Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-18

a letter to the clergy of that diocese IN
which he makes some admirable obserVa-
tions on the labor troubles, and timely
suggestions which the ministers Of his
denomination are requested to utilize in
speaking from the pulpit to their congre-
cations. He believes that the lack OF
harmony between capital and labor
presents for careful consideration some
very grave questions, and while he does
not hesitate to say that in his opinion the
violent methods adopted by some labor
organizations to force compliance with
their demands will fail, and that in con-
tests between labor and capital there is
not much doubt that labor will, as a rule,
be defeated because the great majority of
people are certain to range themselves on
the side of law and order, he does not
hold capital free from responsibility for
the present condition Of affairs.
1t may be that workmen have made
| unreasonable demands, but If they have
| it has been because they were Influenced
| to a great extent by the spirit of retala-
/ ton. They have seen capitalists, feeling
confident of their power to do pretty
much what they pleased. snow a con-
temptuous Indifference to the just de-
mands of wOrkmen that was irritating
and exasperating Labor questions have
been dealt with by employers in way
that indicated utter ignorance of their
real merits, and an entire disregard of
the rights of wage earners.
The Bishop is confident that the wage
payers will have to recognize the fact
that the wage earners are not to be
treated as If their services were a mere
commodity. the price of which is wholly
controlled by The demand and supply.
The wage Garner, when he asks tor
justice, must be listened to, and his an.
peal, to the extent that it is possible,
granted. In the main he asks for only
fair ana fraternal dealing and a recOgni-
ton of his manhood.
Wage earners are paid more to-day
than they were, says the Bishop, thirty
years ago, but their wants are greater.
Education has changed their ideas re-
specting the comforts of life, and what
satisfied them once no longer satisfies
them, They are better able to Judge of
the rewards of capital now than they
were then, and these rewards. in many
instances, are so much greater than those
of labor that they feel that they are not
getting all they are entitled to.
The Bishop points out that ''the growth
of wealth among us has resulted not in
binding men together but in driving them
apart The rich are further from the
poor, the employer from his workmen,
capital from labor now than ever BEFORE"
This being the condition of affairs there
is, of course, less sympathy with the poor
and their struggles for subsistence than
ever before in the history of this country
There ought, therefore, to be no occasion
for wonder if there is hatred between
those whom fortune has favored, and
those who see no chance for ever becom-
ing able to command more than the nee.
| essaries of life.
The only way to bring about a better
understanding between the favored
classes and the wage earners is for the
former to abandon their Indifference to
the interests of the latter, to think less of
/ their ease and the indulgence of their
appettes and passions, and to endeavOr
to get clearer idea of the relations of
men to one another.
"a nation whose wealth aud social
leadership" saws the Bishop, "are in the
hands of people who fancy that day after
day, like those of old, they can sit down
to eat and drink and rise up to play
careless of those who earn the dividends
that they spend and pay the rents of the
tenement houses that they own, but too
often never visit or inspect, has but one
doom before it, and that the worst We
may cover the pages of our statute books
with laws regulating strikes and inflIct-
ing severest penalties on those who or
game resistance to the individual lib
erty whether of employer or workman;
we NAV drill regiments and perfect our
police; the safety and welfare of a State
is not in these things, it is in the content
ment and loyalty of its people,"
There is way, the Bishop thinks, to
bring about contentment, to heal grave
social divisions, and it is not by making
! statutes or increasing the military.