The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-09-07
David SWINGS Last Message.

David SWINGS Last Message.
It has been very generally noted thas
She last sermon preached by the lament
ed Professor David Swing before his
death was on the labor question. A Pc
rusal OF the sermon shows that the "a
NOUS liberal preacher had taken to heart
sery seriously the action Of the Ameri-
can Railway union at the time of the
Chicago strike last summer. He says
labor is as great an enemy to labor as it
IS to capital. He blames the strikers
throughout for the unfortunate features
of the affair. Labor's resort to violence
he deals with as follows:
Labor may and even must organize, but the
saborers must organize just and law abiding
men, country loving men, and not as bandits
The depressing memory Of last July is not to
be found in the fact that labor was organized
or wholly in the fact that it t'struck." -" The
strike was indeed perfectly destitute of COM
mon sense, but the chief disgrace Of the hour
lay in the willingness Of freemen to obey a
central despot and join in such acts Of wrong
and violence as would have disgraced saVagea
Benevolence is Inundated that 1t must feed
hhiu C1OLu0 m6u VINO WILL DreaK IQ0 SKULL or
kick to insensibility the brother who wishes to
earn bread for his hungry family.
1t was discovered last July that some Of the
labor unions employ fighting men to 60 to and
fro to hunt up and knock down those who do
not join in the folly-those who are satisfied
with their wages or who must work. NOT
9very workman is a trained pugilist. So men
are hired to spend the day or the week in
pounding men who are noble and industrious.
Seldom in the course Of his career did
anything rouse up David Swing to speaI
like that
He says labor will ruin it's cause by
trusting to the leadership of hot headed.
ignorant, illogical men:
Labor should have for its chieftains our
Franklins or our John Stuart Mills. These
should be Its guide. If our land possesses no
such minds, then we are on the eFe Of untold
misfortune. When labor shall have Franklins
Tor its walking delegates, it will enter upon
new career. Capital will confer with it. Con-
crosses of workingmen will meet, and men
will find the wages Of each toiler and of each
new period, but nothing can be done by a fool
tsh despot with club. Yes, something can be
done-the republic can be hopelessly ruined
through ruined manhood.
IT is the resort to brutal violence that
che preacher condemns with all the force
Of his eloquence. Gun and club logic
have had no part in the real betterment
in wage and conditions that labor has
made in the past IS years. The improve,
ment has been wrought by moral power,
and by that alone, by conference,
thought and reason''
There is mighty task before the
church today, he thinks. Let the church
throw aside its hairsp1itting discus
sions over dogma and creed and ad-
dress itself to the making Of Christ
like character in the multitude. This is
the stupendous work before theology and
science today. It is greater crusade
than ever Peter the Hermit or Martin
Luther entered on. Preacher and scien-
list must meet mob and millionaire on
their own ground and develop them into
spiritual life-the life of justice, honesty
and brotherhood. Nothing eise can save
the world. A realization of the worth
of man an spiritual being "caa compel
q great nation and great manhood to
spring from the philosophy Of the soul. !"