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EDITORIAL NOTE:—The following abridged speech of Bishop William Montgomery Brown in no way expresses the views of this paper, nor the Position of Communists. We emphatically repudiate the notion that there is any religious significance whatsoever attached to the struggle of the working class to free itself from capitalism. Nor can we possibly ,accept the extremely unscientific notion that werkers are saints and capitalists are sinners. Social forces do not operate according to formulas based upon abstract morality. It is absurd to attempt to apply morality to economics or history, The speech of Bishop Brown is published in part because it is his first public utterance after his conviction for heresy. At that time a special article in The DAILY WORKER analyzed his vagaries. This speech shows that he has not learned anything since.—H. M. W. * * & ee OMRADES: This is my first pub- lic appearance sinte my being railroaded out of the House of Bish- ops . of’ thé’ ‘Protestant: Episcopal Church. Steam-rolled is perhaps the better phrase; perhaps I was Jim Crowed because I do not believe in all this supernaturalism and symbolica- lism of the bible as it is literally in- terpreted. Gentlemen, I was put out after being tried as a heretic. Any- how, I was not put out by trial for the crime of heresy, whatever that may be. The first @ine bishops before whom I was tried described me as be- ing an extreme and dangerous heretic, but did not define the word heresy, nor did the judge. Then I faced another judge and nine other. bish- ops, they too, did not say what heresy is. Living In Age of Science. E ARE living in a different age now, an age of science, and he- resy is unknown in this age of science. In the course of this lecture there will be several references to the un- finished case of the bishops against me. You workers think you can get along without the bishops,’ but they can’t get along without you. They ‘heed you. They need to understand your point of view. They need to feel the great religious significance of the pra like-you do. . You do. not like avé'Hie spedk’ of these” meetings eligidus, *Biit’I do’ not wome here vo say pleasing things to you. Bishops Are Sinners. came to tell you the truth, and that is that the bishops and other preach- ars are sinners and that you are the saints. They do no useful work. That is why they are sinners. You do lots of work, every stroke is a saintly act. That is why you are saints. Human acts depend upon work. I am not at war with the church. I am simply trying to liberate it from its ‘ruinous supernaturalisms. You know that divided masses can not get anywhere. I know. that your unions that are divided” cannot get anywhere. You have converted me to your view. I am now going to convert you to mine. I shall not'stray from the subject of this meeting. Workers Give Self, : T IS. human life in action, and all life is action; no action, no life. Labor is human life, from the very highest conceivable plane. For when a@ man goes to work he gives. himself te society more completely than any mere philanthropist. A philanthropist can give his money and then go and play golf all-day. The capitalist can make his investment and then start on a trip around the world, but when the worker ‘eontributes® his ldbor he has to give himself, he can not send it by special messenger, he has to go with it himself and stand by it thru every minute of his working hours every day of every year. The great cause of labor, then, fs a cause of humanity at bottom. It fs the greatest of all causes. It is the greatest of ‘all human movements. The parasite group are generally so blinded by ‘their beliefs that they can- ‘not co-operate with it. |. Bishop Thinks Little. A® BISHOP does but little work, they are too busy to work, They are busy to think. I did not do muc thinking until after I had resigned from my diocese. My time during the whole period had been taken up with building up the church. I had been extremely busy bringing souls to god. I did not know what the church was for, I had never stopped to ask what the church was for, I did ‘not know anything about god, except what somebody had told me and they knew no more than I did about him, When I preached of heaven and hell, I was not a man, I was a phonogigph, grind- ing out the dead views of the past. Then a great war éame along. I knew nothing about that. I was too busy attending to what had been told me. I was supposed to believe that a christian god had sent this war to Punish the imperialists of Germany and give the world to democracy. The Germans thot that a christian god had sent the war to punish the demo- eracy of America and to give the world to imperialism. The German bishops were right. Anyhow, the Americans came out with lots of im- perialism; imperialism to burn. It has been evolved into despotism. Begins To Think. There is no time to tell the whole story of the war, but twenty million young lives were crushed out and the world flowed with blood before this quarrel of the gods in the sky and the capitalists on earth came to an end. Had I been busy in my religious church activities, I would have whoop- ed it up for the church. But I had gone home to die. I didn’t die, I am still living. I had alittle time to think, something I had never had be- fore. and no bishop. before or. since has had any.: I was liké a-boy with*a. new toy. -I thought, and I understood. I found that neither the American god, nor the German god was-real. The gods in the skies, Jesus, Jeho- vah, Buddha, Allah, hadn’t done any- thing. They didn’t cause-the war and couldn’t stop it, or «prevent future wars. And so long as we look to them for any help we shall be in a hopeless plight. I found that if,4hese gods were real that I had been taught to worship, they were gods so cruel that a deeent man would have nothing to do with them. The only criticism I could make of the christion god was that he had evolved into such a me ble god and that he was not real. was supposed to have written 7 bt ble, but the bible was-written by man. He was supposed to have handed down revelations, but he had not. I found that the gods in the skies, Je- sus, ‘Buddha, Jehovah, Allah, all of them were only symbols such as our Uucle Sam and Santa Claus. I found that the real god is nature. The god of reality pointed out the law of evo- lution and revolution too. I made this great discovery that the words “evolu- tion and revolution” go hand in hand. The greatest movement I know of is the. international labor movement, There are many theories of re and politics and many ‘manif of them, but theer is really only human race. - We are the» mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters;* sons and }” daughters of one family, It does not matter whether you are protestant, catholic or a Jew, I could be all of them, It makes no difference whether you are christian, heathen or atheist. It still remains that we all belong to the human race, That is all there is to it, “ When you see this as I do it will change your ideas about everything, even as it did mine. This fact has now become so obvious that even} some of the theologians are beginning to realize that it is the truth. .When a theologian realizes that itera Ae true, it is interesting. Religious Change. ) bea big poroaninte: institutions do not disappear, simply Bishop Brown Sneaks al Negro Labor Congress change. They adapt themselves to conditions. Even their golden rules are not.the same. The Jewish golden rile used to be “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” which was re- placed by the christian golden rule, “Whatsoever ye would have man to do unto you, do’ ye even so unto him.” Presently we find them supporting the cause which they were’ so bitterly at- tacking before. The church has sup- ported Negro slavery until Negro slav- ery was overthrown—supposed to be overthrown, I méan. At present the churches aré supporting capitalism against the enlightened working class. Friends, I can fully understand why, with some of your comrades impris- oned and your civil rights denied, you have come to deny religion. As I said the labor movement should have a place for bishops and a place for Darwinian and Marxian schools to encamp. Capitalism is politically bankrupt and the churches that support capital- ism are religiously bankrupt. The peo- ple of the earth are looking for a classless, raceless, warless world and capitalism is always’ stirring up en- mity between nations and the races. The church is busy questioning if they believe literally in the virgin (Continued from page 4) strengthen the right elements of the Party and to the crystallization of a new fraction. The N. E. C. complete- ly supports the present Central Com- mittee of the Party and calls upon all units of the League for energetic support. The N. E. C. thinks that it is necessary to combine all elements in the Party which honestly want to follow the line of the C. I. The N. E. C. thinks it is necessary to strengthen the work for winning and attracting all vacillating comrades for ‘united work. The League will warry) Ongpy“ecisive struggle ge tga ym ‘the’ present time of an intérmédiat group. The N. E. C. thinks that the logic of the struggle must inevitably bring such a group to a bloc with the right wing elements jn the Party and destroy the'line of the E.C.C. 1 . 8. In regard to the thague s tion, the N. E. C. thinks it is neces- sary to fight against the remaihing factional spirit which seriously pre- vents the development of the League. ‘The N. E..C. greets those comrades of the former majority who began the fight agaiast the right wing elements and have now taken the logical step ‘towards the complete unification of the league. Complete * unanimous united work is possible and necessary. The unity of the League, the unanim- ous support of the N._E. C., the util- ization of all Cothmunist forces—. thesé »are the fundamental. prerequis- ites for successful development of the American Communist . movement : of the youth, 4. The N. E. C. declares that one of the biggest failures of the last con- ‘vention of the Young Workers (Com- ‘munist) League was complete neglect of the problems of the Communist ement of the youth. 5. The, N. E. C, declares that the first task.on the basis of, the accept- mills, trade unions, sport organiza- tions and others, reorganization of the League.on the basis of shop nu- clei, economic and educational work, ‘work among the Negroes, work in op- ponent sdanaleatlen. etc.—that is the task which must be made the center of our attention. As a first practical accomplishment along this line, the N. BE. C. considers it necessary to or- ganize quickly the campaign a the striking miners, whl United League! Decisive oa to the factional. fight! . Fight against right dangers and for the line of the The Y. W. L. Unity Resolution ed political line is to concentrate all | birtt, as if that, or any of their other supernaturalisms could have anything to do with the needs of the world. They cannot trade any longer on the fall of Adam and the blood of Jesus. They cannot appeal to a twentieth century earth with a tenth cen- tury hell. We have lots of real hells of our own, and we want to get rid of them, among them are: the hells of unemployment, disfranchisement, lynching and all the other kinds of hell that the church holds up to—real hells, I know as well as you do, which should claim our atténtion. You workers are saints outside the church, and the unbelievers and the sinners and owners inside the church. Down with imperialism! Down with capitalism! Long live Communism! Down with race hatred, Long live the universal hood. Down with wars. Long live the Riffs.and the Syrians and the Chinese. 4nd now, down with Jim Crowism. Long live the American Negro La- bor Congress on the same footing with American Caucasians! brother- activity and accomplishments. Herbert*Zam, Nat Kaplan, Will Her- berg, John Harvey, H. V. Phillips, John Williamson, Al Schaap, Max Schachtman, Max Salzman, Valeria Meltz, Jay Lovestone. This resolution has the support of the BE. C., Y. C. I. and the Central Committee of the Workers (Com- munist) Party. Workers and Taxation (Continued from page 1). 000 plus 100% dollars over that,: This proposal will leave untouched most of those incomes which are bas-. ed exclusively on wages or salaries jand will at the same time limit all possible incomes to $25,000 income per year. This system of taxation will place the major portion upon high incomes and will thus make those pay for the expenses of gor- ernment who own it. In connection with this. tax question it must be made clear that the gov- ernment is not a power which is‘over and above all clgsses: and in which every inhabitant has an equal share but that it is an instrument in the hands of one class, the capitalists, and used against all other classes who are exploited by the capitalists, Wrap your lunch in a copy of the DAILY WORKER and give it (the DAILY WORKER, not the lunch) to vour shop-mate. Negro Slavery, _:: Crime of the Clergy By Pasquale Russo. This interesting and ed- ucational book is a treatise ~_ on’ chattel and wage slave- Ty, presenting a brief his- torical discussion of the Negro problem in THE UNITED STATES. 25 CENTS Send your order for book and ad- dress all communications to: Modern School of Pedagogy, 833 Sedgwick Street, Chicago, Wi, den orem ogerqgeaes «dire for;.every thopsand. J. | i