William T. Stead and the Men and Religion Forward Movement

Charlotte Zureick
Nov 24, 2024
6 min read

Articles about the missed convention of renowned journalist William T. Stead

William T. Stead, The W.T. Stead Resource Site, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“Conversation Congress on Religion: Men and Religion Movement Reaches Climax in Carnegie Hall.”

News-Press, Fort Myers, Florida

April 13, 1912

Prominent Speakers of International Reputation Will Address the Congress-Delegates Are Arriving

“The greatest religious meeting of laymen in the history of the United States will begin here next Friday, when men and religion forward movement will reach a climax in the assembling of the first Christian conversation congress, in Carnegie hall, to continue in session through the following Wednesday.

“Leading men from this country and Canada, and several British speakers will address the convention, among them President Taft, William J. Bryan, Ambassador James H. Bryce, of England; T.A. MacDonald, editor of the Toronto Globe; Reverend James E. Freeman of Minneapolis; Rev. J. Stuart Holden of London John Mitchell, former president of the coal miner’s union; Rev. J. S. Wardell Stafford, of London, ex-governor Northern of Georgia; Congressman Richard P. Hobson; Archdeacon Thos F. Madden of Liverpool; Gipsy Smith of London; President William T. Slocum of Colorado college; President Frank Strong of the University of Kansas; Booker T. Washington; Governor Glasscock of West Virginia; William T. Stead of London; Secretary of the Interior Walter G. Fisher; Rev. A Herbert Gray of Glasgow, Scotland,; Miss Jane Adams of Hull House, Chicago; Bishop David H. Greer of New York, and Rev. John H. Jowett of New York.

“Speakers and delegates to the congress have already begun to arrive and indications are that the three-thousand capacity of Carnegie Hall will be taxed to the utmost. In event that the attendance is too large for Carnegie hall to accommodate all of the delegates–which is regarded as a foregone conclusion–special overflow meetings will be held in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church, the Broadway Tabernacle and Calvary Baptist church, where there will also be held sectional meetings.

“The men and religion forward movement, which embraces men of all denominations, and had its inception in a meeting in this city in 1910, thereafter growing steadily and rapid in scope and extent, is being particularly urged by the following church societies and brotherhoods; Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, Baptist Brotherhood, Congregational Brotherhood of America, Brotherhood of Disciples of Christ, Gideons (Commercial Travelers) International Committee of M.C.A. of North America, International Sunday-school Association, Lutheran Brotherhood, Methodist Brotherhood, Otterbein Brotherhood (United Brethren Church), Presbyterian Brotherhood of America and United Presbyterian Brotherhood.”

An excerpt from “Notables Who Sailed On The Lost Vessel”

The Sun, New York, New York

April 16, 1912

“William T. Stead, the British journalist and editor of the Review of Reviews, has been here as an advocate of peace. He has written many books. His commentary “If Christ Came to Chicago” raised a storm twenty years ago. When he was in the country in 1907 he addressed at one juncture of the meeting remarked that unless the Methodists did something about the peace movement besides shouting ‘amen’ nobody ‘would care a damn about their amens.’ Of late years he has been an ardent spiritualist, professing to have received letters from members of his family who were dead. A list of his published works takes up about two inches in the English ‘Who’s Who.’ He was coming to New York especially to give one address before the Men and Religion Forward Movement.

Carnegie Hall exterior 1899, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

An excerpt from “Missed the Titanic: Three Clergymen Coming to Christian Congress Here Escaped Stead’s Fate, Bryant Talks to Delegates, Christianity the Leaven Which is Elevating the World–The Man Who Does Most Good the Greatest”

The New York Times, New York, New York

April 20, 1912

“The first all-day session of the Christian Conversation Congress, during which the achievements of the Men and Religion Forward Movement’s recent evangelical campaign are to be summed up was held at Carnegie Hall yesterday. There were speeches by famous orators and an unusually elaborate musical programme. A permanent revival of religious enthusiasm was discussed hopefully, the only shadow on the big meeting was the death of William T. Stead, the English editor, who went down with the Titanic, and who was to have been one of the Congress’s principle speakers.

“William Jennings Bryan, who is to address a big open-air meeting of the movement at 4:30 o’lock this afternoon in Union Square, spoke last night on “Religion and Government.” He told the 2,000 delegates that if he had only discovered General Organizer Fred Smith’s managerial talents in time he would have become President of the United States. He said that ‘religion puts a policeman inside of a man.’

“‘We Americans have the best educational system in the world, and we have one of the best systems of government in the world,’ said Mr. Bryan. ‘But though education may plant and Government may water, God–and God alone can give increase.

“'Religion exerts a powerful influence on government. But government is merely what people make it, and thus what improves the people improves the government, too. Christ said a tree should be known by its fruits, and Christianity has already proved what it is by the fruits that is has borne. It is the leaven of Christianity which is elevating the entire world. Whatever progress there is has been borrowed from the Christian nations. Go where you will, you will find that it is the Christian ideals in every country. The man who does the most good will always be the greatest among us.

“‘If all of us would conscientiously practice the teaching of Christ, what a world of peace and progress this would be! Christianity develops mankind, and mankind develops government. It costs less to keep a man from going astray than to bring him back and compensate society for his wrongdoing. Without a sense of responsibility to God, there is no guiding hand in man’s life. These things being so, who can doubt the necessity of religion to good government. Reason, by itself, and without the guidance of religion, can be warped and dethroned by self-interest and passion.

“‘You can’t build a noble life out of arithmetic. Religion is eminently practical. Men can’t get along without it. Men need the Church to strengthen them for the duties they have to perform. A man can’t lead a righteous and industrious life without becoming a tower of strength in his community. If a man thinks of nothing but pleasure, he ultimately wakes to find that his life is wasted and that he himself is unhappy. That is the difference which an ideal gives to life. It is all the difference between success and failure.’

“James G. Cannon presided at the meeting. ‘The day has passed’, said he, ‘when men have to apologize for being Christians. They have to apologize for not being Christians. Our movement had already demonstrated that men of this country are vitally interested in religion.’

“‘Out of the anguish of the Titanic disaster,’ explained Carl Milliken, the State Senator of Maine, another speaker pointing to the British and American flags, ‘is one strong note of triumph–the British seamanship and the American citizenship which triumphed the horror of that night and which is represented by these two flags.’

“J. A. MacDonald, the editor of the Toronto Globe, told the big audience that ‘the curse of Government in America today is the inadequate morality of the people.’

“Three European speakers who had been invited to come to this country and take part in congress’s six-day evangelical rally narrowly escaped sharing Mr. Stead’s fate on the Titanic.These were Archbishop Thomas J. Madden of Liverpool, the Rev. J. Stuart Holden of St. Paul’s Church, London, and Reve. J. S. Wardell Stafford, Fraternal Delegate of the Wesleyan Church of Great Britain to the Methodist Episcopal General Conference here. All three of these clergymen had planned to sail on the great Titanic’s maiden trip, but were forced by circumstances to change their plans.”

William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Archives from Staunton, VA, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

“Memorial for Stead”

The Brock Bulletin, Brock, Nebraska

April 25, 1912

“New York.--Hundreds of delegates to the men and religion congress, who were to have listened to an address by William T. Stead, the English journalist, lost in the Titanic disaster, Friday joined in memorial services for Mr. Stead at Carnegie hall. William Jennings Bryan, who was the principal speaker, paid a tribute to the distinguished journalist, who was deeply interested in the success of the movement.”

William T. Stead and the Men and Religion Forward Movement

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