The Church Industrial

Bringing a divine spirit to the world of men--the function of cathedrals, temples and meetinghouses ; creeds, dogmas and theologies ; churches, denominations and sects ; priests, ministers and parsons; all the instruments of religion -- involves many controversial questions. Not least of these questions is : how far may the church properly intrude in industry?

Many a staid vestryman answers: "Business is business and religion is religion, and never the twain shall meet." But venturesome churchmen have long abode in the doctrine that business is life and so is religion. The latter, at least on the surface, have had things much their own way, which has been chiefly a way of counsel and opinion and advice by resolution. They have held up to their staid vestrymen brothers the case of "Golden Rule" Nash, as a glittering example of what may be done.

But, recently, at Manitou, Col., was held a Social Service Conference of the Episcopal Church. There spoke the Secretary of the Church League for Industrial Democracy -- the Rev. W. B. Spofford, exponent of Christ-in-Industry, and he too spoke of ''Golden Rule" Nash:

"Invariably the story of this manufacturer is told as though it contained the solution of all of our industrial ills ; and if Mr. Nash is himself present, as he is very apt to be, he is listened to as if he were a modern Moses come to deliver new commandments to a strifetorn world. Yet, as a matter of fact, I have yet to find a person whose enthusiasm for Mr. Nash and his clothing shop is based upon a genuine scientific investigation of actual conditions in his shop. Churchmen like him largely because he has a genius for quoting Biblical phrases. . . .

"I am not prepared to say that his experiment is all 'bunk.' All I can say is that what I saw of it was. And I put in a couple of days in his shop."

"Golden Rule" Nash, it happens, is a man who, 55 years ago, was born in Indiana as a Seventh Day Adventist and christened Arthur. He became a minister of the Disciples of Christ, but left the pulpit. He failed in this business and in that business. In 1916, he founded a wholesale tailoring establishment at Cincinnati, manufacturing cheap suits and overcoats. In 1919, he announced that he would run his business on a "Golden Rule" plan. His employes grew in number from 29 to 6,000; his business grew from $132,000 to $7,000,000 turnover. It began to pay large cash dividends. It issued successive stock dividends of 200%, 100%, 180%.

A year ago, Mr. Nash evidently felt his conscience prick him. He decided to distribute his $600,000 worth of stock among his employes. He told them: "If I took this $600,000 and personally appropriated it, I would be the archfiend of the ages. If I snatched this money that you have helped to earn away from you, my conscience would condemn me for being the greatest robber that ever walked on God's footstool."

Yet Expert Spofford cast reflections on Paragon Nash. Why? Presumably, it was because of certain facts which he may have observed which, however, had been brought out by Labor interests some time before. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers investigated the "Golden Rule" and alleged that it found:

Children under age working without permits for $9 a week.

The average wage of women workers $12 to $16 a week.

Wages in general $4 to $8 a week below Union wages.

No extra pay for overtime.

Very severe standards of weekly production set for all workers; pressers required to press twice as much as in Union shops for $1 a week less; cutters receiving 52-c- a cut as opposed to about $1 a cut for Union workers, etc.

Heavy penalties for failures and mistakes ; loss of an hour's pay for five minutes tardiness, etc.

At any rate, the Church, in Mr. Spofford, has begun to recognize that anything which goes by the name of the "Golden Rule" is not necessarily millenial.