Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-06-18
'TALNAGE's SERMON.
D;scourse of the Series On
"The Labor Question"

ted Discourse of the Series On
"The Labor Question"
,,r;als and Tribulutions of the Work.
10. Classes-Thlngs Which Should
encourage the Patient Bear
ing of Present Ills.
,ov =. Dewitt Talmsge delivered the
..d discourse of his series on ''The Labor
p.s.;onn in the Brooklyn Tabernacle,
[al,pg for his text:
AZ and he that smootheth with the ham.
u" MIN that m tote the anvil.-lsaiah. XIII Z.
ia said: You have seen in factories a
lore of mechanism passing from hand to
t.nd and from room to room, and one me-
.,onic will smite it,, and another will
aattsu it, and another will chisel it,
AVID another will polish it until the work
h. done. And so the prophet describes
the idols of olden times as being made,
mart of them by one hand, part of them by
smother hand. Carpentry comes in, gold
beating comes in, smithery comes in, and
three or four STYLES of mechanism are en-
nloyed. S the carpenter encouraged
The goldsmith and he that smootheth
with the hammer him that smote the an
vA" When they met they talked over
thsir work aud they helped zach other on
sith it. 1t was a very bad kind of bust
moss: it was making idols which were an
insult to the Lord of Heaven. have
thought if men in bad work can
each other, ought not men engaged in
honest partisanship and in honest mech.
suism to speak words of good cheer?
Y = \
Twill speak this morning of the general
hardships of the working classes. You
may not belong to this class, but you are
hound 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 la
bor, shall conclude hat all this labor
trouble is a ''hullabaloo" about nothing.
Do not go off on that tangent. You would
not, neither would 1, submit without pro-
test to the expressions to which many Of
our laborers are subjected.
You do a great wrong to the laboring
classes if you hold them responsible for
the work of the s%coundrelly Anarchists.
You can not hate their deeds more thor.
oughly han do all the Industrial classes.
AT the head of the chief organ of the
Knights of Labor, in big letters, l find the
following vigorous disclaimer:
Let it be understood by all the world that
the knights of Labor have no utilization, as.
ISOLATION, sympathy or respect for the band
rob ers known as Anarchists, who sneak
through the country like midnight assas.
sins. stirring up the passions OF ignorant
and md aansing riot and bloodshed Parsons,
Spies, Fielding, Most and all their followers,
sympathizers, aiders and abettors should be
%summuriiy dealt with. They are entitled to
The leaders, are towards and their followers
are fools.
You may do your duty toward your en-
ployes, hut 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
euIhe I'LL VIII j uyAAS Ov Ul0 uAOOSdAus
and dying by inches.
l read a 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 q little more than three dol
lars per week.
Another:
She now makes wrappere at one dollar per
Dozen; can make eight wrappers per day.
Another:
We girls in our establishment rave the
following fines imposed: For washing your
hands twenty five cents. eating u piece OF
TIM on a stool: taktng q drink of water. and
many trifing things too numerous to men
ton.
Some of the worst villains of our cities
are the employers of these women. They
beat hem 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
most insignificant flaw is picked out, and
the wages refused, and sometimes the
dollar deposited not given back. The
Women's Protective Union reports a case
where one of the poor souls, finding
place where she could get more wages, re-
solved to change employer, and went tc
get her pay for work DONE. The employer
says:
II hear you are going to leave me"
Yes" she said, "and Ihave come to get
what you owe me-"
He made no answer. She said: care
you not going to pay me?"
YES" he said, "Iwillpay you," and he
kicked her down stairs.
never swore a word in all my life, but
1 confess that when I read that I felt
SURFING 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
'n.ras as much as men, and in many cases
only half? Here is the gigantic injustice
.'nat Tor work equally we'll, if not better
uohe, woman receives far less compensa'
ioh than man. Start with the Nationa
government. Women clerks in Washing
ION get $500 for doing that for which mel
receive $1,Soo. The wheel of oppression il
ionihg over the necks Of thousands o.
women who are at this moment in despai,
aoout what they are to do. Many of tn
AuIy resi- nprno rks11 -.kzI - AN,