The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-07-09
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
Shorter Hours.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, ia delivering
his second sermon on he labor question al
Brooklyn Tabernacle, took two texts from
Ifye bite and devour one another, take
heed that we be not consumed one OF an
other Galatians ", Is
Look not every man on his own things
bnt every man a II On the things of others
philippians i'll, 1
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
er, 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
emit 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 Rittenhouse square, and Beacon
street, and all the bricks and timber and
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
dementsd coadjutors. The assassina-
AT -
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 i'm 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-
tons on the rail-tracks in front Of mid
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 90 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-an these are only
. hard blow on the head of American Ia
Dor, and cripple its arms, and lame its
feet, and pierce its heart. Traps sprung
on employers. and violence,
never took one knot out of the knuckles Of
toll, or put one farthiny of wages into a
callous palm. Barbarism win 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, rs 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
IAN remember the time when the clerks of
arge commercial establishments were &C.
;ustomed to board with the head men of
he firm.
All that is changed, and the tendency is
20 make the distance between EMPLOYER
md employee wider and wider. The ten
iency is to make the employee feel that he
8 wronged by the success Of the capitalist
md to make the capitalist feel:
"Now my laborers are only beasts Of !
burden; must give so much money for so |
much drudgery, just SO many pieces of sill
FER for so many beads of sweat"
In other words, the bridge Of sympathy
. broken down at both ends. That feel. |
ng was well described BY Thomas Car. |
yle when he said:
Piuvson, OF St. Dolly Undershot, bue.
says to his men: "Nobie spin. |
lers. this is the hundredth thousand we have |
aimed. wherein mean to dwell and plant |
ny vineyards. The hundred thousand |
'ound 10 mine, the daily wage was youra.
Adieu, noble spinners; drink my health |
nth this groat each, which give you over |
nd above"
Now what we want Is to rebuild that |
ridge of sympathy, and put the trowel |
one OF the abutments to- day; and I |
reach more especially this morning to
Employers as such, although what l have
say viii be appropriate to all who are in
he house.
The Outrageous behavior of a rnrltitude
iaborers 'owa.'i their employers during
ne last three months, behavior infamous
nd worthy Of most condign punishment,
lay have induced some employers to neg.
Bet the real Christian duties that thew
We to those whom they employ. There
Ore want to say to you whom confront
ace to face. and those to whom these
lords may come, that all ship-owners. all
capitalists, all commercial firms, all mas
n tuilders, all housewives are bound to
. interested in the entire welfare of their
abordinates. Years ago some one gave
'ree prescriptions for becoming million
ire:
l. Spend your life in getting and keep.
ng the earnings of other people.
2. Have NO anxiety about the worri-
tents, the losses, the disappointmsnts Of
hers.
J. Do not mind the fact that your vast
salth implies the poverty Of great many
eople.
Now there 10 not . man in INV
ndience who would consent to 70 ont
ito life with those three principles to earn
fortune. It is your desire to do your
hole duty to the men and women in your
.rvice.