Long-haired preachers come out every night,
And they tell you what's wrong and what's right.
But when asked about something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet :
"You will eat by and by.
When it snows in the month of July—
Work and pray, live on hay—
You'll eat pie in the sky when you die."
—Joe Hill
Forty preachers who were visiting the Manhattan headquarters of the International Workers of the World, on an industrial seminar arranged by the social relations department of the Congregational Church, read this song in the I.W.W. hymn book and smiled. Owing to the politeness of I.W.W. members they were not called upon to sing it; they joined, instead in carolling another I.W.W. hymn of which the words were less derisive:
We meet to-day in freedom's cause And raise our voices high;
We'll join our hands in union strong to battle or to die.
The ministers, who had congregated in Manhattan from all parts of the U. S., next visited the headquarters of the Communist party where they heard Harry W. Wicks, an editor of The Daily Worker making a speech. First he assailed preachers for their failure to take an active interest in labor problems; then he began to speak about famed clergyman John Roach Straton: "He is the most palpable ignoramus in the U. S.!" said H. W. Wycks. Then he added, "Fortunately, there are not many like him." The 40 ministers said, "Thank God for that."
The result of four days of radical meetings and investigation was embodied in a report, containing no particularly revolutionary significance, which the 40 preachers prepared. This report stated that the Church should seek industrial enlightenment; that America lacks labor leaders of broad intelligence; and that the Church can do much to ameliorate present conditions by studying all the facts and showing employers and labor their common needs.