The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-08-18
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Industrial Problem the Theme Of DR..
Talmage's Sermon.
TELLS How the Continual War De-
tween Them May Be Ended
Lessons Drawn from Re-
cent Strikes.
copyright, 1899. by Louis Klopsch,I

IN this discourse DR.. Talmage sug-
gests how the everlasting war between
capital and labor may be brought to a
happy end. The text is l. Corinthians
1921: "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 oars, Cleveland in the throes of a
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 thousand wheels and
thousand bands and a thousand pull
leys, all controlled by one great water
wheel, the machinery so adjusted that
when you jar one part of 1t you jar all
parts of 1t. Well, human society is
great piece of mechanism controlled by
one great and ever revolving force-the
wheel of Gods providence. You harm
one part of the machinery and you
harm all parts. All professions, inter-
dependent. All trades interdependent.
All classes of people interdependent.
Capital and labor interdependent. No
such thing as independence. Dives can
not kick Lazarus without hurting his
own foot. They who threw Shadrach
into the furnace got their own bodies
gcorched. Or to come back to the fig
ure of the text, what a strange thing it
would be if the eye should say: lover
see the entire physical mechanism.
despise the other members of the body.
If there is anything l am Disguised
with, it is with those miserable, low
lived hands. Or what if the hand should
say: l am the boss workman of the
whole physical economy. I have no
respect for the other members of the
body. If there is anything despise, it
is the eye, seated under the dome of the
forehead, doing nothing but look.
come in, and l wave the flag of truce
between the two contestants, and
say: "The eye cannot say to the hand:
I have no need of thee
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 a complete canvass of the
whole subject. They will be brought to
peace when they find that they are iden-
teal 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
will be good for all, and that which
is bad for one class will event
ually and in time be bad for all.
Every speech that labor makes
against capital postpones the day of
permanent adjustment. Every speech
that capital makes against labor post
pones the day of permanent ADJUST
ment. When capital maligns labor, it
is the eye cursing the hand. When Ia
Dor maligns capital, it is the hand ours
ing the eye. AS far as have observed,
the vast majority of capitalists are sue
cessful laborers. If the capitalists
would draw their glove, you would see
the broken finger nail, the scar of an old
blister, the stiffened finger joint. The
great publishers of the country for the
most part were bookbinders or type
settlers on small pay. The great car
rage manufacturers for the most part
sandpapered wagon bodies in wheel
wright shops.
While, on the other hand, in all our
large manufacturing establishments
you will find men working on wages
who once employed 100 or 500 hands.
The distance between capital and labor
is not a great gulf over which is swung
a Niagara suspension bridge. 1t is only
a step, and the capitalists are crossing
over to become laborers, and the labor
ers are crossing over to become cap
italists. Would God they might shake
hands while they cross. On the other
hand, laborers are the highest style of
capitalists Where are their invest
ments? In banks? No. In the rail-
roads? No. Their nerve, their muscle, |
their bone, their mechanical skill, their |
physical health, are magnificent cap
ital. He who has two eyes, two ears,
two feet, two hands, ten fingers, has
machinery that puts into nothingness
carpet and screw and cotton factory and |
all the other implements on the planet.
The capitalists were laborers, the la
borers were capitalists. The sooner we
understand that the better.
Again, there is to come relief to the
laboring classes of this country through
cooperative associations. / am not at
this moment speaking of trades unions,
but of that plan by which laborers put
their surplus together and become their
own capitalists. Instead of being de-
pendent upon the beck of this capitalist
or that capitalist, they manage their
own affairs. In England and Wales
there are s13 cooperative associations.
They have 900 members. They have
a capital of S1s,OOO,OoO, or what CORE
spends to our dollars, and they do
business annually of s63, 600, 900. Thorn
as Brassey, one of the foremost men in
the British parliament, on the subject
says: Cooperation is the one and the
only relief for the laboring populations.
This is the path" he says, by which
they are to come up from the hand TO