The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-23
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
Logic OF the Situation and the Duty
DeVOivinE on the Pulpit.

III q late paper L showed lnhl the present
labor complications consist wholly in the
reimbursement of labor to the new con-
ditions which the introduction of labor
saving machinery and the trespassing of
women upon fields formerly belonging ex-
| clusively to men have caused and that
| no man or set of men is primarily respon-
sible for them. Incidentally, and yet very
potentially, tho trusts or combines
known as labor unions have played and
are yet playing a principal part. Within
proper limitation these may be very help
full to their members and yet not be harm
full to others; but when they assume that
only those who belong to a trust are en-
titled TO work at the industry which that
trust represents, and demand that only
members of one of the several trusts in
the land are to be recognized as working
men," and the public practically concede
that they are the only people who deserve
consideration they become a menace to So
ciety and an enemy to prosperity. Only
one force earth can successfully cope
with this industrial condition, and that is
the logic Of events No legislation or moral
sUasion affect it. You may control the
waters of a mountain stream by dams and
bikes and artificial channels within pre-
scribed limits, but when those limits are
passed and the law of running water is
ignored, dams and bikes and artificial chan
nels only contribute the more to the dis
asters which a cloudburst might cause
even if they had not been, and you might
as well read the riot act or the Book of
Psalms to the maddened waters as to at
tempt to control trusts run mad, as the
miners trust is now. The only thing pos
sble with the waters is to let them spend
nd f- do crpS and
avoid the contributory cause in the future
by building dams and bikes and channels
with an eye to the unrepealable law of
gravitation as it relates to water. Events
the only logician that some things and
some people will ever heed, will lead to
this in the water question. The same COM
petent logfcian is wrestling with the labor
problem. The outcome of the miners
strike, not yet so far formulated as to be
patent to all, will be a chapter In the set
Element of the labor problem, but only
one chapter of many; some of those to fol-
low to be more disastrous than this is
Akin to this is the false economic notion
that If man cannot find employment at
satisfactory wages in the industry most
agreeable to him he is justifiable in join
ing the army of unemployed and appealing
for help to those who make a living by
working. and at the same time cursing them
for their thrift. OF the same family of
rank economic fallacies is the notion that
there is a gulf between an employer and
an employee which must be bridged by some
afLlncldI device winch always tenuS TO
widening, not to closing, the chasm, il any
really exists. The tailor who employs a
shoemaker to make his shoes is to-day
employer-a capitalist; but tomorrow he
is an employee working man, when the
shoemaker employs him to make a coat
and this law is OF universal application. The
chasm between capital and labor, between
employer and employee, Is q modern crea-
tion coming in with lavor-saving machin-
cry, and deepened and widened if not
created, by the war which labor combina-
| tons early began upon employers under the
| false notion that the interests of capital
and labor were essentially antagonistic
whereas each is the right hand of the
other, and inseparable from, and indis-
| pensable to each other as the head and
But, behind all this, and underneath it
| all, as the cause of causes, is that per-
| nicious heresy which had its origin in the
| pulpits of the dark ages and for the per-
| petuation Of which modern pulpits are not
| guiltless: that labor is a curse inflicted
| upon the race because of Adams trans
| the religion of the Hebrews teach.
end which, was emphasized by the
that which most differentiates man from
| the lower animals You nowhere find He
| brew marching in the army of the unem-
| ployed to drive honest men from an honest
| effort to make an honest living. If a He
| brew can engage in the banking buSin ess
| he becomes q banker and conducts his
| business according to the unv&rying laws
| of successful banking, and he succeeds.
| Some are merchants ranging from the ex-
| the peddler Of bananas Every Jew works;
no Jew is in the poorhouse, and almost none
in the penitentiary; and that is a spurious
Christianity which disregards the divine
law on the subject of labor. The Master
indorsed and enjoined every industrial
maxim of Moses and His early disciples
emphasized them by such maxims IF
q man will not work, neither shall he eat"
| They gave no countenance to industrial
armies heading toward the warehouses; of
honest men who were observing the highest
| law Of their being, to prevent them from
| benetiting the world by their obedience TO
| that law and they took up no collection
| from workingmen to feed these while not
working themselves nor letting others
work By just so much as a man feels
| that by work he is reduced to the rank of
a criminal, and is paying a penalty not
| only for some transgression of his own,
| but for the transgressions of somebody
| else, he rebels and works only as a slave,
| and counts 1t pardonable If not commend
| able to avoid work whenever he can. On
| the other hand. when, under better edu-
| cation he realizes his higher status and
| feels that in working he is fulfilling his
highest mission, quoting and applying the
motto of the Master: THE Father
worketh hitherto and work" he
will cheerfully and faithfully do what
reazn g9 that et' in SO doing he viii ift
| himself up. OF choice he might prefer to
| be a banker or a merchant. but he can
| easily see that the whole body cannot be
| the head the hands. Toes are essential
| to complete body as are fingers, the
| belly is as Indispensable as the brains, and
| it is not wise for any Of the several men,
| bers of the body to strike because it is not
some other member leg that rebels
| makes nothing by it's rebellion, while Sc
| riously affecting every other MEMBER.
Will this ideal harmony ever prevail?
| Well not soon. AS education becomes more
! general the mutual dependence Of each
upon every other will be more realized and
| accepted for labor riots are among the
| most ignorant classes, with only enough
| culture in them to furnish leaders and agi-
tators with a shade higher, TO make polit-
| ical capital ut of it all BY and by, when
| the pulpit, the greatest educator of the
age, shall have returned TO the high mis-
| sion of the early pulpit. and shall empha-
| size the duties of the life that now is, in
| stead of descanting most upon the glories
| of the life that is to come, and shall tea n
| that to live right is antecedent to dying
| right, as the Christ did and all His disci-
| pies it will become "a powerful factor in
| making the world better and happier I'm
| der the influences of a pure Christianity all
| men will become brethren, but meanwhile
| Only the logic of events can furnish even
| temporary relief for the reimbursement Of
| the labor problem. The outcome of the,
| miners strike now on will not be an I'M
| conditional submission Of the whole people
| to a miners trust. The American people
| are not in a mood to allow a handful Of
! men to obStruct every industry and affect
| every home at their own pleasure. There
| will never be another strike of railroad
| employees that will paralyze the commerce
| Of the Nation even for hour In
! the progress of the argument, that great
| lOgician events, has compelled the admis
| sion of the supreme right of the whole
| over the claims OF a part. When the con-