St. Landry democrat., 1886-06-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Third Discourse of the Series On
"The Labor Question.
The Trials and Tribulutions of the Work.
ing C1asses-Things Which Should
Encourage the Patient Bear.
ing of Present Ills.

third discourse Of his series on "The Labor
Question" in tha Brooklyn Tabernacle,
taking for his text:
So the carpenter encouraged the gold.
smith, and he that smootheth with the ham.
mer him that smote the anvil.-Isaiah, xiii. Z.
He said: You have seen in factories a
piece of mechanism passing from hand to
hand and from room to room, and one me-
chanic will smite it, and another will
fatten 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
vii" When they met they talked over
their work and they helped each other on
with it. 1t was very bad kind of busi-
ness; it was making idols which were an
insult to the Lord of Heaven. 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?
will speak this m orning 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 la
bor, shall conclude that all this labor
trouble is ''hullabaloo" about nothing.
Do not go off on that tangent You would
not, neither would l, 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 Lab or have no affiliation, as
sociation, sympathy or respect for the ba nd
of cowardly murderers, cut throats and
robbers known as Anarchists, who sneak
through the country like midnight assas-
foreigners, unfurling the red flag of anarchy
and causing riot and bloodshed Parsons,
Spies, Fielding, Most and all their followers,
Sympathizers, aiders and abettors should be
summarily dealt with. They are entitled to
no more consideration than wild beasts.
The leaders are towards and their followers
are fools.
You may co 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.
/ 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 establishments have the
following fines imposed: For washing your
bread at your loom. one dollar; also for sit
ting on stool; taking drink of water and
many trifiing 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?"
EYES," she said, land have come to get
what you owe me-"
He made no answer. She said: "Are
you not going to pay me?"
eyes," he said, 81 will pay you," and he
kicked her down stairs.
never swore word in all my life, but
I confess that when I read that / felt a |
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 :
Women clerks in Washing
ton get 5000 for doing that for which men |
MAJ HAL ~ = L