PARSONS ON THE PICKET LINE
Allen, Leonard
Parsons On The Picket Line By LEONARD ALLEN "I RECALL a situation in 1938—a strike in a type- writer company within a block of my church. I'd walk by that picket line day after day, not knowing...
...Among the professors is Dr...
...PERHAPS the question the ministers most frequently ask labor leaders is: "What should the minister do in the event of a strike in his community...
...If we catered to the owners before, will it be any better now if we start catering to labor...
...In a dress factory, for instance, they cluster around cutting tables to quiz owners and employes, separately or together, on their backgrounds, relationships, and working conditions...
...of veteran ministers, men and women in their forties...
...It devotes itself to this thesis: "The economic order is not an autonomous system, outside of and apart from the moral order, but one aspect ^and a' neglected aspect—of the moral order...
...Warily, I asked them to bring me all the facts in the case first, so I would understand the background and the issues involved...
...The four-week postgraduate course is designed to "fit Christian leadership for the particular needs of industrial communities...
...6) to keep the issue from being settled on the basis of sheer power, wielded by either side (hands-off policy is not really hands-off, for doing nothing lets the stronger side win...
...They drift into familiar patterns and don't realize how they skip by many facts of life...
...David Ayers, on his return home, launched an eight-week series of public forums dedicated to labor-management understanding...
...How...
...Finally, in an open forum, the clergymen ask questions such as: "How does the NAM feel about the right of workers to organize...
...A typical question: "How far does racketeering extend in the unions...
...Then, at union headquarters, they ask about union organization, fees, educational programs...
...When, last year, the church's Board of National Missions, in New York, resumed control of the seven-story Labor Temple, the Rev...
...In Rochester, N. Y., the Rev...
...Methodists and Congregational Christians soon joined Presbyterians in class, while Negro ministers sat beside white...
...These visits are valuable for the personal contacts with representatives of the various groups...
...The third group comprised mainly recent graduates-rone, a naval officer, studying under the GI Bill of Rights...
...He pioneered in this work when he was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, O. He has been aided by Rev...
...3) to keep Christianity from being used as propaganda by either side...
...Clarence E. Boy-er, of New York—and he says it will be the last of that kind he will have...
...7) to offer one's services in mediation, arbitration, and conciliation...
...Pope recommends absolute neutrality—that clergymen approach economic problems independent of taking sides...
...The union's answer: "The racketeers are the two-headed calves, and not the normal occupants of either unions or barnyards...
...One student asked him: "Is it our part to take sides...
...The students plow through a solid schedule from 9 a. m. to as late as 10 p. m. They meet around a horseshoe arrangement of maple tables in a library, with the instructor seated at a desk in the center...
...just about broken, so I never had a chance to step in...
...Otherwise, labor may easily commit the same sins as did management in the era of expanding industry...
...Paul Rishell induced fellow clergymen of various denominations to attend a miniature three-day institute at Labor Temple...
...A Pittsburgh graduate set up a series of open discussions on industrial relations...
...The Rev...
...A Philadelphia pastor promptly bid for a role in the city's arbitration machinery...
...I'd walk by that picket line day after day, not knowing what the strike was about, not very much interested...
...Already the labor course has given ministers a new awareness of the problems in their community—"Ministers tend to be lost in the machinery of church administration...
...DEAN Scott believes that through these courses the church can help extend democracy into the economic field...
...The church," he says, "can help labor win its rights and yet have a standard of values, an internal moral discipline...
...Laurence T. Hosie, director of adult education at the Labor Temple...
...What about a guaranteed annual wage or full employment program...
...The lead has been taken by the Institute of Industrial Relations, in New York City, a "labor college" organized by the Presbyterian Church in the United Skates for ministers and mission workers...
...Then one day a committee of strikers came up and asked me to see the management and help solve the dispute...
...The same cross-play of ideas prevails when the clergymen interview in turn R. H. Macy's labor relations manager and the union representing Macy employes...
...The ministers spend part of each day studying firsthand labor-management troubles...
...But with the nation in the throes of reconversion and consequent labor troubles, advanced churchmen feel that the time has come for the church to make its influence felt in the solving of these problems...
...THE church's Industrial Institute has drawn its students from the larger cities where labor trouble is most likely to occur...
...First comes a film extolling "The American irtdependent enterprise system...
...Then an NAM official outlines his organization's objectives...
...The first two classes were made up...
...2) to interpret the conflict*from the standpoint of the total community...
...Union leaders advise: "Don't stick your neck out too far...
...First-hand acquaintance has done much also to eliminate a straight black-and-white picture of labor relations which held either management or labor leaders responsible for all the good or evil in the country...
...4) to keep the real issues—the human factors—to the forefront in the case...
...Charles Stelze, founder of Labor Temple, put it succinctly: "The ordinary workman is more afraid of being out of a job than of going to hell...
...The Institute has already held an extension course in Chicago, and others will be held in various cities...
...Later, the ministers listen to officials of near-by plants, such as the Owens-Illinois Glass Company and the Johns-Manville Corporation...
...Graduates have been quick to put their training to use...
...He provides down-to-earth answers for the clergyman who feels lost in a field generally alien to the pulpit...
...You can often do the most good as potential arbitrators and conciliators...
...5) to insist on civil liberties, such as free speech and free assembly, and to see that the police represent the total liberties of all the people, rather than those of one side...
...IN the past, the church generally has been reluctant to involve itself in labor disputes...
...The churchmen visit rival unions, CIO and AFL, and learn that conflict plagues unionism itself...
...Pope advised the ministers to follow a Seven-point program: (1) to be familiar with industrial tensions before they reach a crisis...
...Now the ministers feel on more familiar ground when visiting their local plants and unions...
...The Government's role is observed when the students sit in on cases before the Labor Board, and arbitration, compensation, and anti-discrimination hearings...
...He is one of a growing number of clergymen who have graduated from a new labor college for ministers...
...Listen Pope, who comes down weekly from Yale's Divinity School to discuss the role of the church in industrial society...
...By the time they came back the strike was...
...In Brooklyn, Rev...
...Marshal L. Scott was appointed to head a new Industrial Institute...
...Today the church is puftching home the need for Christian guidance in such distinctly nonspiritual affairs as the daily bread-and-butter problems of jobs, wages, and security...
...That was the experience of the Rev...
...Unlike its dignified predecessors, this class of ministers was replete with tweed jackets, sleeveless sweaters, sport shirts, even a bright "R", all reminiscent of a campus drugstore after classes...
...Then, at the Rockefeller Center offices of the National Association of Manufacturers, the students open their ears to the employers' side...
...If a strike occurs in the neighborhood of my church again," he says, "I'll take the initiative to inform myself of the issues right from "the start, and I'll know what my role should be...
Vol. 9 • November 1945 • No. 46
