The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1899-08-19
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Industrial Problem the Theme Of Dr..
Talmage's Sermon.
Tell. How the Continual War De-
tween Then May BE Ended-
Lessons Drawn from Re-
eent strikes
TcopyHsAt Iss By Louis KlopseAl

Etes now Anc ~fNeIAelLE Wal ucVNcCl
capital and labor may be brought TO q
happy end. The text Is / Corinthians
1871: The eye cannot say unto the
hand. ! have no need Of thee
Fifty thousand workmen In Chicago
oeasing work in one day. BrOoklyn
stunned By the attempt 10 bait its rail-
road cars Cleveland In the throes Of =
labor agitation and -res,lessnexS among
toilerS al over the land rave caused an
epidemic Of strikes and somewhat TO
better ths=<s ! =FFy tss Ps=E=s
thought OF ny text
You have seen an elaborate piece o.
machinery. with 3 thousand Wheels and
3 thousand hands and = thousand pail
leyS al controlled BY D great water
wheel the machinery 50 adjusted that
when you jar . part Of it you ar all
parts ot u Wen. human society Is .
great piece Of mechanism controlled BY
m great and ever revolving force-the
wheel Of Gods Provi6encs. You harm
one part Of the machinery and yOa
hsrn AL parts Al professors inter
dependent Al trades iatsr3spsn6snt
Al classes Of people intsrisPsn6ent
Capital and labor intsrdepSn3ent No
such thing as indePsndsnes- Dives ean-
rot kick Lazarus without hurting his
own foot They who threw Shsdaeh
into the furnace eOt Their OWL bodies
scorehed OF 20 come bsek TO the fig
ure Of The text. what 3 strange thing il
would Be If the eve should say: lover
see the entire physical mechanism. I
despiss the other members Of the body.
II there Is anything ! an disgvsted
with, II Is with those miserable, low
lived hands Or what IL the hand should
say. ] an the boss workman Of the
whole physical economy. l have no
respect for the other members Of the
body. II there Is anything / despise, il
is the eve, seated under the dome Of the
forehead doing nothing but look
! come in. and / wave the flag Of truee
between the two contestants, and 1
say: The eye cannot say 10 the hand:
I have no need Of thee
That brings me to the first suggeS-
ton, and that is, that labor and capital
are 70 be brought TO = better under
standing by a complete canvass Of the
whole subject. They viii be brought to
peace when they find that they are iden-
teal in their interests. When one goes
down, they both 90 down. When one
rises, they both rise. There will be an
equilibrium after awhile. There never
has been "a exception to the rule. That
which is good for one class Of society
will be good for all. and that which
IA bad for one class will event
Sssiy 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, Il is the hand ours
ing the eye. As far as | have observed,
the vast majority Of capitalists are sue
cessful laborers. II 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 an 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. It is only
a step, and the capitalists are crossing
over to become laborers, and the labor
ers In 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 n~othingness
carpetand screw and cotton factory and
all the other implements on the planet.
The capitalists were laborers, the la
borers were capitalists. The mi 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 $40 cooperative associations.
They have 100000 members. They have
a capital Of $4,000 900, or what CORE
spends to our dollars, and they do q
business annually Of 500, 000, 900. Thorn.
as Brassey, M 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 "a
the mouth style Of living to reap the
rewards and the honors of our ad.
vanced civilization" Lord Derby and
John Stuart Mil, who gave half their
lives TO the study OF the labor question.
believed in cooperative institutions
The cooperative institution formed in
Troy, n. Y, stood long enough to IL
l~ustrate the fact that great good might
come Of such an institution IL IL wer,
rightly carried on and nightly deyel
Oped.
But" says some one, haven't thes,
institutions sometimes been a fsilure?'
Yes. Every great movement has been
failure at some time. Application o.
the steam power a failure, e~lectro-teleg
raphy a failure, ~railroading a failure
but now the chief successes Of thu
world.
But" says some one, "why talk o
surplus being put by laborers into co
operative associations, when the vas
multitude of toilers in this country ar
struggling for their daily bread anC
have no surplus?' ] reply: Put int
my hand the money spent by the la
boring classes Of America for rum anC
tobacco. and ! will establish cooperatiy,
associations In all parts Of the land
some of them mightier than any hnan
sinl institutions OF the country. w,
spend in this country over 800, 900, OU
every year for tobacco. We spend oyei
1880, OO0, 900 directly or indirectly fol
rum. The laboring classes spend theiI
share Of this money. Now, suppose th,
laboring man who has been expendinl