The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-08-19
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Industrial Problem the Theme Of DR.,
Talmage's Sermon.
reIIs How the Continual War De-
tween Them May he Ended
Lessons Drawn from RE-
cent strikes. ~
tcopyrisht. 1899. by Louis Klopsch.l

capital and labor may be brought to {
happy end. The text Is !. Corinthiani
1891: "The eye cannot say unto tn,
hand, have no need of thee"
Fifty thousand workmen In Chicago
censing work in one day, Brooklyn
stunned by the attempt to halt its rail
road cars, Cleveland in the throcs of ,
labor agitation and restlcssness among
toilcrs all over the land have caused ar
epidemic of strikes, md somewhat e
better things ! apply the Paulin,
thought OF my text.
You have seen nm elaborate piece o.
machinery, with n thousand wheels anf
n thousand bands and thousand pull
leys. all controlled by one great water
wheel, the machinery so adjusted that
when you jar one part OF it you jar al
parts of il. Well, human society is 9
great piece of mechanism controlled by
one grent and ever revolving force-thc
wheel of Gods providence. You harm
one part of the machinery and you
harm all parts. All professions, inter
dependent. All trades interdependcnt
All classes Of people interdependent.
Capital and labor interdepcndent. 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
scorchcd. Or TO come back 10 the fig
urc OF the text, what a strange thing il
would be IL the eye should say: over
see the entire physical mechanism.
hn nt I,n hnr nf ha
II there is anything ! am Disguised
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 despise, it
is the eye, seated under the dome of the
forehead, doing nothing but look.
come in, and wave the flag of truce
between the two contestants, and |
sny: "Thc eye cannot say to the hand:
u 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 n better under
standing by 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 he 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 postponcs the day of
permanent adjustment. Every speech
that capital makes against labor post
poncs the day of permanent adjust
mcnt. When capital maligns labor it
is the eye cursing the hand. When la
Dor maligns capital, il is the hand ours
ing the eye. AS far as have observed,
the vast majority of capitalists are sue
ccssful laborcrs. II the capitalists
would draw their glove, you would see 4
the broken finger nail the scar of an old
blister, the stifrcned finger joint. The
great publishers of the country for the
most part were bookbinders or type
settlers on small pay. The great car
riagc manufacturers for the most part
sandpapcrcd 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
n Niagara suspension bridge. 1t is only
n 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
mcnts? In banks? No. In the rail
roads? No. Their nerve, their muscle. |
their bone, their mechanical skill, their |
physical health, are magnificent cap |
ital. lie 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 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 SI3 cooperative associations.
They have 100000 members. They have
a capital Of $4,000, 600, or what CORE
spends to our dollars, and they do O
business annually of $63, 100000. Thorn |
rs Brassey, one Of the foremost men in
the British parliament, on the subject |
says: Cooperation is the one and the |
only relief for the Iaboring populations.
This is the path" 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 adj |
vanced civilization" Lord Derby and |
John Stuart Mill, who gave half their |