The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-06-09
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Second Discourse Of the Series
On the Labor Question.
How Employers Ought to Treat Employees
practical Suggestions Outside the
Question Of Better Wages and 1.
Shorter Hours.

-fracucai suggestions Outside the
Question Of Better Wages and 1.
Shorter Hours.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in delivering
bis 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 ye be not consumed one of an.
other. -IGalstians ", Is
Look not every man on his own things;
but every man also on the things of others.
=
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 they are right or wrong, always
injure laborers more than they do capital
lists. You will see this in the starvation
of next winter. Boycotting and violence
and murder never pay. They are differ
ent stages Of anarchy. God never blessed
murder. The worst use you can put 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 Rittenhouse square, and Beacon
otroat and al IL tho hrinkc aud ttp,ho. Nd
stones will 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.
tions 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 to blow up the
House of Commons In Lond on had only
this effect-.o 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 reason; 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 60 to press, or in the
mines the day the coal was to be delivered,
or on house scaffoldings so the builder fails
In keeping his contract-all 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. and violence,
never 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
borer by the strikes will be repaired, and
some important things ought now to be
said.
The whole tendency of our times, a. 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 &C.
:ustomed to board with the head men Of
the firm.
All that is changed, and the tendency IL
to make the distance between employer
and employee wider and wider. The ten.
dency Is to make the employee feel that b,
is wronged by the success of the capitalist
and to make the capitalist feel:
snow my laborers are only beasts o.
burden; must give SO much money for S,
much drudgery, just SO many pieces of sill
yer for so many beads of sweat"
In other words, the bridge of sympathy
is broken down at both ends. That feel
ing was we'll described by Thomas Car
lyle when he said:
PluRson, Of st. Dolly understood, bue
cancer like says to his men: "Noble spin
ners, this IL the hundredth thousand we hav
gained, whel Elm mean to dwell and plan
my vineyards The hundred thousan
pound 10 mine, the daily wage was yours
Adieu, noble spinners; drink my healtl
with this groat each, which give you owe
and above"
Now what we want is to rebuild tina
bridge Of sympathy, and put the trowe
to one Of the abutments to. day; and
preach more especially this morning t
employers as such, although what l hav
to say will be appropriate to all who are /
the house.
The outrageous behavior Of . multitud
of laborers toward their employers durin
the last three months, behavior infamou
and worthy of most condign punishment
may have induced some employers to neg
lect the real Christian duties that the
owe to those whom they employ. There
fore want to say to you whom confror
face to face, and those to whom thes
words may come, that all ship.owners, a
capitalists, all commercial firms, all mas
ter builders, all housewives are bound I
be interested in the entire welfare of the
subordinates. Years ago some one CAV
three prescriptions for becoming million
aire:
l. Spend your life in getting and keeI
ing the earnings Of other people.
2. Have no anxiety about the worr
ments, the losses, the disappointments
others.
8. Do not mind the fact that your va.
wealth implies the poverty Of great man
people.
Now there is not Q man In m
audience who would consent to 90 o,
into life with those three principles to ear
fortune. It is your desire to do 20,
whole duty 10 the men and women in 20,
service.
First Of all then, pay - large wages
are reasonable and as your business wi
afford. Not necessarily what others pa,