Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-15
STEP QUICK.
Motto Sam Jones Would Have Pro acher and Christian Adopt.
The Church of God Must Have the Pro- greSsive Spirit of the Age If It Would Still Be Power-
 fui Factor.
lCoPYRIoHT, 1895. I

world lew uayS ago. oaleS ncarly five million annually. Hung up in a conspicuous place in a large frame, in very large print, is this simple direction to the employees: ''step quick. We want no slow. steppers here.p This is hustling age, and the fellow who does not hustle gets left. Nearly alIof the great inventions of the past. five years have been machinery for saving time and taking near cuts The American people are crowding five years into one by means of the various kinds of time saving machinery. In the field of agri- culture, with the steam blows, drills, reapers and threshers, one man does the work of ten In the business world, with the telephone, the telegraph, stenographer and typewriting machine, one man can do the work of five. fs
 In the world of literature, with the thousands of books of condensed thought, facts and figures, a lecture which in former years would have re- quired weeks in it's preparation can be prepared in an hour in this age. In the world of travel, with the lightning express and electric cars threading county and city, man may change places so rapidly as to almost bewilder himself-supper In one city, and quiet nights sleep and breakfast in another hundreds of miles away; a residence six miles from business place, yet with electric cars run in and out as if it were only few hundred yards; with. the telephone. talking backward and forward as if it were few steps.
 On the shores of China few years ago one hundred Chinamen were em- ployed to bail the water from the yes sells anchored to the shores, and hun dred salaries were paid. An American steam pump was hauled over, put to work and one hundred Chinamen dis missed. They'stood on the shore for a little while looking at the strange American machine doing the work of one hundred men. The leader cried to the band: American devileel steal Chinamen bread" and down they bounced upon this American machine and beat on it as if to destroy 1t. This is but a figure of what is occurring all over this country. Our new machin- cry is displacing thousands of men and women In the, various callings of life. This is great factor entering into our present civilization, and it is one of the factors to which our people have not become properly adjusted.
 The lightning express of the nine- teenth century has rung the gong, pulled open the throttle and moved out leaving many fellow standing on the platform. The common people of this age have not yet caught on fully to its lightning spirit. It will take us few years to become adjusted to this age. The electric cars and steam farm imple- ments have displaced thousands of mules and horses and that has confused and puzzled the stock markets. Tho telephone and the stenographer and the thousands of labor-saying pieces of machinery have displaced thousands of men and women and the laboring classes seem in a puzzle. More men than jobs is the cry all over the coun- try. With all these facilities for rapid motion and lightning speed executing, a few of the quick, practical men of ithis age are able to grasp the situation and work the situation, and they are rapidly becoming immensely ,'ich.
 The common people not yet adjusted to the situation are puzzled and per plexed, and, like the countryman in a city, don't know where to turn or what ito do. In the meantime much rascality- and devilment is getting into the age. Schemers are becoming thieves and manipulators of the situation are be- coming oppressors, and the organizing machinery of the rich and the. corner ing process is becoming nefarious and hurtful. But what of it all? I believe 7 in very short time the masses of the people will grow up to the situation. We will learn how to combine manual labor and machinery. We will have more to consume, and consume more; we will create more luxuries and enjoy more luxuries We will manufacture more products and use more products. There will be place for every ma chine and place for every human brain and hand.
 All classes are waking up to the fact that we are In hustling age. The farmer has laid aside his old methods and adopted new methods and new ma- chinery, and the farming interest is be- ginning to hum all over this country. The merchants are catching on to the machinery and the hustling methods, and quick steppers are demanded in every mercantile house. The profes- sional world is utilizing these new ap- pliances and methods, and the doctor and the lawyer and the author are working the spirit of the nineteenth century. Every phase of business and worldly:interest seems to be catching the spirit of progress, but the church seems to be standing on the platform watching the trains go by.
 The preacher is sticking to his dingy manuscript, preaching his sermons