Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-09-10
TROUBLES OF LABOR.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S PLAN FOR SET
THING THE GREAT WORK CONFLICT.
He Says That ~ Things Go on at the Pres
ent Ratio 1t viii Not BE Long Before
His Remedy,

~ ReJo AhhN ~ wv VI ~ WV = 80
ent Ratio 1t VIII Not BE Long Before
All VIII BE Either Princes or Paupers
His Remedy.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5.-Dr Talmage'l
plan for settling the industrial troubles
Of our day is set forth in this sermon.
His text is Matthew vii, ~, "Whatso
ever ye would that men should do tC
you, do you even so TO them"
The greatest war the Wagld has evei
seen is between capital and labor. The
strife is not like that which in history
is called the Thirty Years war, for il
is a war Of centuries, it is war Of the
five continents, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classes in this country,
upon whom the n9tion has depended
for holding the balance Of power and
for acting as mediators between the
two extremes, are diminishing, and il
things 60 on at the same ratio as they
are now going it will not be very long
before there will be 10 middle class in
this country, but all will be very rich
or very poor, princes OF paupers, and
the country will be given up to palaces
and novels
The antagOnistic forces are closing in
upon each other. The Pennsylvania
miners strikes, the telegraph operators
strikes, the railroad employees strikes,
the movements Of the boycotters and
the dynamiters are only skirmishers be-
fore a general engagement, or, if you
prefer it, escapes through the safety
valves of an imprisoned force which
promises the explosion Of society. You
may poohpooh it; you may say that
this trouble, like all angry child, will
cry itself to sleep; you may belittle il
by calling il Fourierism or socialism
or ST. SimOnism or nihilism or COM
munism, but that will not hinder the
fact that il is the mightiest the dark
est, the most terrific threat Of this cen
tury All attempts at pacification have
been dead failures, and monopoly is
more arrogant 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 workmen gradually using up
that which they accumulated in better
times, unless there be some radical
change we shall have soon in this
country 1900, 600 hungry men and
women. Now, 4, 600. coo 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 United States
cannot keep 100000 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 achieve will be accomplished by
Christianity if it be given full sway
You have heard of medicines so power
full that one drop Will stop a disease
and restore a patient, and have TO tell
you that one drop Of my text properly
administered will stop all these woes Of
society and give convalescence and COM
plete health TO all classes. Whatsoever
We would that men should do to you, dc
you even so to them.
Futile Remedies.
I shall first show you how this quarrel
between monopoly and hard work can
not be stopped, aud then l will show
you how this controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place,
there will come no pacification to this
trouble through an outcry against rich
men merely because they are rich.
There is no member of a trades union
on earth that would not he rich II he
could be- Sometimes through a fortu-
nate invention or through some acci.
dent Of prosperity a man who Lad moth
ing comes to large estate, and we see
him arrogant ard superciiious ard TAX
ing people by the throat Just Is Ctboi
people took him by the throat There Is
something very mean ahcut human na
ture when it comes TO the tcp. But Il
is no more a sin to be- rich than II Is ;
sin to be poor There are those " ht
have gathered a great estate Though
fraud, and then there are Millicuaiie'
who have gathered their fortunes
through foresight in regard 10 charges
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 mend-ng
pipe or the mason gets for building
wall. There are those who keep in pov
ertv because Of their own fault They
might have been well off. but they gave
themselves to strong drink, or they
smoked or chewed up their earnings, o.
they lived beyond their means, wbll'
others on the same wages and on the
same salaries went on TO competency.
know a man who is all the time com
planning Of his poverty and crying ori
against rich men, while he himself
keeps two dogs aud chews and smokes
and is filled 70 the chin with whisky
AMI beer.
Micawber said to David Copperfield
"Copperfeld, my boy, 81 income, u
shillings and sixpence expenses; result
misery. But, Copperiield, my boy, Il
income, expenses 10 shillings and SIX
pence; result, happiness " And there
are vast multitudes of people who are
kent poor because they are the vicfims
of their own improvidence. 10 is no SIN
TO be rich, and it is no sin to be poor.
| protest against this outory which
hear against those who. through econo-
nv and self denial and assiduity, have
come TO large fortune This lombard
ment of commercial success viii never
stop this quarrel between capital and
labor.
Neither will the contest be settled by
cynical and unsympathetic treatment Of
the laboring classes There are those
who speak Of them as though they were
onlv cattle or draft horses Theii
Z -.