Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1890-05-24
THE TALMAGB SERMON.
What the Well-Known Divine Has to
Say on the Labor Question.
Subject of Discourse: "Thc Old Fight
to be Settlcd."

Sa0tt0 dU 10 p0G, 40 ye ecell so INTO men,.
Matt. vii. H.
Two hundred and fifty thousand laborers
in Hyde Park, London, and the streets OF
American and European cities filled with
professions of workInen carrying banners,
brings the subject of Labor and Capital 10
the front That all this was done in peace,
and that as a result, in many places, arbltra-
ton has taken place. is q 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, fer it is war OF CEN
turtles. it is a war of the five continents, it
is u war hemisphere. The middle classes
IN this country, upon whom the nation has
depended for holding the balance OF power
and for acting rs medatorS between the
two extremes, are diminishing; and II
things go ON atthe same ratio as they have
for the last twenty years been going on, 1t
will not be very long before there will be no
middle class in this 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 antagonistic forces have again and
again closed i'll upon each other You may
pooh pooh it: you may say that this trou-
bic, like al angry child. will cry itself to
sleep you may belittle it by calling it Foul
rieriSm, or Socialism, or st. SimoniSm, or
Nihlism. or Communism. but that will not
hinder the fact that it is the mightiest, the
darkest the most terrific threat OF this
century. Most Of the attempts at pacih-
cation have been dead failures, and monop-
oily is more arrogant and the trades unions
more bitter. Give us more wages, cry the
employees ',You shall have less. says the.
capitalists. compel us to do fewer hours
of toll in a day.' s'You shall toll more;
hours" say the others .Then, under GER
tain 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; I
unless there be some radical change, we snail !,
have soon i'll this country three million
hungry men and women. Now, three mil,
ion hungry people canuot bs kept quiet. All
the enactmentS of legislatures and all tne !
constabularies of the cities and all the army
ami navy OF The United States cannot Keep
three million hungry people quiet. Wha9
then? Will this war between capltsl ana !
labor be settled by human wisdom: Never ;
The brow of the one becomes more rigid, the
fist of the other more cinched.
But that which human wisdom cannot:
achieve will be accomplished by Christian
ity if it I've given full sway. You have heard
of medicines so powerful 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. w nat
soever We would that men should do to you,
do You even so to them. | shall first show
We this morning how this controversy be-
tween monopoly and hard work cannot be
stopped and then will show you how THIS
controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place there
will come no pacification to this trouble
through an outcrv against rich men merely
because thev are rich There is no labormg'
man on earth that would not be rich II he
could be. Sometimes through fortunate IN
vention or through some accident OF pros
peritv. a man who had nothing comes to
large estate. and we see him arrogant and
superciilous and taking people by the throat
lust as other people took hun by the throat:
There is something very mean about
human nature when it comes to the top.
But il is no more Il sin to be rich than IL Is Il
sin TO be poor. There are those VINO nave
gathered great estate through fraud, ana
then there are millionaires who have
gathered their fortune through foresight IN
regard TO changes in the markets. ana
through brilliant business faculty, and every
Gollai. of their estate is as honest as the
dollar which the plumber gets for mendlng a
pipe. OF the mason gets for building wall
There are those who keep in poverty because
Of their own fault. They might have been
we'll Off, but they smoked or chewed up their
earnings or they lived beyond their means,
while others on the same wages and on the
same salaries went en- to competency. L
know man vino is all the time complaining
OF his poverty and crying out against rlcn
men, while he himself keeps two dogs, ana
chews and smokes, and is filed to the chin
with whisky and beer.
Micawber said to David Copperheld:
''Copperfeld, my boy. one pound income
twenty shillings and siXpence expenses: re-
suit. misery. But Copperheld, my boy. one
pound income expenses nineteen shlllings
and sixpence: result, happiness And there
are vast multitudes of people who are kept
poor because they are the victims OF their
own improvidence. 1t is no sin to be rlch,
and il is no sin to be poor. protest against
this outcry which hear against those VINO,
through economy and self-denlai ana
assiduitv. have come to large fortune. Ihls
bombardment of commercial success VIII
never stop this controversy between capital
and labor.
Neither will the contest be settled by
cynical and unsympathetc treatment OF
the laboring classes There are those who
speak Of them as though they were only cat
tie or dl.aucht horses Their nerves are
nothing. their domestic comfort is nothing.
They have no more sympathy for them than
hound has for q hare, or q hawk for hen,
NJ. n tirer for q calf. When Jean Vatican,
the greatest hero of Victor Hugo's writings,
after life of suffering and brave endurance,
Goes into incarceration and death, they clap
the book shut and say ''Good for him" They
stamp their feet with indignation and say
lust the opposite OF Save the WORKING
classes" They have all their sympaInleS
with Shvlock, and not with Antonio ana
Portia. They are plutocrats, and their feel-
mrs are internal They are filled with lrrita-
ton and Feasibility ON this subject 10 stop
this awful imbroglio between capital and
labor ther will lift not so much as the tip end
of the little finger
Neither will there be any pacification OF
this angry controversy through violence.
God never blessed murder. Blow up to-
morrow the country seats on the banks OF
the Hudson and all the fine houses on Madi-
son Square and Brooklyn Heights and
and Brooslyn Hill and Rittenhouse Square
and Beacon street, and all the bricks ana
timber and stone will just fall back on the
bare head of American labor. The worst
enemies OF the working classes in the United
States and Ireland are their demented CO.
adiutors. a few years ago assassination
the assassination of Lord Frederick Caven-
dish and Mr.. Burke in Phoenix Park Dub
lin. ireland. in the attempt to avense the
wrongs OF 1reland--only turned away from
that afflicted people millions OF sympa-
thizers. The attempt to blow up the House
of Commons. i'll London. had only this effect:
To throw out OF employment tens VI .iou'
cenfls of innocent Irish people in England.
In this country the torch put to the fac
tories that have discharged hands for good
or bad reason; Instructions on the rail track.
in front of midnight express trains because
the offenders do not like the President of the
company strikes on shipboard the hour they
were going to sail, or III printing offices the
hour the paper was to go to press, orin mines
the day the coal was to be delivered, or on
house scaffodings so the builder fails in
keeping his contract-all these are only hard
blow on the head of American labor, and
cripple its arms, and lame its feet, and
great American strikes you find that the
Operatives lost four hundred thousand dol
lars worth OF wages, and have had poorer
wages ever since. Traps sprung suddenly
upon employer, aud violence. never TOOK
one knot cut of the knuckle of toll, or put
one farthing of wages into a callous palm.
Barbarism will never cure tho, wrongs of