The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-18

pended during these past few yedrs
and then suppose that that money was
put into a cooperative ASSOCIATION, n
then . he should have all his
friends in toll, who had made the same
kind of expenditure, do h same thing.
and that should be added UP and put
into a cooperative association. And
then take all that money expended for
overdress and overstyle and overliv-
ing on the part of toiling people in
order that they nay appear as well as
persons who have more income-gather
that all up and you could have CO.
operative associations all over this
land.
TRADES UNIONS.
1 am not saying anything now about
trades unions. You want to know what
I hin Of trades unions. I hin they
are most beneficial in some directions,
and they have a specific object, and in
this day, when there are vast monopo-
lies-a thousand m~onopolies concen-
trating the wealth Of h people into
the possession of a few men-unless
the laboring men of this country and
all countries band together they will
go under. There is a lawful use of a
trade union. If it mea sympathy in
time of sickness, if it means finding
work for people when they are out of
work, if it means the improvement of
the financial, the moral or the religious
condition of the laboring classes, hat
Is all right. Do not artists band to-
gether in an art union? Do not singers
band together in Handel and Haydn
societies.? Do not newspaper men band
together in press clubs? Do not min
listers of religion band together in con-
erences n associations? There is
not in all the land a city where clergy
men do not come together, many of
them one a week, to talk over affairs.
For these reasons Won should not
blame labor guilds. When they are
doing their legitimate work, they are
most admirable, but when they come
Around with drum and fife and flag
from their scaffoldings, from their fac
tories, then they are nihilistic, then
they are c~ommunistic, then they are
barbaric, then they are a curse. If a
man wants to stop work, let him stop
work, but he cannot stop me from
work.
But now suppose that all the laboring
classes banded together for beneficient
under whatever name they put their
means together. Suppose they take
the money that they waste in rum and
tobacco and use it for the elevation
Of their families, for the education of
their children, for their moral, INTEL
lectual and religious improvement,
what a different state of things we
would have in this country and they
would have i'm Great Britain!
Do you not realize the fact that men
work better without stimulant? You
say, will you deny the laboring man
this help which they get from strong
drink, borne down as they are with
many anxieties ard exhausting work.
l would deny mem nothing that is
good for them. l would deny them
strong drink, if I had the power, be-
cause it is damaging to them. My
fathe said: Il became a temperance
man in early life because 1 found that
in the harvest field, while 1 was natu-
rally weaker than the other men, L
could hold out longer than any Of
them. They took and l took
none"
Everybody knows they cannot en-
dure great fatigue-men who indulge
in stimulants. All our young men I'M
derstand that. When they are repar
ing for the regatta, or the ball club, cr
the athletic wrestling, they abstain
from strong drink. Now, suppose all
this money hat is wasted were gath
cred together and put into cooperative
Institutions Oh, we Would have a very
different state of things from what we
have now.
PRACTICE ECONOMY.
I remark again, the laboring classes
of this country are to find great relief
when they learn, all of them learn,
forecast and providence. Vast num-
berS of them put down their income
and they put down their expenses, and
if the income meets the Expense that
is all that is necessary. I know labor
ing men who are in a perfect fldget
until they have spent their last dollar.
They fly around everywhere until they
get it spent. A case came under my
observation where a young man was
receiving $500 a year and earned it by
$1,000 I--l -.~-I IL H.
came. The bride had received $500 as
an inheritance from her grandfather.
She put the $500 in wedding equip
ment. Then the twain hired two
rooms tOn the third story. Then this
! man, who had most arduous employ
ment, just as much as he could posi-
bly, endure, got evening employment
so he could earn a few dollars more
n by this extra evening employ
ment almost ~extinguished his eye
sight. WHY die ne AXE his eXtr#
evening employment? Was it to lay
by something for a rainy day? No.
Was it to get a life insurance so that
if he should die his wife would not
be a pauper? No. 1t was for the n
purpose of getting his wife a $3.50
sealskin sacque. I am just giving you
a fact I know. The sister Of this wo-
man, although she was very poor
girl, was not to be eclipsed, and SO
oLlS "CIl ~ Uay dl1o 11SAI oAlo
toiled and toiled and toiled almost in
to the grave until she got a $3.50 seal
| skin sacque! Well, the news went
abroad all through the street. Most
of the people on that street were Ia
boring, hard working people, and they
! were not to be OutshOne in this way,
and they all went to work in the same
direction and practically said, though
not literally, Though the heavens fall,
We must lave a sealskin ~sacque!"
A clergyman in Iowa told me that
his church and the entire neighbour
hood had been ruined by the fact hat
he people ~mortgaged their farms in
order to go down to the Philadelphia
Centennial in 1876. First, one family
would go, then another family, and
finally it was not respectable not to go
to the Centennial at Philadelphia, and
they mortgaged their farms. The
church and the neighborhood ruined
in that way. Now, between such fools
n pauperism there is only a very
short step. In time of peace prepare
! for adVersity. Yet how many there