ighteen years of age, and that much more than one-third of
this proportion are under thirteen years of age." In certain mines there
was no distinction of sex so far as underground labor was concerned. The
men worked entirely naked and were assisted by females of all ages, from
girls of six years to women of twenty-one, who were quite naked down to
the waist.

But if oppression was rife, education at a low ebb, and misery
prevalent, the religion of the people was receiving attention. The
period was, in fact, one of revival in religion. The Wesleyan revival
was in full swing, and Evangelical Christianity was making great
advances. Between 1799 and 1804 there were founded, "The British and
Foreign Bible Society," "The London Missionary Society," and "The
Mission To The Jews."

When the Education Bill of 1819 came before the House of Lords, out of
eighteen Bishops who voted on the measure, fifteen voted against it!
Thus the religionists were most active during the period when a
condition approximating white slavery existed. And why should this not
have been so, when the Church is not interested in the social and
economic status of its adherents during their existence on this planet,
but is avowedly concerned with deluding its devotees into a mythical
belief in a life hereafter? The greatest number of slaves and the
greatest degradation of workers is to be found in those times and places
where religious superstition is most powerful.

In our own country, as well as in England, the labor movement has
developed not merely outside the range of organized Christianity, but in
the teeth of the bitterest opposition to it. Christianity, since it came
into power, has always preached to the poor in defense of the privileges
and possessions of the rich.

In a recent publication by Jerome Davis, which is entitled "Labor Speaks
for Itself on Religion," the author has compiled the opinions of labor
leaders in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Russia, Germany,
Czechoslovakia, Mexico, China, Austria, Australia, Belgium, and Japan.
It is a terrific indictment by labor against organized religion. The
author tells us, "Here is labor speaking for itself, and in the by and
large it feels that the Church has not understood or helped it to secure
justice. The majority believe that the Church has a capitalistic bias.
It is a class institution for the upper and middle classes." This is
putting the matter rather mildly when one considers