The Brookhaven leader., 1890-05-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Tho Brooklyn Preacher Discourses
on the Labor Question.
The Golden Rule Advocated as the Plan
fer the Adjustment OF DImcuI-
ties-Thc Future of the
Llborcr.

following discourse on the Labor ques
tion in the brooklyn Academy of Music
taking for his text:
Whatsoever yc would that men should dc
60 YOU, do you even so to thcm.-Matt. vii.
II.
Two hundred and fifty thousand la
borcrs in Hyde Park, London, and the
streets of American and European cities
filled with professions of workmcn car
rying banners, brings the subject of la
Dor and capital to the front. That al
this was done in peace, and that as Q
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 il
is a war of centuries, it is war of the
five centuries, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classes in this country, up
on whom the Nation has depended for
holding the balance of power and for
acting as mediators between the two
extremes, are diminishing; and il
things go on at the same ratio as they
have for the last twenty years been go
ing on, it will not he very long before
there will be no middle class in this
country, but all will be very rich or
very poor, princes or paupcrS, and tho
country 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
IL IL, IL
cry itself to sleep; you may belittlc it
by calling it Iouricrism or Socialism,
or st. Simonism, or Nihilism, or Com
munism, but Tat will not hinder the
fact that it is the mighticst, the dark
est, the most terrific threat of the
century. Most of the attempts at
pacifcation 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
starvc," say those, and the workmen
gradually using up that which they ac-
Cumulated 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 can not be kept
quiet All the cnaCtmcnts of Legisla-
lures, and all the cOnSta bularies of the
cities and all the army and navy of
the United States can not keep three
million hungry people quiet. What
then? VIII this war between capital
and labor be settled by human wisdom?
Never. The brow of the one becomes
more rigid, the fist of the other more
clinchcd
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 power
full 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. What
soevor We 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-
vcrsy will be settled.
In the first place there will come no
pacification to this trouble through an
cutlery against rich men merely be-
cause they are rich. There is no la
boring man on earth that would not be
rich il he could be. Sometimes through
G fortunate invention, or through some
accident of prosperity, a man who had
nothing comes to large estate and we
see him arrogant and supercilious, and
taking people by the throat just as
other people took him by the throat
There is something very mean about
human nature when 1T comes to the
top. But it is no more a sin to be rich
than it is a sin to be poor. There are
those who have gathered great
estate through fraud, and then
gathered their fortunes through
foresight in regard to changes
in the markets, and though brilliant
business faculty, and every dollar of
their estate is as honest as the dollar
which the plumber gets for mending a
pipe, or the mason gets for building a
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 on to competency.
know man who is all the time COM
planning of his poverty and crying out
against rich men, while he himself
keeps two dogs, and chews and smokes,
and is filled to the chin with whisky and
beer!
well, if this controversy between
capital and labor can not be settled by
human wisdom, it is time for us to look
somewhere else for relief, and it points
from my text roseate and jubilant, and
puts one hand on the broadcloth shout
der of capital, and puts the other hand
on the hOmespun-covered shoulder OF
toll, and says, with a 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: Il must treat the maid in the
kitchen just as l would like to be
treated if / were downstairs, and it
were my work to wash, and cook, and
II ! I,,+- 90 %hn d;