The Church and Industrial Reconstruction

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II UNCHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF THE PRESENT INDUSTRIAL ORDER We have concluded that as Christians we are committed to certain fundamental principles concerning our social life: the sacred worth of personality, brotherhood as the primary relationship among men, and service in the common good as the controlling motive in human conduct. We are now to take these principles as our standard of judgment and in the light of each of them endeavor to appraise our present attainment, with a view to ascertaining how far we are failing to secure a Christian industrial order. The deficiencies and evils that arise in the carrying on of the functions of production and distribution spring from various sources. Some are due to limitations in material and intelligence or to accidental circumstances, which are largely beyond our power to control. These are not the concern of this report. Other evils arise from the sins of individuals--dishonesty, laziness, intemperance, or improvidence. With these religion has always been concerned because of its message to the individual soul, but they are so fully recognized that they need not be the main interest of this inquiry. Our present concern is with those tendencies and results in our economic life which are due not simply to the faults of individual workers or employers, but to commonly accepted assumptions and prevailing points of view inconsistent with Christian principles. In the day of simpler industrial relations an individualistic ethics was fairly sufficient, but in the vast and complex industrial organization of today it is no longer adequate. We are now confronted with a situation in 34 which men and women whose lives are Christian in their individual and family relationships and who by intent would be Christian in the...