Dear Editor:

At the day of my redemption as I stood justified before God in Grace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; for so great a salvation I asked, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do”. And the voice in the vision replied, “Go fight the evil in labor, for what they do in labor, they do unto Me”. I answered, I have not the education nor ability to do so great a thing. The voice replied, “I will be with you alway”.

Since that day I have sought to carry out the commission and have trusted the covenant.

I immediately joined the C.L.A. whereupon I was expelled from the A.F. of L. I thought that the C.L.A. was a Christian organization. However, I soon learned that I was not at home. I found the same spirit of rebellion in its set-up of organization as is in the A.F. of L.

These organizations are inspired into existence by the rebellious spirit “to establish justice”. It’s the same spirit that prompted the children of Israel to rise up against the prophets. They repeatedly rose up against Moses in, the wilderness for want of things, they even despised: their freedom in the wilderness and desired the bondage of Egypt rather than to serve and trust the God who delivered them from oppression. Yes, so great was their passion for want, that they threatened to stone Moses. There are many such uprisings recorded in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have that same spirit that lead to the crucifixion of Christ.

God wills it that His people live in love. Love God above all, and your neighbor m yourself is the commandment. But the heart of natural man rebels against it. As we see Jesus walking upon this earth doing good, we can also see the rebellious mob girding itself for action. They reasoned among themselves concerning the great injustice of Jesus turning water into wine and cheating the wine merchant out of those sales. The great multitude that He fed cheated the dealers in food out of that business. Was it just for a man to heal the afflicted free of charge denying the professionals there just business? No; it was no more just in those God-forsaken days for Jesus to do those things than it is today for a man to work for less than the scale of wages that the union specifies: or for competition to sell goods below the market value demanded by the business combines. Such things rob us out of our just business and we have the rights of enterprise, don’t we? So argues the world, and they soon council among themselves to stamp out such competition and to “establish justice”.

The C. L. A. has this same spirit. In my own personal experience as a board member we have had many men come into the board-meetings and say, “I demand that justice be done; Mr. so and so is working for so much per hour. Another says, Mr. so and so works, all day Saturday and even overtime without getting time and one-half and I demand that justice be done”. A Mr. X came in and said “My employer owes me so many dollars for back wages and I demand that the C. L. A. collect it so that justice may be done”. Another Mr. Y says, Mr. W is a member of this organization isn’t he? What does the C. L. A. mean by having such a man a member, he underbid me by So much on that job. Do you call that justice?” And so we can quote ever so many cases that, have been placed before us in our C. L. A. local wherein the membership (many church members) demand that we, the C. L. A. establish justice. Some of these cases we have brought to the attention of the National C. L. A. and they instructed us that it was our duty to see to it that justice be established. This in itself explains the steadfastness of the C. L. A. in its need for the strike weapon; to establish justice. The C. L. A. looks upon itself as a court to judge another, to condemn one and to exonerate the other, to justify one and to place the guilt upon the other and demand and see to it that justice be established. Herein the C. L. A. stands as condemned before God as do the other worldly organizations.

For in Christ we are freemen, we are at liberty in Him to do good. We have the freedom to relieve the needy in labor, business and capital, and our freedom and liberty is not to be used maliciously. If a man has bargained for employment, or another has sold his goods, what Godly right has another to set himself up as judge over the bargain, and demand that he do otherwise? Is there no other justice than the dollar in Christian living? Is it the Christian calling to make money, or is it the Christian calling to relieve the needy and to put on the righteousness of God in so doing?

The righteousness of God demands, that I love my neighbor as myself. It was in love that Christ turned water into wine, fed the multitude, healed the sick and afflicted. It was none other than contempt for this love that the mob (organization of self-righteous man) sought to destroy. And there is one thing we can say, that today we are surrounded with these mob conspiracies in labor, business and capital, and the voice of freedom in enterprise is used for maliciousness.

Years ago enterprise was conducted on the free market. The farmer raised his crop and sold it for a price governed by that market. Business price structure was also governed by that same market price as established by freedom. Labor sought employment also by that same value. Our forefathers left their fatherland for the U. S. A. because they sought to be freemen in enterprise. It was to them a way of life in which they could place their faith and trust in the living God. They knew that, in free enterprise the earth would be replenished and that with a constant free market enterprise the wealth of the nation would constantly be redistributed. That the poor had an equal chance m did the wealthy in economics, was to them of great inspiration. God has rewarded them for their faith and trust, He has blessed them with many blessings. That was not enough, the capitalist merged with other capitalists; business organized business; and labor organized labor, all for profits which seeks now to devour every vestige of freedom for which they died. Of such is the God-forsaken world. But where is the Christian world? Has it been devoured in a sinful passion for want of things? Or is it lack of fundamental principles in freedom that keeps us apart? I have every reason to believe that if and when an organization is established as a free organization, for the purpose to propagate freedom in our social order, that thousands of Christians will support its movement. To that end, I solicit the aid of the Standard Bearer and every freedom loving Christian.

Frank Rottier