The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-06-04
TALMAGES SERMON.
Second Discourse of the Series
On the Labor Question.
New Employers Ought to Treat Employees
-Practical Suggestions Outside the
Question of Better Wages and
Shorter Hours.

Question Of Better Wages and
Shorter Hours.
his second sermon on the labor question at
Brooklyn Tabernacle, took two texts from
which to illustrate his subject, as follows:
II ye bite and devour one another, take
heed that We be not consumed one OF an.
0ther.-EGaIatians ", Is.
Look not every man on his own things;
but every man a 50 on the things of others.
philippians IL, T.
The labor agitation will soon quiet. The
mills will again open. the railroads re-
sumo their traffic, our National properties
again start. OF course the damage done
by the strikes can not Immediately be re-
paired. Wages will not be so high as they
were. Systematically they may be high
or, but they will drop lower. Strikes,
whether thew are right or wrong, always
iniure laborers more than they do capital
lists. You will see this in the starvation
of next winter. Boycotting and violence
and murder never v. They are differ
ent stages of anarchy God never blessed
murder. The worst use you can put a man
to is to kill him. Blow up tomorrow all
the country seats on the banks of the Hud
son, and all the fine houses on Madison
square, and Brooklyn heights, and Bunker
hill, and R!ttenhouse square, and Beacon
street. and all the bricks and timber and
stones wilt Just fall back on the bare
hands of American labor. The worst
enemies Of the working classes of the
United States and Ireland are their
demented coadjutors. The assassina-
lions of Lord Frederick Cavendish
and Mr.. Burke in Phoenix Park. Dub
lin, Ireland, in the attempt to avenge the
wrongs of Ireland. only turned away from
that afflicted people millions of sympa-
thizers. The attempt % blow up the
House of Commons in Lond on had only
this effect-to throw out of employment
tens of thousands of innocent Irish people
in England. In this country the torch put
to the factories that have discharged
hands for good or bad ason; obstruc-
tions on the rail-tracks in front Of mid
night express trains. because the offenders
do not like the president of the company:
strikes on shipboard the hour they were
going to sail. or in printing offices the
hour the paper was to go to press, or in the
mines the day the coal was to be delivered,
or on house scaGoldngs so the builder fails
in keeping his contract-au these are only
q hard blow on the head of American la
Dor. and cripple its arms, and lame its
feet. and pierce its heart. Traps sprung
suddenly on employers. aud violence,
lever took one knot out of the knuckleS of
toll. or put one farthing of wages into a
callous palm. Barbarism will never cure
the wrongs of civilization. Mark that!
But gradually the damages done the la
borsr by the strikes will be repaired, and
some important things ought now to be
said.
The whole tendency of our times, as you
have noticed, is to make the chasm be-
tween employer and employee wider and
wider. In olden time the head man of the
factory. the master builder, the capitalist,
the head man of the firm worked side by
side with their employees, working some
times at the same bench, dining at the
same table: and there are those here who
can remember the time when the clerks of
large commercial establishments were ac-
custcmed to board with the head men of
the firm.
All that is changed. and the tendency is
to make the distance between employer
and employe wider and wider. The ten
dency is to make the empioye feel that he
is wronged by the success OF the capitalist
and to make the capitalist feel:
snow ray laborers are only beasts of
burden: must give so much money for so
much drudgery, just so many pieces Of sill
fo, ha, &c Of
In other words. the bridge of sympathy
is broken down a: both ends. That feel
ing was well described by Thomas Car
lyle when he said
PIugson. of st. Dolly Undershot, buc
cancer like says to his men: "Nob.e spin
ners. this is the hUndredth thousand we have
gained, whei Elm mean to dwell and plant
my vineyards. The hundred Thousand
pound is mine, tire daily wage was yours.
Adieu, noble spiuners; drink my health
with this grost each, which give You over
and above"
Now what we want is to rebuild that
bridge of sympathy, and l put the trowel
to one Of the abutmen.s to-d day: and
preach more especially this morning to
employers as such, although what l have
to say will be appropriate to all who are in
the house.
The outrageous behavior OF multitude
of laborers toward their employers during
the last three months, behavior infamous
and worthy of most condign punishment,
may have induced some employers to neg.
iect the real Christian duties that they
owe to those whom they employ. There
fore l want to say to you whom l con 'front.'
face to face. and those TO whom these
words may come, that all ship-owners. all
capitalists, all commercial firms, ali mas
ter builders, all housewiv are bound to
be interested in the entire welfare of their
subordinates. Years ago some one gave
three prescriptions for becoming million
aire:
1. Spend your life in getting and keep
ing the earnings of other people.
.. Have no anxiety about the worri.
ments, the losses, the disappointmsnts of
Others.
5. Do not mind the fact that your vast
wealth implies the poverty of great many
people.
Now there is not a man in my
audience who would consent to go GU.
into life with those three principles to earn
q fortune. 1t is your desire 20 do your
whole duty to the men and women in your
service.
First Of all then. pay as large wages as
are reasonable and your business will
afford. Not neces- arily what others pay,
certainly not what your hired help say
you must pay, for that is tyranny on the
part of labor unbearable. The rig a. Of a
laborer to tell his employer what ne must
pay, implies the right of an employer to