The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-07-24
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Discourse by Rev. IT. Dewitt Tai
mage on the Labor Question.
The Rem sdy for Strikes and Lock-Outs
Must Come Through the Means g
3 More General Observance
of the Golden Rule.

The following discourse on the rela-
lions Of capital and labor was delivered
by Rev. L. Dewitt Ta1mage in the
Brooklyn Academy Of Music from the
text:
Whatsoever we would that men should do
to YOU, do you even so 20 them.-Matt. viii,
Two hundred and fifty thousand Ia
borers in Hyde Park, London, and the
streets of American and European cities
filed with professions of workmen car
rying banners, brings the subject of Ia
Dor and capital to the front. That all
this was done in peace, and that as a
result in many places, arbitration has
taken place, is hopeful sign.
The greatest war the world has ever
seen is between capital and labor. The
strife is not like that which in history
is called the Thirty Years War, for it
is war of centuries, it is war of the
five centuries, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classcs in this country, up
on whom the Nation has depended for
holding the balance Of power and for
acting as mediators between tho two
extremes, are diminishing; and if
things GO on at the same ratio as they
have for the last twenty years been GO
ing on, it will not be very long before
there win be no middle class in this
country, but all will be very rich or
very poor, princes or paupers, and the
country be given up to palaces and
novels.
The antagonistic 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 belittle it
by calling it Fourierism, or Socialism,
or st. Simonism, or Nihilism, or Com
munism, but that will not hinder the
fact that it is the mightiest, the dark
est, the most terrific threat of the
century. Most of the attempts at
pacifcation 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
day." you shall toll more hours, 4"
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 ac-
cumulated 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 can not be kept
quiet. All the enactments of Legisla-
lures, and all the constabularies of the
cities, and all the army and navy of
the United States can not keep three
million hungry people quiet What
then? Will this war between capital
and labor be settled by human wisdom?
Never. The brow of the one becomes
more rigid, the fst of the other more
clinched.
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 power
full that one drop would stop disease
and restore patient; and have to tell
you that one drop of my text properly
administered will stop all these woes of
society, and give convalescence and
complete health to all classes. "What-
soever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them"
shall first show you this morning
how this controversy between mononoly
and hard work can not be stopped, and
then will show you how this eontro-
versy will be settled.
In the first place there will come no
pacifcation to this trouble through an
cutlery against rich men merely be.
cause they are rich. There is no la
boring man on earth that would not he
rich II he could be. Sometimes through
fortunate invention, or through some
accident of prosperity, a man who had
nothing comes to large estate and we
see him arrogant and supercilious, and
taking people by the throat lust as
other people took him by the throat.
Ihere is something very mean about
human nature when it comes to the
top. But 1t is no more a sin to be rich
than 1t is a sin to be poor There are
those who have gathered a great
estate through fraud, and then
~AO h1l111OndlFeS VINO have
gathered their fortunes through
foresight in regard to changes
In the markets, and though brilliant
business faculty, and every dollar of
their estate is as honest as the dollar
which the plumber gets for mending
pipe, or the mason gets for building a
wall. There are those who keep in
poverty because of their own fault.
They might have been well of, but thew
smoked or chewed up their earnings. or
they lived beyond their means. while
others on the same wages and on the
same salaries went on to competency.
know man who is all the time com
planning of his poverty and crying out
against rich men, while he himself
keeps two dogs, and chews and smokes.
and is filled to the chin with whisky and
beerl
Micawber said to David Copperaeld:
'Copperfeld, my boy, one pound in
come, twenty shillings and sixpence ex-
penses; result, misery. But Copperfe1d.
my boy, one pound income, expenses
nineteen shillings and sixpence; re-
suit, happiness And there are vast
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