Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1903 — CHURCH FOR WORKINGMEN. [ARTICLE]

CHURCH FOR WORKINGMEN.

Labor Unions in an Indiana Town Arc Organizing One. The movement recently inaugurated at Marion, Thd., for the establishment of a church by the organized laborers of the city has now progressed so far that there seems to be no doubt but it will be carried into successful execution, for the forty-eight unions have taken up the question, and there is said to be a decided preponderance of sentiment in favor of it. The men who are interesting themselves in the movement are members of different denominations, and it was early settled that the new church should be undenominational and the preaching should be along the lines that would eschew doctrine entirely so far as it relates to the dogmas upon which the church is now divided. It will therefore be open to Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and all other religionists, no matter what their beliefs, but it- is necessary that every member must be a member of organized labor or of a family whose head is connected with some union. James E. Myers, one of the most prominent union men in Marion, is at the head of the movement and thus defines the objects of the proposed laboring men’s church: “What the laboring men of this country need, and what we hope to have within a few months, is a church erected and supported entirely by men whq earn their bread in the sweat of their faces. The time has come when we feel that we are not welcome*in the big churches, no matter of what denoml-

nation, and we must work out our salvation in our own way. We realize that the big churches are supported by the rich and, consequently, we feel that the minister who depends upon them for his salary cannot have our interests at heart. What we want is a man who knows something about the labor problem, _a man we can go to when in trouble, and a man who knows how to sympathize with us and can help us in the hour of need."