The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-20

in the Penn Avenue Baptist church
last night spoke at considerable length
about the recent affair at Lattimer.
Among other things he said:
Tho century in which we live will be
set down as one Of great wealth and ma
terial progress, and with this record OF
advance will also be written a social
and industriah revolution. Before the
storm passes by great problems must be
solved and tact of an undoubted nature
brought into fullest requisition.
The hammer stroke that is to break to
severance the differences between capital
and labor must be mighty in its potency,
wise as to its time, discreet as to where
the blow shall be placed, and forceful
enough to outweigh all opposition. God
grant that the hammer has been cast
that shall shatter into everlasting demoh-
ton these hard differences between en-
ployer and employe. God grant that the
bell may just now be moulded that shall
ring out the feud of rich and poor"
Interrogation points stands at every
street corner in this industrial question.
Why the ncessant and treless rumblng
beneath out feet-why this bloodshed on
the glorious hillsides instead of the or
fnge and opal of the hoar frost? Why the
scarlet lines of a workman's blood in
stead of the white lines of peace and
home and safety?
wrong somewhere. Who is guilty? Some
writer has very strongly and tersely put
the question in three propositions to men
who are hent upon realizing their millions.
THREE PROPOSITIONS.
You must devote your life to the get
ting and keeping of other mems earnings.
You must care little about other mems
wants or sufferings or disappontments.
You must not mind 1t that great wealth
| involves many others poverty"
This is how capital build for herself
| chambers of wrong. Human labor is not
a dead, imperative thing that is to be
| bought and sold or measured and weighed
as you measure grain and weigh coal
| Honest labor is a mans life. What we
| really ask of those who work for us in
| the shop or delve for us in the mines is
| that they give us life for the few naltry
pennies we dole for their miserable
meagre existence. We say to them hve
| for us. Go down under Gods hills, dig
| away for the hidden treasure, unearth
the coal and bring it UP into a rasurrec-
| ton of heat-that We may coin it into
| gold.
| What l want to launch at you tonight
| Is that reduced wages or unjust wages
| means a scantler table, means hunger
| and cold, means Intellectual starvation,
| II not the drying up of the very fountain
| of life. There is something in this world
beside money getting-and this awful in
| justice done to the laboring classes has
| a sure and inevitable tendency to degrade
| labor and make out of the toiler half
crazed demon. 1 wonder not that some-
| times the battle is given up in despair. An
| almighty stingyness at the top means a
| sure debasement at the bottom.
| l believe in law. l believe in the maJes-
| ty of the law-I believe that when men
come to our shore to enjoy our boasted
liberties they should not mistake liberty
| for license. Anarchy is of the dewitt
| is not for me to challenge the conduct OF
officers of the law and to condemn or ap-
prove the awful carnage at Lattimer. But
| there is something back of it all.
Another thread for the loom is for the
laboring man to look at. The men who
strike and do violence are cruInbling the
very foundations beneath their feet. The
strike is a blow right in the face of any
wrong. Al persistent strikes fall most
| heavily upon the strikers. / have no more
| right with mans property because for
sooth ] have been employed by him than
I have with the vaults of any bank ir the
city.
ANOTHER MINISTER'S VIEW.
Rev. Levi Bird addressed a small
sized audience in an empty store room
at 1923 Adams avenue last night on the
|
Shadow of a Great Revolution" Mr.
Bird handled the subject in a style
equal to it's suggestiveness. He Is the
pastor of the Peoples Prohibition
church, which meets in the room. Las
nights effort was of the most pro
nounced type. He began by promising
to speak his own convictions. One o
these was that growing out of tn,
Lattimer shadow there would come th
greatest shock to the present demo
cratic form of government and repub
lican principles"
Mr.. Bird selected as his text tn,
commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill.
He spoke of this as laundering dowl
the centuries till it reached the Latti
mer epoch. He called this the "black
est page in the annals of history" H
then went into personal history. H
lived for many years in the affected
region. He preached MS first sermon
in the school house where the wounded
were carried.
"I myself" he said, "have walked
on the same roads and prompted b.
the same spirit which actuated thos
men who were shot down." Mr.. Birt
threatened that if it were proved tina
those men were violating the law, h
would quit preaching the gospel" H
discussed this subject of the right o
wrong of the body of men most thor
oughly and decided that they fractured
no mandate.
WOULD NOT BE WRONG.
ut would not be a wrong" said MI
Bird, "if any one would come and tr
by peaceable means to have me sto
preaching" He used this as an illus
tration.
Other personal history which MI
Bird gave out was that he once worke
; in TIE mines near Hazleton and be
cause he would not accept bribe h
was blacklisted. He wanted NOR
wages and the boss came to him an
offered to give him the sum demande
only it was not to appear on the tim
books as a raise, but was to be give
! in another way-"if he would kee
; still" Mr.. Bird refused to be bribe
; and he and the rest Of the men went o.
strike. The men won. 1t cost the com
; pany $4,000. Mr.. Bird was discharge
; at the first chance, he said, and he lef
the region.
Mr.. Bird paid his respects to Genera
, G,tln calling him a "biather skite
"A man." he said, "who imagines tina
the whole state of Pennsylvania rest
on his shoulders. He coined the sen
; tence Wen stay here for forty years
after Grants famous words. He hasn'
fred gum" said the speaker in a rid
, iculous tone.
.. 1.-THE state authorities which shield
such men, General Goblin and all tn