Part 5

This bitter feeling of the “best” people toward the I. W. W., and the dogged persistence of the I. W. W. in their revolutionary tactics, constitute the most acute phase of what the Socialists call the class struggle. This class war will continue till one side or the other is victorious. One reason that the whole matter is so generally misunderstood is that nearly all the newspapers distort and suppress most of the news concerning the activity of the I. W. W.

Mr. Fitch’s article radiates light rather than heat.

A. E. HOUSE. Spokane, Wash.

=RIGHT IDEAS ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS=

TO THE EDITOR:

I have read the various contributions to your symposium on the work before the new Commission on Industrial Relations. In my opinion it is the duty of the employer to provide the necessary safeguards and protection for his employes, such for instance as good light and air, sanitary surroundings, protection against fire and other dangers, reasonable hours of labor, adequate wages, no child labor, facilities for education and self-improvement, healthful living quarters, opportunity for recreation, etc. These and other advantages should be supplied under all circumstances, and there should be co-operation and good feeling between employer and workingman. It seems to me quite probable that the better results which would thus be obtained through the greater efficiency of the employes would more than compensate the employer for any extra outlays which he may have to make to provide such protection, so that in the end it would cost him nothing. The hearty co-operation and friendly spirit which would thus be engendered between the employer and his workingmen would be apt to prevent strikes and other troubles and would decidedly be to the interest of both employer and employe. Any excuse that a manufacturer or other employer of labor might make that if he had to provide this protection to his employes he could not make his business pay seems to me similar to the excuse of one who contemplates putting up a building but says he cannot afford to make the necessary expenditures to provide for the safety of those who will occupy it because with such extra cost the income from the building would not be sufficient to pay a good interest. If he cannot make it pay he should of course not undertake it, but under all circumstances he must build safely. In the same way an employer should see that his employes and workmen receive the necessary protection and he should provide for their absolute safety and do the right thing by them all the time.

ADOLPH LEWISOHN. [President General Development Company.] New York.

=ALCOHOLISM=

TO THE EDITOR:

I am greatly pleased to see on the cover page of THE SURVEY issue of August 9, a copy of the first Municipal Poster against Alcoholism in the United States. I have wondered in reading THE SURVEY, that so very much attention was given to different phases of welfare by excellent writers, and the subject of liquor business was not emphasized. It is conceded to be the greatest economic problem of the age, and is the cause of the need of charity organizations, police courts, etc. It is estimated by scientific and prison boards that 75 per cent of the insane, and a greater per cent of criminals, and defectives are now at the mercy of the tax payers of the country as a result of liquor drinking, and liquor heredity. Certainly with such a preponderance of evidence against, and interest in, the subject of alcohol, it makes us rejoice that THE SURVEY has decided to give a front page to the publicity of municipality interest in this subject.

LUELLA F. MC WHURTER. [President Indiana Federation of Clubs.] Indianapolis.

=BIBLE STORY FILMS=

TO THE EDITOR:

While I was staying at Hull House, I saw in their theater a moving picture of the life of Moses. The dial of time turned back, we all became spectators of the events of that great life, almost as though we had been his contemporaries. From the basket in the river to Sinai and the golden calf, it was all there, vivid, true to the Bible story and reverent in tone. I left the theater with much the same feeling as though I had heard a great oratorio, and even today the picture which ran its course in fifteen minutes is more vivid than the story which I have read and taught from childhood.

At a lecture in the University of Chicago last summer, the pastor of a Congregational Church in Madison, Wisconsin, came to me and said that he would like to put the moving picture into his Sunday School room, if I could tell him where he could get the films. All that I could say was to get in touch with the film companies and endeavor to get the ones that he wanted, but I knew that he would have trouble.

There are a considerable number of churches that have already introduced the moving picture into their evening service or their Sunday School. But the difficulty is the same everywhere, it is hard to get films that are suitable. Undoubtedly all the Bible stories can be taught more effectively through the moving picture than in any other way. The church ought to teach its lessons by the most effective means at hand, and many churches would be using the moving picture if they could secure suitable films at a reasonable rate. Mr. Edison has already made a good beginning on a series of films to illustrate the work of the public school.

Inasmuch as the churches need a special type of films, why should not the church federations ask the film companies to produce films of this type and start a church exchange? The churches should indicate which pictures they wanted and furnish Bible experts to supervise the making of the films, so as to secure an accurate and reverent reproduction of the stories. These films might then go out with the approval of the federation like a Sunday School lesson leaf. The film companies would be merely the printers of the material furnished them by the federation.

Besides the Bible stories the great morality and passion plays, like Oberammergau, might well be given, and representations of the great social movements, such as recreation, child labor, tuberculosis, and the like, the films for which are largely available at the present time.

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Transcriber’s Note

Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These were left unchanged. Dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged.

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Those in bold are surrounded by equal signs, =like this=. A dozen misspelled words were corrected. One duplicated word was removed. Footnote was moved to the end of the article. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.