The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-05-21
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Dr.. Taimage breaches Timely
Sermon on This Subject.
The Great Controversy Between Capital
and Labor-It Can Only be Settled
4. by an Application Of tho
= Golden Rule.

men should do to you, do ye even so to
them" Matt viii 12.) Following is
the sermon in full:
Two hundred and fifty thousand Ia
borers in Hyde Park, London, and the
streets Of European cities filed with
professions Of workmen carrying ban
ners, brings the subject OF labor and
capital to the front. That all this was
done In peace, and that as 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, 1t is war Of the five
continents, it is war hemisphere. The
middle classes in this country upon
whom the nation has depended for hold
ing the balance Of power and for acting
ss mediators between the two extremes,
are diminishing; and II things go on at
the same ratio as they have for the last
twenty years been going on, it 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
aud 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
1t by calling 1t Fourierism, or Socialism,
or st. Simonism, or Nihilism, or Com
munism, but that will not hinder the
fact that 1t is the mightiest, the darkest,
the most terrific threat Of this century.
Most Of the attempts at paciflcation
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" say the
others "Then, under certain condi-
tions. 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 three million hungry men and
women. Now, three million hungry
people can not be kept quiet. All the
enactments Of legislatures and all the
constabulsries 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 be-
tween capital and labor be settled by
human wisdom? Neverl The brow OF the
one becomes moro rigid, the fist Of the
other more clinched.
But that which human wisdom can
not achieve will be accomplished by
Christianity II it be given full sway.
You have heard Of medicines so power
full that one drop would stop disease
and restore patient; and l have to tell
you that one drop Of my text properly
administered will stop all these woes Of
society and give convalescence and COM
plete health TO all classes. whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them"
shall first show you this morning
how this controversy between monopoly
and hard work can not be stopped, and
then / will show you how this contro-
versy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place
there will come no pacihcation 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 II he could be. Some
times through fortunate invention, or
through some accident Of prosperity, q
man who had nothing comes TO large es-
tate, and we see him arrogant and su-
percilious, and taking people by the
throat just as other people took him by
the throat There Is something mean
about human nature when II comes 10
the top. But IL is no more o sin TO be
rich than II is q sin TO be poor. There
are those who have gathered great es-
tate through fraud, and then there are
nillionaires who have gathered their
fortune through foresight in regard 10
changes in the markets, and through
brilliant business faculty, and every dol
lar Of their estate Is as honest as the dol
lar which the plumber gets for mending
pipe, or the mason gets for building q
wall. There are those who keep in
poverty because OF their own fault They
might have been we'll of, 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 on TO competency. I
know a man who is all the time COM
planning Of his poverty and crying out
against rich mon, while he himself keeps
two dogs, and chews and smokes, and is
filed TO the chin with whisky and beer!
Micawber said TO David CopperHeld:
''Copperheld, my boy, one pound in
como, twenty shillings and sixpence ex-
penses; result, misery. But, Copper
field, my boy, one pound. income, ex-
penses nineteen shillings and sixpence;
result, happiness" And there are vast
multitudes Of people who are kept poor
because they are victims Of their own
improvidence. 1t is no sin TO be rich,
and IL is no sin to be poor. protest
against this outcry which hear against
those who, through economy and self
denial and assiduity, have come TO large
fortune. This bombardment OF COM
mercial success will never stop this con-
troyersy betweon capital and labor.
Neither will the contest be settled by
cynical and unsympathetic treatment OF
the laboring classes There are those
who speak OF them as though they were
only cattle or draught horses. Their
nerves are,nothing, their domestic CON-
{ort "a nj nino thar hanninaaa Ia nnth-