The National Committee on Religion and Welfare Recovery yesterday issued “a call and a program for strengthening and undergirding the moral and spiritual forces of the nation.”
The committee consists of more than 200 nationally-known leaders in religious, educational and character – building organizations, including thirty-six bishops, thirty-one pastors, priests and rabbis, twenty college presidents, educators and editors, seventy-nine national officers of church benevolent boards and forty-five prominent laymen—Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Walter W. Head is chairman of the committee.
The call, rejoicing in evidences of economic recovery, proclaims “a growing conviction that the great scientific, economic and social development of the times may prove of doubtful permanent value unless there can be commensurate development of moral and spiritual resources.”
Attention is called to the fact that churches, schools and welfare organizations have suffered financially and otherwise from the depression no less—possibly more—than industry and commerce. Billions of dollars of government funds have been made available for industrial and economic recovery but no such help is available for church and character-building agencies.
CITES AID TO GOVERNMENT
The committee cites the invaluable aid that churches in times of crises have given to the National Government and suggests that “while adhering unalterably to the principle of separation of Church and State, church and private organizations may, with propriety, ask the moral support of the Government and the financial support of the public in retrieving the losses that have been sustained during the past four years.”
The program is cooperative and educational without the creation of new organizations. “Emphasis is to be placed throughout upon the efficiency of existing Church and welfare enterprises, without any attempt to create a super-organization or federation,” the statement says.
Among the special dates in the recovery calendar are:
SEEKS FELLOWSHIP
October 1—Fellowship Monday, when it is suggested that all pastors, priests and rabbis, together with leading church laymen of each city or community, arrange for a fellowship luncheon or dinner, followed by a conference to decide on cooperation in attaining moral, social and welfare objectives in which all are interested.
October 1-6—Mobilization Week, when all character-building agencies of the community, including schools, religious associations and business and social organizations, will be aked to cooperate in mobilizing the religious and social service.
October 7 — Loyalty Sunday, when effort will be made to secure the presence of every citizen in a house of worship—church, synagogue or home. For Jews Saturday may be observed instead of Sunday. For church members the slogan suggested is, “Every member present or accounted for.” A Pastors Advisory Committee has been formed to prepare suggestions that may be adapted to the needs and policies of participating organizations.
There have been twenty-six preliminary meetings of various committees, leading up to the recent meeting of the National Committee in Washington, where the call and program was formally approved. President Roosevelt sent his greetings and commendation to this meeting through Secretary Roper of the Department of Commerce, who closed his speech with the statement that “the church in some form is the organization on which the Federal Government and society generally is dependent for the needed spiritual stimulus to meet and solve existing social problems. You cannot afford to permit us to be disappointed in this hope for constructive help.”
The following are among those who have already accepted and are serving as members on the National Committee with headquarters in the Lincoln Building, 60 East Forty-second street, New York.
PARTIAL MEMBERSHIP LIST
Bishop Almon Abbot, Bishop Hayward S. Ablewhite, Cyrus Adler, Bishop William N. Ainsworth, Bishop James C. Baker, Bishop Samuel Babcock Booth, Albert W. Beaven, Charles E. Beury, Jacob Billikopf, Commander Evangeline Booth, David M. Bressler, Bishop Benjamin Brewster, Arlo A. Brown, Arthur J. Brown, James Wright Brown, Charles C. Burlingham, Bishop Charles Wesley Burns, Harold S. Buttenheim, Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, Bishop Warren Akin Candler, Bishop James Cannon Jr., Sen. Arthur Capper Samuel McCrea Cavert, Bishop Matthew W. Clair, Bishop George C. Clement, Rev. Everett R. Clinchy, Bishop A. R. Clipphinger, Rabbi Henry Cohen, Bishop Philip Cook, Sen. Royal S. Copeland, Bishop Ralph S. Cushman.
Sen. James J. Davis, Bishop Hoyt M. Dobbs, Jacob Epstein, Rabbi W. H. Fineshriber, Rt. Rev. Monsignor William J. Flynn, Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, Bishop Jemes E. Freeman, Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Ernest M. Halliday, Prof. Carlton J. H. Hayes, Dr. Stanley High, Bishop Henry W. Hobson, Hamilton Holt, Charles E. Hughes Jr., Thomas E. Huser, William J. Hutchins, Bishop Jules B. Jeanmard, William Travers Jerome Jr., William H. Johns, Bishop Irving P. Johnson, Prof. Rufus M. Jones, Mrs. Orrin R. Judd, Rabbi Leo Jung, William R. King, James S. Kittell, Mrs. Alexander Kohut, Samuel D. Leidesdorf, Rabbi Harry Levi, Bishop Harry S. Longley, Solomon Weinstein, Rabbi Alexander Lyons, Charles S. Macfarland, John M. T. Maze, Cleland B. McAffee, Bishop Francis J. McConnell, Bishop John N. McCormick, Bishop Henry Judah Mikell, William B. Millar, Bishop John M. Moore, Bishop John B. Morris.
Bishop Edward L. Parsons, Bishop Robert Westly Peach, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, Daniel A. Poling, Rabbi David de Sola Pool, Mrs. de Sola Pool, Joseph M. Proskauer, William Quinn, Rev. D. Christian F. Reisner, Bishop Ernest G. Richardson, James N. Rosenberg, Theodore F. Savage, Francis B. Sayre, Richard B. Scandrett Jr., Bishop Joseph Schrembs, Anne Sea-sholtz, William J. Shroder, George N. Shuster, Rabbi Abram Simon, Bishop Bert Nelson Spencer, Jesse H. Steinhardt, Bishop Frank William Sterrett, Rev. Ralph W. Sockman, Bishop Rob-Angie Frank Smith, Frank A. Smith, J. Ross Stevenson, John Timothy Stone, Roger W. Straus, Bishop Charles P. Taft, Francis M. Taitt, Rev. Charles Trexler, Rev. Samuel Trexler, Charles H. Tuttle, Charles V. Bickrey, Ludwig Vogelstein, Albert Wald, Aaron Waldheim, Morris D. Waldman, Dr. James J. Walsh, A. Leo Weil, Sen. Burton K. Wheeler, Charles L. White, Bishop John Chanler White, Judge Curtis D. Wilbur, Pliny W. Williamson, Bishop Frank W. Wilson, Charles N. Wonacott, Miss Ruth F. Woodsmall, Mary E. Wooley, Peter C. Wright.
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