Federal Council's 25th

An 83-year-old Methodist churchman who somewhat resembles an older, stouter Franklin D. Roosevelt sat by his radio one night last week in his home in Madison, N. J. He tuned in on a broadcast from Constitution Hall in Washington, where was being celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Had his health permitted, Dr. Frank Mason North would have joyfully been present. He, more than any other man, had helped found the Federal Council, was its president for four years (1916-20), is still a member of its executive committee. Keen-witted, good-humored, he attends monthly meetings in Manhattan as regularly as possible. But last week Dr. North, unable to go to Washington, could only listen by radio to President Roosevelt's speech and feel a quickening in his old heart when the Constitution Hall audience arose and sang a famed hymn which he himself had written: Where cross the crowded ways of life, Where sound the cries of race and clan, Above the noise of selfish strife, We hear Thy voice, 0 Son of Man!

Dr. North's thoughts could drift back to a December day in Philadelphia, when the Federal Council was in the throes of organizing. It was no easy matter to thread the creeds and dogmas of dozens of sects and bring them together in a common Christian purpose. Out of a bog of conflicting theological ideas Dr. North led his confreres to high and solid ground--social service. An active minister and city missions worker, he believed that "when the standards of the Gospel shall have become the rule of Society, His Kingdom will be here." He wrote the first social creed for the Federal Council which was the cornerstone of its existence. That stirring document called for conciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes; protection of workers against dangerous machinery and occupational diseases; abolition of child labor; suppression of the "sweating system"; reduction of working hours with at least one day in seven free; a living wage; "suitable provision" for old and incapacitated workers. Tame though it sounds today, Dr. North's social program struck many a good churchman as downright radical in 1908. Since then the Federal Council has revised its credo, adding notably stronger clauses on social planning and control of credit and money; a "just share" of profits for workers; old age, sickness and unemployment insurance.

The actual formation of the Federal Council, with 33 cooperating churches representing 18,000,000 Protestants, was preceded by the efforts of Dr. Elias Benjamin Sanford, a New England Congregationalist who had been working on Christian unity since 1866. But not until 1905 was a plan of federation considered. Then, at an Inter-Church Conference in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall, a delegate cried: "We must pray together until the house trembles!"

Pray they did, that they might give the churches common voice on moral issues, perhaps some day weld them into one mighty U. S. Protestant Church. And even before they could get around to setting up the Federal Council formally, the Conference members found a project to test their strength. Pious folk all over the world were shocked at the cruel oppression of blackamoors in the Belgian Congo. The Inter-Church Conference set out to get the U. S., whose delegates had helped draw the Berlin Act recognizing the Congo Independent State, to take action. The U. S. Senate agreed to. Leopold II of the Belgians soon began to clean up his Congo.

By no means all the activities of the Federal Council of Churches have been so clear-cut. Both within and without the churches, critics have declared that the Council is opportunistic, sometimes timid, sometimes too bold. A backhanded approval of Birth Control (TIME, March 30, 1931) caused the Presbyterian Church, South, to bolt the Federal Council. The Federal Council deplored war before the War, has consistently denounced Big Navies ever since.

Nevertheless, under such presidents as Dr. North, Dr. Samuel Parkes Cadman and Bishop Francis John McConnell, the Federal Council has demonstrated that the Protestant Churches in the U. S. can get together to argue and act on common problems. Its trend through the years has been more & more liberal--always one jump ahead of the mass of church thought. In a way the Federal Council resembles the League of Nations. Its existence is more interesting than its achievements. Yet in a quarter century it also has achievements to its credit. Among them:

P: Mergers: Free Baptist-Northern Baptist; Presbyterian-Welsh Calvinistic Methodist ; Evangelical Association-United Evangelical; Congregational -Christian; Reformed-Evangelical Synod. Three separate groups formed the United Lutheran Church. In Canada the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches fused in the United Church of Canada.

P: A battle with Steel, clarioned in the famed Steel Report of 1923, which prodded the late, great, pious Bible-reading Judge Gary into abolishing the 12-hour day.

P: City, State and world church councils which did not exist 25 years ago. Commissions for international, inter-racial and inter-church good will. Radiobroadcasts of interdenominational Sunday services, morning devotions, evensong and religious news.

P: Supervision of religion in CCCamps. setting up an agency to handle China Famine Relief, running churches in the Canal Zone.

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