The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1884-08-07
BRAVE AND ELOQUENT.

Bread and Crime Christian Civ.
ilization-0ospel for Poll
ticians.
Yards Of cotton, tons OF coal, ingots Of
metal, are not the measure Of a civilization;
men and women are; and IL you told me
that the method we are about introducing,
or hoping to introduce, would strike down
capital to one-half the amount employed
to-day, but would lift the men and women
Of Massachusetts, 40 per cent above their
present level, should say: All hail the
change! Loud applause This is a true
civilization" Tell that In State street, and
you would be considered a fanatic. When
the advocates Of slavery piled their blue
books ten feet high, and showed that If 1t
was abolished in the West Indies We could
not have cheap sugar, DIR. Claiming said:
Very well: God did not create the negro
that sugar might be D cents pound" lap
plausel Granted that sugar would be
over . cents pound, that does not
justify grinding up the negro into sugar.
We begin at the same point. Granted,
II you please. that capital cannot make such
profits; that does not prove anything--does
not begin to prove anything. The question
is, what will make ON educated, thoughtful,
self-respecting, self-controlling man and
woman worthy Of the powers and qualities
with which they are endowed?
With that view before me place myself
in the center Of Christendom, and see this
state of things. In England. and in this
country, too, the statistics Of crime and the
statistics of deaths--that is, the number Of
crimes committed in ninety days on an av-
erage and the number Of deaths in thou
sand on an average always bear an exact
proportion to the price of bread. lectured
on "ChaItism" thirty years ago, in this city.
and had them by heart, aud could repeat
them to you tonight for fifteen or twenty
minutes, the statistics which would show
you that, for the last hundred years. the
three thermometers that hung side by side,
and always rose and fell together, were
crime, mortality, and the price of wheat.
Wheat goes up-more crime, more deaths;
wheat goes down-more marriages, more
births, fewer deaths, less crime. Jap
plause.l
1t seems very simple statement but
the Italian poet, the Dante Of all history,
who drew picture Of hell until men stood
aghast, never painted in his immortal epic
a fact SO terrible in its significance as this
simple statement. Interpreted, it shows
that the mass Of men stand just on the
edge Of starvation. Raise the price Of a
bushel Of wheat little, and down goes a
life! Lift it little on the other side, and
down goes virtue!
The vast mass Of Christian civilization
stands just on the dividing invisible line.
As Mahomet said. You get into heaven by
crossing over q bottomless pit, on n line SC
| fine as hardly to be hundredth part of a
| spiders web in thickness, and If you tread
to the right or to the left you fall" NJ
poetry, no pathos in this; hard, cold. leaden
| figures, written upon the wall Of the his
tory Of nations. 1t shows you that the
whole human race stands SO near the very
verge Of starvation that a shilling's differ
enoe in the price of q quarter of whea,
sends over a thousand men into jails. That
| is Christian civilization
claim that no man has right to be a
millionaire in Christian civilization while
there is q Five Points starving within two
miles OF his residence. Loud applause.
approach this question from those two
points. / maintain that it is possible to
| plan q civilization where the mass Of the
human race shall not stand in danger oi
crime and starvation; shall not stand in
danger Of death, or in danger of pollution
il bread goes mp . cent
| claim that it is possible SO to arrange
the relations Of labor to capital that you can
have your millions OF voters intelligen,
men, educated men; and my idea Of this
movement is just the completion Of these
two plans. That il my goal when look Al
this thing.
That is what l mean by eight hours.
am not up in the clouds. / will give You
single illustration. Drops Of water make
the ocean. / know fashionable millinel
in this city who has in her employ from
thirty to fifty girls, and pays as high wages
city. More than q year ago she said to hel
girls. Il shall only ask eight hours ia,
of you. Give me eight hours Of willin,
work, with the same wages" Applause.
After trying the experiment for more than
year-perhaps year and u half-paying tn,
highest, and asking but eight hours day
she said to me: nm perfectly satisfied
with the experiment; / can better affor,
eight hours than could ten; but am try
ing IN experiment Of justice. and il ha
brought profit The girl goes to her viii
a heart; she goes to her with fresh bod.
and willing mind. IApplause.l belev,
the same result would follow in every sim
liar experiment. I believe that whereve
you prove nm instance, you will find it con
firms the principle; and every man Of yo,
should mass up the instances. Here is M,
friend Mclean. He tells Us Of the plas
terers. and contends that their voluntar,
adoption Of the rule has resulted. mon,ll,
and pecuniarily. well. Why do i mention
these? Because this is the very litemtur
you want 10 form.
As for our Legislature, it is not obstinate
it does not dare to be obstinate. 1t dare
not look in your face. and say: w
won't. They know that two and two max
four; and they know that whenever capita
pits itself against labor, ii Is like one maj
pitting himself against million. NOTHING
il counted up there in the State House bu
numbers. The vote Of any one Of you i
just rs good as Beebes. exactly, in thi
country. There is no obstinacy up in tn
Legislature; not bit Of it. They are to,
seltishly wise to be obstinate. They kno,
which side their political butter is laid O
too well to be obstinate. There is degre
Of indifference and degree Of ignorance
both. The indifference comes because yo
never show yourselves. Some dozen o
twenty Of your friends 60 up to the Legis
lature and say: "Gentlemen. We want this.
and Gentlemen. we want that" Tn
politician looks in their faces and says
Whom do you represent?s That is the en-
Of the gospel for Weadel
Phiitips, 1870.
| Win Ara tho franks