The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-06-11
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Third Discourse Of the Series On
'The Labor Question"
The Trials and TribuIutiOns Of the Work
tng CIasses-Things Which should
Encourage the Patient Bear
ing of Present Ills.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
third discourse of his series on 'eThe Labor
Question: in the Brooklyn Tabernacle,
taking for his text:
So the carpenter encouraged the gold
smith. and he that smootheth with the ham
mer him that snaote the anvil.-Isaiah, XIII, z.
He said: You have seen in factories
piece of mechanism passing from hand to
hand and from room to room, and one me-
chanic will smite it, and another will
hatten it, and another will chisel it,
and another will polish it until the work
be done. And SO the prophet describes
the idols of olden times as being made,
part of them by one hand, part of them by
another hand. Carpentry comes in, gold
beating comes in, smithery comes in, and
three or four styles of mechanism are en-
ployed. $50 the carpenter encouraged
the goldsmith and he that smootheth
with the hammer him that smote the an
vil." When they met they talked over
their work and they helped each other on
with it. It was a very bad kind Of busi-
ness; it was making idols which were an
insult to the Lord of Heaven. 1 have
thought if men in bad work can encourage
each other, ought not men engaged in
honest partisanship and in honest mech
anism to speak words Of good cheer?
win speak this morning of the general
hardships of the working classes. You
may not belong to this class, but you are
bound as Christian men and women to
know their sorrows and sympathize with
them, and as political economists
to come to their rescue. There is
great danger that the prosperous
classes, because of the bad things that
have been said by the false friends of Ia
bor, shall conclude that all this labor
trouble is a "huJlabaIoo' about nothing
Do not go off on that tangent. You would
not, neither would I, submit without pro-
test to the expressions to which many of
our laborers are subjected.
You do great wrong to the laboring
classes if you hold them responsible for
the work of the scoundrelly Anarchists.
You can not hate their deeds more thor
oughly than do all the Industrial classes.
At the head of the chief organ of the
Knights of Labor, in big letters, I find the
following vigorous disclaimer:
Let it be understood by all the world that
the Knights of Labor have no affiIiation, as
2ar OF respeet @ tgT 5ae oand
robbers known as Anarchists, who sneak
through the country like midnight assas
sins, stirring up the passions of ignorant
foreigners, unfurling the red flag of anarchy
and causing riot and bloodShed. Parsons,
Spies, Fielding, Most and all their follow ers,
sympathizers, aiders and abettors should be
summariIy dealt with. They are entitled to
no more consideration than wild beasts.
The leaders are towards and their foil overs
are fools.
You may do your duty toward your en-
ployes, but many do not, and the biggest
business firm in America to-day is Grip,
Gouge, Grind & Co.
Look, for instance, at the woes of the
womanly toilers, who have not made any
strike and who are dying by the thousands
and dying by inches.
L read few lines from the last labor re-
port, just out, as specimens of what fe-
male employees endure:
Poisoned hands and can not work. Had to
sue the man for fifty cents
Another:
About four months of the year can, by
hard work, earn little more than three dol
lars per week.
Another:
She now makes wrappers at one dollar per
dozen; can make eight wrappers per day.
Another:
We girls in our establishment have the
following fines imposed For washing your
hands, twenty five cents eating a piece of
bread at your loom, one dollar; also Tor sit
ting stool; taking drink of water, and
many Cri1ing things too numerous to men
ton
Some of the worst villains of our cities
are the employers of these women. They
beat them down to the last penny and try
to cheat them out of that. The woman
must deposit a dollar or two before she
gets the garments to work on. When the
work is done it is sharply inspected, the
most insignificant flaw is picked out, and
the wages refused, and sometimes the
dollar deposited not given back. The
Women's Protective Union reports case
where one. of the poor souls, finding a
place where she could get more wages, re-
solved to change employer, and went to
get her pay for work done. The employer
says:
81 hear you are going to leave me?"
"Yes, " she said, "and Ihave come to get
what.y owe me-"
He made no answer. She said: "Are
you not going to pay me?"
'Yes,'' he said, "Iwill pay you," and he
kicked her down stairs.
never swore word in all my life, but
confess that when read that / felt
stirring within me that was not all devo-
tional
By what principle of justice is it that
women in many of our cities get only two
thirds as much as men, and in many cases
only half? Here is the gigantic injustice
that for work equally well, if not better
done, woman receives far less cOmpensa-
tion than man. Start with the National
Government. Women clerks In Washing
ton get 5000 for doing that for which men
receive 81 800. The wheel of oppression is
rolling over the necks of thousands of
women who-are at this moment in despair
about what they are to do. Many of the
largest mercantile establishments of our
cities are accessory to these denominations,
and from their large establishments there
are scores of souls being pitched of into
death, and their employers know It, Is
there God2 VIII there be a judgmenti
1 tell you, if God rises ar, to redress wom-
ans wrongs, many of our large establish
ments viii be swallowed up quicker than
a South American earthquake ever took
down a city. God will catch these op.
pressors between the two mill stones of
his wrath, and grind them to powder.
Why is it that female principal in a
school gets only 1928 for doing work for
which male principal gets 81 $50? Ihear
from all this land the wall of womanhood.
Man has nothing to answer to that wall
but batteries. He says she is an angel
She is not. She knows she is not. She is
a human being who gets hungry when
she has no food and cold when she has no
fire. Give her no more batteries: give her
justice. There are O., 900 sewing girls in
New York and Brooklyn. Across the sun
light comes their death groan. 1t is not
such a cry as comes from those who are
suddenly hurled out Of life, but a slow,
grinding, horrible wasting away. Gather
them before you and look into their faces,
pinehed, ghastly, hunger struck Look at
their fingers, needle -pricked and blood
tipped See that premature stoop in the
shouldersi Hear that dry, hacking, mer-
ciless coughl As a large meeting Of these
women, held in a hall in Philadelphia,
grand speeches were delivered, but
needle woman took the stand, threw aside
her faded shawl, and with her shriveled