Article January 6, 1973 Issue

Spiritual Understanding Settles a Labor Dispute

JOHN HERMON TERRY, JR.

A labor dispute was settled with hardly anyone realizing what had happened. This resulted from a glimpse of the verity expressed in a statement from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy: "Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which separates Christian Science from supposition and makes Truth final." ^{Science and Health, p. 506;}

During the great Depression I was a young employee of a giant chemical company. My superior in a nonunion plant where I had been newly assigned asked me to see what I could do about a labor dispute in one of the departments. There were hard feelings between the workers and the managers and supervisors. Labor complained of its immediate superior, the foreman of the department, and the foreman complained that labor was dragging its feet. The dispute had become so hot that labor was threatening physical violence and held rallies where the foreman was hung in effigy.

Studying the situation, I soon saw that I needed to take my problem to God and pray for understanding, for lack of understanding on everyone's part seemed to underlie the whole problem. In searching for light before taking further action I recognized Jesus' intense love for humanity and his keen understanding of individual needs. Jesus went right to the heart of a difficulty, as when he said to the palsied man, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"^{Mark 2:5.} and healed him on the spot. This was certainly a demonstration of divine Science.