Charles Stelzle: lecturer and writer on industrial relations

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CHARLES STELZLE Lecturer and Writer on Industrial Relations

CHARLES STELZLE


MR. STELZLE is one of the leading authorities in America on industrial problems.  He began life in the tenements of New York, where he lived for twenty years.  He worked for eight years as a machinist in the biggest shop in that city and he has since studied the labor question in nearly every industrial center in this country and in many European countries.  His books and magazine articles have been widely read.  He has addressed great crowds of workingmen, conducted important conferences between employers and employees, and he has served as arbitrator in many industrial disputes.  In the most practical fashion he has been one of the greatest forces in this country in bringing about more cordial relationships in the industrial field.


What Others Say About His Addresses and Conferences
The following typical letters were selected from several hundred, principally to indicate the variety of audiences to which Mr. Stelzle speaks:

From a Rotary Club Chairman:

May I take this occasion, please, to express to you the great pleasure we found in listening to your address, 'The Cause and Cure of Radicalism,' which you were good enough to give before the members of the Rotary Club of New York City.  In your treatment of this big subject, we found you were eminently fair to both capital and labor, and your talk made a lasting impression upon our men.  It was a message given out of your own broad, personal experience and we feel greatly indebted to you for the splendid message you brought us, and the impartiality with which you handled so delicate a subject.—CHARLES A. PEARSON, Chairman, Speakers Committee, New York Rotary Club.

From a National Republican Club Chairman:

Let me tell you how much we all appreciated your presence with us on Saturday, and the splendid speech which you made.  Thank you most heartily for your interest and for the pleasure you gave us all.—LOUIS W. STOTESBURY, Chairman, Saturday Discussions Committee, National Republican Club, New York City.

From a Theological Seminary President:

Your lectures here were regarded as replete with information of great practical value.  Their spirit was admirable in their loyalty to the essentials of the Christian faith and in their fairness in presenting points of view differing
 from your own, and in their intimate and attractive method of delivery.—J. P. SEARLE, President, Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J.

From a Chautauqua General Manager:

We have heard from many of the Chautauqua committees where you lectured, and they are eminently pleased with the fair and impartial way you presented the question of labor and capital.  They are unanimous that your lecture was convincing, discriminating, and that the ideas you advanced for the solution of the problem were thoroughly constructive.  As one committeeman said, 'It woke us up'.—HARRY P. HARRISON, General Manager, The Redpath Bureau, Chicago, Ill.

From a Sunday Evening Club President:

Whenever you have spoken at Orchestra Hall, I have felt that both labor and capital have received fair and honest treatment at your hands, and I believe it is of great value at this time of industrial unrest for us all to make an earnest effort to get the other fellow's point of view.—CLIFFORD W. BARNES, President, Chicago Sunday Evening Club, Chicago, Ill.

From a Y. M. C. A. Secretary:

Charles Stelzle has spoken for us in Minneapolis on various occasions, both to business men and to laboring men and always with fine effect.  Last spring he spent a few days with us in conference with church leaders concerned about the industrial problem and addressed a church and labor conference in one of the industrial districts of the city.  Both in conference and in public address he rendered us great service.  Mr. Stelzle is able to see things from the workingman's point of view, from the business man's point of viw, and from the church's point of view.  He is particularly happy in his ability to bring all three together toward harmonious relations.—S. W. WILEY, General Secretary, Y. M. C. A., Minneapolis, Minn.

From a Chamber of Commerce Manager:

Your talk had a telling effect on the large number present at the noon-day luncheon of the Chamber of Commerce.  South Bend has profited very largely as a result of your visit here.  One of the chief impressions concerning your talk is the absolute fairness of your attitude toward both labor and capital.  We believe this factor, alone, should make you very much desired by communities of an industrial nature.—FRANK J. GREEN, Manager, Chamber of Commerce, South Bend, Ind.

From a Church Federation Secretary:

Charles Stelzle has spoken in Louisville, Kentucky, a number of times.  He is always heard with great interest, but never with more interest than at his last visit here a few months ago.  He spoke to a large company of representative business and professional men on the Industrial situation.  It was a great message and gripped the hearts and minds of all those who heard him.  At the evening Forum he spoke to a large audience in one of the churches, and the people hung upon his words and were loath to leave the building even after the service was dismissed.  There were hundreds of questions that had to remain unanswered.—W. S. LOCKHART, Executive Secretary, Churchmen's Federation, Louisville, Ky.

From a Reform Association Superintendent:

Your address on the industrial situation at the Third World's Christian Citizenship Conference held here in Pittsburgh I regard as well-balanced and preeminently fair both to capital and labor.  It is a message that needs to be heard, especially in these times.—JAMES S. MARTIN, General Superintendent, The National Reform Association, Pittsburgh, Pa.

From a Public School Superintendent:

We were deeply impressed by the simple, direct gospel sermon preached in our church in the morning and were thrilled in the evening by your keen and searching applications of the principles of Christianity to the solution of the problems arising out of present social, civic, and industrial conditions.  My children still quote you, and when youngsters of fifteen and sixteen do that after so many months it shows that your words went home.—C. D. LOWRY, Assistant Superintendent, Chicago Public Schools.


From a College Association Secretary:

In connection with my work among students at Princeton, Pennsylvania, and here at Michigan, I have followed closely the interesting service which Mr. Stelzle has been giving in the delicate field of industrial problems.  He has frequently spoken to the students of these universities at my invitation.  By temperament, training and experience, he is well adapted to interpret capital to labor and labor to capital on a broad Christian platform.  He has been a sympathetic critic both in his speaking and writing of capital and labor and has rendered signal service to both at a time when the interpretation of the point of view of capital and of organized labor is a real service to communities, the nation and the world.—THOMAS S. EVANS, Executive Secretary, The Students' Association of the University of Michigan Y. M. C. A., Ann Arbor, Mich.

From a Pastors' Federation President:

We counted your Washington visit a decided success.  At the Pastors' Federation meeting, the topics discussed were those of which every minister is thinking and your treatment of these questions commended them to us all as based on wide experience and earnest study and a fine spirit.  At the night meeting, I was surprised that in Washington so strong and outspoken an element of extreme radicalism should have manifested itself when opportunity came for expressions from the floor.  But one of our foremost ministers said to me afterward that he scarcely knew a man in public life who could have handled the situation as you did.  While the fair-minded workingmen present acknowledged that you had treated their cause knowingly and fairly.—JOHN C. PALMER, Pastor, Washington Heights Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C.

From a Summer School President:

I want to express in particular our appreciation of the service which you rendered in the Sunday morning service at which you spoke during our last summer school session at Lake Geneva.  It is not an easy thing nowadays for a speaker to be big enough to see the many angles and issues, which must have consideration, in an address upon industrial conditions, and to present the facts both forcibly and fairly.  This you succeeded in doing and doing well.—FRANK H. BURT, President, Y. M. C. A. College, Chicago, Ill.

From the Pastor of a Local Church:

Mr. Stelzle delivered four Sunday evening addresses in this church which made a deep and favorable impression.  He is a true optimist—because he believes in God and has confidence in his fellowmen of whatever class.  He is fair, strong, straightforward, and thoroughly informed.  He is able to hold poise amid the many cross-pressures of our time, and to sound the note of courage and ultimate victory to all who meet today's problems with malice toward none, with charity for all.—DANIEL RUSSELL, Pastor Rutgers Presbyterian Church, New York City.



Here are some of his lecture subjects, although others are added from time to time, and, out of his broad experience and study, appropriate themes are prepared for special occasions:

The Cause and Cure of Radicalism
Why the Church Cannot Advocate Socialism
A Square Deal
Capturing the Labor Movement
What is Christianity?
Religion in the New Democracy
How to Win the Workingman
The Church and the Man Outside
The Elements of Social Unrest
The Right to Drink
The Church in the Present Industrial Crisis
The Way to Social Salvation
Jesus and Social Reform
Problems of the American City





THE industrial situation in this country is of supreme importance to the people in every community.  Its development is so rapid and so far-reaching that few appreciate its real significance.  What is needed most of all is a clearer and fairer interpretation of the labor movement, and of the hopes and aspirations of the workers, and the human element is by far the most vital part of this discussion.

There are few men in America today who have been closer to the problems of the people than Mr. Stelzle.  His approach to the labor situation is thoroughly human and sympathetic, but he sees the weaknesses of labor as well as its sources of strength, and in all of his presentations he points out what the workingmen—as well as the employers—must do in order to bring in the ideal social order.

Believing that in the last analysis the labor problem is fundamentally a moral issue, he discusses it principally from this angle, and, while not offering an economic panacea, he presents in a most practical fashion the principles and practices which must prevail if industrial peace is to be ushered in.

Address
ONE MADISON AVENUE
METROPOLITAN TOWER
New York City


SECTION OF A 12,000 STELZLE AUDIENCE