Club of Grace Chapel about what he learned from the 1901 strike. He said, "I believe in strikes. I believe also in the conservative value of the organization from which the strikes come... This Republic stands for personal freedom; anything that impairs that freedom, the country will not stand for." Looking toward the future, Potter said that he believed that "the time was approaching when strikes will cease, because men will ask themselves in the presence of their differences, not what considerations of profit and dividends, but what considerations of justice and humanity are involved." In 1907, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, "as a result largely of Bishop Potter's influence," action was taken to form diocesan Social Service Commissions. He chaired the one for his diocese and was active in it until his death. In his writing, speaking, and acting Potter demonstrated that he was "frankly the champion of the working-man." He was chosen by labor unions "to arbitrate their disputes with their employers" because they were sure that he would be both fair and sympathetic. He served on the Committee on Conciliation and Mediation of the Civic Federation This position fit Potter's character which was without "partisan instincts." He worked for "truth and right" without regard for "names and labels." He was not "either socialist or capitalist." He "spoke with equal frankness" to corporate executives, many of whom he knew personally, and "to the labor unions," telling them "exactly what he thought." Cathedral By 1887, "the erection of a cathedral" seemed to Potter "not only important but necessary," so he issued "a public appeal to the citizens of New York" for funds to build a cathedral, which would become the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In the appeal, Potter listed five ways that a cathedral would meet "practical and urgent demands." "It would be the people's church." "It would be the rightful centre of practical philanthropies." "It would have a pulpit in which the best preachers... from all parts of the land... would have a place." "It would be the fitting shrine of memorials of our honored dead." "It would tell to all men everywhere that 'the life is more than meat and the body than raiment." Potter said that "our democratic age demands a place of worship that will not disregard the teachings of the Founder of Christianity. In this Cathedral there will be no