The Russellville Democrat., 1890-05-29
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Discourse by Row. T. Dewitt Tai
mage on the Labor Question.
The Remedy for strikes aud Lock-onts
Must Come Through the Means OF
More General Observance
of the Golden Rule.


by Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage in the
Brooklyn Academy OF Music from the
text;
Whatsoever yc would that men should do
90 you, do You even so 70 them Matt. yii.,
n
Two hundred and Atty thousand la
borers IN Hyde Park, London. and the
streets Of American and European cities
filed with PROFESSIONS Of workmen car
rying banners, brings the subject Of La
Dor and capital 20 the front, That all
this was done in peace and that rs
result in many places, arbitration 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 war OF centuries, IL is war OF the
five centuries, it is war hemisRheric.
The middle classes in this country, up
on whom the Nation has depended for
holding the balance OF power and for
acting Us mediators between the two
extremes, are diminishing; and IL
things go on az the same ratio as they
have for the last twenty years been go
ing on, it win not be very long before
there will be no middle class In this
country, but all viii be very rich or
very poor, princes or paupers, and the
country be given up TO palaces and
bowels
Tho antagonistic forces have again
and again closed in upon each other
You may pooh-pooh IL; you may say that
this trouble, like an angry child, Will
cry itself To sleep; you may belittlc it
by calling IL Fourierism, or Socialism,
or ST. Simonism, or Nihilism, or Com
munisp, but that win not hinder the
fact that IL is the mightiest the dark
est, tho most terrific threat of the
century. Most of the attempts at
paciheation have been dead failures and
monopoly is more arrogant, and the
trades unions more bitter. ''Giye 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
conditions, we will not work at
ALL say these. ''rhen you shall
starye," 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 enactments OF Legisla-
lures, and all the constabularies of the
cities, and all the army and navy of
the United States can not keep three
million hungry people quiet What
ANfl Id hat tai
and labor be settled by human wisdom?
Never. The brow OF the one becomes
more rigid, the fist of thsother more
clinehed.
But that which human wisdom can
not achieve viii be accomplished by
Christianity II IL be given full sway.
You have heard OF medicines so power
ful that one drop would stop disease
and restore patient; and have to tell
YOU that one drop of my text properly
administered win stop all these woes of
society, and give convaleseence and
complete health to all classes. What
soeyer We would that men should do TO
you, do We 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.
In the first place there win come no
paeifeation 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
a fortunate invention, or through some
accident OF prosperity, 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 IL comes TO the
top. Bus IL is no more sin 20 be rich
than II is sin 10 be peor. There are
those who have gathered a great
estate through fraud, and then
there are miilionaires who have
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 mendiug 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 well 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 10 competency. l
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 ehews and smokes,
2. and is filled 10 the chin with whisky and
beerl
Neither viii there be any pzcification
Of this angry controversy through vio-
lenee God never blessed murder But
up tomorrow the country seats on the
hanks OF the Hudson. and all the fine
houses on Madison square, and Brook
lvn Heights and brooklyn Hin, and
Rittenhoass Square, and Beacon street.
and all the bricks and timber and
stone VIII Just fan hack o. the
bare head Of American labor.
The worst enemies OF the working
classes in she United States and
ireland are their demented eoadjutors.
A few years ago assassination-the
assassination OF Lord Frederick Caven-
Vi>A AIM sAts hAFNN Az INNA4A ara
Dublin, ireland, in the attempt to
avenge the wrongs Of Ireland-onl
turned away from that afflicted people
millions % sympathinerS The attempt
70 blow up the House Of Commous in
London had only this effe, Ito throw
out OF employment tens Of thousands Of
innocent Irish people in England.
well, il this controversy between
capital and labor can not be settled by
human wisdom, Ii is time Tor as 10 look
somewhere else for relief, and II p0ints
FROM MY text r0seSte and iabilant, and
pats enc hand on the broadcloth shoNi-
der Of capital and puts the other hand
on the homespua-covered shoulder Of
toll and says, with voice that win