InterChurch Industrial Relations Department Conference | October 1919

"The Interchurch World Movement and the Great Steel Strike of 1919-1920," Eldon G. Ernst , Church History, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1970), pp. 212-22; Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History ; Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3163388.

The

conference,

presided

over

by

Methodist

Bishop

Francis

J.

McConnell,

long-time

social

gospel

leader,17

did

not

intend

to

make

judgmental

statements

about

specific

industrial

conflicts.

It

rather

sought

"to

point

out

the

moral

principles

involved

in

all

industrial

rela-

tions

and

to

suggest

some

methods

applicable

to

the

present

situa-

tion

.

.

.

.

to

indicate

the

Christian

bases

upon

which

these

problems

can

be

solved."'8

The

conference

issued

just

such

a

statement.l9

It

was

similar

to

the

Federal

Council

of

Churches

document

"The

Church

and

Social

Reconstruction"

formulated

five

months

earlier,20

and

the

(American

Catholic)

"Bishops

Program

of

Social

Reconstruction"

adopted

in

1919,21

calling

for

the

application

of

Christian

love

to

in-

dustrial

relations,

supporting

the

right

of

collective

bargaining,

and

advocating

equal

opportunity

for

women,

Negroes,

and

foreign-born

in

industry.