The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-05-31
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
DISCOURSE BY TnE EMINENT DIVINE
LAST SUNDAY.
Subject: Labor strikes-A Question OF
Present Import Treated in Way
Aimed to Bring About a Better Feeling
Between Employer and Employe.
ICopyrlght Isup.l

ITtseHb 1AsipOGb AAbhiti III AZ " az
Aimed to Bring About a Better Feeling
Between Employer and Employe.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. Cat time when In
various districts labor troubles are exist
ing or impending the efforts DR.. Taimage
makes in this discourse to bring about a
better feeling between both sides of this
difficult question Is well timed; texts, Gala
tians, ", Is, "But il ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that we be not con-
sumed one of another" and Philippians
H., 4, "Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things
of Others"
About every six months there is a great
labor agitation. There are violent ques-
lions now in discussion between employers
and employees. The present STRIKES" will
go into the past. OF course the damage
done cannot Immediately be repaired.
Wages will not be 50 high as they were.
Spasm odically they may be higher, but
they will drop lower. Strikes, whether
right or wrong, always inJure laborers az
well as capitalists. You will see this in
the starvation of next winter. Boycotting
and violence and murder never pay. They
are different stages of anarchy. God never
blessed murder The worst use you can
put man to is to kill him.
The worst enemies of the working classes
In the United States and Ireland are their
demented coadjutors. Years ago assas-
sination-the assassination OF Lord Fred
erick Cayendish and Mr.. Burke in Phoenix
Park, Dublin, in the attempt to avenge the
wrongs Of Ireland, only turned away from
that afflicted people millions OF sympathiz-
ers. The attempts to blow up the house OF
common, in London had only this effect
to throw out of employment tens of
thousands OF innocent Irish people in
England. In this country the torch put to
the factories that have discharged hands
for good or bad reason, distractions on
the rail tracks in front OF midnight express
trains because the Offenders do not like
the president OF the com pany, strikes on
shpboard the hour they were going to
SAIL or in printing offices the hour the
paper was to go to press, or in the mines
the day the coal was to be delivered, or on
house scaff0ldings so the builder fails in
keeping his contract-all these are only a
hard blow on the head OF American labor
and cripple its arms and lame its feet and
pierce its heart. Traps sprung suddenly
upon employers and violence never tool;
one knot out of the knuckies of toll or put
a farthing OF wages into cailoUs palm.
Frederick the Great admired some land
near his palace at Potsdam, and he re-
solved to get it. 1t was owned by a miller.
Ee offered the miller three times the value
of the property. The miller would not
take it because it was the old HON estead
and he felt about as Naboth felt about bis
vineyard when Ahab wanted 1t. Frederick
the Great was u rough and terrible man.
and he ordered the miller into his pres
ence, and the king, with stick in his hand
a stick with which he sometimes struck
the officers of state-said to the miller,
"Now, have offered you three times the
value of that property, and ii you won't
sell it I'll take it anyhow" The miller said
''Your majesty, you won't" eyes" said
ba will tol la II - i
the miller, "if your majesty does take it
/ will sue you in the chancery court" At
that threat Frederick the Great yielded his
Infamous demand. And the most imperi-
Gus outrage against the working classes
will yet cover before the law. Violence and
defiance Of the law will never accomplish
anything, but righteousness and suDmis-
sion to the law will accomplish it,
But gradually the damages done the
laborer by the strikes will be repaired and
some important things ought now to be
said. The whole tendency OF our times, as
you have noticed, Is to make the chasm
between employer and empioye wider and
wider. In olden time the head nun OF the
factory, the master builder, the capitalist,
the head man of the firm, worked side by
side with their employees, working some
times at the same bench, dining at the
same table, and there are those here who
can remember the time when the clerks of
large commercial establishments were ac-
customed 20 board with the head men Of
the firm.
All that is changed, and the tendency is
to make the distance between employer
and employe wider and wider. The ten
dency is to make the employee feel that he
is wronged by the success OF the capitalist
and to make the capitalist feel: Snow, my
laborers are only beasts of burden. must
give so much money for so much drudgery;
just so many pieces of silver for so many
beads OF sweat" In other words, the
bridge Of sympathyis broken down at both
ends.
That feeling was well described by
Thomas Carlyle when he said: "Pugson
of st. Dolly Understood, buccaneerlike,
says to his men: Noble spinners, this is
the hundredth thousand we have gained,
wherein l mean to dwell and plant my
vineyards. The hundred thousand pound
is mine; the daily wage was yours. Adieu,
noble spinners! Drink my health with this
groat each, which l give you over and
above"
Now what we want is to rebuild that
bridge OF sympathy, and l put the trowel
to one OF the abutments to-day, and
preach more especially to employers as
such, although what l have to say will be
appropriate to both employers and en-
ployes.
The behavior Of multitude OF laborers
toward their employers during the last
three months may have induced some en-
ployers to neglect the real Christian duties
that they owe to those whom they employ.
Therefore l want to say TO you whom l
confront face to face and those to whom
these words may come that all shipoWners,
all capitalists, all commercial firms, al
master builders, al housewives, are bound
to be Interested in the entire welfare of
their subordinates.
Years ago some one gave three prascrip-
lions for becoming a millionaire: First,
spend your life in getting and keeping the
earnings OF other people; secondly, have
no anxiety about the worriments, the
losses, the disappointments of others;
thirdly, do not mind the fact that your
vast wealth implies the poverty Of d great
many people,
Now, there is not man here who would
consent to 20 into life with those three
principles to earn a fortune. Il is your de-
sire to do your whole duty to the men and
women III your service.
First of all. then, pay as large wages as
are reasonable and as your business will
afford: not necessarily what others pay,
certainly not what your hired help say you
must pay, for that is tyranny on the part
Of labor unbearable.