Connecticut western news., 1900-05-24
SERMON ON STRIKES.
DR. TALMAGE TAKES THE LABOR QUESTION FOR A THEME.

DR. TALMAGE TAKES THE LABOR
 QUESTION FOR A THEME. Would Bring About a Better Feeling Between Employer and Employee. Boyoottinx and Violence Never Pay, Says the Divine.
 WASHINGTON, May 20. At time when in various districts labor trou- ibles are existing or impending the eff fort Dr. Talmage makes in this dis course to bring about better feeling between both sides of this difficult question is we'll timed; texts, Gala tians V, 15, But If ye bite and deyour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" and Philip plans ii, 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 vio- 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 so high as they were. Spasmodical- ly 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 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. l The worst enemies of the working classes in the United States and Ire land are their demented coadjutors. Years ago assassination-the assassina- ton of Lord Frederick Cavendish and MT. 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 commons, in London, had only this efect-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 dis charged hands for good or bad reason, Instructions on the rail tracks in front of midnight express trains because the offenders do not like the president Of the company, strikes on shipboard the hour they were going to sail, or in print ing 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 scaffoldings so the builder fails in keep ing his contract-all these are only a hard blow on the head of American la Dor and cripple It's arms and lame its feet and pierce It's heart. Traps sprung suddenly upon employers and violence never took one knot out of the knuc- kles of toll or put farthing of wages into a callous palm.
 Submit to the Law.
 Frederick the Great admired some land near his palace at Potsdam, and her resolved to get 1t. It was owned by a miller. He offered the miller three times the value of the property. The miller would not take 1t because 1t was the old homestead, and he felt about as Naboth felt about his vineyard when Ahab wanted 1t. 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, I have offered you three times the value of that property, and If you won't sell 1t I'll take 1t anyhow" The miller said, "Your majesty, you won't" "Yes," said the king; T will take it." "Then," said the miller, If your maj esty does take 1t will sue you in the chancery court" At that threat Fred erick the Great yielded his infamous demand. And the most imperious out rage against the working classes will yet cover before the law. Violence and defiance of the law will never ac- complish anything, but righteousness and submission to the law will accom- plish 1t.
 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 em- ployee wider and wider. In olden time the head man of the factory, the mas
 
 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 establish ments were accustomed to board with the head men of the firm.
 All that Is changed, and the tendency Is to make the distance between em ployer and employee wider and wider The tendency Is to make the employee feel that he is wronged by the success of the capitalist and to make the cap italist feel: "Now, my laborers are onl. beasts of burden. I must give so mucl money for so much drudgery; just s' many pieces of silver for so man. beads of sweat" In other words, th' bridge of sympathy Is broken down a both ends. That feeling was well de scribed by Thomas Carlyle when h. said: "Plugson of St. Dolly Under shot, buccaneerlike, says to his men Noble spinners, this is the hundredtl thousand we have gained, wherein
 mean to dwell and plant my vine yards. The hundred thousand poun, Is mine; the daily wage was yours Adieu, noble spinners! Drink m
 health with this groat each, which
 give you over and above.'" Now. wha
 we want Is to rebuild that bridge O sympathy, and put the trowel to on of the abutments today, and I preac
 more especially to employers as sucf
 although what I have to say will b
 appropriate to both employers and en
 ployees.
 Be Just to Labor.
 The behavior of multitude of labol
 ers toward their employers during tn
 last three months may have induce
 some employers to neglect the ref Christian duties that they owe to thos -rhnrr, thou ornnlou Tharafnra I wan