Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1900-06-01
TALMAGE SERMON.
tUNoAY's DISCOURSE BY THE ABLE o..
VINE
Subject: Labor Strikes "A Question of
Present Import Treated in Way
Aimed to Bring About Better Feeling
Between Employer and Employe.
Copyright isUO.l

Between Employer and Employe.
Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. Cat q time when IL
various districts labor troubles are exist
ing or impending the efforts DR.. Talmag,
makes In this discourse to bring about {
better feeling between both sides OF thi:
difficult question is we'll timed; texts, Gala
tians, v, Is, "But II ye bite and deyour one
another, take heed that ye be not con
sumed one of another" and Philippians
H., 4, Look not every man on his owr
things, but every man also on the thing:
of Others"
About every six months there Is a great
labor agitation. There are violent cues.
lions now in discussion between employers
and employees. The present "strlkes" will
go into tho past. or course the damage
done cannot Immediately be repaired
Wages will not be so high as they were.
Spasmodically they may be higher, but
they will drop lower. Strikes, whether
right or wrong, always iDlure laborers as
well rs 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. Tho 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 conductors. Years ago assas-
sination-the assassination of Lord Fred
erlek Cavendish 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, distinctions on
the rail tracks in front of midnight express
trains because the offenders do not like
the president OF tho company, strikes on
shipboard 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 scatioldings so the builder fails in
keeping his contract-all these are only n
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 took
ono knot out of the knuckles of toll or put
farthing OF wages into ealous palm,
Frederick the Great admired some land
near his palace at Potsdam, and he re-
solved to get it. 1t was owned bya miller
He offered the miller three times tho ynlne
of tho property. The miller would not
take it because it was the old homestead.
and he felt about us Naboth felt about bis
when Ahab wanted 1t. Frederick
the Great was rough and terrible man,
and he ordered the miller into his pres
ence, and the king, with a stick In his hand
"a stick with which no sometimes struck
the officers of state-sad to the miller.
Nov, have offered tyou three times the
value of that property, and IL you won't
sell it I'll take it anyhow" The miller snld,
Your majesty, you won't" YES" said
the king; II will take it," "Then," said
.he miller, "lf your majesty does tuke 1t
will sue you in the chancery court" At
hat threat Frederick the Great yielded his
Infamous demand. And the most imperi-
)us Outrage against the working classes
will yet cover before the law. lolence and |
defiance of the law will never accomplish |
anything, but righteousness and su6mis- |
ion to the law will accomplish it,
But gradually the damages done the |
aborer by the strikes will be repaired, and
omo important things ought now to be
aid. The whole tendency OF our times. as
'ou have noticed, Is to make tho chasm
between employer and employe wi ler and |
wider. In olden time the head mnn of the |
actory, the master builder, tho capitalist,
he head man OF the firm, worked side by |
tide with their employees, working some- |
ines at the same bench, dining at the |
ame table, and there are those here who |
AN remember tho time when tho clerks of
urge COIL mGEclti cSLHDllSnmentS were Qc-
,ustomed to board with the head men Of
be firm.
All that is changed, and the tendency is
o make the distance between EMPLOYER
and employe wider and wider. The ten
lency is to make the employee feel that he
s wronged by the success Of the capitalist
and to make the capitalist feel: "Now. NV
aborers are only beasts OF burden. must
give so much money for so much drudgery.
II st n nj ~ oil
beads of sweat" In other words, the
bridge of sympathy is broken down at both
ends.
That feeling was we'll described by
Thomas Carlyle when he said: "Plugson
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 nv
The hundred thousand pound
Is mine; the daily wage was yours. Adieu,
noble spinnersl 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 I put the trowel
to one OF tho abutmonts to-day, and
preach more especially to employers as
such, although what 1 have to say will BIO
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 | want to say to you whom |
confront face to face and those to whom
these words may come that all shipowners
Nil capitalists, all commercial firms. ali
nastor builders, all housewives, are bound
10 be interested ia the entire welfare of
heir subordinates.
Years ago some one gave three prescrip-
lions for becoming Il millionaire: "First,
spend your life I'm getting and keeping the
earnings OF other people; secondly have
no anxiety about the worriments, tho
losses, the disappointments of others;
thirdly. do not mind tho fact TINT your
vast wealth implies the poverty OF great
many people,"
Now, there Is not man here who would
consent to so into life with those three
to enrn n fortune. 1t is your de-
sire to do your whole duty to the men and
women in your service.
First OF all. then, pay as large wages as
are reasonable and as your business will
afford; not necessarily what others pay,
not what your hired help say you
must pay, for that is tyranny on the part
Of labor unbearable.
The right ola laborer to tell his employer
what he must pay implies the right OF IN
employer to compel man into Il service
whether he Will or not, and either of those
IDEAS Is despicable.
When any cmnIover al1ova n Iahorar 70