The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-09-09
REY. TALNAGE'S SFlM0N.
NOTED WASHINGTON D7VINE'S
SUNDAY DISCOURSE.
Discussing. the Relations Between Capt.
tai and Labor-Some Futile Remedies
Christ Was the Greatest Friend of

the Capitalist and the Toiler, Etc
TEXT: Whatsoever We would that mel
should do TO you, do you even so to them.
Matthew VII. -.
The greatest war the world has ever seer
is between capital and labor. The strife i:
not like that which in history is called thu
Thirty Years war, for it is war Of centur.
les, it is a war OF the five continents, it is
war hemisphere. The middle classes in
this country. upon whom the nation has de
pended for holding the balance Of power and
for acting rs mediators between the two
extremes, are diminishing, and II things &C
on at the same ratio as they arc 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 pau
pers, 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 move
miters are only skirmishers before q gen.
capes through the safety valves OF an i'm
prisoned force which promises the explo-
sion OF society. You may poohpooh it; you
may say that this trouble, like an angry
child, will cry itself to sleep; you may be-
little it by calling 1t Fourierism or social
ism or st. Simonism or nihilism or COM
munism, but that will not hinder the fact
that 1t is the mightiest, the darkest, the
most terrific threat Of this century. All at
tempts at pacification 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 coo 900 hungry men and wom-
en-. Now, 1000, 900 hungry people cannot
be kept quiet. All the enactments oflegis-
latures and all the constabularies Of the
cities and all the army and navy of the
United States cannot keep 1000, 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
IL it be given full sway. You have heard OF
medicines so powerful that one drop will
stop disease and restore a patient, and I
have to tell you that one drop of my text
administered will stop all 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
I shall first show you how this quarrel be-
tween monopoly and hard work cannot be
stopped, and then will show you how this
controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place, there
will come no paciflcation to this trouble
through an outcry against rich men merely
Of trades union on earth that would not
be rich IL he could be. Sometimes through
a fortunate invention or through some acct
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 1t
is no more sin to be rich than 1t Is sin
to be POOR. There are those who have
gathered a great estate through fraud,
and then there are millionaires 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
a pipe or the mason gets for
building wall. There are those who keep
in poverty because OF their own fault. They
might have been we'll of, 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 poverty and
crying out against rich men, while he him.
self keeps two dogs and chews and smokes
and Is filed to the chin with whisky aud
beer.
Micawber said to David Copperfeld;
"Copperaeld, my boy, f1 income, twenty
shillings and sixpense expences; result,
misery. But, Copperfield, my boy, f1 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
1t is no sin to be rich, and
1t is no sin to be poor. I protest against
this outcry which, hear against those who,
through economy and self denial and ASST
duty, have come to large fortune. This
bombardment OF commercial success will
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 only
cattle or draft horses. fheir nerves are
nothing, their domestic comfort is nothing,
their happiness is nothing. They have no
more sympathy for them than hound has
for hare or hawk for hen or tiger
for a calf. When Jean Vatican, the great
est hero OF Victor Hugo's writings, after q
life OF suffering and brave endurance, goes
into incarceration and death, they clap the
book shut and say, "Good for him! They
stamp their feet with indignation and say
just the opposite OF "Save the working
They have all their sympathies
with Shylock, and not with Antonio and
Portia. They are plutocrats, and their
feelings are internal. They are filed with
irritation and irascibility on this subject.
To stop this awful imbroglio between
capital and labor they will lift not 80 much
as the tip end OF the little finger.
Neither will there be any pacif1cation Of
this angry controversy through violence.
God never blessed murder.
The poorest use you can put 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
olocsao in tho TTpifa6 Stafao and