Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-09-10
TALMAGES SERMON.
INTERESTING THEME BY The WASH.
NcToN PREACHER.

Discussing the Relations Between Capt.
tai aud Labor-Some Futile Remedies
Christ Was the Greatest Friend Of
the Capitalist and the Teller. Ete
TIKI: Whatsoever We would that men
should do TO you, do YOU even so to them. -
Matthew VIII. -
The greatest war the world has ever seen
l. between capital aud labor. The strife Is
not like that which in history Is called the
Thirty Years war. for Il + war Of eentur-
les, IL Is a war Of the five continents, Il Is a
war hemisphere. The middle classes In
this country. upon whom the nation has de-
pended for holding the balance Of power and
for acting as mediatOrs between the two
extremes, are diminishing, and II things go
on al the same ratio a. they are now going
il will not be very long before there will be
no middle class in this country, but all will
be very rich OF very poor princes or pau
pers. aud 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 move
monts OF the boycotters and the dyna-
miters are only skirmishers before a gen
eral engagement, or, IL YOU prefer il, cs-
capes through the safety valves of an i'm
prisoned force which promises the eNplO-
sion OF society. You may poohpooh il; YOU
may say that this trouble, like an angry
child, will cry itself to sleep; You NAV he
little it by calling it Fourierism or social
ism or st. Simonism or nihilism or COM
munism, but that will not hinder the fact
that IL is the mightiest, the darkest the
most terrific threat of this century. All at
tempts at paciflcatiOn have been dead fail
ures, 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. Com
pei us to do fewer hours OF toll in 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 ac-
cumulated in better times, unless there be
some radical change we shall have soon in
this country 1000, 900 hungry men and wom-
en-. Now, 1000, 900 hungry people cannot
be kept quiet. All the enactments oflegis.
latures and all the constahularies of the
cities and all the army and navy of the
United States cannot keep 900 900 hungry
people quiet What, then? Will this war
between 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 cannot
achieve will be accomplished by Christianity
If it be given full sway. You have heard of
medicines SO powerful that one drop will
stop disease and restore patient. and I
have to tell you that one drop of NV text
properly administered will stop ali these
woes OF society and give cOnvalescence and
complete health to all classes "Whatso-
ever We would that men should do TO YOU.
do you even so them
| shall first show YOU how this quarrel be-
tween monopoly and hard work cunhot be
stopped, and then will show you how this
controversy will be settled
Futile remedies. In the first place. there
will come no VacincatOn to this 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 II he could be. Sometimes through
fortunate invention or through some nrri-
dent of prosperity a man who had nothing
comes to large estate and we see him
arrogant and supercilious and taking peo-
pie by the throat. There is some
thing very mean about human ma
ture when it comes to the top. But il
is no more a sin to he rich than it is a sin
to be poor. There are those who have
gathered great estate through fraud.
and then there are millonaires 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 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. | know man who is
all the time complaining of his poverty and
crying out against rich men, while he him
self keeps two dogs and chews and smokes
and IS filled to the chin with whisky and
beer.
Nirawber said to David CopperleId.
"Copperfeld, my boy. Il income. twenty
shilincs and sixpense expences: result
misery. But, Copperfcld my boy, II in
come. expenses nineteen shillinGs and six
pence; result, happiness" And there are
vast multitudes of people who are kept poor
because they are the victims Of their own
lmproyidence. 1t is no sin to be rich. and
IT IS no sin to he poor protest against
TINS cutlery which hear against those who,
through economy and self denial and asst
duty, have come to large fortune. This
commandment of commercial success will
never stop this quarrel between capital and
labor
Neither will the contest be settled hv
cynical and unsympathetic treatment Df
the labOring classes There are those who
speak of them as though they were only
cattle or draft horses Their nerves are
nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing
their happiness is nothing. They have no
more sympathy for them than a hound has
for hare or a hawk for hen or tiger
for a calf. When Jean Vatican. the great
est hero of Victor Hugo's writings, after n
life of suffering and brave endurance. goes
into incarceration and death, they clap the
book shut and say, GOOD for hint" They
stamp their feet with indignation and saw
just the opposite of Save the working
classes They have all their sympathies
with Shylock. and not with Antonio and
Portia. They are plutocrats. and their
feelings are Internal. They are filled with
irritation and Feasibility on this subject.
To stop this awful imbrogio between
capital and labor they will lift not so much
as the tip end of the little finger.
Neither will there be any pacihcation of
this angry controversy through violence.
God never blessed murder.
The poorest use you can put a man to is
to kill him. Blow up tomorrow all the
country seats on the banks of the Hudson,
and all the fine houses on Madison Square
and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker Hill ,
and Rittenhouse Square, and Beacon street,
and all the bricks and timber and stone
will just fall back on the bare head of
American labor. The worst enemies of the
working classes in the United States and
Ireland are their demented coadiutors.
Assassination, the assassination Of Lord
Frederick Cavendish and Mr.. Burke in
Phoenix Park, Dublin, in the attempt to
avenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned
away from that afflicted people millions of
sympathiZ"rs, The attempt to blow up the
House OF Commons in London had only
this etfect-to throw ont of employment
tens of thousands of innocent Irish people
in England.
Wen, IL this controversy between capital
and labor cannot be settled by human wis
dom II to-day capital and labor stand with
their thumbs on each others throat, as
they do, it is time for us to look somewhere
else ior relief, and it points from my text,
roseate and jubilant, and puts one hand on