Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-05-29
tABOR'S STRIFE.
Dr.. Talmage on the Conflict Be-
tween Labor and Capital.
Human Wisdom Unable to Settle the Con-
troyersy-Christianity Can-Strikes No
Solutlen-The Real Way to Insure
Peace and Prosperity.

Witt Talmage preached on ''The Oh
Fight to be Settled" from the text
Whatsoever We would that men should
do to you, do you even SO to them.
Matthew, vii. 70. Following is tn,
sermon.
Two hundred and fifty thousand Ia
borers in Hyde Park, London, and the
streets of American and European cite!
filed with professions of workmen carry
ing banners, brings the subject of labor
and capital to the front. That all thi;
was done in peace and that as a result ii
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
a war of centuries. 1t is war of the
five continents, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classes of this country, upon
whom the Nation has depended for hold
ing the balance of power and for acting
as mediators between the two extremes,
are diminishing, and if things 60 on at
the same ratio as they have been for
the last twenty years been going on, it
will not be long before there will be no
middle class in this country, but all will
be very rich or very poor, princes or
palaces or paupers, and the whole coun-
try will 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 this CEN
fury. Most of the attempts at pacifica-
ton 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 bet
ter times, unless there be some radical
change, we shall have soon in this
country 100000 hungry men and
women. Now, 100000 hungry people
can not 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 can
not keep 100000 hungry people quiet
What then? Will this war be-
tween capital and labor be
settled by human wisdom? Never.
The brow of the one becomes
more rigid, the fist of the other more
clinched. But that which human wis
dom can not achieve will be accom-
plished by Christianity, if it be given
full sway. You have heard of medi-
cines so powerful that one drop would
stop disease and restore a patient, and
l have to tell you that one drop of my
text, properly administered, will stop
all these woes of society and give con-
and complete health to all
classes. Whatsoever We would that
men should do to you, do We even so to
them"
I shall first show you how this con-
troversy between monopoly and hard
work can not be stopped, and then will
show you how this controversy will be
settled.
In the first place there will come no
pacification to this trouble through an
outcry against rich men merely because
they are rich. There is no laboring man
On earth that would not be rich if he |
Gould be. Sometimes through fortu-
nate invention, or through some acct |
lent of prosperity, man who had moth
ng comes to large estate, and we see |
lin arrogant and supercilious, and |
;aking people by the throat just |
IS other people took him by |
he throat. There is something |
7ery moan about human nature
when it comes to the top. But it is no
more sin to be rich than it is sin to be |
ooor. There. are those who have
'athered great estate through fraud,
md then there are millionaires who
AVE gathered their fortunes through
oresight in regard to changes in the
and through brilliant business
aculty, and every dollar of their estate
S as honest as the dollar which the
lumber gets for mending pipe, or the
mason gets for building wall.
There are those who keep in poverty
ecauSe of their own fault. They might
ave been well off but they smoked or
hewed up their earnings, or they lived
eyond their means, while others on the
anne wages and on the same salaries
rent on to competency. l know a man
Tho is all the time complaining of his
overly and crying out against rich men,
rhile he himself keeps two dogs, and
news and smokes, and is filled to the
hin with whisky and beer! And there
re vast multitudes of people who are
ept poor because they are the victims
their own improvidence. 1t is no sin
} be rich, and it is no sin to be poor.
rotest against this outcry which hear
gainst those who, through economy
nd self-denial and assiduity, have come
, large fortunes. This bombardment
commercial success will never stop
ais controversy between capital and
Dor. !
Neither will the contest be settled by .
ynical and unsympathetic treatment of
he laboring classes. There are those
no speak of them as though they were
My cattle or draft horses. Their ;
erves are nothing; their domestic COM i
'rt is nothing; their happiness is moth !
lg. They have no more sympathy for !
lem than hound has for a hare, or a
awk for hen, or a tiger for calf. :
hen Jean Vatican, the greatest hero [
Victor Hugo's writings, after life of '
lffering and great endurance, goes into '