Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-08-18
THE FLAG OF TRUCE.
Or. TALMAGE SUGGESTS A REMEDY
FOR STRIKE EPIDEMICS.
Interests of Capital and Labor Are
Identical, and When They Cease to
AntaEonize Each Other Strife Will
Cease-Benefits of Cooperation

course Dr- 12llndSe suggests now the
everlasting war between capital and
labor may be brought TO happy end.
The text is l Corinthians xii, p, The
eye cannot say unto the hand, have
no need of thee"
Fifty thousand workmen in Chicago
ceasing work in one day; Brooklyn
stunned by the attempt to halt its rail-
road cars; Cleveland in the throes of
labor agitation, and restlessnesS
among toilers all over the land
have caused an epidemic of strikes,
and, somewhat to better things, apply
the Pauline thought of my text.
You have seen an elaborate piece of
machinery, with a thousand wheels
and a thousand bands and a thousand
pulleys all controlled by one great
waterwheel, the machinery so ad-
justed that when you jar one part of it
you jar all parts of it. Well, human
society is great piece of mechanism
controlled by one great and ever re-
volving force-the wheel of Gods prov
idence. You harm one part of the ma
chinery of society, and you harm all
parts. All professions interdependent.
All trades interdependent. All classes
of people interdependent. Capital and
labor interdependent. No such thing as
independence. Dives cannot kick LaZa-
rus without hurting his own foot. They
who threw Shadrach into the furnace
l,ai- ~
come back to the figure of the text,
what strange thing it would be if the
eye should say: | oversee the entire
physical mechanism. | despise the
other members of the body; if there is
anything | am disguised with, it is
with those miserable, low lived hands. |
Or. what if the hand should say: am
the boss workman of the whole physic-
al economy; have no respect for the |
other members of the body. If there |
is anything l despise, it is the eye |
seated under the dome of the forehead !
doing nothing but look.
come in, and | wave the flag of |
truce between these two contestants,
and l say, The eye cannot say to the
lldnu, nave uO uCSu OI tuee.
Labor and Capital.
That brings me to the first sugges-
ton, and that is, that labor and capital
are to be brought to a better under
standing by complete canvass of the
whole subject. They will be brought
to peace when they find that they are
identical in their interests. When one
goes down, they both go down. When
one rises, they both rise. There will be
an equilibrium after awhile. There
never has been an exception to the
rule. That which is good for one class
of society eventually will be good for
all classes of society. and that which is
bad for one class of society will even
tually and in time be bad for all Every
speech that labor makes against capi-
tai postpones the day of permanent ad-
justment. Every speech that capital
makes against labor postpones the day
of permanent adjustment. When capt.
tai maligns labor, it is the eye cursing
the hand. When labor maligns capital,
it Is the hand cursing the eye. AS far
as ! have observed, the vast majority
Of capitalists are successful laborers.
If the capitalists would draw their
glove, you would see the broken finger
nail, the scar of an old blister, the
finger joint The great pub
fishers of the country for the most
part were bookbinders, or typesetters,
on small pay. The great carriage man
ufacturers for the most part sand
)apered wagon bodies in wheelwright
shops. While, ON the other hand, in all
)ur large manufacturing establish
nents you will find men on wages who
,nce employed a hundred or five hun
ired hands. The distance between
capital and labor is not great gulf
)yer which is swung a Niagara Sus-
pension bridge; it is only step, and
he capitalists are crossing over to be-
,ome laborers, and the laborers are
.rossing over to become capitalists.
Would God they might shake hands
While they cross. On the other hand, ,,
aborers are the highest style of capi-
aliSts. Where are their investments? ..
n banks? No! In the railroads? MOI i
Their nerve. their muscle, their bone, |.
heir mechanical skill, their physical
ealth are magnificent capital. He who ,,
las two eyes. two ears, two feet, two
lands. ten fingers, has machinery that
'uts into nothingness carpet and screw
nd cotton factory, and all the other
Implements on the planet. The capital
SITS were laborers, the laborers were
capitalists. The sooner we understand
hat the better.
Cooperative Associations.
Again. there is to come relief to the
aboring classes of this country
trough cooperative associations. !,
m not at this moment speaking of
l,ades unions. but of that plan by
which laborerS put their surplus to- Il
ether and become their own capital
SITS. Instead of being dependent upon
he beck of this capitalist or that capi- e
alist. they manage their own affairs. q
n England and Wales there are S13 '
associations. They have II
10000 members; they have a capital d
I $1S.GO0,000, or what corresponds to p
ur dollars, and they do a business s.
of $63 100000. Thomas Bras a
ey, one of the foremost men in the II
british parliament, on the subject g
lys: Cooperation Is the one and the s.
My relief for the lalsoring populations. t.
his is the path" he says. 'by which t
hey are to come up from the hand to 81
he mouth style of living, to reap the a
ewards and the honors of our ad- \
anced civilization" Lord Derby and H.
Ohm Stuart Mill. who gave half their W
YES to the study of the labor question, n
eneved in cooperative institutions. d