The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-16
CURE OF LABOR'S ILLS
BISHOP POTTER SAYS 1T Is TO BE
FOUND IN MUTUAL toll
FRANCE
PRESENT SYSTEM Is FAULTY

and Have Nothing In sympathy
With Each Other - Specialization
In Industry Also Fraught With
Serious Problems.
There were but few vacant seats on
the first floor OF the Peoples church yes
terday afternoon, when Bishop Henry
| Goldman Potter, of New York, delivered
an address under the auspices Of the st.
Paul Trades and Labor assembly, and a
large number Of representatives OF or
ganized labor. and their families were
presented. President A. e. Donaldson, or
the Trades and Labor assembly, presided,
and in brief speech introduced Bishop
Potter. On the platform were twelve
| members of the Citizens Orchestra and
Military band, led by Prof Pruener, and
they gave several numbers which were
| duly appreciated. The famous quartette
of the Peoples church also added to the
musical programme.
AT the request of Bishop NJ. N. Gilbert,
the audience rose and joined in the
Lords prayer, following which Bishop
Gilbert, in an impressive manner, offered
| divine invocation. Rev. S. G. Smith ask
ed the audience to join in singing
America, which was done with organ
| and choir accompaniment. President
Donaldson then introduced the bishop.
The bishop prefaced his remarks with
the statement that he would much prefer
to talk on the subject Of labor on any day
| than Sunday. Organized labor, he said,
| represented, in one sense, the brother
| hood of man, and he illustrated the mar
rowness of some conceptions of such
brotherhood by the Biblical story OF
Moses and the quarreling Egyptians. He
disclaimed any idea Of, at this time, dis
cussing any Of the social problems con-
| nected with labor of the present day. AS
society is constituted there must neces-
sarfly be considerable friction, jealousy
and rivalry on the one hand and violence
on the other
In the closing years of the nineteenth
century there was to be found a larger,
fiercer struggle for financial supremacy
than any encountered by our forefathers.
The two conditions were hardly to be
compared. Such progress as we had made
had been gained through great strife.
Comparatively speaking the people one
hundred years ago were decidedly poor
poor to what they are today. The wealth.
lest among them would scarcely be term
ed rich in this era. Then the EMPLOYER
of labor knew his Workmen by name, ana
the workman knew his employer Now
our greatest employers do not know their
men, and many of the workmen are
ignorant Of the identity of the men who
pay them. One hundred years ago in the
| summer the workngman was an agrtcul-
tur1st, In the winter mechanic 49,
vast and important change had been
made in industrial fields by the invention
of machinery. At present few working
men, especially those in manufactories,
knew the whole of one trade They were
specialists in but one detail of one trade
He had recently seen in one factory a.
young man whose task it was to hold a.
rod OF iron against the jaws of a cutting
machine. He would take a piece Of iron
about thirty-two inches in length and
place it IN position where a portion of
1t &C uld be cut off. That was all the
same monoteneus. steady placing of that
iron against the machine. He had asked
the young man, if he did any other work
and was answered in the Negative.
AND how long do you do this a day?"
he had inquired.
"Ten hours" was the reply.
Ten hours a day of this grinding dis
heartening toll! Think of it! No yaca-
ton, no break in the steady monetonv
OF such simple work. No wonder that
laborers sometimes break out In acts of
violence. 1t was a protest-a physical
protest against such soulless, grinding.
spir1t-killing toll He would ask anV
woman In the house how she would like
such dull round of aimless labor?
finally the man is turned out of even
this employment. He knows no other
part of the trade-is good for nothing
else. He becomes a rover. Something Is
radically wrong about this. and that
something is one of the things connected
with modern labor that should be effaczd.
There should be a recrystallization of
our affairs when they have reached such
condition. But it seemed as though
that was impossible under existing cir.
cumstances and the great systems Of
our industrial activity. He had been told
that the world had at last got through
with preachers, lawyers musicians. liter
! AZURE and the artS-that the coming man
! must be great engineer, a skilled me-
chan1c. AT the present time almost every
man was regarded as a hired man. Tn
many respects this was true The bishop
confessed that he was one. We were both
employers and employees. Even Bishop
GILBERT might hire man to shovel snow.
but the bishop, in his turn, was also
hired.
In New York recently he had met A
young man one Sunday morning, and he
had asked him:
Are you going to church?'
mo, sir replied the youth.
81 am"
That's all right; that's your job
The bishop said that he wished some OF
the laboring men in ST. Paul knew some
of the great capitalists of the country
as well as he did. They would discover
that their lives were rounds of anxiety
and that their. seemingly easy mode Of
life was harder than many might i'm
agine.
During the recent strikes among the
street car employees in New York tho
bishop had been a member Of an i'm
portant board of arbitration In an at
tempt to adjust the differences between
the companies and the employees. He
gave graphic description of the diff
culties encountered in an attempt to
bring about correct estimation of the
rights possessed by each side-a thorough
understanding of each other. They were
wide apart. 1t seemed impossible to get
the two opposing factions together on a
common plane. At first the NEE sings had
been held in q public office But here
there was constraint on both sides and
the bishop had found out that tn S would
never do. So he rad invited the com
mittee to his own residence, and there he
/ had provided tea, coffee and cigars BY
this means he had succeeded in establish
ing the first requisite to solution of the
intricate problem, social relations. On
this board there were two employers and
two Workingmen, the bishop acting as
umpire. The result had been eminently
satisfactory.
The bishop closed with beautiful
Deroration, and following music by the
Citizens orchestra and a benediction the
exercises closed.
COLLINS WAS CARED FOR.
Z IL,