The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-10
TROUBLES OF LABOR.
DIR. TALMAGE'S PLAN FOR SET.
Ting THE WORK CONFLICT.

Remedy.
DR.. Talmage's plan for settling the
industrial troubles OF our day is set
forth in this His text is lat
thew vii, II, Whatsoever We would
that men should. do to you, do you even
so to them"
The greatest war the world has eve
seen is between capital and labor. The
strife is not like that which in history
is called the Thirty Years war, for it
is a wal Of centuries, it is a war of the
five continents, it is a war hemisphere.
The middle classes in this country,
upon whom the nation has depended
for holding the balance Of power and
for acting as mediators between the
two extremes, are diminishing, and il
things go on at the same ratio as they
are now going it will not be very long
before there will be no middle class in
this country, but all will be very rich
or very poor, princes or paupers, and
the country will be given up to palaces
and hovel
The antagonistic forces are closing
iii uDOi cdCh tl1CI II CuIlSly III
miners strikes, the telegraph operators
strikes, the railroad employees strikes,
the movement of the boycotters and
the d~ynamiters are only skirmishers
befOre; a general engagement, Of, If you
prefer it, escapes through the safety
alv Of an imprisoned force which
promises the explosion Of society. You
may poOhpOoh it; you may say that
this trouble, like an angry child, will
itCaIf 70 CIaan- n n ha1itf1a If
by calling it Fourierism or socialism
or st. Simonism or nihilism or COM
munism, but that will not hinder the
fact that it is the mightiest, the dark
est, the most terrific threat Of this CEN
fury. All attempts at pacification have
been dead failures, and monopoly is
more rroga and the trades unions
more bitter. Give us more wages"
cry the employees. you shall have
less" say the capitalists. Compel us
to do fewer hours Of toll in a day"
"YOu shall toll more hours say the
others, Then under certain conditions
we will not work at ALL" say these
"Then you shall starve," say those
And, the workman gradually using up
tat which they accumulated in better
times, unless there be some radical
change we shall have soon in his
country 1000, 900 hungry men and
women. Now, 1000, 900 hungry people
cannot be kept quiet. All the enact
ments of legislatures and all the con-
stabularies of the cities and all the
army and navy of the Uuited States
cannot keep 1000, 900 hungry people
quiet. What, then? Will this war be-
tween capital and labor be settled by
human wisdom? Never. The brow of
the one becomes more rigid, the fist Of
the other more clinched.
But that which human wisdom can
not active will be accomplished by
Christianity if it De given full sway.
You have heard of medicines so pow
erful that one drop will stop a disease
and restore a patient, and 1 have to
tell you that one drop of my text pro-
perly administered will stop all these
woes of society and give convalescence
and complete health to all these classes.
whatsoever We would that men should
do to yOu, do o even so to them"
FUTILE REMEDIES.
I shall first show 0 how this quar-
rel between monopoly and hard work
cannot be stopped, and then I will show
you how this controversy will be set
tied.
Futile remedies. In the first place,
there will come no pacification to his
trouble through an cutlery against rich
men merely because they are rich
There is no member of a trades union
on earth that would not be rich If he
could be. Sometimes through a fortu-
nate invention or through some acct
lent of prosperity a man who had
nothing comes to a 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 it comes to the
top. But it is no moro a sin to be rich
than it is a sin to be poor. There are
those who nave gathered a great es-
tate through fraud, and then there are
m~illionaires who have gathered their
fortunes through foresight in regard to
changes in the markets, and through
brilliant business faculty, and every
dollar of their estate is as honest as the
dollar which the plumber gets for
mending 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 we'll off,
but they gave themselves to strong
drink, or 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 to competency. I know a man who
is all the time complaining of his pow
erty and crying out against the rich
men,, while he himself keeps two dogs
and chews and smokes and is filled to
the chin with whiskey and beer.
Micawber said to David Copperfield:
"Copperfield. my boy. G1 income. 90
shillings and %sixpence expenses: result,
misery. But. Copperfield. my boy. CT
income, expenses 10 shillings and six
pence; result. happiness" And there
are vast m~ultitudes of people who are
kept poor because they are the victimes
of their own im~providence. 1t is no sin
to be rich. and it is no sin to be poor.
I protest against this cutlery which I
hear against those who. through econ
Omy and self denial and assiduty. have
come to large fortune. This lombard
ment of commercial success will never
stop this quarrel between capital and
IabOr.
Neither will the contest be settled by
cynical and unsympathetic treatment
of the laboring classes. There are