The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-05-24

RNRSA "NS W. ~ W. PaNS1 VI iiAiS bilo
day the coal was to be delivered, or ON
house s~catfoldings so the builder fails in
keeping his contract-all these are only
a hard blow on the head of American
labor and cripple its arms and lame it's
feet and pierce its heart. AS a result of
n of our great American strikes you
find that the operatives lost $4OO, 900
worth of wages and have had poorer
wages over since. Traps sprung sud-
denly upon employers and violence
never took one knot out of the knuckle
Of toll or put one farthing Of wages into
a callous palm. Barbarism will never
cure the wrongs of civilization. Mark
that!
Well, II this controversy betweed cap
ital and labor can not be settled by hu
man wisdom, 1t Is time for us to look
somewhere else for relief, and 1t points
from my text roseate and jubilant and
puts one hand on the b~roadcloth shout
der of capital, and puts the other hand
on the homespun covered shoulder of
toll and says, with q voice that will
grandly and gloriously settle this and
settle every thing: "Whatsoever ye
would that men should do to you, do We
even so TO them" That Is, the lady OF
the household will say: 81 must treat
the maid In the kitchen just as l would
like to be treated IL l were down stairs
n 1t were my work to wash and sweep,
and 1t were the duty Of the maid In the
kitchen to preside in this parlor." The
maid in the kitchen must say: 'If my
employer seems to be more prosperous
than Il that Ia M fau1t ~ hnro. 7 aho1l
not treat her as an enemy. l will have
the same industry and fidelity down
stairs as l would expect from my sub
ordinates II l happened to be the wife
Of Q silk importer"
The owner Of an iron mill having
taken o dose Of my text before leaving
home in the morning, will GO into his
foundry, and passing into what is called
the pu~ddling-room, he will see a man
there stripped to the waist and be-
sweated and exhaused with the labor
and the toll, and he will say to him:
"Why, it seems to be very hot in here.
You look very much exhausted. I hear
your child is sick with scarlet fever. II
you want your wages a little earlier
this week, so as to pay the nurse and
get the medicine, just come into my
Office any time"
After a while crash goes the money
market and there Is no more demand for
the articles manufactured in that iron
mill, and the owner does not know what
to do. He says: "Shall l stop the mill,
or shall l run 1t on half time. or shall l
cut down the mems wages?" He walks
the floor of his counting room all day,
hardly knowing what to do. Toward
evening he calls all the laborers
together. They stand all around, SOM
with arms akimbo, some with folded
arms, wondering what the boss is going
to do now.
The manufacturer says: Men, bust
used to make 500. Somehow there is
no demand now for what we manufact-
ure, or but little demand. You see l an
at vast expense, and l have called you
together this afternoon to see what you
would advise. don't want to shut up
the mill, because that would force you
out Of work, and you have always been
very faithful, and / like you, and you
seem to like ne, Inc the BARNS must be
looked after, and your wife will after
awhile want a new dress. don't know
what to do"
There is q dead halt for a minute or
two, and then one Of the workmen steps
out from the ranks of his fellows and
says: ''Boss, you have been very good to
us, and when you prospered we pros
pered. and now you are in a tight place,
and I am sorry, and we have got to SYM
pathize with you. Idon'tkno how the
others feel, but 1 propose that we take
off twenty per cent. from our wages, and
that when the times get good you will
remember us and raise them again"
The workman looks around to his com
rades and says: "Boys, what do you say
to this? All in favor of my proposition
will say aye" ''Aye! aye! aye!" shout
two hundred voices.
90" says some man here, 'that Is all
Utopian, that is apocryphal, that is i'm
possible" No, l cut out OF a paper
this: Zone of the pleasantest incidents
recorded in a long time is reported from
Sheffield, England. The wages of the
men in the iron works at Sheffield are
regulated by q board Of arbitration, by
whose decision both masters and men
are bound. For some time past the
iron and steel trade has been extreme
ly improbable, and the employers can
not, without much loss, pay the wages
fixed by the board, which neither en-
ployers nor employed have the power
10 change. To avoid this difficulty the
workmen in one of the largest steel
works in Sheffield hit upon a device as
rare as 1t was generous. They offered
to work for their employers one week
without any pay whatever. How much
better that plan Is han a strike would
be-"
But you 60 with me and I will show
you-not so far of as Sheffield, England
factories, banking houses, store
houses and costly enterprises where this
Christlike injunction is kept, and you
could no more get the employer to prac-
tice an injustice on his men, or the men
toconspire againstthe employer than you
could get your right hand and your left
hand, your right eye and your left eye,
your right ear and your left ear into
physiological a~ntagonism. Now, where
Is this to begin? In our homes, in our
stores, on our farms-not waiting for
other people TO do their duty. Is there
q divergence now between the parlor
n the kitchen? Then there Is some
thing wrong, either in the parlor or the
kitchen, perhaps in both. Are the
clerks in your stores irate against the
irmP Then there Is something wrong,
either behind the counter or In the pri-
vate Office, or perhaps in both.
The n,aok ,ro - - ALo -u.-II A. a. L..
the fulhllment of this Christlike %injunc-
ton, that which He promulgated in His
sermon Olivetic. All the political econ
omists under the archivolt of the heavens
in convention for a thousand years can
not settle this controversy between mo-
nopoly and hard work, between capital
and labor.
20" says some wiseacre, talk as you
will, the law of demand and supply will
regulate these things until the end Of
time No, IL will not, unless God dies
and the batteries OF the judgment day
are spiked, and Pluto and P~roserpine,
king and queen of the Internal regions,
take full possession of this world.
Supply and demand owns the largest
mill on the earth, and all the rivers roll
over their wheel, and into their hopper
they put all the men, women and chill
dren they can shovel out Of the centuries
and the blood and the bones redden the
valley while the mill grinds. That
diabolical law Of supply and demand
will yet have to stand aside, and instead
thereof will come the law of love, the
law Of cooperation, the law of kindness,
the law Of sympathy, the law Of Christ,