The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-08-14
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
REV. DR. TALMAHg DISCUSSES The
4 INpveTRM PROBLEM. :

REV. DR. TALMAae DISCUSSES The
4 'NpverRA PROBLEM. :
Some Lessons Drawn From Stsikes
In vssisss Parts Of the Country.
A Truce Between Labor and Capt.
tal-Each Needs the other.
lCopyaglt Louis Klopsch, 1soo.l
WARRINGTON, Aug. 13.-1n this dis
course DR.. Talmage suggests how the
everlasting war between capital and la
Dor may be brought to happy end. The
text II, Corinthians xii, a, "The eye
cannot say unto the hand, l have no
need Of thee"
Fifty thousand workmen in Chicago
seasing work in one day, Brooklyn stun
ned BY the attempt to halt Its railroad
cars, Cleveland In the throes Of labor
agitation and restlessness among toilers
an 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 a
: thousand bands and q thousand pulleys,
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 of society and you harm all
parts. All professions interdependent.
All trades interdependent. All classes of
people interdependent. Capital and Ia
Dor interdependent. No such thing as
independence. Dives cannot kick Laza-
rus without hurting his own foot. They
who threw Shadrach into the furnace got
their own bodies scorched. Or to come
back to the figure Of the text, what a
strange thing 1t would be il the eye
should say: I oversee the entire physical
mechanism. I despise the other members
Of the body. II there Is anything am
disguised with, 1t Is with those miserable,
low lived hands. Or what II the hand
should say: I am the boss workman Of
the whole physical economy. have no
respect for the other members of the
body. II there is anything despise, 1t is
forehead doing nothing but look.
I come In, and wave the flag of truce
between these two contestants, and I
say, 1.-THE eye cannot say to the hand, I
have no need Of thee"
That brings me to the FIRST suggestion,
and that Is, that labor and capital are to
be brought to better understanding by
a complete canvass Of the whole subject.
They will be brought to peace when they
find that they are identical in their inter-
ests. 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 Tor one class Of
society 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 ADJUST
ment. When capital maligns labor, 1t is
the eye cursing the hand. When labor
maligns capital, It is the hand cursing the
eye. As far as I have observed, the vast
majority of capitalists are successful la
borers. 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 publish
ers of the country for the most part were
bookbinders or typesetters on small pay.
The great carriage manufacturers for the
most part sandpapered wagon bodies In
wheelwright shops.
Not a Great Gulf.
While, on the other hand, in all our
large manufacturing establishments you
will find men ON wages who once employ
ed 100 or 500 hands. The distance be-
tween capital and labor Is not great
gulf over which is swung Niagara sus-
pension bridge. 1t is only step, and the
capitalists are crossing over to become
laborers, and the laborers are crossing
over to become capitalists. Would God
they might shake hands while they cross.
On the other hand, laborers are the high
est style of capitalists. Where are their
investments? In banks2 No. In the rail-
roads? No. Their nerve, their muscle,
their bone, their mechanical skill, their
physical health, are magnificent capital
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 oil the 9TH
er implements on the planet. The capital
lists were laborers, the laborers were cap
italists. The sooner we understand that
the better.
Again, there is to come relief to the la
boring classes Of this country through CO.
operative associations. am not at this
moment speaking of trades unions, but of
that plan by which laborers put their sur
plus together aud become their own cap
italists. Instead of being dependent up
on the beck of this capitalist or that cap
italist they manage their own affairs. In
England and Wales there are S13 coop
erative associations. They have 100000
members. They have capital of $1S,-
600, 900, or what corresponds to our dol
lars, and they do business annually Of
500, OOO,O0 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
populations. This Is the patti" he says,
"by which they are to come up from the
hand to the mouth style Of living to reap
the rewards and the honors of our advanc-
ed civilization" Lord Derby and John
Stuart Mill, who gave half their lives to
the study of the labor question, believed in
cooperative institutions. The co-opera-
tive institution formed In Troy, N. Y,
stood long enough to illustrate the fact
that great good might come Of such an
institution II 1t were rightly carried on
and nightly developed.
But" says some one, haven't these !
institutions sometimes been failure"
Yaa Every prent movement has been a