Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-05-19
THE OLDEST OF BATTLES.
DR.. TALMAGE ON TIE CONTEST OF
LABOR AND CAPITAL.

DR.. TALMAGE ON TIE CONTEST OF
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
The Golden Rule Must Soon or Late Be
Applied; All other Devices Are but Tenn
porary-This Plan Is Eminently Prac-
ticabIe. and Many Instances Are Cited.
BROOKLYN. May 1S.-The Taber-
nacle congregation is still worship
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 1.-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 filled 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 a 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 in history
is called the Thirty Years War, for it
is a war of centuries, it is war of the
five continents, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classes in this country,
upon whom the nation has depended
for holding the balance of power and
for acting as mediators between the
two extremes, are diminishing; and II
things 90 on at the same ratio as they
have for the last twenty years been
going on, it will not be very long be-
fore 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 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 BELT
tie it by calling it Fourierism, or So
cialism, or ST. Simonism, or Nihilism,
or Communism, but that will not him
der the fact that it is the mightiest, the
darkest. the most terrific threat of this
century. Most of the attempts at pa
cihcation 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 a 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
pie quiet. What then? Will this wal
between capital and labor be settled by
human wisdom2 Never. The brow Of
the one becomes more rigid, the fist o.
| the other more clinched.
FUTILE REMEDIES PROPOSED.
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 have
to tell you that one drop of my tex
| nrnperly administered will stop al
these woes of society and give con
vaIescence and complete health to al
classes. Whatsoever ye would thai
men should do to you, do We even sc
to them.
shall first show you this morning
how this controversy between monop
oily and hard work cannot be stopped
and then l will show you how thl:
| controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place
| Jn6f0 WILL COIllC IlO pdC11SclGAOi1 ~ CAAA'
trouble through an outcry against rlcE
men merely because they are rich
There is no laboring man on earth
that would not be rich if he could be
Sometimes through a fortunate inven
ton, or through some accident o.
prosperity, a man who had nothing
comes to large estate, and we see hin
| fol nT
people by the throat just as other PEG
pie took him by the throat. There i
| something very mean about human
nature when it comes to the top. Blu
it is no more sin to be rich than it i
a sin to be poor. There are those whC
have gathered great estate through
fraud, and then there are millionaire
who have gathered their fortune
through foresight in regard to change
in the markets, and through brillian
business faculty, and every dollar o
their estate is as honest as the dolla
which the plumber gets for mending
pipe, or the mason gets for building
wall. There are those who keep il
poverty because of their own fault
They might have been we'll off, bu
they smoked or chewed up their earn
ings, or they lived beyond their means
while others on the same wages AM
on the same salaries went on to com
potency. 1 know man who is all tn
time complaining of his poverty anc
crying out against rich men, while b
himself keeps two dogs, and chew
and smokes, and is filled to the CHI
with whisky and beerl
Micawber said to David Copperfeld
'Copperfeld, my boy, one pound in
come, twenty shillings and sixpenc'
expenses; result, misery. But Cop
perfeld, my boy, one pound income
expenses nineteen shilings and six
pence; result, happiness. And ther
are vast multitudes of people who ar
kept poor because they are the vic
; Tins of their own irnprovidence.
is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin t
be poor. protest against this outer
which l hear against those who
through economy and self denial an
assiduity, have come to large fortune
TbIc hon, bo,.J,,oon+ IF oo0opnapoia1 SIl(