Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-09-11
TROUBLES OF LABOR.
REV. DR.. TALMAoG's PLAN FOR SET
THING THE GREAT WORK CONFLICT.

He Says That if Things Go on ut the Pres
cnt Ratio 1t Will Not he Long Before
All Will he Either Princes or Paupers.
His Remedy.
WASHINGTON. Sept. DR.. Talmage's
plan for settling the industrial troubles
of our day is set forth i'll this sermon.
Ills text is Matthew vii, IL, "Whatso-
ever ye would that men should do to
you, do you even so to them. "
The greatest war the world has ever
seen is between capital and labor. The
strife is nGt like that which in history
is called the Thirty Years war, for it
is war CT centuries, it is Il war of tho
five continents, it is war hemisphere.
The middle classes i'll this country,
upon whom the nntion has depended
for holding the balance of power and
FOR acting rs mediators between the
two extremes. arc diminishing and if
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 BIO very rich
or very poor, princes or paupers, and
the country will he given up to palaces
and novels
The antagonistic forces are closing in
upon each other. Tho Pennsylvania
miners strikes, the telegraph operators
, strikes, the railroad employees strikes,
the movements CT the boycotters and
the dynamiters arc only skirmishers be-
fore general engagement or, if You
prefer it, escapes through the safety
valves of an imprisoned force which
promises tic explosion of society. You
may poohpooh it; you may say that
this trouble, like an angry child, will
cry Itself to sleep; you MAY belittle it
by calling it Fourierism or socialism
or st. Simonism or nihilism or com
munism but hat will not hinder the
fact that it is tho mightiest, tho dark
est, the most terrific threat of this CELL
tury. All attempts at pacifcation have
been dead failures, and monopoly is
more arrogant and the trades unions
more bitter "Give US moro wages, I"
cry the employees. You shall have
less, say the capitalists Compel us
to do fewer hours of toll in day"
You shall toll moro hours, say the
others "Thcn under certain conditions
we will not work at ALL" say these
Then you shall starve, say those
And. the wcrkmcn gradually using Up
tb,+ W cl ,Lo1. ,oo,,p,,, Io +o6 IL, bettor
times, unless there be some radical
change we shall have seen in this
country 1000, 600 hungry men and
women. Now, 4, 600, 600 hungry people
cannot be kept quiet All the enact
ments of legislatures and all the COLI
stabularies of the cities and all the
army and navy of the United States
cannot keep 1000, 600 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
You have heard of medicines so power
ful that one drop will stop disease
and restore patient, and have to tell
you that ono drop of my text properly
administered will stop all these woes of
society ana give convalescence and COM
plete health TO all classes. Whatsoever
We would that men should do TO you, do
you even so to them. "
Futile Remedies.
shall first show you how this quarrel
between monopoly and hard work cam
not be stopped, ard then will show
you how this controversy will be settled
Futile remedies. In the first place,
there will come 10 pacilication to this
trouble through all outcry against rich
men merely because they are rich.
There is no member Of trades union
on earth that would not be rich if he
could be. Sometimes through fortu-
nate invention OF through some accl-
dent of prosperity man who had moth
ing comes to large estate, and we see
him arrogant and supercilious and tax
ing people by tho throat inst as other
people took him by the throat. There IS
something very mean about human ma
ture when it comes to the top. But 1T
is no more sin to be rich than it is
sin to 30 poor. There are those who
have gathered great estate through
fraud, and then there are millionaires
who have gathered their fortunes
through foresight III 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 tie mason gets for building a
wall. There are those who keep in pov-
erty because Of their own fault They
might have been we'll off, but they gave
themselves to strong drink, or they
smoked OF chewed up their earnings, or
they lived beyond their means, while
others on the same wages and Oh the.
Same salaries went Oh to competency.
know man who is all the time COM
planning of his poverty and crying out
against rich men, While he himself
keeps two dogs and chews and smokes
and is filled to the chin with whisky
and beer.
Micawber said to David Coppcrfeld:
"Copperield, my boy, 81 income, 20
shillings and sixpence expenses; result,
misery. But. Copperfeld, my boy 81
income, expenses 10 shillings ard six
pence; result, happiness" And there
are vast multitudes of people who are
kept poor because they arc the victims
of their own ilnprovidence. 1t is no sin
to be rich and it is no sin to be poor.
protest against this cutlery which
hear against those VITO, through econo-
my and self denial and assiduity, have
come to large fortune. This lombard
ment of commercial success Will never
stop this quarrel between capital and
labor
Neither will the contest be settled BY
cynical and unsympathetic treatment OF