Pulpit to Factory" George L. McNutt: Rev. Geo. L. McNutt, "D.P.M.

              PULPIT TO FACTORY
Figure

REV. GEO. L. McNUTT, 
D. P. M.




OUR READERS
 need no word of introduction to Mr. McNutt, who for the past few years has been working as a day laborer.  If our readers ever have a chance to hear him speak we advise them not to let the opportunity slip by, for he has learned many things not found in books or taught in theological seminaries.—


Editor Independent, N. Y., Sept. 15, 1904.



Figure



Says the Spirit of All-Time to the spirit of Today




Tell us, — how about your men?




Shall they, like automatons, still drudge their lives away, While the rivers, tides and lightnings, join to help them on the way?




Says the Spirit of All-Time, to the Spirit of Today, 'Tell us' how about your men?




McNUTT, 
THE DINNER-PAIL MAN


Who?


A farmer boy, born in Indiana, 1856, brought up on a farm in Douglass Co., Ill.  Fatherless at 4; doing the work of a man in the cornfield at 9; in the harvest field at 12; a teacher at 17.  Prepared for college in the schools in the winter, and in the furrows in the summer, holding the plough with one hand and a book in the other.  Always original, inventive, a bit stubborn, tremendously in earnest and a terrific worker.  Entered Princeton University in the class of '80, so badly behind in some things that he was only permitted to stay and try, through the intercession of good old General Karge.




At the Christmas Exams, having won second place in the class, Harry—now Prof. Fine, being first, tutor Coyle informed the boy he could stay, all conditions being cancelled by the term's record.




Afterwards, when money failed, against the protest of Dr. McCosh, who said in 
Jamie's
 patriarchal way, 
Mr. McNutt, I command you not to leave town,
 the boy set out for the West.  That was a disguised blessing.  Out in Old Missouri he won a lawyer's daughter for a prize—better any day than a Princeton diploma.  With Dr. Patton for a year in the Northwestern Seminary Mr. McNutt gained a little theology and a great deal of inspiration and intellectual freedom.  Re-entering Wabash College, class '82, became honor man in scholarship and oratory, taught for a time in his Alma Mater.  Preferring the active ministry, was ordained by Crawfordsville Presbytery, entering the pastorate at Urbana, Ill.  Here with the great University of Illinois to the west and the great Big 4 R. R. shops to the east of his church began the study of Culture and Democracy, that in later years changed the current of life.  Tendered a chair of Greek, but preferred the pulpit, Mr. McNutt preached for fifteen years in the middle and far West.



What? Why?



At two and forty came the incident, accident, or providence that lead the preacher from the Pulpit to the Factory.  It grew out of a proposed investigation of 
Why Pews are Empty?
 and the relation of the churches to the working classes.  This was the entering wedge.  Thinking is risky business if the purpose of life is to maintain the 
status quo.
  From Prof. Coulter, the famous naturalist, Mr. McNutt had caught as a pupil, a glimpse of the scientific method and a love for Truth above tradition.  Here was a chance to go about a question as a scientist goes about his work.





From Pulpit to Factory



Jumping into a pair of overalls and blouse Mr. McNutt disappeared, secured a job in a big iron mill and began 
the proper


study of mankind
—by studying man as a man among men in the UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS, living for years the dual of life of an unskilled laborer and a skilled student of Life in the Laboratory of Living Men.


In that rough-and-ready University where so many of the world's best souls have been trained Mr. McNutt earned the degree and the title of D. P. M. — 
Dinner-Pail Man.
  It was given at a Men's Mass Meeting in New York City by Special Secretary Powlison of the West Side Y. M. C. A.  In the eternal fitness of things a D. P. M. from the Haunts of the Toilers is a valuable corollary to an A. M. from the Groves of the Academy.




What You Are, Speaks so Loud I Cannot Hear What You Say,


The Other Fellow


With the mind as with the camera, no one point of view gives the whole truth.  The picture of a University bred man, for a decade and a half a successful preacher, with a cultured, refined wife and their boys living the Life of the Other Half, drinking the drugs, taking the kicks, 
the flings and stings
 of nobodies from nowhere—the picture has appealed strongly to the minds of those who recognize the Psychology of the Incarnation and appreciate the Philosophy of Shelley, that Poets




Learn in suffering what they teach in song.




A man is of value to society just in so far as he escapes the bounds of set, sect, party, race, and feels the throb of the Zeitgeist, the World Spirit—the World's Heart.  What we have seen and felt and our hands have handled of the World of Life, that, and that only we can declare.





RATING THE DEED AND THE DOER



INDIANAPOLIS.




Mr. McNutt has rubbed elbows with all sorts andconditions of men—in cheap lodging houses with the breath of a thief fanning his cheek; in iron mills, straining and sweating with scores of toilers; on the road, counting ties with the other hobos; in the streets of great cities under white lights, with a stomach only a little more vacuous than those of other starved sinking wretches; in factories wherever men slave and sweat.  It is not at all unnatural that some of the smug theories of life have been knocked out of him, and still less unnatural that he found the fiery eloquence to tell people what he has seen and known.—


The Journal.




A smooth-faced, strong-looking man, about forty years old, wearing working men's clothes this week in the city has not been generally recognized as a former well-known citizen.  Neither old acquaintances nor strangers would take him to be Rev. Geo. L. McNutt, but it is he, pursuing knowledge in his own chosen way.  Mr. McNutt is well-known in factories and mines, not merely as a spectator but also as a participant.  Since leaving Indianapolis Mr. McNutt has preached in California and Illinois, his last charge at Urbana, Ill.  He is well-known to Indianapolis and Indiana people.

In his pastorate of the Fourth Presbyterian church of this city, he organized the first Christian Endeavor Society, and secured the funds to erect the present Y. M. C. A. building, at a time when the building project was about to be given up as forlorn hope.—


The News.




NEW YORK




I am acquainted with Rev. Mr. McNutt and think very highly of him.  He has made a very intelligent study of working men and their conditions.




—
Dr. Josiah Strong.




See 
OUTLOOK, JAN.
 5, 1901.




The minister working-man.  To give up his calling and enter the ranks of life to familiarize himself with the conditions, such was the self sacrificing action of Rev. Geo. L. McNutt, whom many of us know.  He became a factory hand, and can speak interestingly out of a long, hard experience.—


West Side Men.




I want you to stop working and go to every seminary and college of the Methodist church with your message.—


Editor Zion's Herald, Boston.




The earnestness of the man, this is his charm, he is a man, he talks as becomes a man.  He is inspired with intense love for his fellow-men.  It is not so much what he says or the manner of saying it, as the spirit displayed, the love which illuminates, the passion which burns through his words.  Mr. McNutt has tried to know something of the very deepest life of the toilers.  Mr. McNutt has the courage of his convictions, and these convictions are wonderfully interesting; they arrest attention, compel thought, awake both the brain and the heart.


Lexington Herald.





STILL A STUDENT—PREPARING FOR MINISTRY



Mr. McNutt has had many requests to write articles for leading magazines and to prepare books.  The muscleearned Dollar leaves little leisure or creative strength for reflection and composition.  There are 
Echoes of the Under World
 in his soul and pictures of the passing years that may find expression.  What has been written between breaths in the Outlook, the Independent, Social Service, the Indianapolis News and the Chicago Commons, has been widely read and recognized as having definite economic and social value.




Mr. McNutt is still a student preparing for ministry when marching orders come.  He is not reciting 
an episode
 of years gone by.  A part of every year he is a laborer with laborers, studying not simply the Labor Question as an isolated thing, but the Laborer's Question in all its related, political, economic, social, religious and hygienic ramifications—questions of Life as well as a Living.  Exhaustive studies and tests have been made of the contents of
 the Dinner-Pail in its relation to Power and Morality—the Dynamics and Ethics of Daily Bread.  Finding so many destructive social forces, the mind of the student turned to woman, the cultured class today, realizing what might be done if every home were a social settlement, and woman were free to herself in the struggle for sweetness and light.


Finding so many gifted women whom the world needs for its redemption, crushed by the pitiless struggle with an economics that knows no ethics, or broken down by the fact of motherhood and a fatalistic fight with tradition and drudgery.  Mr. McNutt has gone very thoroughly into the questions of the woman and the child in home and world economics.  He speaks with some measure of authority on 
The kitchen route to social redemption, etc.,
 and with a certain rashness on the subject, 
If I were a Woman.
  That such a man has a message is certain.  What the people responsible for securing talent, and anxious for the best is, to know 
WHO IS WHO BEFORE AN AUDIENCE.




The Greatest Thing About Oratory is the Orator.



In the Pulpit.
 
BROOKLYN.




A more eloquent speaker—a more human, sympathetic preacher of the Gospel of 'The Son of Man' has probably never been heard in this community.
—
Dr. E. P. Farnham, Supt. of Missions.




BOSTON.




Eloquent speaker, rapid, clear utterance, homely but expressive, and correct English, apt illustration.—


Globe.




EASTHAMPTON, MASS.




In five years Mr. McNutt has spoken nearly a score of times in my church.  He has helped us to see our mission as a Christian church.  Nature made him an orator and life has made him a man.  I heartily commend him as a friend and helper.




—
W. I. Shattuck, Pastor M. E. Church.




MIDDLETOWN.




Will long remember Rev. Geo. L. McNutt's visit.  Strong, original and practical, he set us all thinking.—


Middletown (Conn.) Men.




Y. M. C. A. 
MEN'S MEETINGS, PITTSFIELD, MASS.




An immense audience thronged the Academy of Music yesterday afternoon to hear Rev. Geo. L. McNutt on the Dinner Pail Man.  
His ability to hold vast crowds in the hollow of his hand is second to none,
—


The Eagle.




3,000 
HEAR MCNUTT AT POLI'S THEATRE.




Nearly half as many were turned away.  The scene was extremely impressive, the enthusiasm intense, his remarks being punctured by frequent enthusiastic outbursts of applause at some bright flash of humor or some particularly stirring or touching word picture.—


The Farmer.




CLUBS, LEAGUES, SOCIETIES.




Cambridge, (Under the shadow of old Harvard).  One of the most impressive and inspiring addresses of the season.  The speaker before the Cantabrigia Club, was Rev. Geo. L. McNutt, the minister-workingman.  His enthusiasm and consecration made a deep impression.—


The Chronicle.




CHICAGO.




The Mathew Society.  His listeners were perfectly infatuated with him and the great study he is making of the human race for its betterment.




NEW YORK CITY.




The League for Political Education.  
Mr. McNutt has had a unique experience, and he has a message along the line of sane democratic thinking and living which is of much value.  Moreover, he delivers this message with a humor and a gift of expressson which makes him a popular speaker in the best sense.
—
Robert Erskine Ely, Director.




AT THE CHAUTAUQUAS.




Pontiac.  No one succeeded in getting such a grip on the hearts and convictions of the people as did he, himself an authority upon the great sociological questions of the day, and a 
master of oratory
 in their presentation.—

Rev. B. F. Boller.




A 
WOMAN'S ESTIMATE.




Last summer, in the midst of a long series of lectures by prominent men, I heard Geo. L. McNutt. The others I have forgotten.  Neither the name nor the message of most of them remains with me.  This is not true of McNutt.  He cannot be forgotten.  His ideas cling to the memory like burs.—


Daisy Dean Wood.




NONONA, WIS.




A speaker of wonderful force and directness.  Lecture bountiful of pathos and humor.—


Democrat.




WINONA.




How the other half ought to live.
  No one could be better qualified to speak upon this topic than he who belongs by birth to one half, and by life to the other, He has not gone down to live with workingmen.  He has gone up to live with those who are fighting the battle of life with brave hearts.—


Assembly Review.




THE LECTURE PLATFORM.




Toledo, Ohio.  That man's got the right kind of stuff in him.  He knows what he is talking about.  Means what he says and knows how to say it.—


A Blacksmith.




The close attention and hearty applause were evidence of his ability as a lecturer, brimfull of interest from start to finish.—


The Bee.




ELKHART, INDIANA.




Voice strong and resonant; enunciation clear, plain language well chosen, a suggestion of the Roosevelt style in the clenched fists and set teeth.  The secret of the masterful hold on the audience was the intense earnestness of the man.




IONIA, MICH.




As thrilling as Maud Ballington Booth, and as practical.  The story of the woman who at night sees in the man carrying a dinner pail, a certain protector, was a fitting climax to a wonderful address—


The Sentinel.




AMES COLLEGE.




Mr. McNutt's easy and entertaining manner, and his vivid way of telling things, kept the attention of his audience to the last word.—


The I. S. C.




SIMPSON COLLEGE.




The audience was charmed by his rugged eloquence.  Considered by far the best thing in the course.





SUBJECTS



The Dinner-Pail Man


The Other Fellow


Echoes of the Underworld


The Tax of the Useless


If I Were a Woman


The Kitchen Route to Social Redemption


Color and Character


Why Pews are Empty


The Dreamers' Tomorrow




NEWS CO. PRINT, EASTHAMPTON, MASS.