Would Christ Belong to a Labor Union?

# Would Christ Belong to a Labor Union?

This 1900 Street & Smith publication by Cortland Myers, D.D., presents a social-problem novel examining Christianity's relationship to labor organization. The narrative follows Henry Fielding, a Vermont farm boy turned city worker who has become disillusioned with organized religion. Intrigued by a church bulletin posing the titular question, Fielding attends services at David Dowling's church despite his cynicism about clergy indifference to working-class suffering. The story juxtaposes Fielding's hardship—his responsibility supporting his mother and sister Elsie, whose musical aspirations he sacrifices his own ambitions to support—against his conviction that churches ignore labor injustices: sweatshops, tenements, and strikes. His sister Elsie defends Christian mission while Henry argues churches function as cold institutions serving the wealthy. The narrative explores whether Christian principles align with labor solidarity, testing redemptive possibilities through dialogue between skeptical worker and institutional religion.