The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-08-23
CAPITAL AND LABOR
Rev. Dr.. TaInage Discusses The
industrial Problem.
SOME LESSONS DRAWN
From Strikes in Various Parts Of
the Country. A Truce Be-
tween Labor and Capital.
Each Needs the Other.

Each Needs the Orhef.
In this discourse DR.. Talmagc sug-
gests how the everlasting war between
capital and labor may he brought to a
happy end. The text is, | Corinthians
xii, 21, "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 il the throcs Of
labor agitation and restlessneSs among
toilers all over the land have caused an
epidemic of strikes, and somewhat to
better things l apply the Pauline
thought of my text.
You have seen an elaborate piece
Of machinery, with thousand wheels
and thousand pulleys, all controlled
by one great water wheel, the machin-
cry so adjusted that when you jar one
part of it you jar all parts Of it. Well,
human society is a great piece Of me,
chanism controlled by one great and
ever revolving force-the wheel OF God 5
providence. You harm one part OF the
machinery of society and you harms 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
Lazarus without hurting his own foot.
They who threw Shadrach into the fur
mace got their own bodies scorched. Or
to come back to the figure Of the text,
what strange thing it would be if the
eye should say: I oversee the entire
physical mechanism I despise the
other members of the body. If there
is anything l am disgusted with, it is
with those miserable, low lived hands.
Or what if the hand should say: am
the boss workman of the whole physical
economy. | have no respect for the
other members Of the body. If there
is anything I despise, it is the eye
seated under the dome of the forehead
doing nothing but look
l come in, and wave the flag Of
truce between these two contestants,
and I say, ''The eye cannot say to the
hand, 4 have no need of thee. .
That brings me to the first sugges-
tion, 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
identical in their interests. When one
goes down, 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 So
ciety and that which is bad for one
class Of society will eventually 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 postpones the day Of permanent
adjustment. When capital maligns Ia
Dor, tits the eye curing the hand. When
labor maligns capital, it is the hand
cursics the eye. As far as have OBJ
served, the vast majority Of capitalists
are successful laborers. If the capital
lists would draw their glove, you would
see the broken finger nail, the scar of
an old blister, the stifened finger joint.
The great publishers of the country for
the most part were bookoinders or type
settlers on small pay. The gleat car
riage 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 on wages who once en-
ployed 100 or 500 hands. The distance
between capital and labor is not great
gulf over which is swung a Niagara sus-
pension bridge. It is only a step, and
the capitalists are crossing over to be-
come laborers, and the laborers are
crossing over TO become capitalists.
Would Cod they might shake hands
while they cross.
Again, there is to come relief to the
laboring classes Of this country through
cooperative associations. l 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 capital
ist or that capitalist they manage their
own affairs. In England and Wales
there are 913 cooperative associations.
They have 100000 members. They
have capitol Of slS,0O0,00O, or what
corresponds to our dollars, and they DO
a business annually of S63, 100000.
Thomas Brassey, one Of the foremost
men in the British parliament, on the
subject says: "Co-operation is the one
and the only relief for the laboring pop
ulations. This is the path, he says,
Shy which they are to come up from
the hand to the mouth style of living to
reap the rewards and the honors Of our
advanced civilization. Lord Derby
and John Stuart Mill, who gave half
their lives to the study of the labor
question, believed in cooperative insti-
tutions. The cooperative institution
formed in Troy, \. y, stood long
enough to illustrate the fact that great
good might come of such an institution
if it were rightly carried on and might
lily developed.
But, says some one, haven't t
these institution sometimes been fail
ure?" Yes. Every great movement
has been failure at some tine. Ap-
plication of the steam power failure,
electro telegraphy failure, railroading
failure, but now the chief successes
Of the world.
"But, says some one, why talk Of
surplus being put by laborers into CO.
operative associations, when the vast
multitude of toilers Of this country are
struggling for their daily bread and
have no surplus?" l reply: Put into
nv hand the money spent by the labor