News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-05-22
THE OLDEST OF BATTLES.
Or. TALMAGE ON THE CONTEST OF
LABOR AND CAPITAL.

ing in the Academy of Music, but
expects next September to have the
main auditorium of the new taber-
nacle ready for use in the holding of
services. After the usual preliminary
exercises this morning, DR.. Talmage
preached on The Old Fight To Be
Settled" from the text: Whatsoever
We would that men should do to you,
do We even so to them. Matt. vii. II.
Following is the sermon in full:
Two hundred and fifty thousand
laborers in Hyde park, London, and
the streets of American and European
cities filed with professions of work
men carrying banners, brings the sub
iect of Labor and Capital to the front
That all this was done in peace, and
that, as Il result, in many places arbi-
tration has taken place is a hopeful
sign.
The greatest war the world has ever
seen is between capital and labor. The
strife is not like that which i'll history
is called the Thirty Years War, for 1t
is a war of centuries, it is a war of the
five continents, it is a war hemisphere.
The middle classes in this country,
upou whom the nation has depended
for holding the balance of power and
for acting as mediatOrs between the
two extremes, are diminishing; and If
things go on at the same ratio as they
have for the last twenty years been
ooinr OH, it will not be very long be-
fore there will be no middle class IN
tbis country, but all will be very rich
or very poor, princes or paupers, and
the country will be given up to palaces
and novels
The autagonistic forces have again
and again closed in upon each other
You may pooh pooh it; you may say
that this trouble, like an angry child,
will cry itself to sleep; you may bellt-
tie it by calling it Fourierism, or So
cialisn, or ST. Simonism, or Nlhlllsm,
or Communism, but that will not him
der the fact that it is the mightlest, the
darkest, the most terrific threat of this
century. Most of the attempts at pa
cification have been dead failures, and
monopoly is more arrogant and the
trades unions more bitter. Give us
more wages, cry the employees. You
shall have less" say the capitalists.
Compel us to do fewer hours OF
toll in q day" you shall toll more
hours" say the others. Then under
certain conditions, we will not work
at all" say these. Then you shall
starve," say those, and the workmen
gradually using up that which they
accumulated in better times, unless
there be some radical change, we
shall have soon in this country three
million hungry men and women
Now. three million hungry people
cannot be kept quiet. All the enact
ments of legislatures and all the con-
stabularies of the cities, and all the
army and navy of the United States
cannot keep three million hungry peo-
ple quiet. What thea! viii this war
between capital and labor be settled by
human wisdoml Never. The brow OF
the one becomes more rigid, the hist oil
the other more cGnchad
But that which human wisdom can
not achieve will be accomplished by
| Christianity if it be given full sway
| You have heard of medicines SO pow
erful that one drop would stop dis
ease and restore a patient; and L hav'
to tell you that one drop of my tex
| PROPERLY administered will stop al
! these woes of society and give COL
vaIescence and complete health to al
classes. Whatsoever ye would tia
men should do to you, do ye even s.
| to them.
shall first show you this mornln:
! how this controversy between monop
| oily and hard work cannot be stopped
and then | will show you how thu
controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place
there will come no pacification to thu
trouble through an outcry against ricl
men merely because they are rich
There is no laboring man on eartl
that would not be ricA if he could be
Sometimes through fortunate inven
ton, or through some accident o
prosperity, man who had nothini
comes to large estate, and we see hin
arrogant and supercilious, and takin
people by the throat just as other pee
pie took linn by the throat. There
somethi very mean about huma
nature V -.en it comes to the top. Blu
: it is no more a sin TO be rich than 1t
a sin to be poor There are those VIII
have gathered great estate throug
fraud, and then there are millionaire
,, who have gathered their forum
through foresight in regard to change
in the markets, and through brilliaI
business faculty, and every dollar {
their estate is as honest as the dollf
which the plumber gets for mending
> pipe, or the mason gets for building
wall There are those who keep
q poverty because of their own faul
They might have been well off, bl
. they smoked or chewed up their carr
5 ings, or they lived beyond their mean
e while others on the same wages an
! on the same salaries went on to con
r potency. | know a man who is all Il
} time complaining of his poverty an
j. CRYING out against rich men, while
: himself keeps two dogs, and cheV
+ and smokes, and is filled to the CHI
; with whisky and beerl
Micawber said to David Copperfiel
: "Copperfeld, my boy, one pound i
come, twenty shillings and sixpen
e expenses; result, misery. But Co
= perfeld, my boy, one pound incom
e expenses nineteen shillings and 81
y pence; result, happiness" And the
) are vast multitudes of people who a
= kept poor because they are the v
: inns of their own improvidence.
- is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin
n be poor l protest against this quito
: which l hear against thOs5 WI
!. through economy and self denial a.
m assiduity, have come to large fortuI
Z. This bombardment of commercial 81
or cess will never stop this cOntrover
e. between capital and labor.
&c NEITHER THROUGH CONTEMPT NOR v
ne LENCE.
es Neither will the contest be settled
he cynical and unsympathetic treatme
a of the laboring classes. There {
those who speak of them as thou
they were only cattle or draug
a horses. Their nerves are nOthir
y their domestic comfort is nothil
Id their happiness is nothing. TIL
ne have no more sympathy for them tn
IL a hound has for hare, or hawk
5e a hen. or a tiger for a calf. VIII