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The Autobiography of a Son of the City
By CHARLES STELZLE

XIII

The Work of the Labor Temple

AST week Mr. Stelzle told of the founding of the Laber Temple. In continuing his account this week he tells of ex-President Roosevelt's speech there and his editorial in The Outlook about the Church. In it Mr. Roosevelt said: "Mr. Stelzle is an ex-machinist, a former wage-earner and member of a labor union, to whom the Labor Temple is the realization

TH

HE Labor Temple took by no means second place to its neighboring movies in running a continuous bill on Sundays, in addition to speeches and discussions every other night, and social reform clubs in lieu of church brotherhoods.

Sunday's events, from two-thirty till ten, ran as rapidly into one another and were as diversified as a radio program nowadays: children's hour; Bible class; organ recital; reading of a literary masterpiece; concert or lecture; and sermon. At five o'clock a carefully censored motion picture was shown. It was most effective to use the story of "Kelly the Cop," for example, who did a real man's job as a policeman, built up his home, and helped to make New York a better city, rather than to present the impossible characters which were shown in the average religious film. At six o'clock two hundred persons (Temple helpers, choir members, student workers, ushers, club leaders, Sunday-school teachers, the Temple staff, in addition to such friends as might wish to do so) sat down to a simple supper, and often there were brief inspirational addresses by prominent outof-town guests or by those who were picked upon by the toast-master-"roastmaster" he was sometimes called.

Meanwhile, the members of the choir were gathering. Promptly at seven, one hundred strong, they had taken their seats on the platform, but behind a great screen upon which illustrated hymns and solos were thrown during the half-hour of music preceding the regular Sundaynight service. As the door of the main auditorium was almost upon the street, passers-by, seeing the songs upon the screen, came in. At eight o'clock the hall was always packed.

I had carefully studied the methods of motion-picture houses and vaudeville theaters to discover means for introducing life and snappiness into the program.

...

of a dream of his machinist days, when he felt the biting need of just such a religious enterprise as that which he is now superintending. . . . At the Labor Temple I found Mr. Stelzle giving a curious and most interesting proof that the right type of church can successfully meet the religious needs of the people in the crowded working quarters of our great cities."

One of the things which I observed was that no time was lost between the acts. I realized that the most perilous moment for our service was at the transition point from the screen and song service to the regular meeting. Therefore it was contrived that almost at the snap of the finger the curtain was pulled to one side, the lights were turned up, and the choir burst forth into an inspiring song. I was on my feet before the choir had finished the song, and with a studied gesture differing according to the occasion and the audience I prevented a pell-mell movement toward the big front door. We rarely lost more than a dozen of our audience.

The Sunday-night meeting was like a normal church service in the sense that the same sort of things were done-but they were done decidedly differently. There were more life and "pep" in the actions of the participants. This was true even of the audience, which was always an unusual one. Audiences never behaved the same except that they always applauded the prayers; that was their way of saying "Amen." The songs and the Scripture and the prayer were exactly the same as in the average church. The sermon was thoroughly evangelical, a straight appeal to the hearts of men. They were the same sermons precisely that I had used in old St. Louis in the big tent, or in the big hall at the mission. I rarely had time to prepare new ser

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we could hold our audience for another hour it would go a long way toward the right closing of the day. It was interesting, however, that, in spite of every effort put into the motion-picture program, we always had more people at the preaching service between eight and nine than we had during the motionpicture hour which followed it. That simply verified a fact which I had long known, that there is no appeal to the human heart which is quite so strong as that of religion if it is presented to the people in a thoroughly human fashion, and if you can get it over to them.

THE

HERE were many really historic meetings at the Labor Temple, involving important issues. During the winter of 1914 and 1915, when there were four hundred thousand unemployed in New York City and fifty thousand men walking the streets all night, a group of radical agitators took possession of bread-lines and crowds in the back of saloons and began invading the churches, assuming that they had a right to the "soft cushions" which were not being used during the week by the members of the church.

When these invasions were at their height and no church knew when its turn would come next, I challenged the leaders to meet me in an open forum debate at the Labor Temple to discuss the question whether the unemployed had the right to break into churches and use them for lodging-houses. The I. W. W. happened to be in session in New York at that time. I was told by a newspaper reporter who had attended their meeting that afternoon that they had adjourned to reconvene at the Labor Temple at eight for the purpose of "raising hell.” Other leaders of the unemployed were out in force; as were also many hundreds of their followers.

We had it out, frankly and without

apology. I reminded the audience, in the first place, that church buildings were never constructed to be used as lodging-houses. Their sanitary facilities were exceedingly limited. It was common knowledge that when churches had been invaded by the unemployed who spent the night there the physical conditions found the next morning had been vile, due often to pure maliciousness.

Furthermore, those who slept on the seats were diseased and filthy, and there was great danger that this disease would be transmitted to little children as well as to the men and women who regularly attended the services of the church. I remarked that there were other ways of defiling a church than was practiced by those whom Christ drove out of the Temple. While the Church should be concerned about the physical welfare of unemployed men, it should not neglect the safety of those who normally used the church buildings.

I told the audience that their boldness was based upon the assumption that the preachers were afraid of being considered un-Christlike if they refused to permit the unemployed to crowd into their build

ings. So they defiantly took possession of whatever church building they wished, disregarding all the courtesies and decencies of conduct which they themselves demanded of everybody else. I pointed out that the unemployed had been saying that they did not ask for charity, but that they had nevertheless appropriated what they wanted without even going through the formality of asking for it.

Following my address there was a free-for-all discussion. At several points the meeting might easily have developed into a free-for-all fight. But a wholesome dominant sense of humor soon brought back the excited individuals who apparently could not control their feelings.

At that time I was serving as executive secretary of the Committee on Unemployment of the Federation of Churches of New York, as well as being an executive on Mayor Mitchel's committee. I therefore reminded the audience that the position of the churches in the whole matter of unemployment was far from being purely negative; that actually the churches of the city were furnishing more real jobs to the unem

The new Labor Temple, built in 1925

ployed than any other committee or group at work on the same task during that hard winter. That ended the invasion of churches.

On another occasion I invited Anthony Comstock to tell his story of the spreading of indecent literature. He told it well, but in the audience sat Emma Goldman and her secretary, Captain Reitman. Before the address I announced, as was my custom, that when the speaker had finished the audience would have an opportunity to ask questions, but that only one question would be permitted to each person unless no one else desired to ask question.

Emma Goldman promptly arose and put a question to the speaker. When answered, she immediately asked a second question. I then repeated the rule of the forum. But she declined to sit down. The audience applauded, and she bowed, but as they continued she realized that what they really wanted was to have her take her seat, which she finally did.

Then Captain Reitman arose, and he went through the same performance, but he would not sit down. I called to an usher in the rear of the room, a little Englishman who was not more than five feet in height and weighed less than one hundred pounds, and said to him: "Mr. Denton, will you please come up and put Captain Reitman out onto the street?"

Now Reitman was over six feet tall and weighed over two hundred pounds. When the little usher very seriously approached, without a smile, and looked up into Reitman's scowling face, the audience howled with laughter, and Captain Reitman took his seat.

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A

LTHOUGH the audiences were greatly interested in the discussion of social questions, it soon became evident that their interest in religious problems was even more keen. Indeed, there was rarely a meeting of any kind at the Labor Temple without some manifestation of the audience's interest in personal religious questions. One evening, at the Tuesday night social problem forum, I reminded the audience of this fact, and said that if they really wanted to discuss religious themes we might better set aside a special night for the purpose. I had them vote upon the question, reminding them that I was somewhat conservative in my theological views, and saying that I was going to express those views whenever occasion required. By that time the audience had become extremely friendly to the Labor Temple, and we respected each other so much that almost any question might be discussed not only with perfect safety but with edification to the entire audience.

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Thanksgiving dinner at the Labor Temple in 1910 for men away from home
consider all others as brothers, is my re-
ligion," said a plain-looking workingman.

So Friday night was set aside as "religious night" at the Temple. Perhaps most people would have called it "prayer-meeting" night, but the occasions at the Temple were quite different from those in other churches. There was something doing all the time. There were no pauses between "testimonies." Indeed, there was never a moment when half a dozen men were not on their feet, eager to speak; and what they said was vital, human, real.

One night I announced that on the following Friday there would be no regularly appointed speaker, but that the subject of "My Religion and Why I Believe in It" would be up for discussion. About three hundred men and a dozen women were present. The first who spoke was a Jew who had become a Unitarian. He said that he had been won by the character and the life of Christ.

The second was also a Jew, a Socialist. He told how he had been taught religion by his Russian mother, but that he had since studied other religions. He

A Roman Catholic gave an earnest testimony to the power of his religion, saying that, while we may disagree in dogma, we still are together in the broader matters of religion.

At least a dozen strong, clearly stated three-minute speeches were made by Protestant workingmen who said that they had known the power of Jesus in their lives. They told of better things than mere negative morality, of victory over sin, of a new-found joy in the Christian life. In every case this positive note of assurance was greeted with great applause.

A striking indication of the tendency of the Jews who came to the Temple was seen in the fact that, while fifty per cent of those present were Hebrews, no one spoke in favor of the orthodox Jewish religion, although fully half of those who had a part in the meeting were born in this faith.

said: "I believe that love is God, shown THE question was frequently asked
by mercy and kindness."
whether there were any "converts"
at the Labor Temple. Frankly, no effort
was made to convert people in the ordi-
nary sense, although undoubtedly hun-
dreds of those who came to the Temple
meetings got a fresh start in life and
identified themselves with churches of
their own selection. The organization of
a church consisting of several hundred

Then followed a man who said that he was a Quaker by training, but that he now believed in the religion of the "mind." He did not know where he came from, nor did he know where he was going, but he felt sure that the same Power that had brought him into being would take care of his destiny.

very small factor in carrying out the aims of the Labor Temple. And it was my purpose that we should be able to say to every audience that we were not trying to do any proselyting; that everybody was welcome at any service and would never be put in an embarrassing position by being compelled to commit himself to any system of religion. That put every visitor at ease, and won for us the respect also of the religious leaders of every creed in the community, many of whom during the beginnings of the Labor Temple had sent spies to our meetings to find out what we were trying to do. Protestants, particularly city mission workers, had been noticeable among those present with their notebooks in the early days of this "heretical" church.

There was organized at the end of the first year's work what was known as the "Labor Temple Fellowship," with the pledge, "I accept the purpose of Jesus. I will help bring in the kingdom of God." One hundred and forty-nine persons publicly joined the Labor Temple Fellowship, one-third of them Jews, after a week of meetings addressed on "What Was the Purpose of Jesus and What Is the Kingdom of God?" The speakers for the week were equally divided between conservatives and progressives, a different man speaking each night. The pledge was broad enough to include the most radical of the Labor Temple con

tive Christians; and yet it was a platform upon which all could stand and have many things in common.

It is not possible to indicate the many different forms of activity which the Labor Temple took on, because they were so numerous and far-reaching. But one thing most interesting was the fact that the Temple became a refuge for many workingmen's organizations which did not care to meet in the only halls which were available but which had in them elements extremely distasteful to seriousminded workingmen and workingwomen.

An exceedingly important department of work was meetings for discussion of health. There was so much sickness in the tenements that the people were intensely eager to find out what to do to prevent tuberculosis, cancer, children's diseases, and other forms of illness which were subjecting families and friends and relatives to suffering.

Ο

F course, criticism came very soon and continued uninterruptedly during the two years through which I was in charge of the work. The criticism came very largely from those who had never visited the Temple and who would write about it in strongly anti-social religious newspapers. The Temple was criticised also by "one hundred per cent American" organizations which could not see any value in discussion of radical questions, forgetting that, as they were As he recounts his experiences in

T

being discussed, anyway, they might bet-
ter be talked about at a time and in a
place where every argument presented
could be fairly and frankly met by those
who were opposed to the radical views
expressed.

The criticism which hurt most of all
came from certain members of the Board
of Home Missions itself. The Board as
a whole had been very generous in its
support of this work and had annually
appropriated approximately twelve thou-
sand dollars to carry it on. But strong
feeling was being stirred up within it,
and an effort was made to close the Tem-
ple as conveniently and as quietly as
possible.

That would have been out of the question, because the Temple had attracted world-wide attention on account of its undoubted success. But I was moved to take decided action regarding such criticisms.

Theodore Roosevelt was Contributing Editor of The Outlook at that time. I called on him one Monday morning and told him my story. He listened for nearly an hour to the history of the Labor Temple. Then, characteristically, he slapped his knee, and said again and again: "That's fine-that's great-that's what I believe in, and I'm going to help you." He promptly agreed to write an editorial in The Outlook about the Temple.

"In order to do this, Mr. Roosevelt," I "Bucking the Radicals," Mr. Stelzle, in the and advertising are causes of social unrest

said to him, "it will be necessary for you to come down and look us over and give an address to the people."

"No," he replied; "I will come down, but I won't speak. The way to find out what is being done is for me to hear you speak, but don't you advertise the fact that I'm coming. If you do, I will cancel the engagement."

The time agreed upon for Mr. Roosevelt's visit was Sunday afternoon. No announcement had been made concerning his appearance at the Temple, but the building was packed to the doors. When he and I stepped from behind the curtain at the side of the platform and stood before the audience, the cheering was terrific and continuous.

Mr. Roosevelt persisted in his determination that I should do the speaking, although he did agree to say something when I got through. At the conclusion of my twenty-minute address Mr. Roosevelt spoke for nearly an hour, having got into the spirit of the occasion, elaborating glowingly upon the work and all its possibilities.

His editorial in The Outlook a couple of weeks later was a "wow." It settled for all time the question of whether or not the Labor Temple was to be closed. The Temple is not only still running, but, instead of the old brown-stone church which it occupied for so many years, it has now a six-story building with every facility for its varied activities. next installment, says that libraries

The Book Table

Edited by EDMUND PEARSON

The Future of Civilization
By W. J. GHENT

HOUGH the books in this some

what arbitrary grouping cover a wide field, they are linked in a general kinship. All of them treat of man and his future. One of them deals with him in his relation to the planet, two with the fate of his civilization, three with his international relations, and the last with his coming transformation in this particular political division, the United States of America.

Professor Thomson, with his characteristic simplicity and vividness of expression which makes an abstruse subject clear even to a twelve-year-old, explains organic evolution.' But he goes

'The Gospel of Evolution. By J. Arthur Thomson. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $2.

further; he is concerned with the "gos-
pel" of evolution, and he reads a mean-
ing into objective phenomena and
spreads the glad tidings of his interpre-
tation. Though evolution has its retro-
gressions as well as its progressions, "life
has been slowly creeping through the
long ages" toward beauty and morality,
and what we find is an "emergence of
lives that are increasingly satisfactions
in themselves." He parts company with
Huxley, who saw nature as a "gladia-
torial show," and lines up with Professor
Patrick Geddes, to whom nature is "a
materialized ethical process." The ethi-
cal impulse wins in the long run.
"Mammals have succeeded in no small
degree because they are good. There has
been persistent selection along the line of

good lovers and good parents; and man, being an outcome of that line, has in his blood a momentum towards morality." All this makes for an optimistic outlook. But when we come to consider man as he comports himself in his various societies we find the prophets dubious and apprehensive. To the author of "Saturated Civilization"" the course of human progress is marked by alternate steps of rise and decline, of ferment and exhaustion. Civilization obeys the laws of rhythm, moving alternately forward and rearward. We have had a glorious period of social and material advance, but the pendulum is now ready to swing back. We have "a surfeit of material progress, a surfeit of material indulgences, of mechanical facilities, of wealth and credit," and of pretty much

2 Saturated Civilization. By Sigmund Mendelsohn. The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.75.

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The Packard Eight Seven-passenger Sedan-limousine is shown. Its price is $5100 at Detroit, tax added

Distinguished by Illustrious Patronage

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