The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-05-26
THE FIELD OF LABOR
Timely Discourse of DR.. Talmage
on Industrial Troubles.
Sermon Aimed TO bring About more
Friendly Relations Between
Employer and EmpIoye-
Duty OF the Former.
copyright, 1900. by Louis Kfopsch.I
WaghinOann

copyright, 1900. by Louis Kiopsch.I
Washington.
Al time when in various district
labor troubles are existing or impend
ing the effort DR.. Talmage makes il
this discourse to bring about bette
feeling between both sides of this dif
ficu!t question is well timed; texts
Galatians 5:Ij: But if We bite ant
devour one another take heed that v,
be not consumed one of another" ant
Philippians ga: Look not every mar
on his own things, but every man also
on the things of Others"
About every six months there is q
great 'abor agitation. There are vic.
lent questions now in discussion be-
tween employers and employees. The
present strikes will go into the past
OF course, the damage done cannot i'm
mediately be repaired. Wages will not be
50 high as they were. Spasmodically
they may be higher, but they will drop
lower. Strikes, whether right or
wrong, always injure laborers as well
as capitalists. You will see this in
the starvation of next winter. Boycott
ting and violence and murder never
Pay. They are different stages of an
archy. God never blessed murder The
worst use you can put a man to is to
kill him. Blow up tomorrow all the
country seats on the banks of the Hud-
son and the Rhine and all the fine
houses on Madison square and Beacon
street, and all the bricks and timber
and OF xx-iII Col ~
bare hands of American and European
labor.
The worst enemies of the working
classes in the United States and Ireland
are their demented coadjutors. Years
ago assassination-the' assassination
of Lord Frederick Cayendish and Mr..
Burke, in Phoenix park, Dublin, Ire
land, in the attempt to avenge the
wrongs of Ireland only turned away
from that afflicted people millions of
sympathiZers. The attempts to blow
up the house of commons in London
had only this effect-to throw out of
employment tens of thousands of inno-
cent people in England. In this coun-
try the torch put to the factories that
hoFN AnoShhl 81 GU udluo III SOOu VI Ddu
reason, distractions on the rail tracks, |
in front of midnight express trains be-
cause the offenders do not like the |
president of the 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
n hnnca ffn1flinnc On thn h,,iIIa,-
fails in keeping his contract-all these
are only 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 one knot out of
the knuckles of toll or put one farthing
of wages into callous palm. Barbar-
ism will never cure the wrongs of civ
ilization. Mark that
Frederick the Great admired some
land near his palace at Potsdam, and he
resolved to get it. 1t was owned by
miller. He offered the miller three
times the value of the property. The
miller would not take it because it was
the old homestead, and he felt about as
Naboth felt about his vineyard when
Ahad wanted it. Frederick the Great
was a rough and terrible man. and he
ordered the miller into his presence,
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 if
you won't sell it I'll take it anyhow"
The miller said: "Your majesty, you
won't" "Yes," said the king. Il will
take it, Then" said the miller, '.if
your majesty does take it l will sue you
in the chancery court" At that threat
Frederick the Great yielded his in
famous 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 submission to the
law will accomplish it. '
But gradually the damages done the :
aborer by the strikes will be repaired,
Ind some important things ought now +
o be said. The whole tendency of our ;
lines, as you have noticed, is to make r
he chasm between employer and en-
,loye wider and wider. In olden times =
he head man of the factory, the mas :
er builder, the capitalist, the head r
nan of the firm. worked side by side {
With their employees, working some
lines at the same bench. dining at the >
anne table, and there are those here b
Who can remember the time when the \
Jerks of large commercial establish q
nents were accustomed to board with :
he head men of the firm. +
All that is changed, and the ten :
ency is to make the distance between :,
mployer and employee wider and wider. Il
he tendency is to make the employe h
eel that he is wronged by the success a
I the capitalist. and to make the cap :,
talist feel: Now, my laborers are 9
My beasts of burden; l must give +
hem so much money for SO much T
rudgery, just so many pieces of silver 6
Or so many beads of sweat" In other a
Tords, the bridge of sympathy is brok u
q down at both ends. That feeling
as well described by Thomas Carlyle h,
hen he said: "PlugsOn, of st. Dolly F
ndershot, buccaneerike, says to his b
ZEN: Noble spinners, this is the hun cl
-edth thousand we have gained, F
herein mean to dwell and plant my fl
neyards. The E 1OO, 900 is mine, the s.
ally wage was yours. Adieu, noble fs
,innersi Drink my health with this III
.oat each, which give you over and in
1ove.'" Now, what we want is to re- IL