24 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
on the state from which American Christianity has cut loose. It would expose the churches to dictation by those whose spirit cannot well be in sympathy with pure Christianity. The churches have everything to gain from a fairly even distribution of wealth. They would thrive best in a population in which there would be neither great fortunes nor solid poverty. It is therefore to their interest to assist in securing a condition in which every man would obtain an approximately fair return for his work, and nothing more.
In the third place the church has an interest of its own in the hours and conditions of labor. The demands on the vitality and vigor of all classes of workers are greater today than in former ages, and greater in America than on the more leisurely conti- nent. Under our competitive methods of production and under the whiplash of American intensity the pace is fearfully rapid. If in addition the food and housing of the workers are inadequate, the consumption of vitality is ruinous. The efforts of organized labor to maintain the Sunday rest and to shorten the weekly hours of labor are intended to check in a measure this rapid exploitation of the vitality of workingmen.
The churches, at least according to the American conceptions of church life, are largely dependent on the voluntary labor of their members. The gospel of work is preached incessantly. In the Sunday school, the sewing school, the evangelistic meet- ing, and in all its multifarious work a modern church may be officered by paid workers, but the rank and file are volunteer workers. These men and women voluntarily add this religious and philanthropic work to the weekly stint of work by which they earn their daily bread. It is plain that the more completely their professional work consumes their working force, the less will they have left for the work of the church. How can a young woman put any brightness and sustained charm into her Sunday- school work if she has been standing for eleven hours a day behind a counter, perhaps without a chair to sit down in even during the intervals of her work ? How can a man travel up
