Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-19
THE LABOR QUESTION.

THE LAkkOH Q OEsSA1ONs
 Extracts From a Discourse Delivered
 Yesterday by Rev. Dr. TOdd-R1Ehts
 of Workingmen and the Dangers At-
 tending the Abuse of Power.
 Rev. Dr. Todd at the Church of the Re- deemer yesterday morning delivered very able discourse from the words "Stand fast therefore on the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage" Special ap- plication was made in the discourse to the existing labor troubles in the country and the dangers to liberty threatened by an un- warranted use or abuse of power. We quote as follows:
 Let us here pause for moment to ask what liberty is. and whether it is worth the struggles and sacrifices which have been made for it.
 Absolute liberty is impossible for finite beings. We are fettered by the limitations of our own being, by the laws of nature and of God and by the circumstances in which
 we are placed. No man can do everything that he would like to do. Men are not free to fly; they have no wings A man with one leg is not as free to walk as if he had two A man with no mechanical skill is not as free to earn money by manufacturing ar ticles as one who is a master workman. A man with powerful mind is free to do 8 good many things which feeble-minded man cannot do. It is plain, therefore, that no laws, however skilfully framed and per fectly executed, can secure equal freedom to could only be by reducing all to the level of the feeblest and most incompetent and most worthless of the community; and this. could only be by restricting the freedom of all the bright and intelligent and industrious, that is, of the larger part of the people.
 We are restricted by laws of nature as well as by the limitations of our being. No man is free to put his hand into the fire and draw it out unharmed. No man is free to walk on the water. No man can make stone worth a lump of gold. No man or government can
 make piece of paper worth a day's labor. No laws can make it profitable to manufac- ture goods which nobody wants to buy. There is a great body of natural laws which restrict our freedom. It is 8 very common, and a very natural mistake, to attribute to human laws and institutions restrictions which are really the results of these laws of nature. Nothing is r1ore important than that these
 laws should be carefully studied, as they are
 being studied more and more, so that it may clearly be seen what human legislation can accomplish and what it cannot, what evils may be remedied by legal intervention, and what are beyond human reach. The greatest difficulties and dangers arise from the inabil- ty of ignorant and minimizing men to com
 
 determined by natural laws, and which no legislation can alter.
 But while men can never be wholly eman- cipated from bondage to nature and her laws, they can be freed from the control and interference of other men, whether acting individually or collectively; and this is what we mean when we speak of liberty. mo- rnent's reflection, however, will convince you that even such freedom is possible only certain extent. If man were alone on a desert island his freedom from human in terference would be complete. If he lives the prairies in the forests, where the population is scanty and well scattered, his freedom to do what he pleases is hardly less restricted. But in proportion as popu- lation becomes dense, and mems wishes and interests conflict mutual rights and the good of society make it necessary to place greater restrictions upon individual freedom There are many things which man may do without being interfered within thinly set tied district which he cannot be allowed to do in densely populated city And again, in an intelligent and virtuous community people safely be left to freedom from surveillance and control which would be dangerous in a community infested with large numbers of vagabonds and criminals By liberty" we mean, therefore, not abss- lute freedom from all interference on the part of others, but freedom from all such in terfsrence except so far as it may be abso- lutely necessary to the safety and welfare of society This limit it is impossible accu- rately to define; in fact, it varies in different communities. And hence arises one great peril of liberty. On the plausible prstext of their being essential to the best interests of society, encroachments are constantly made upon personal liberty. Impressed with the evils of intemperancs, many want to have it made impossible for men to drink. Convinced of the dangers of great corpo- rstions, many want to have railroads and telegraphs and g good many other things taken out of private control. Weary of the strifes and turmoils and evils of popular lib erty, a good many long f~r ''patsrnal govern ment" which will arrange everything for the best. The anarchist goes still farther and demands that the government shall have all property and power, and shall take away all personal liberty and reduce men to condi- ton of servitude in comparison with which the worst slavery that the world has yet seen would be liberty. Necessity" is ever ''the tyrAnt's plea" Intelligent and sincere lovers of liberty are jealous of the slightest en- erouchment upon personal freedom, and are willing to bear patiently good many evils rather than have them removed by a surren- der of the precious and sacred boon of liberty.
 For liberty is precious and sacred. It is dear to the human heart; for men love to be free. It Is essential to the development of noble character and the achievement of great deeds. The noblest spirits in history have been free born; the greatest nations have been free States. Slavery is not adapt ed to develop intellect and character and en- ergy and nobility of spirit. Liberty is essen- tial even to the largest material prosperity and popular welfare. The most vigorous, and enterprising, and progressive, and rich est and most powerful countries, yes and the countries in which the masses of the people have, on the whole, been most elevated and most comfortable, have been those in which has been enjoyed most freedom. Thinking men have always seen this. In every age poets have devoted their sweetest strains and orators have consscrated their finest slo- quence to the praise of liberty. All men have a more or less clear apprehension of the value Of liberty. The story of a people contending for freedom never fails to excite popular sympathy, whether it is America, or Greece, or Ireland. And many of the grandest up risings and most heroic popular struggles have been in the cause of liberty. This be- ing the case, it seems strange that all men are not free, and stranger still that any peo- pie once having tasted liberty should ever again consent to servituds. The explanation is to be found in this fact, that it is often possible for people to find delivsranee from severe existing evils by surrender of DOT tion of their liberty. The immediate deliver ance blinds them to the greater future evils which they entailing upon themselves or tnelr children Dy DoWlng their neckS to servitude. Or, if they are not blinded, they are rendered indifferent; for present real sui fering always argues more eloquently than which is distant and merely possi ble. Thus it has often happened that nation wearied with the strifes and tumults of liberty has gladly welcomed despotic government, relinquishing liberty for peace, and willing, for the sake of immediate rest and security, to sell itself into permanent and degraded and ruinous slavery. An ex- ample of this is furnished in the present state of things among us. In the hope of deliveranee from condition with which they are dissatisfied, and in many cases just ly dissatisfied, multitudes of men have will ling]y surrendered their own liberty of action to the authority of some association, and yield obedience to it's behssts, even when the cost of suffering to themselves and their families. The temptation is great; the hope set before them is alluring. But they make B great mistake. Liberty surrendered is not ! easily regained, and nothing can compen- sate for the loss of liberty. The ultimate ! evils of conditions of servitude infinitely out weigh all possible immediate gain from such surrender. No people ever sold their ! liberty without paying dearly for it in the I end. And the action of mass of men in I selling their liberty for al slight alleviation of their condition is | as ignoble and eontemptible as the action of | 3 people in sacrificing treasure and life itself | in a struggle for liberty is inspiring and |