Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-08-26

Yesterday evening Rev. DR..
Schwarm, Of the English Lutheran
Church, preached a very interesting
and instructive sermon to large au-
dience from the subject, THE Dignity
and Blessings Of Labor" He took his
text from Genesis 215: "And the Lord
took the man and put him in the Gar
den Of Eden to dress it and keep it,
Among other things the reverend gen
tleman said:
Some people look upon all manner
OF work, or labor. as a curse and an
ell upon man. They seem TO think
shat work is the consequence Of sin.
chat if man had not sinned he wOud
have nothing TO DO, that he would have
been able TO live without doing any
work whatever. l think this is a mis-
taken idea of the curse pronounced
upon man at mis- fall. If We examine
the story of mans creation we will
find that God gave him something to
do before he sinned.
And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the Garden of Ellen
- dress. or till, it and keep it, God
according to this gave man something
to do Immediately after his creation
and before he had sinned. Where
then does the curse come in? The
curse comes in i'm unrewaTded, in un-
productive or unpaid or useless labor.
Tn labor that makes one sweat and YET
does not produce sufficient If man
had not sinned he never would have
cultivated the soil in vain or even
partially in vain. He would have seen
abundant fruits Of his labor and would
have been satisfied 1t is not so since
the fall. Mans labor now is at best
only partially productive and reward
ed There are innumerabla enemies
now to rob him Of the work of his
hands and brains.
The curse does not consist in the
fact that before the fall man had moth
ing to- do, and after The fall had TO
work. He had his work before the
fall. a creature with nothing to do
would be an anomily in Gods king
dom. Every creature in Gods crea-
ton almost is active. But the earth
produced abundantly and it. produced
what was desired and not thorns and
thistles. What would man amount to
III IL We're not that he is obliged 10
labor or exert himself to maintain his
own existence You can get some idea
by studying the character OF the peo-
pie who live i'm the tropical countries.
lhey live on roots snakes, bugs. etc.
Labor now is necessity. 1t is no
disgrace but an honor to labor. It
SHOWS that q man is willing, at least in
part. 10 meet the law of necessity and
thus fulfill the viii of his creator. Men
should. as far as possible. try TO rid
themselves of unproductive. unreward-
ed labor, but not of labor itself. DO
not imagine mans ills would be dissi
pa-ed II he only had not to work. A
race OF slaves would be preferable in
me sight of God to a race Ofwholly in
dolent people. He could make far
more OF the slaves. God has dignifed
labor IN that the men. since Bible
times, who have been most usofuI IN
lle human race in church and state
nave. through His grace. come from
me l3porlng classes. Yet i'm spite of
an TINS we find people who are ashamed
10 be found working. They imagine
tnere Is something disgraceful abou+
lt' We find people doing everything
lhey can to ser along without honest
work. -'''''''
livery wei man and woman should
nave some useful work. whether
wealthy or not God has not put any
man mere merely to enjoy what others
nave tolled for. If labor. then. is an
honor and blessing. what is causioq,
an TINS agitation about labor? While
iaDof is a blessing, no one wants to
labor Tor less than it is worth Tbe
curse on labor rs already indicated is
as 1 think, that it is unnroductivo nm
Cerpaid. That is the trouble nov Ia
Dorers deem themselves undernaid
ihey claim that they do not gef an
equitable share of the products of
iaoor. Labor is the bottom of All the
national wealth, but what share docs
10 eel9 Does IL get what it is wortb9
The nations wealth is estimated ~
De ABOUT S63 ,OO0, 600 900. The Dopulo-
,loh OF the country is about 63 600 600
That would make $1,000 for every man
woman and child in this country. Ac.
corning to an estimate by Thomas
sherman this wealth is distributed in
very uneQueal manner. ACCORDING 70
Lls estimate, there is S31. 500. OO6 or
yust hait OF the wealth of this land in
me hands Of 24,600 persons or fami-
lies- RMS estimate is based on tho
census OF 1850 The census of 1Sg0
may be even more astounding. Now
suppose man should work 300 davs
I'D the year for thirty years and get e.
q gay, now much would he earn? Just
9to'V1Vi and ~ 81 a day, he would earn
SoV,VJO. And yet there are Deople who
are SAID to have made from fifty to
hundred millions i'm that time. One
person M less than a single life time
accumulated wealth aggregating more
tnan the assessed value of four of ON,
smallest States.
NE wages Of women are O great
deal worse than those of men. There
are ~ hrms IN New York that make ar
Jiuclal noWers. They employ 5O00
Slrls. and the average wages are 50 10
for fiJy-four hours. Many of these
guls have others dependent upon them
ana must put In extra hours. One girl
made nineiy-three cents extra bv
Wor1lns six and eight hours. each
night The average of 1900 corset
makers is So. And so it is ali down
the list This state Of affairs is con-
s-antiy getting worse through monopo-
hes. trusts. etc
The remedy for all this is not in az
raylng laoorers and capitalists against
each other They are mutually neces-
sdry. The one cannot prosper without