction on 
 the person praying. But if we go further and admit 
 that God works directly upon the subconsciousness of 
 man, we include a far greater scope. If he influences 
 men through the subconsciousness, this influence is not 
 confined to the person who offers the prayer, but may 
 be extended to other or all men directly. On the other 
 hand, through the influence of one person upon another 
 indirectly, our prayers may be answered, and if it shall 
 
MENTAL HEALING 265 
 
 be scientifically demonstrated that telepathy is some- 
 thing more than a theory, and its laws are miderstood, 
 influence not only between man and man, but between 
 God and man, will be better comprehended and come 
 more fully into the class of natural law. 
 
 What shall we say concerning the duty of the twen- 
 tieth-century minister in regard to Mental HeaHng? 
 After considerable thought, and a longer experience 
 than that furnished by the Emmanuel Movement, I 
 believe that mental heahng, as such, shall not become 
 a regular part of church work. 
 
 Read for yourselves that very interesting and most 
 valuable book written by the directors of the Emmanuel 
 Movement, '^Rehgion and Medicine." In the first place 
 you will notice that the title is a misnomer; it should 
 be "Psycho-therapeutics and Rehgion as an Aid." 
 Less than one hundred pages out of more than four 
 hundred are concerned with reUgion at all. In the 
 second place you will see that in order to carry out the 
 work as there suggested in its simplest form, after 
 finishing your seminary course this year, you will need 
 four years in a medical school, two years, at least, in 
 post-graduate study in psychology, and at least one 
 year in clinical work. If this is done, there will be no 
 use of the churches demanding young ministers, for 
 there will not be any, i.e., any trained ones. 
 
 In the third place, it is evident that when one em- 
 barks on this work in the church, this phase must 
 occupy his whole time. To treat a patient psychologi- 
 cally is very different from common medical practice. 
 
266 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 He cannot be dismissed with a few pills at the rate of 
 ten patients an hour, but at least one or two hours must 
 be devoted to each patient, so that five or six is the 
 limit in numbers for a day. When some of these must 
 be treated three or four times a week, about twelve to 
 twenty patients are all that one person can handle 
 properly in a week. You see the point — one could 
 not do an5rthing else. 
 
 The history of the Emmanuel Movement reveals the 
 fact that it grew out of the Tuberculosis Class conducted 
 by this same church. If one is to have a mental healing 
 class, which from the nature of the case ministers prin- 
 cipally to nervous diseases, there is as much demand 
 on the church for a continuation of the Tuberculosis 
 Class, and the addition of the Cancer Class, the Bright's 
 Disease Class, the Whooping Cough Class, and so on 
 ad infinitum. 
 
 To say that the church should be interested in healing 
 the sick is true; it should be interested in the cure of 
 all diseases, and not only nervous diseases. It should 
 also be interested in keeping the healthy well. It should 
 be interested in all forms of education, in eliminating 
 poverty and crime, in the advancement of commercial 
 and industrial affairs, in the crops, in good roads, — in 
 fact, the church is waking up to the reahzation that 
 everj^hing that is of interest to man is of interest to 
 God, and everything which ministers to the physical, 
 intellectual, or moral well-being of man is of vital 
 interest to the church. The church of to-day has 
 eliminated the distinction between sacred and secular, 
 
MENTAL HEALING 267 
 
 and recognizes that all things are sacred. The life 
 cannot be divided up and a fraction dedicated to God, 
 but all must be given to him; hence God and his church 
 are concerned with all human experience. That does 
 not mean, however, that the church must do all these 
 things directly. It cannot. Its work is inspirational, 
 and it delegates to its members — all its members — 
 certain factors of general progress, and retains for its 
 direct work the moral and religious development of 
 mankind. This is the dynamic of the inspiration which 
 incites to the proper accomplishment of the world's 
 work. The factor which it retains as its direct work is 
 so comprehensive that it touches all others. 
 
 The Emmanuel Movement, like Christian Science, will 
 not be without its value, for it will stimulate the physi- 
 cians to take up mental healing, which heretofore they 
 have not had the courage to do. The physicians have 
 not been ignorant of the value of mental healing, but 
 they have erroneously feared that it would take the 
 place of their medicines. Further, it has been practised 
 so much by quacks and impostors, and hypnotism has 
 had such a bad name, that any physician who adver- 
 tised to use hypnotism or suggestive treatment of any 
 kind would lose his reputation and his practice. It 
 needs a few brave physicians to step forward, remove 
 the stigma from this branch of therapeutics, and, placing 
 it upon a scientific basis, dehver it to the service of 
 mankind. The medical schools must educate to this. 
 
 When the physicians do their part the supplementary 
 work of the clergyman will not be onerous. The really 
 
268 MENTAL HEALING 
 
 religious part of the treatment, the part which must be 
 demanded of a clergyman, could readily be taught in 
 a course which should be provided by every divinity 
 school, and could be furnished by him without a too 
 serious tax on his time. The inspiration of religious 
 hope, the trust and faith of prayer, the rectification of 
 morals, and a quiet, peaceful, reUgious Hfe, should be 
 the result of the minister's work. This would provide 
 the general healthful bodily tone, as well as the mental 
 attitude for specific cures, and there is no real physician 
 who would not welcome this cooperation in his work. 
 
 Of course, we know that the churches in America are 
 not very different from the church in Athens, in being 
 attracted by "some new thing." Churches will adopt 
 Mental Healing because they think it is new. Clergy- 
 men will be attracted to it, and it must be admitted 
 that to the pastor who toils all night and catches noth- 
 ing, to see immediate results, and to have numbers 
 flocking to him, are really stimulating, even if it is not 
 directly in connection with that part of the work which 
 the church has specifically chosen. In some rare cases 
 there will be both churches and pastors which should 
 take this up as a part of the institutional church work. 
 In the main, however, I beheve after the excitement 
 and novelty have evaporated, and the physicians have 
 taken up all the work which legitimately belongs to 
 them, the church will decide that although it is inter- 
 ested and ready to contribute its part, it is satisfied to 
 delegate the therapeutic art, as such, to its members, 
 the physicians. 
 
THE MINISTER IN ASSOCIATION WITH 
 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Frederick Lynch 
 
 Mr. Lynch, a graduate of the class of 1897 in Yale 
 Divinity School, pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church, 
 New York, has been a great personal force in the movement 
 for International Peace, and is associated with all of the 
 great ethical movements of the time. 
 
THE MINISTER IN ASSOCIATION WITH INTER- 
 NATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 THE nineteenth century was one of national 
 development. It was a period of nations find- 
 ing themselves. Germany passed from a group of 
 scattered and unrelated states into a powerful and 
 unified empire. Her industrial development has been 
 marvellous. The spirit of nationality has spread 
 throughout the empire and the Fatherland stands a 
 great, compact organism, one in spirit and one in pur- 
 pose. Japan is another illustration, one of the most 
 significant of all, because of the rapidity with which 
 the national development has proceeded. At the 
 beginning of the last century an unheard of, unambi- 
 tious, uninfluential, dormant nation; during the century 
 she has become a great, industrial centre, awake to the 
 best learning of the world, a mihtary power of first 
 rank, a leader in the great East, with a constitutional 
 government bordering upon democracy. It is needless 
 to refer to our land. From a little handful of jealous 
 states bordering on the eastern ocean it has become 
 the great republic of the world, one and indivisible. 
 It has worked out the problem of democracy; at least 
 to that point that democracy is shown to be the polit- 
 ical theory of the future. It has been developing its 
 
 271 
 
272 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 national resources, building railroads, founding schools 
 and colleges, and solidifying its vast interests. It 
 has passed through great struggles, but it not only 
 has saved itself but made a union which in many re- 
 spects is the model for the world. It has, every year, 
 received several thousand aliens, coming from every 
 conceivable form of government and no government, 
 of every religion, race, ideal, colour, tongue, and has 
 succeeded, we think, with phenomenal success, con- 
 sidering the circumstances, in moulding them over into 
 American citizens and unifying them all into a nation 
 which, while in composition the most heterogeneous on 
 the earth, in spirit is as homogeneous as any. What 
 has been true of these nations has been true of all. The 
 nineteenth century was one of national development. 
 
 The twentieth century, at whose beginning we stand, 
 is to be one of international development. What has 
 happened in countries, with states, is to happen, at 
 least in spirit, in the world, with nations. While we 
 might not venture to say with some prophets that the 
 end of the twentieth century will witness a United States 
 of the World, as the end of the nineteenth century wit- 
 nessed a perfected United States of America, no one 
 who has closely observed the movements gathering 
 greatest headway at the beginning of this century can 
 fail to see that the century is to witness a somewhat 
 similar unifying process among the nations to that which 
 the nineteenth century witnessea among the states. As 
 the states turned from state aggrandizement regardless 
 of other states, to consider the common welfare of the 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 273 
 
 nation, so the nations of the world are going to abandon 
 their policies of isolation for one of common purpose 
 and welfare. As the states abandoned their habit of 
 going to war over their disputes, and established a 
 supreme court of states at Washington, where now all 
 differences are settled by arbitration, so the nations are 
 going less and less to make war upon each other, and 
 are going to establish a supreme court of nations at 
 which all their disputes will be settled by arbitration. 
 As the states have developed a large parliament or 
 congress of states at Washington, made up of delegates 
 from all the states, which makes laws for the states 
 and debates questions affecting all the states, yet each 
 state keeps its own congress or parhament, or assembly, 
 so the nations will develop a great parliament of nations, 
 which shall pass laws affecting all the nations and shall 
 debate questions of interest to all while each nation 
 retains its own parliament. Indeed, as we shall see 
 in a moment, this parliament of man, in a sense, has 
 already been reahzed in the second Hague Conference 
 of 1907. And just as the states have learned to hold 
 imofficial conferences to consider the welfare of the 
 nation, as witness the conference of all the governors 
 at Washington last year, and just as all state, religious 
 and philanthropic, and scientific, organizations hold 
 national conferences, so the officials of the nations and 
 the national religious and other organizations are going 
 more and more to hold unofficial, international con- 
 ferences and congresses. And just as in the nation we 
 have all of us come to that point where we do not think 
 
274 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 of ourselves as citizens of our state so much as citizens 
 of the United States, so the twentieth century will 
 witness a growth of the sense of international citizen- 
 ship — a sense of belonging to the great, closely knit 
 brotherhood of aspiring man, which if not as deep- 
 rooted as our sense of national citizenship will closely 
 approximate to it. This sense of world citizenship is 
 already not unknown among the prophets. And just 
 as the states have become big enough in their sym- 
 pathies to desire for all the other states what they 
 desire for themselves and to erect no barriers between 
 state and state, and to bear upon their hearts supremely 
 the welfare of the nation, so the twentieth century will 
 witness the nations foregoing the old selfish policies of 
 isolation, and striving altogether for one common wel- 
 fare and achievement, in a federation which shall insure 
 justice, right understanding, and happiness for all. 
 
 It is the purpose of this address to bring to attention 
 certain happenings of this century, hardly yet begim, 
 which show how irresistible and inevitable this move- 
 ment towards international development and federation 
 of the nations already is. When, at the beginning of 
 the century, Mr. Stead wrote his prophetic book, ^'The 
 Ajnericanization of the World," everybody praised the 
 brilHancy of the book, the daring prophecy in its pages, 
 but no one believed. Only nine years have passed, 
 and all who are watching the happenings of the world 
 not only now feel its 'probabihty, but cannot help 
 noting that it is to be the real trend and task of the 
 century. Everything is setting that way. A calendar 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 275 
 
 of the events of only one year, the year 1908, making 
 for the federation and peace of the world, has just 
 been prepared and in it are entered fifty great events. 
 In fact almost every great event of 1908 was of an 
 international nature. So significant were these events 
 of just one year, so many were they, that we could 
 largely confine ourselves to a consideration of them, 
 and by one year alone show the remarkable trend of 
 this century to be international unity, as the trend of 
 the last century was national unity. 
 
 There are four great movements characteristic of our 
 century, which, although the century is but just begun, 
 have already become so common that they are printed 
 almost without headhnes in the papers, and have within 
 them such international significance that not only are 
 they signs of and helps toward the federation of the 
 world, but are already actual realizations of world 
 unity and federation. Thus, first of all, and greatest 
 of all, all the world has at last been together in one room. 
 When one reahzes that this century opens with half the 
 world together in one room, at the first Hague -Confer- 
 ence, and that at the second Hague Conference, nine 
 years afterwards, in 1907, all the world was together 
 for four months, he almost gasps in his attempt to 
 keep pace with the moving world. The last centiu"y 
 would have found a Hague Conference impossible. 
 The international spirit was not far enough advanced. 
 The beginning of the new century found the world 
 ready. The First Conference, called just at the dawn 
 of the century (May 18, 1899), while officially called 
 
276 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 by the Czar of Russia, was really an inevitable response 
 to the demand of the new spirit of world fraternity for 
 some concrete embodiment and expression. Twenty- 
 six nations were represented at this First Conference. 
 The great outcome of the Conference was a Permanent 
 International Tribunal. A building was purchased for 
 this tribunal, and is to be used until the splendid palace 
 Mr. Carnegie has presented is erected. There is a 
 board of seventy-six judges who stand ready to try a 
 case whenever the nations call upon them. America 
 had the honour of sending the first case to the court, the 
 "Pious Fund" case, between the United States and 
 Mexico. Three other cases have been referred to it, 
 which cases would have inevitably resulted in war, 
 before its establishment. This also should be remem- 
 bered, that the founding of this Tribunal has led to the 
 settlement of other difficulties, not taken to the Tribunal, 
 by diplomacy and arbitration, rather than war. It is be- 
 ginning to set a habit. After ten consecutive cases have 
 gone successfully to the court without a war, people 
 will begin to think "court" naturally and not "war." 
 But so rapidly has the fraternal spirit grown among 
 the nations, the spirit of common welfare, that in 1907 
 a Second Hague Conference was necessary because the 
 world was ready to go further. And lo and behold, 
 here was all the world together at last, for South America 
 came in and there were forty-six nations present instead 
 of twenty-six, all the nations of the world except three. 
 These were wrestling with internal exigencies and are 
 hardly to be called nations, for that matter. But the 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 277 
 
 beginning of this century sees all the world together in 
 one room for fom- months, talking over the problems 
 common to them all and trying to devise methods of 
 world organization whereby the efficiency and secm"ity 
 and happiness of each nation might be established and 
 trying to take the first step toward the abandonment of 
 war as the means of settling national disputes. What 
 the Second Conference actually accomphshed were four 
 great things. First, it unanimously agreed that no 
 nation should hereafter attack another nation for the 
 collection of debts without first putting the question 
 to arbitration for thirty days. This practically means 
 no war here. For nations enter upon war in the heat 
 of passion. Any question put to arbitration for thirty 
 days would always be settled in that way. When one 
 remembers that almost all wars for territorial aggran- 
 dizement are urged on this excuse of collecting debts, 
 and about one quarter of the wars of the past have been 
 for territorial aggrandizement, one can see that this 
 Porter Bill (for it was introduced by one of the United 
 States delegates. General Horace Porter) removes about 
 one quarter or one fifth of the wars of the future out of 
 the range of probability. It is a very great step in the 
 abolition of war. Secondly, all the nations voted 
 imanimously in favour of the establishment of a per- 
 manent court, a supreme court of the world. We 
 should have had that court had the nations been able 
 to agree on the manner of its constitution, that is, on 
 a principle of representation. When it was insisted 
 upon by four or five great powers, say the United States, 
 
278 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and France, that each 
 should have one judge upon its bench, then every one 
 of the countries of South America claimed that it was 
 equally a sovereign power, and entitled to representa- 
 tion in the court. This insistence on equal right made 
 hopeless confusion. Could some method of constituting 
 the court have been devised we should have had to-day 
 a permanent supreme court of nations at the Hague. 
 When one remembers how new the whole idea is and 
 how stupendous the project, it is no wonder the con- 
 gress went no further. To get it in a century would be 
 marvellous. But it was one of the miracles of history, 
 one of those marvellous and sudden crystallizations of 
 sentiment, that the world should have unanimously 
 favoured the great idea. Committees of the nations are 
 now at work upon the solution of this problem of con- 
 stituting the court, and many statesmen and students 
 are sanguine enough to believe that the Third Hague 
 Conference will see a permanent court of nations estab- 
 lished forever. Thirdly, over two thirds of the nations 
 voted in favour of signing a general treaty of obligatory 
 arbitration, agreeing to refer all questions not affecting 
 vital honour to the Hague Tribimal. This would have 
 passed except for Germany. Germany, because of a 
 certain something she calls dignity, and because of an 
 ancient and deep-rooted contempt of the weaker powers 
 of the earth, refused to sign a treaty embracing all 
 coimtries. But she was emphatic in letting it be known 
 that she endorsed the principle of arbitration and stood 
 ready to sign treaties with any of the great powers. 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 279 
 
 So, although this general treaty was not made, yet, by 
 the great size of the approving vote, the Congress com- 
 mitted itself to the principle of arbitration, with the 
 result, as we shall see later on, that many treaties 
 began to be signed in pairs upon the adjournment of 
 the Conference. Fourthly, several bills were passed 
 which greatly humanize any possible war, such as these : 
 no unfortified town can be bombarded, submarine 
 mines cannot be placed outside certain zones of action, 
 etc., etc. Slight steps these last things are when viewed 
 in the light of the consummation to be desired, but 
 great steps when one sees the advance over the past, 
 and that they represent a spirit of humanity coming to 
 expression which cannot stop here. But greater almost 
 than these official achievements in significance for the 
 future is this, that at last we have a parliament of man 
 meeting at regular periods. A third congress is already 
 arranged for and there is no doubt whatever but that 
 these decennial conferences will be stated and perma- 
 nent — all the world in one room every nine or ten 
 years, gradually tightening the international bonds, 
 making laws for the common welfare, devising methods, 
 one by one, for the establishment of a supreme court of 
 nations which shall supplant the cruel and unjust arbi- 
 trament of arms. It means the sense of justice being 
 born among nations, for war never decides who is right, 
 but only who is mightiest. This desire that justice be 
 done is almost surest sign of the age of the coming of 
 the nations under the Christian spirit. It would not 
 be fair to our project to leave this subject of the Hague 
 
280 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 conferences without calling attention to this fact, that 
 three hundred representatives of all the nations could not 
 have been in such close official and social companion- 
 ship for a summer without its breeding a feeling of 
 comradeship and good-will and unity among the nations. 
 This in itself was worth what the Second Conference 
 cost. There was no war in the earth while the Con- 
 ference was in session. As a matter of fact it was almost 
 impossible that there should be. The nations were 
 holding a love feast. It is not good courtesy to fight 
 when you are at a party or the host of some one else. 
 These men did not want to fight. They were learning 
 to know and like one another. Beautiful friendships 
 were being made between French and German delegates. 
 It is ignorance of other nations that breeds contempt 
 and suspicions, and most wars grow out of these two 
 things. General Horace Porter finely summed up this 
 general feeling of the good-will generated among the 
 delegates, by this story. Mr. Spurgeon noticed a poor, 
 miserable, unkempt fellow in the front seat of his church 
 several Simdays in succession, and one Sunday he took 
 occasion, in the pity of his nature, to speak to the 
 tramp. The poor fellow, deeply touched, grasped Mr. 
 Spurgeon's hand and said, with tears in his voice, ''Mr. 
 Spurgeon, I can't never tell you what your preaching 
 has done for me. When I came into this church I 
 hated both God and the Devil, and now," he said, "I 
 love them both." 
 
 The second group of facts that show not only that 
 this trend toward international unity is going on, but 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 281 
 
 is moving with most remarkable swiftness, is the sign- 
 ing of arbitration treaties between the nations. I 
 was fortunate enough to visit the Franco-British ex- 
 hibition in London last summer. This remarkable 
 exhibition was arranged by the French and English 
 governments in celebration of the treaty signed between 
 them last year, the entente cordiale. One of the most 
 conspicuous features was a great map of the world 
 hanging on the walls, with bright, red lines extending 
 from nation to nation. At first I thought these lines 
 must be steamboat routes or cables, but I noticed 
 that they crossed land as well as seas and went from 
 capitol to capitol. They simply united those nations 
 between which arbitration treaties existed, and the 
 map was red with them. Had this map been drawn in 
 the middle of the last century or even later, say fifty 
 years ago, there would not have been lines enough to 
 have made the map worth while. After only eight 
 years of the twentieth century there were sixty-three 
 of these hues. During the first fifty years of the last 
 century there were only about twenty-five disputes 
 settled by arbitration and diplomacy. During the first 
 three years of this century there were over sixty. These 
 treaties are being formed so rapidly among the nations 
 of the earth that it is hard for us who are unaccustomed 
 to these new things that have come upon us so suddenly 
 to appreciate their significance. But we must remember 
 that every one of these treaties removes a certain num- 
 ber of future wars out of the range of probability. And 
 where these treaties leave certain points such as ques- 
 
282 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 tions affecting vital honour or interference with terri- 
 torial boundaries untouched, the very fact that there 
 exists an arbitration treaty covering other things 
 inclines the nations to think arbitration over these 
 greater things. And since practically every case cov- 
 ered by these treaties, which has been settled by arbi- 
 tration, has convinced the nations that it was the more 
 excellent way, the first thought is to try and see if a 
 dispute not covered by them could not also be peace- 
 fully adjusted. Every treaty, no matter how hmited, 
 turns the thought towards peaceful tribunals and sets a 
 habit. So that the one hundred and fifty treaties 
 signed in this century have removed, we will venture 
 to say, fully fifty per cent of wars out of the range of 
 probabihty. What a step in eight years! Our own 
 government, under the leadership of that great Secre- 
 tary of State and Peacemaker, Mr. Root, has signed 
 during his term of office twenty-four arbitration treaties. 
 Treaties with France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Nor- 
 way, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, 
 Holland, Sweden, China, and Brazil, have been signed 
 in 1908 alone. And not only has Mr. Root made these 
 treaties, but he has been instrumental in generating 
 brotherly and peaceful instincts among the Central 
 American and South American states. The five Central 
 American states, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Salvador, Hon- 
 duras, and Guatemala, signed a treaty agreeing to refer 
 any disputes arising among themselves to a court at 
 Guatemala City, and Mr. Carnegie has erected a beauti- 
 ful court-house at that place. The Pan-American 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 283 
 
 Bureau of American Republics is now being built — a 
 beautiful building costing nearly a million dollars, also 
 presented by that prince of peacemakers, Andrew Car- 
 negie. Here under the able charge of Hon. John Bar- 
 rett is a great clearing-house and headquarters of the 
 American Republics, where they meet on common 
 footing in a common home. 
 
 The most perfect arbitration treaty in existence is 
 the one made between Chile and Argentina. It covers 
 every quarrel that might arise. In 1901 a dispute arose 
 over a boundary line high up in the Andes, dividing the 
 two nations. Preparations for war began between these 
 two already overburdened nations. But the Roman 
 Catholic bishop of Chile, seeing the awful havoc and 
 devastation that must come to both countries, and 
 knowing that the war could not settle anjrthing except 
 which nation could drag out a miserable existence 
 longest, addressed the leaders of Church and State in 
 both countries to this effect, "We all want justice, 
 neither one wants more than his due. War never 
 determines justice, but only might. The strongest 
 nation gets the prize, although the other nation may 
 have all the right on its side. War is unchristian. It 
 will cost us infinitely more than the prize is worth to 
 either nation. Let us put it to arbitration." They 
 listened to him. They would not have listened last 
 century. But the Hague Conference had met. Arbi- 
 tration was coming into favour. The thing was 
 arbitrated before impartial judges. Both sides were 
 eminently satisfied. Indeed, they were so well pleased, 
 
284 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 so jubilant, that they immediately signed a treaty 
 agreeing to submit every dispute to arbitration. They 
 took the war money, and built schools and roads 
 and improved the harbours. (Perhaps you do not 
 know that the cost of one battle-ship would build a 
 university as great as Harvard or Yale, and then leave 
 money enough to plant a great Tuskegee in the South 
 and a great Hampton Institute in the Middle States. 
 But we are such children in fears that we make provi- 
 sions costing milHons to fight foes that do not exist 
 and never will, while our real foes, tuberculosis, typhoid, 
 ignorance, child-labour, poverty, unemployment, we 
 leave untouched. The cost of the new battle-ships for 
 the United States for this year would wipe tuberculosis 
 out of existence.) Then Chile and Argentina, as further 
 expression of their joy at having at last become Chris- 
 tians, moulded a great statue of Christ out of the cannon 
 with which they had expected to blow each other's 
 heads off, and placed it on the bomidary Hne on the 
 highest point of the Andes, where it stands as a lasting 
 memorial of this Christian act: "Christ of the Andes," 
 with this inscription on its base, ''Sooner may these 
 mountains crumble into dust than these two nations 
 break this agreement made at the feet of the Redeemer." 
 The second best arbitration treaty was that signed in 
 Scandinavia at the time of the peaceful separation of 
 Norway from Sweden. It agrees to submit all cases, 
 except those affecting vital honour, to arbitration. 
 But it contains this further proviso, that they shall not 
 go to war over a question of vital honour until the ques- 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 285 
 
 tion of whether it is a question of vital honour shall have 
 been submitted to arbitration. 
 
 There are many other treaties that cover much of the 
 same grounds, to which we cannot call special attention. 
 But before passing to the next group of signs of the 
 growing brotherhood of nations we should remember 
 that many treaties and friendly compacts are being 
 drawn up in our day which accomplish this same pur- 
 pose of cementing the nations and preventing war. 
 Thus during 1908 these things happened: England and 
 France signed a treaty of alliance, an entente cordiale, 
 which pledges them to stand together to preserve the 
 peace of Europe. When one remembers that there was 
 a time when England and France did nothing but fight 
 each other, one can see what advance the spirit of good- 
 will among the nations has made. The two nations 
 celebrated this rapprochement by a great Franco-British 
 Exhibition in London last year. A treaty was signed 
 by Russia, Great Britain, and Norway, making Norway 
 neutral ground. A declaration was signed in Berlin by 
 Germany, Denmark, France, Great Britain, and Sweden 
 neutralizing all land bordering on the North Sea. At 
 almost the same time a declaration was signed in St. 
 Petersburg by Russia, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden 
 neutralizing all land bordering on the Baltic Sea. An 
 agreement was signed by the United States and Japan 
 insuring the peace of the Pacific, — simply a friendly 
 compact of the two nations to set weaker nations free 
 from worry — a thing that would have been impossible 
 in the last century, as would also have been impossible 
 
286 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 the most Christian thing the United States ever did, 
 namely, to remit $14,000,000 indemnity which China 
 owed, awaking in China such gratitude that she sent a 
 special delegate of highest rank to personally thank our 
 government. All these and many more were signed in 
 1908. In 1808 nothing was signed. 
 
 The real significance of this new and friendly move- 
 ment among the nations, the thing that is leading to 
 these treaties and acts of good-will and forgiveness and 
 forbearance, is this, that we are at last passing up into 
 that realm where we are seeing that the same Christian 
 ethic is binding upon groups and nations that controls 
 the relations of individuals to each other. The trouble 
 has been that we have been living under two standards 
 of ethics, Christian for individuals, pagan for com- 
 munities. But there is no such thing as a double 
 standard of ethics in the Kmgdom of God. What is 
 right for one man is right for the state. What is wrong 
 for a man to do is wrong for a corporation or a nation. 
 Taking things or land that do not belong to us is just 
 as much stealing when done by a nation as when done 
 by a man. If it is wrong for me to take revenge it is 
 wrong for the nation to take revenge. If it is wrong 
 for me to settle my difficulties on the street with my 
 fists, it is wrong for the nations to settle their difficulties 
 on the seas with gunboats. Nations are under the same 
 law of charity and forgiveness under which individuals 
 live, in any system of ethics that can last. The law of 
 my country toward Japan is the law that governs me 
 in my relations toward my brother in New York. If 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 287 
 
 it is wrong for you to kill your brother on the streets 
 of New Haven it is just as wrong for a nation to destroy 
 a brother nation in this beautiful world. Both the 
 church and nation has been full of this specious and 
 utterly unchristian ethic, this spurious and double 
 morality. It has been largely responsible for the rotten, 
 thievish, business methods of some corporations, for 
 the corruption in civic and national life, for the un- 
 christian attitude of nations. These things we have 
 been considering in this second group are among the 
 most hopeful signs of the arising in conscience of a 
 morality really Christian and single, in which com- 
 munities and nations are accountable at the same bar 
 of righteousness as is a man. 
 
 These two things to which we have referred as indi- 
 cations of rapidly growing world unity, Hague Con- 
 ferences and arbitration treaties, are official. They are 
 the direct acts of nations and participated in by govern- 
 ments. But there are two great sets of incidents 
 becoming bewilderingly frequent, entirely unofficial in 
 their nature, which are nevertheless almost as indicative 
 of coming international oneness and world federation 
 as are the official acts. We refer to international 
 congresses and international hospitality. So we come 
 to the third group of incidents, pecuHarly symptomatic 
 of this century, and full of promise for the speedy fed- 
 eration of the world, namely, international, or world 
 congresses. Almost every society or organization is 
 international in our day. One has only to think of the 
 great religious organizations, the church, the Young 
 
288 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 Men's Christian Association, the Christian Endeavour 
 Society, the Missionary Societies, the scientific societies, 
 the commercial organizations, the industrial organiza- 
 tions, the Uterary and philological movements, the 
 political and legal associations, the great fraternities, 
 like the masons. Indeed, every organization to gain 
 any reception to-day must be universal. The note of 
 universahty is becoming dominant in everything. Sec- 
 tarianism and nationality in truth are passing away. 
 Any truth to be accepted must be universal in its na- 
 ture. People are no longer interested in denomina- 
 tional truth. No one longer wants Methodist truth or 
 Baptist or Congregational or even American. A truth 
 to stir any one must be of significance to all. A truth to 
 stir America must be big enough for Germany and 
 Great Britain. A list of organizations that are inter- 
 national in their nature would reach three hundred. It 
 is impossible to even conceive the rapidity with which 
 all this is bringing the world together. Every one of 
 these organizations holds stated international con- 
 gresses. Hither come men of every nation absorbed in 
 the pursuit of one common aim or inspired to the 
 accomplishment of one universal reform or crusade. The 
 delegates forget their nationality and are known to one 
 another only as Christians, or seekers for truth, or 
 reformers, or builders together of the City of God in the 
 earth. They learn to know each other's finer and 
 better qualities. They find how alike all men are when 
 actuated by high purposes. They can see no more 
 reason why Germans should kill Frenchmen than why 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 289 
 
 Germans should lift hands against Germans. They go 
 home with kindliest feelings and with a new patriotism 
 in their hearts which expresses itself not in a blind and 
 exclusive devotion to a nation so much as in a sense of 
 world citizenship and devotion, with all good men, to 
 righteousness and truth. 
 
 The nineteenth century saw a beginning of this, but 
 it is peculiarly a phenomenon of this new day. 
 
 Thus the year 1908 alone witnessed fifteen of these 
 great international congresses and several smaller con- 
 gresses of lesser numbers to which we cannot here refer. 
 In February delegates assembled from all over South 
 America for the express purpose of founding a South 
 American Peace Society, in which every state has 
 representation. The avowed purpose is that whenever 
 rumours of war arise anywhere in that continent, this 
 society, representing all the nations, will speak and act 
 together to allay the frenzy or secure the dispute being 
 put to arbitration. In June the great Pan Anglican 
 Congress was held in London, followed by the congress 
 of all the Bishops of the Episcopal Church. Delegates 
 from every nation were together for three weeks, and 
 not only consulted together how to unitedly further 
 Christian progress, and how to reform every evil for all 
 the world, but gave up special sessions full of most 
 encouraging speeches and resolutions, to this purpose 
 of fostering world imity and peace. Then followed, 
 during the summer, in rapid succession, world con- 
 gresses of the Congregationalists at Edinburgh, the 
 Roman Catholics at London, and the Baptists in Berlin, 
 
290 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 In all of these congresses this question of the new 
 brotherhood of nations, the common oneness of hu- 
 manity, and the cessation of war, was again and again 
 returned to. No utterance at the International Con- 
 gregational Council awakened such hearty response and 
 such volume of applause as one to the effect that the 
 time had gone by for Christians to be fighting each 
 other when they should all together be fighting the evil 
 of the world. The International Peace Society meets 
 every year with delegates from all the five hundred 
 peace societies of the world, with greatly increased 
 numbers every year, and more and more eminent men 
 attending its meetings. It met last year in London 
 and was banqueted by the government, and addressed 
 by the King, the Prime Minister, and the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer. I happened to serve on one of the 
 committees. There were sixteen nations represented 
 on that committee. Its proceedings were carried on 
 in French. But as it met morning after morning, no 
 one thought anything about whether he was American 
 or French or German. One did not know the nationality 
 of others unless he had personal acquaintance with 
 them. They were simply men, all striving, not selfishly 
 for national advantage, but for the reign of justice and 
 good-will on the earth. This congress was closely fol- 
 lowed by the great Free Trade Congress in the same 
 city. After that came the International Congress of the 
 Law Association at Buda Pesth, Hungary. This con- 
 gress which meets annually is very significant, for it is 
 trying to urge upon the nations a body of international 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 291 
 
 law, just as the states have a great body of national law 
 in our own country. 
 
 In September came the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 
 Berlin. This society is so indicative of this international 
 movement, this progress toward real world federation, 
 that it deserves special mention. One of the most 
 important organizations of the world to-day, it grew 
 out of the persistent, undaunted efforts of one quiet, 
 humble, inconspicuous man, WiUiam Randall Cremer, 
 — a lasting example of what a man of only common 
 abilities can do, who has one purpose, and adheres to 
 it unceasingly through a lifetime. When a young man 
 working at his trade as carriage-painter, he became 
 involved in some labour troubles. He was instrumental 
 in getting them arbitrated. The unions returned him 
 to Parliament. The success of arbitration in averting 
 the suffering and ill-feeling of strikes suggested to him 
 its effectiveness in averting wars. He procured the 
 signatures of a large number of members of Parhament 
 recommending that Great Britain and the United States 
 sign an arbitration treaty, and of his own initiative 
 came to the United States, and with Mr. Carnegie's 
 assistance got audience with the President and Con- 
 gress. He was rather coldly received. The time was 
 not ripe. But the failure of this mission did not daunt 
 him. He knew the thing was right and Christian, and 
 therefore must come to pass. He saw the first flush of 
 light in the sky and knew the sun was soon to rise. 
 This is what makes a prophet, to see the first faint light 
 in the east and to proclaim the sun. He invited the 
 
292 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 members of Parliament to come over to Paris and hold 
 a meeting with the French Assembly. Only a handful 
 came. But they became interested. The next year 
 was the year of the Paris Exposition. Many would be 
 coming to Paris. He suggested calling a meeting of all 
 the members of Parliaments of the world in Paris that 
 year. It was agreed upon with Httle enthusiasm. To the 
 surprise of everyone except himself a hundred responded. 
 The Inter-Parliamentary Union was formed. It is made 
 up only of members of national legislatures and now 
 numbers nearly three thousand members — an enor- 
 mous growth for so short a time. The president is 
 Baron Des Tournelles de Constant of France. It meets 
 every year and • devotes its energies to securing the 
 Hague Court and arbitration treaties, and has very 
 powerful influence among the nations, since all its 
 members are senators or representatives. The preser- 
 vation of peace during the recent Balkan Crisis was 
 largely due to its efforts. The meeting last year was 
 significant for two things : Prince von Bulow, the German 
 Chancellor, officially welcomed it in the name of the 
 Kaiser, and commended its efforts toward world peace 
 (one would have as soon thought of Bismarck officially 
 welcoming the Devil as such a body of men), and a 
 monster labour demonstration was held in Berlin to 
 welcome the British labour delegates to the Union; in 
 which several thousand German labourers expressed 
 their esteem and lasting friendship to their English 
 brothers. 
 
 It is worth while noting here that the labour miions 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 293 
 
 are taking very advanced steps in this movement for 
 international comradeship. The socialists of Germany 
 and France at their annual conference in Stuttgart 
 two years ago passed a resolution to this effect, that of 
 course if their homes should be invaded they would 
 protect them, but for no other reason would they bear 
 arms one against the other. Class consciousness is very 
 strong among the socialists, and many economists are 
 feeling that their allegiance to the party or cause is 
 stronger than their feehng of nationality, and their 
 propaganda is already making serious decimation in the 
 armies both in Germany and France. Mr. Harold 
 Gorst, the eminent EngUsh critic, recently remarked in 
 New York, that in Europe the general hope for peace 
 is centred in the work done by the labour organizations. 
 He said, ^*We hope that as soon as those organizations 
 achieve their efficiency, they will organize themselves 
 into international bodies to prevent war." Why did 
 he not say the hope was in the church! We have found 
 after much conversation in Europe, that the general 
 feeling among the prophets and reformers is that other 
 organizations are more Christian than the church. 
 Here is a sentence from Paul Sabatier's, "An Open 
 Letter to His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons," "High- 
 minded and at the same time modest, reserved and also 
 resolute, France reahzes that the day has dawned for 
 mankind to take a new step towards peace among the 
 nations. She desires peace firmly, not from weakness 
 or closeness, but because wars are become to her both 
 wicked and foolish. . . . Now in these thoughts that 
 
294 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 engross her attention, in these dreams she cannot shake 
 off, France had hoped to have the church at her side 
 to direct and encourage her. This juncture came not." 
 Fortunately in our own country this is not true. But 
 the time has come for the church all over the world to 
 rise up and say, "Man kilHng and Christianity have 
 no part together and it must stop now and forever." 
 "I came not to destroy but to save, " is the only word of 
 any church calling itself Christian. There are signs 
 everywhere that the church in our own land is awaking. 
 It will discover the Sermon on the Mount and there will 
 be great things doing in the world — the angels will 
 sing again over its hills and fields. We must beware, 
 though, lest Count Tolstoi and Mr. Sabatier and the 
 socialist find it first. 
 
 In leaving this matter of International Congresses 
 attention might be called to the International Tuber- 
 culosis Congress last September. Practically every great 
 nation was present and there is no finer illustration of 
 this world tendency to get together to make war against 
 the common scourges of mankind. Tuberculosis is a 
 preventable disease. Only three things keep it with us, 
 selfishness, ignorance, and foolishness. We are greedy 
 and keep our money, or we are ignorant, not knowing 
 what it will do, or we are foolish, and spend it on battle- 
 ships. When we grow Christian and wise, we will ban- 
 ish it quickly. But it is a sign of the dawning day, 
 these physicians from all the world meeting together 
 not to fight each other, but to fight disease. And 
 just at this moment this country is inviting all the 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 295 
 
 nations of the world to meet at the Hague next sum- 
 mer to confer on the conservation of world resources, 
 both of life and material things, and the Prison Associa- 
 tion is asking Congress for an appropriation for a great 
 International Congress of Prison Reforms next year. 
 
 The fourth characteristic of our century making for 
 world unity is perhaps the newest and most dramati- 
 cally interesting of all that we have mentioned, the 
 practice of international hospitahty. But it bears with- 
 in itself great promise for future good understanding 
 among men. One of the commonest causes of war is 
 race prejudice fostered by ignorance of other peoples. 
 Suspicions are almost always based upon distance. 
 Everything that brings the nations more closely to- 
 gether, that mixes the people up, makes it less prob- 
 able that quarrels will occur. No one can ever tell 
 how much the immigration of the European people 
 into the United States has done to make war almost 
 impossible between this country and the European 
 nations. Milwaukee is Germany, Minneapolis is 
 Sweden, East New York is Italy, New England is 
 fast becoming France and Canada. The growth of 
 continental travel has helped the nation toward the 
 cosmopolitan and universal spirit — taken the pro- 
 vincialism out of those who travel and those who are 
 visited. The growing travel between Germany and 
 France is beginning to tell on the relations of the two 
 countries. Especially where the best people travel, 
 as is apt to be the case in Europe, this is true. 
 When we get to know our foreign brother well he is no 
 
296 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 longer a foreigner. He very much resembles ourselves. 
 We find that other men of other lands are struggling 
 after the same ideals we are seeking, and have the same 
 hard problems of life to solve. The real good is common 
 to us all. We are fast learning that the ties which bind 
 us to humanity are much stronger than those that 
 link us to one exclusive land. Now, extending and 
 strengthening all these ties already made, deepening 
 our common appreciation of one another, has come this 
 new force of international hospitality, the exchange of 
 visits of the prominent men of one country with those 
 of another, either in an official or simply representative 
 character. This exchange has been most conspicuous 
 among university professors. Professor Fehx Adler of 
 Columbia is now the guest of the University of Berfin, 
 President Hadley of Yale having been guest last year. 
 Professor Henry Van Dyke of Princeton is just finishing 
 a course of lectures on "The American Spirit," at the 
 Sorbonne, Paris. Last year Chancellor MacCracken of 
 New York University and President Butler of Columbia 
 University were guests of the Scandinavian Univer- 
 sities, and the visit attracted so much attention and 
 aroused such good feeling among the Scandinavians 
 that the great American-Scandinavian Society grew out 
 of it, and this year a Danish professor comes to Colum- 
 bia. This exchange of professors and such visits of 
 teachers, as the Moseley excursions, are now being fol- 
 lowed by the exchange of students. Berlin University 
 has had French students as its guests last winter, as the 
 Sorbonne had German students. The Rhodes scholar- 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 297 
 
 ships provide for American students living in England 
 long enough to understand England. Harvard Uni- 
 versity has invited five students as guests for a year 
 from Berlin. The American-Scandinavian Society is 
 arranging to bring Scandinavian students to the Car- 
 negie Institute. We believe that this exchange of 
 students is destined to grow as rapidly as has the ex- 
 change of professors. Every one of these guests returns 
 home a peacemaker between two nations of the world. 
 Every such event as the recent visit of the Austrian 
 Singing Society to America, with its rousing welcomes 
 everywhere, breeds good fellowship among the peoples. 
 How much the visits of Admirals Kuroki and Yamamato 
 of Japan, with the accompanying protestations of friend- 
 ship and admiration between guests and hosts, with the 
 recent visit of some Calif ornian merchants to Japan as 
 guests of Japanese merchants, did to smother the flames 
 of ill-feeling which certain jingoes and bigots try to 
 fan into war each year, can never be estimated. Prep- 
 arations are now under way in New York by a group 
 of peace workers to bring to this country fifty of the 
 most eminent Japanese of all vocations and professions 
 to be the guests of Americans for a month. It will be 
 of the greatest value in deepening good feelings between 
 the two nations. It is too bad that instead of sending 
 our fleet to Japan with its imcultured crews, we could 
 not have sent one hundred of our best men, statesmen, 
 clergymen, college professors, editors, presidents of 
 chambers of commerce, publicists, the big, broad- 
 minded, highest product of our civilization, and shown 
 
298 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 that our nation made its impressions not by brute power 
 and cannon but by weight of its moral and intellectual 
 power. Two years ago Mr. Carnegie invited some 
 forty eminent men from all nations of Europe, to be 
 his guests for a month in this country, to attend the 
 dedication of the Pittsburg Trades Schools and the 
 great National Congress of Peace and Arbitration at 
 New York, and himself paid all their travelling ex- 
 penses from their leaving home to their return. One 
 of these guests remarked to us at the time, "This very 
 fact in itself will do as much to cement good feeling as 
 the Peace Congress." 
 
 Three years ago a group of British editors, I think 
 at the instigation of Mr. Stead, invited a number of 
 German editors to be their guests. It was a happy 
 occasion, but was greatly outdone when on the following 
 year the German editors invited forty British editors 
 to Germany. Their entertainment was lavish. Every 
 city they visited outdid the last in good-will and wel- 
 come. Even the Bavarian people turned the visit into 
 a festival and danced and sang. The city of Munich 
 was beautifully decorated and the artists produced an 
 original play in English for the occasion. They were 
 received by the Emperor and leading statesmen, and 
 the hope was everywhere expressed that the cordial 
 relations existing between the nations might be deep- 
 ened with the years. The immediate result of this 
 exchange of hospitalities between German and British 
 editors was a change of the tone of the press in both 
 countries. Previously it had been full of innuendos, 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 299 
 
 malicious misrepresentations, quips, and quirks, carica- 
 tures, suspicions, keeping before each country all the 
 while distorted pictures of the other and imputing evil 
 motives week by week. This disappeared almost imme- 
 diately and the editorials became fuller of friendly 
 spirit and appreciation. Growing out of this in the 
 spring of 1908 one hundred German pastors, both 
 Protestant and Roman Catholic, were the guests of 
 British pastors for several days, the visit ending with a 
 great meeting in London in which the pastors of both 
 lands deprecated the constant talk of hatred between 
 the two countries, and pledged each other to do their 
 utmost in their country to deepen and strengthen the 
 ties of friendship and unity. Dr. Dryander said that 
 for him as for John Wesley, ^'the world was his parish," 
 not a single land. 
 
 Here is a new field of effort being opened for philan- 
 thropy where a world of good can be accomplished. 
 Some philanthropists are already seeing the opportunity 
 — those who have an eye for seeing where money will 
 go farthest. Through the generosity of one of these 
 men, Rev. Walter Walsh, of Dundee, Scotland, a prophet 
 and impassioned soul, inspired by a vision of the brother- 
 hood of man, visited America for two months.- He 
 spoke daily in churches, schools, and halls. I had the 
 pleasure of introducing him at many of these lectures 
 and saw the new appreciation of what was best and 
 truest in Great Britain mirror itself on the listening 
 faces as he spoke. This habit should be increased at 
 once till not only single lecturers should be invited as 
 
300 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 guests of societies, but whole groups of every profession 
 and calling, including groups of labour leaders, should be 
 frequently invited to be guests of their co-workers in 
 other lands. But better still, governments themselves 
 should undertake this hospitality. Already there are 
 steps as the result of the new agitation. Denmark is 
 voting $2600 a year to be applied for peace purposes. 
 Last Jime Great Britain voted quite a sum for this 
 immediate purpose of international hospitality, and 
 almost the first use of it was a banquet given to the 
 International Peace Congress in July. Our own country 
 should have been the first to have made such an appro- 
 priation, but we were too busy building battle-ships to 
 keep the peace to spare any money for the encourage- 
 ment of neighbourliness, on the ground that bulldogs 
 in your front yard are better for breeding peace with 
 your neighbour than friendliness. But there is every 
 reason to believe that the growing numbers of those in 
 congress who have faith in the moral qualities of justice 
 and Christian spirit toward all nations as the best 
 safeguard of peace and national interests will make it 
 easy to pass such a resolution. A rowdy or bully swag- 
 gering around certain portions of New York needs a 
 revolver, for he is sure to be attacked, but Mrs. Balling- 
 ton Booth never carries one in the same streets. It is 
 needless to say that she is never attacked. But this 
 habit of international hospitality is one of the surest 
 signs of the growing friendliness among the nations. 
 
 There is not time within the hmits of this discussion 
 to even touch upon the many happenings of our day 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 301 
 
 making for world friendliness, the new spirit of world 
 community, outside these four significant things which 
 usher in the new century, such as the sudden growth of 
 peace societies, there being not one in the world in 1809 
 while 1909 counts some five hundred and they are now 
 forming at the rate of one a week all over the world, 
 about fifty having been formed in colleges since 1900; 
 such facts as the growing frequency of peace congresses 
 and meetings. In the great city of New York the two 
 societies which draw the biggest and most representa- 
 tive crowds to their meetings and dinners are the Peace 
 Society and the Civic Federation, which is a peace 
 society in its nature, its work being to bring capital and 
 labour to solve their difficulties by arbitration. No 
 congress in our land has been so largely attended as the 
 great Peace Congress in New York in 1907. The greatest 
 dinner ever given in New York was given this year by 
 the Peace Society to Secretary Root, the peacemaker. 
 The fact that while in the last century the peace 
 societies were made up of a few prophetic souls who 
 beheved in Christianity and the parable of the Good 
 Samaritan, and dared believe even fifty years ago that 
 people would some day really accept Christianity as the 
 rule of fife instead of paganism and Nietzschism, but 
 now we have the sight of statesmen and governors 
 and editors and ministers and college presidents and 
 kings of finance almost fighting each other at peace 
 gatherings to get the rostrum to plead for the peace of 
 the world with a fervour that would have shamed Elihu 
 Burritt or William Dodge; the fact that organized 
 
302 INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 
 
 labour the world over is a unit against militarism, and 
 that boards of trade and chambers of commerce have, 
 to the number of seventy-five, since 1900, passed reso- 
 lutions urging the formation of the Hague Court and 
 arbitration treaties — these and a hundred other facts, 
 all strikingly characteristic of this twentieth century, 
 show the change that has come with the new century. 
 Neither is there space to study many other move- 
 ments of our day, subtler, deeper, spiritual trends and 
 tendencies that are as significant for the interpretation 
 of the mood and temper of the century as these facts 
 we have been studying. Had there been time we might 
 have seen how the social conscience is asserting itself in 
 our religious thought and practice; how the humane 
 spirit is manifesting itself in child-labour reform, prison 
 reform, and industrial progress; how the spirit of con- 
 sideration of the rights of others is becoming an in- 
 sistent principle in our great cities; how the spirit of 
 neighbourhood is growing among different races almost 
 dumped by the tens of thousands into our great cities 
 during the last twenty years, as is so illuminatingly 
 portrayed in Jane Addams' "Newer Ideals of Peace"; 
 how the United States is nothing but a great peace 
 society showing how all the nations of the earth can 
 dwell in imity as of one blood; how all our thinking to- 
 day gathers about the principle of evolution, and evo- 
 lution is only nature's way of passing from brute to 
 spirit; how just as that principle has indicated itself in 
 the relations of men to each other, so it must soon bring 
 forth a spiritual temper between nations who have 
 
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS 303 
 
 used shard and iron; above all, the growth of that kindly 
 spirit in all the nations toward those of other lands, for 
 it is the spirit and temper of peoples that determine 
 relationships, not fancied grievances and wrongs. 
 Nations who have the will to fight will fight. Nations 
 that have the mind of Christ toward all men will find a 
 more excellent way. I have tried to show you the 
 signs of the mind of Christ in our new century making 
 for the federation of the world. I have tried to show 
 you that the Christian minister should be the leader, 
 guide and director of these great, universal movements 
 of the social order, which are simply the practical 
 human methods of realizing the mind of Christ. 
 
 There are no limits to the opportunity of the 
 Christian ministry in the social order. 
 
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