The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1881-04-16
THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.

The followlng.sermon was preached Sur
day night by Rev. Myron w. Reed, at the
First Presbyterian Church, to a crowde
house:
| Mkar xiv, 1-2: "And the Chief Priests an
| Scribes sought how they might take him by crai
and put him TO death. But they said, not on tn
| feast day, lest there be an uprOar of the people
The people have been always strong and alway
| feared. Their strength has been weakness, be
cause 1t was undiscplined, unorganized, diffuse,
and contradictory-.ull of a quick violence an,
| lacking in order and persistency. But generally
the people have been on the right side of cues
| ton. 1t appears from the Evangelists that thei
sympathy was with John the Baptist-so much S,
that the Chief Priests did not dare to say that h,
was not sent from God.
1t appears from the text that the thing tina
stood between the Chief Priest and the murder o.
Jesus was the fear OF the people. Not in vain had
He taught, and cOmforted and blessed when
finally He had a so-called trial by night, and was
crucifed by the Church and State. Luke speaks
OF a great company of people and of women
which also bewailed and lamented Him. and
beholding the things that were done, smote their
breasts and returned"
We are accustomed TO look in horror upon
the great uprising called the French Revolution.
1t suggests blood to the horse brides.
But really how many persons were executed in
those years-less than 4,100-not as many as are
killed in first-class battle; not portion of the
number done to death by Frederick the Great;
not portion of the number starved to death in
Ireland between 1S47 and l849.
1t is better, on the whole, to wake up and
die fighting for an immotaI hope than to sit
speechless and freeze and starve. History SAYS
Carlyle confesses mOurnfully that there is no
period to be met with in which the general
twenty-five millions of France suffered less there
in the period which is named Reign of Terror" i"
THE frghtfullest birth of time are never the loud
speaking ones, for these soon die. They are the
violent ones that live frem century TO century"
The will of the people in this year of the century
cessity of law and order-of levity and of persist
ence-and so the power OF this will Is the great
force of the time.
There never was pressure of hard times that
was not first felt by working men in the decrease
of wages. There never was a return TO good times
but that the working were the last TO feel it,
HIS HARD TINES HAVE BEEN LONG AT BOTH
ENDS.
Lately he has not simply realized this, but he
has been asking questions. III he shares fully IN
the decline, why not share fully in the rise? Why
ii is that on land the captain of industry should
be the first man TO leave the leaking ship and at
sea the last? In hard times the Fall River Mills
lower the wages-in good times, when the stock
pays from II to 40 per cent dividends they do not
raise them, and the laborers combine to
make them, and the ,, beauty OF 1t is
lie are on the side of the laborers
We used to hear the cold philosophy that half
nonsense wisdom; but now we see that what
the lsborer must have is food to keep his strength
up to full pitch, and he sees it, too; and so in
stead of slow starvation of body and spirit, now
he quits work while he is in condition TO make
fight for whole loaf" Any man IN business
VINO sees that at the end of the year he will have
at once. Strength is the wOrkingman's capital,
and it is his first duty TO protect it, therefore he
sees fit now again to strike"
AS an example of what intelligence has done,
consider the complete victory OF the West Side
street car men eff Chicago. About 600 men, en-
ployed by Company which is making excellent
dividends, ask for an increase of pay to share in
the prosperity. They ask for 81 SO for ten hours
work. The Company-which, by the way. in the
stormy winter of the last five months, has insisted
on paying these men by the trip and not by
the day-pald no attention to the petition, and
the strike began. The cars ceased TO run. The
people along the track who suffered most incon-
venience-sided with the men-walked cheer
fully to and from business.
The newspapers generally approved the men.
The public meeting of these conductors and driv-
ers seems to have been more orderly than Con-
gress or the House of Commons. Speeches were
made, short and good -natured; letters of encour-
agement received and read, and some money
came in, and at clock on Friday the Company
came down capitulated, and the machinery start
ed again amid the cheers of the people. Here is
a victory. No threats, no violence. Two or three
cars had been tipped into the ditch, but that was
done by spectators as a sign OF sympathy.
OF course, If this kind of labor is worth S1S0 on
the West Side of Chicago, 1t is likely that ii is
worth about that sum on the North and south
Sides, and perhaps the news of this thing will be
read and thought upon by conductors and car
drivers in other cities, and in fact by work
ingmen throughout the country.
take it for granted that the notion that a man
must work for what corporations choose TO give
him has given place TO the doctrine that they
must choose to give him sufficient means OF lie,
and also, If he is an engine-driver this includes
a sufficient time for sleep.
1t was suggested by an eminent divine few
wser
But he has been very sorry ever since that he
SAID it.
In the same paper in which / read of the
strength of the i'll will OF the people in Chicago,
read the provisions of the land bill, introduced
by the Prime Minister of England. II
is pity to spoil SO .d9sy many prophetic: ns
because of the unwisdom of the Land League
But this bill goes near to satisfy the people, anc
is the result OF precisely the same methos as thai
adopted in Chicago: Unity of purpose, OF action
and quiet, steady persistence.
IRELAND HAS STRUCK,
and it is not Roman Catholic Ireland only. bu
Protestant In the rainbow in the sky, the orang'
and the green are as God intended, side by side
and even mingled. The rents are not coming in
Nobody will take farm from which a tenant ha
world is on the side of the peoplf of Ireland.
The great writers are on that side. The land
| 1t does not agree with Mr. Gladstone's opinion
| as expressed few years ago. But there is pres
sure on him, and he has responded, The Duk
wonder. A man who has been in the habit o
thinking that he owned 75. 900 acres OF land. wei
stocked with deer and partridges-
making in For hiR%ssf iRlssIffn' and place his TO amy e
| can not cheerfully and at once understand tina
there is a defect in the title; He is man 9
| they apply to land in Ireland, apply TO land i
| Scotland and New Zealand and everywhere. TIL
Duke of Argyle is like the young man In tn
great possessions and he could not let go, an
| he went away sorrowful- OF course h
knows that .,,S' he in crowded %hcb lfians isnS
that the reeds Of men supersede the rights 9
privileges Suppose In the boat into which pee
| pie jump from wreck the provisions are all 1
in that end claim that they are his, and meantim
the passengers are getting hungry and there is n
land in sight, they will sit in their end an
will they? / believe they. will not. The
| will not kiln him, but they wi
find a way to make him pass the breao
sea uncovers at low tide. and also charges so muc
| a load for the sea-weed which the ocean casts u
| and this In dealing with his own tenant Such
| man as that would get
CORNER ON SUNSHINE
| and air IL the people would let him.
Mr. Gladstone's bill places the landlord und,
law, and for the first time interferes with him.
is great thing to have accomplished eve
the an introdnction Snna sn OF suen On eil
the year 1880. Ireland has had less violence With
her border. less crime against person and pro
erty than in any equal population in these Stat
/
and talked and argued and waited, and now wal
| and now to- night they visit hopefully.
The same paper in which / read of these exhib
ings of the power of the will of the peopl
read that the Nihilists offer peace to the Czs
| They ask for what we have-that is all. Fr
speech, free press, free elections, freedom OF co
science, right of trial by jury. Is that too mu,
for man? They are at present trying the priso
ers. There is not an open friend TO them
sight. They are convicted on evidence obtaine
by torture. and the reports of the trial come to
QOctOreQ COVerQmeI
What is evidence worth that is obtain,
| by torture? ! understand that the machi
is such that IL were to apply il to anyo
of you, and ask you if you had broken the :