The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-08-10

roads receive . salary Of twenty or twenty-five
thousand, while some Of the employees receive
. mere pittance. Doubtless there 10 much Just
cause for compliant here. Some railway com
panies have been extravagsnt in the sslaris'
paid their higher officers. But there is another
side to this question: . man Is worth jus
what he will fetch In the market-no more. nc
less. Mr.. Bonner is said to have paid Mr
Beecher twenty-five thousand dollars for writ
ing Norwood" but not every one can WRITE
Norwood" Fanny Fern received one hun
bred dollars column for some OF her contri
buttons to the Ledger but not every one car
write like Fanny Fern. II is said that the Har
pers pay their great caricaturst forty Thousand
dollars year; but not every one has the talent
of Mast. Abraham Lincoln once received one
hundred thousand dollars just to keep away
from a case but not every one has the lega
skill of Lincoln. Every one Of the six million
laborers OF America can shovel dirt, but only
now and then can one be found capable OF
performing the kind OF work to which alusion
has been made. You can not expect that work
which SIX million people can do will bring as
good price IN the market % work that only
one man in all the United States can perform.
Plymouth Church pays Mr.. Beecher twenty
thousand dollars year but that is no reason
why / should grumble. II Is probably easier
to raise him that amount than one hundred
dollars tor me- Every man is in the market,
and, as general thing, he sells for what he Is
worth.
Such riots as this country has recsntly wit
messed, in the long run, Injuries the poor more
than the rich Labor to-day suffers more than
capital from these disturbances. After the
plague in England Of 1349, laborers refused to
work for the wages offered Crops rotted IN
the fields and stock died OF starvation. The
prce OF food advanced and it was the poor who
suffered most. The historian Livey tells OF
great strike IN Rome. The poor people said
thew would no longer hive with the rich, but
going to neighboring hill, they proposed to
erect q city OF their own. An orator sent to
reason with them used this fable: Once upon
a time the various organs OF the body said that
the stomach lived in luxury, that it was great
monopoly and they would support it no longer.
The feet would no longer carry it about, the
hands said they had lifted up the last morsel Of
food, the mouth refused to again open to re-
ceive the food, the teeth declared they would
not chew the food. These organs declared in
their wrath that they would bring the stomach
to terms. The strike" continued for few
days, when these organs were surprised to find
that they were getting weak. The whole sys-
hat
their interests and the interest Of the stomach
we're insepersble. To kill the stomach would
be to kill themselves Upon this discovery
they abandoned the strike and returned to their
work. Whenever labor says to capital. ~
will strike and bring you to terms" let labor
that il Is killing itself.
AS general thing it ia better to work for the
wages that we can receive, though they be
small, than not to work at all. During the first
Blk months OF my preaching said to church
- You take up collection each Sunday aud pay
ne whatever you choose They did so, and
received on the average about one dollar and a
lalf per week. That was small pay but it was
III they were able to pay ana all that was
worth, and 1t was much better to work for that
han not to work at all. The same principle
will apply with all OF us. II you are offered one
loIlar day to work IN the harvest field, it is
better to work for that than to remain idle be-
ause you cannot get two dollars.
Labor is to seek redress for ali her wrongs
lot IN mobs and lawlessness but at the ballot
,ox. Labor outnumbers capital. The vote OF
he poorest man III the Union counts as much
IS that of the millionaire, and il necessary
he poor man can vote as many times during
he day as the other AS long as given law
5 in force every good citizen should obey it.
{ law is wrong let it be changed.
Let us remember that there is God who
las not forgotten this world. When on the
ummit OF the great tower IN Cleveland looked
'broad on the entire city spread out before me
md thought OF the toll and suffering that was
here, could but be filed with profound SYM
,athy for humanity. God from his throne |
ooks down and sees not only al Cleveland,
mt Chicago, London, Paris and oil the cities
md all the countries Of the earth. In all the
vide world there is not one struggling to keep
he wolf from his door that il not seen OF God.