, 1886-04-04
MR. BEECHER'S SERMON.
HE CONTRASTS The POSITIONS OF
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
How tho People Labored In the Days of
His Youth-The Workman Wants More
ms He Acquires Know1edgc-HIs Chill
dren Must be Educated.

ms He Acquires knowledgc-HDs Chill
dren Mast br Educated.
BRooKLYN. March 2s.-Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher, in his sermon this morning, touched
in a general way upon the labor troubles.
His text was: Daniel, II, iv. MANY shall
run 10 and fro. and knowledge shall be in
creased He said:
The age Of machinery is on the one side an
age OF great bounty and blessing; but, by in
difference, by ignorance or by selfshness. or
by all OF them combined, IL Is also an age Of
great oppression To a large extent, machin-
cry is working against opportunities. Where,
for instance, in my boyhood, bonnets were
made in Now England by distributing the
braiding Of the straw to every farmer
in the whole country, and then soma
one or two establishments, gathering il
all up made 1t into the bonnet: now ma
chinery does 1t Where l boarded, when ]
first went 10 school in Hopkenton, the men
rose at 4 In the morning, lit the fire IN o
little chamber oveRthe woodhouse, and what
was called aclosed" tho boots. Every farmer
In the town, more OF less, was occupied In
Closing boots and shoes; and thus the
industry was distributed. But today fac
tories do il all; do it by machinery, and have
robbed this industry from the hundred and
the thousand. and concentrated II through
machines into the hands of scores. not 10 say
hundreds. And so there has been "a steady
setting in from the individual industry to
ward the gigantic machine industry OF the
land
Well, we are not therefore to break up all
our machines. Machines are a great benefit,
and there is a great deal more beside that
connected with this subject Where ma
chinery is largely employed 1t is generally
because capital has organized itself. A man
with $4,000 can do n pretty good business
Ten men with 100000 or $780, 900 can do a
great deal more, and do it cheaper and
easier. And where you concentrate capitalists
into manufacturer you increase the producing
power OF material. and diminish tho difrusing
industry Of individuals throughout the com
munity. You improve goods and deteriorate
men. Not necessarily, but TO n large extent
IL is n fact yet Organized capital is itself a
tremendous element Of civilization. But or
ganizcd capital has not yet learned the Cos
pei And where organized capital and ma
chinery is poisoned, it is 4 great deal fur
Their of from the gospel. For whore, for
instance, Sl,0O0,0O0 runs in Lawrence
or in Lowell or in Manchester, you
make better cottons unquestionably, but
where you give them a premium, a protec-
ti6n Of capital besides its own native power,
you bring into those channels 80 much more
capital, that very soon the multiplying manu-
f~acturers become their own enemies; they
are rivals Of each other. And when this
rivalry begins 10 be severe, when one town
or another town can put goods into market
Mt a tenth OF a penny's difference,
there has got TO be a change all
round, and when capitalists, organized, with
machinery in their hands, find that they are
undersold, they turn themselves about and
say, must cut down expenses some way
or other; the outgo IL greater than the in
come They cannot contract their plant,
You cannot make your machines any smaller.
You can but a trine economic the feeding OF
them. You cannot take your raw material
any cheaper. Probably It l. at the very bot
tom prices now And tie only comprehensi-
BILE thing you have got Is wagcs-that is,
the workmen; and you will find that
throughout the whole length and breadth Of
these United States, II there is to be any re-
duction anywhere in the prices Of manufac-
turing, where manufacture completes with
manufacture, It is the w~orkingman that is
squeezed. We have the talk about protecting
the w~orkingman- There never was n lie
brought out Of perdition more dark than
that IL Is capital hat Is protected, not
the w-orkingmnn. II, however, they can.
not live on their wages, and strike,
in come by shiploads the untarided
Hungarian and the Italian, and so our work
ingnon are protected. There never was
such a delusion ~ that which prevnis among
men, that TO protect capital Is to protect
work, and we are seeing some OF the results
Of il now We shall see more. Now the day
has come when at this time comes out the
fact that through general increase Of intelli-
gence, through vast apparatus for the
production OF tho goods which make
lifn easier and happier, at this time
comes out the fact TINT wages, which were
never 30 large before, were never 30 large as
in the great civilized nations to-day, are
deemed insufficient They are here and there,
OF course, in the intervening productive ele-
ments that arc going ON, and are in private
hands But In 40 far ns the great material
elemcnts Of life ara concerned, and that are
the product OF the great manufactur-
ing concentrations, the workmen, from
Canada to Florida and from the At
lantic to the Pacific, are Of
the opinion that they are NOT paid enough,
though they nre paid more than twice a.
much as they were in the day when | was a
boy. Now, account for thatl Is It that they
are growing greedyi suppose the working
man, except about a month before election,
is about like everybody slse. He is a god
just before election, and a demon, generally
thought, afterward; at any rate, a clear sub
jet OF total depravity. Is il because they are
deterioratingi No; | think It is just the
opposite II Is because they are developing.
There is no man that can lie supported 50 easy
as the man that has got no brains and nothing
but belly, You take "a savage; 1t does not take
much 10 feed hun, and he is not much after
be is fed. Take IA barbarian, It takes a little
more; there is a little more OF him You
may lay this down as a settled principle
that a man grows expense 20 20 himself just
in proportion that there is more Of
himself than there vas before. To
unpack and unfold, yc develop the
mind, augmcnts his wants. And Just in pro
portion as the progress OF intelligence is dc.
veloping mon, what does 1t do to themi They
want church privileges They want books and
newspapers They can no longer be content
to live in n sly. They have a sense OF social
importance that they had not before There
Is more OF the man, Of taste; more OF refine
ment morn Of aspiration; and these
wants cannot feed ON air. There Is
more thought ahou the edu alton
OF their children, and in educating
their children In the common schools there
must be some sort OF an approximation Of the
clothing OF the children OF tho rich and OF the
common people people, and civilization and
development Increase the consuming power
Of men, and they must nave more. That 4
just the point where the Chinamhn comes
into conflict with the American workman.
The ChinaInan, they say, can live on a tonth
part Of what tho American lives on;
and men say, How do they lives-
We have got 10 learn a lessen
from the Chinaman. Not OF barbarian and
hcathenism any more than he has 10 learn
our Christianity. IL would debauch China
TO take American Christianity into her homes.
a. II Is represented ON ths sand lots q Sai
Never give Up.
If you are suffering with low and de-