REFS

PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

  
 
 
 
   
   
  
 
  
 
 
   
  
  
   
 
 
  
  
  

and respect of their non-Catholic fellows raise the level of trade unionism
toa Christian plane. The Council of Social Action and the National Religion
f and Labor Foundation, on the other hand, emphasize the belief that the Church
a is socially obligated to study the problems of workers.

Members of the ALF. of L., the C.1.0., and independent labor organizations
comprise the constituency of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists.
They are brought together to study labor problems in parish schools, as at
Fordham University. Registrants must be trade unionists if they wish to join
the classes offered in Labor History and Relations, Current Problems, Parlia-
mentary Law, and Public Speaking. Students are encouraged to proceed to
field work, distributing pamphlets and leaflets and sponsoring round table dis-
cussions. The Council for Social Action and the National Religion and Labor
Foundation have a more informal approach. The former sponsors conferences
which bring together workers, ministers, and church members. The three
groups together visit slums and housing exhibits and promote legislative
activity. The Foundation sponsors labor colleges in some districts and cooper-
ates with Commonwealth Labor College and similar schools. Maintenance of
traveling seminars, however, has attracted most attention. The director has
described the groups as follows:

One might say that these seminars afford an indirect type of experience for
workers. Actual workers and labor leaders constitute too small a minority, it
is true, but the contact comes when well-chosen and socially-motivated clergy-

men, teachers, and students on these trips meet with scores of workers in local
centers for the sharing of experience.”

Perhaps the most tangible contribution of the groups under consideration
is their literature. A bulletin of the Congregational Churches reveals the
importance of materials in the statement below:

The Council believes in the power of facts. Its leadership will express
itself not in phrases or labels but in careful research, in a Christian interpreta-
tion of facts, in the stimulating of church groups to action, and in distinct
projects of research and action carried on by members of the staff in the four
great fields of the Council's interest—international, racial, industrial and rural-
urban relations.”

_ "1 Willard Uphaus, Executive Secretary of the National Religion and Labor Founda-
tion, in a letter to the writer, March 11, 1938.

* The Council for Social Action of the Congregational and Christian Churches of the
United States, “Churches in Social Action,” Action to Match Our Gospel, p. 3.

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