Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-05-30
SERMON
Rev. Dr. Callflass'

Rev. Dr. Cdlml2ss4'
Subject: Labor strikes-A O.estion OF
Aimed to Bring About Better Feeling
Between Employer and E,nploye.
ICopyriaht lsool
WASHINGTON, d. Cat a time when in
various districts labor troubles are exist
Ing or impending the efforts Dr.. Talmage
makes in this discourse to bring about a
better feeling between both sides OF this
difficult question Is well timed; texts, Gaia
tinns, ", Is. "But II ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not con.
sumed one OF another" and Philippians
things, but every man also on the things
Of Others
About every six months there is a great
labor agitation. There are violent ques-
tions now In discussion between employers
and employees. The present "strikes" will
done cannot Immediately be repaired.
Wages will not be 80 high as they were.
Spasmodically they may be higher, but
they will drop lower. Strikes. whether
right or wrong. always inJure laborers ms
we'll as capitalists. You will see this in
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 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
Ito 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, obstructions 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 printing offices the hour the
paper was to so to press, or in the mines
the day the coal was to be delivered, or on
house scaffoldings SO the builder fails In
keeping his contract-all these are only a
hard blow on the head o: American labor
and cripple its arms and lame it's feet and
pierce its heart. Traps sprung suddenly
upon employers and violence never took
one knot out OF the knuckles of toll or put
farthiDg of wages into a callous palm.
Frederick the Great admired some land
near his palace at Potsdam, and he re-
solved to get 1t. 1t 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 bis
vineyard when Abab wanted 1t. Frederick
the Great was q rough and terrible man
and he ordered the miller into his pres.
| ance, and the king, with stick in hts hand
"a stick with which he sometimes struck
the officers Of state--said to the miller
Nov. have offered you three times the
value Of that property, and IL you won't
sell 1t I'll take It anyhow" The miller said
the king; II will take it." ''Then." said
the miller. ''if your majesty does take II
| Z will aue you In the chancery court" Al
THAI threat Frederick the Great yielded hi.
Infamous demand. And the most fmperi.
GUS outrage against the working CLASSES
defiance OF the law will never acco nplish
anything, but righteousness and su0mis-
yion 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, Il.
you have noticed, is to make the chasm
| wider. In olden time the head man 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 o.
large commercial establishments were ac
customed to board with the head men o
| The firm.
All that is changed, and the tendency |.
to make the distance between employer
and employe wider and wider. The ten
| iency is to make the employe feel that ht
| u wronged by the success OF the capitalist
| and to make the capitalist feel: "Now, m,
| iaborers are only beasts OF burden. l mus
give SO much money for SO much drudgery
lust so many pieces Of silver for SO man,
| beads of sweat" In other words, thu
bridge Of sympathyis is broken down at boti
snds.
Thomas Carlyle when he said: "PIugsoi
of st. Dolly Undershot, buccaneerlike
| says to his men: Noble spinners, this 1.
:he hundredth thousand we have gained
wherein 1 mean to dwell and plant m,
| vineyards. The hundred thousand pount
Is mine; the daily WACO was yours. Adieu
| noble spinnersi Drin;. my health with thi
groat each, which 1 give you over an,
| above.'"
| Now what we want Is to rebuild tha
| bridge Of sympathy, and put the trowe
to one OF the abutmeDts to-day, and
preach more especially to employers al
| such, although what I have to say will b,
c|RSSysss c|RSaspf'''' TO 00'h employers and en-
The behavior OF multitude Of laborer.
toward their employers during the las
three months may have induced some en-
ployers to neglect the real Christian dutIe
that they owe to those whom they employ
Therefore I want to say to you whom
confront face to face and those to whom
these words may come that all shipowners
| all capitalists, all commercial firms, al
master builders, all housewives, are bount
to be interested in the entire welfare o
| their subordinates.
| Years ago some one gave three prescrip
lions for becoming a millionaire: First
| spend your life In getting and keeping til,
| earnings Of other people; secondly, hav
no anxiety about the worriments, tn
losses, the disappointments OF others
thirdly, do not mind the fact that you
vast wealth implies the poverty of Il grea
many people,"
| Now. there Is not a man here who woul,
consent to 20 into life with those thre
, principles to earn fortune. 1t is your de
sire to do your whole duty to the men an,
women In your service.
| First OF all, then, pay as large wages n
are reasonable and as your business will
afford; not necessarily what others pay
certainly not what your hired help sny yo,
| must pay, for that Is tyranny on the par
OF labor unbearable.
| The right OF a laborer to tell his employe
what he must pay implies the right OF al
employer to compel man into n service
\ whether he will or not, and either Of thos
ideas Is despicable.
| When any employer allows a laborer t,
say what ne must do or have his business
ruined, and the employer submits to it, h
does every business man In the Unite,
States q wrong and yields to the principI
which, carried out. would dissolve society
Look over your affairs and put your
| selves in Imagination In your laborer'
place and then pay him what nefore Go,
| and your own conscience you think 20,
| ought to pay him.
"God bless yousl' are well in thei
place, but they do not buy coal nor pa,
house rent nor get shoes for the children
| At the same time you. the employer, ough
to remember through what straits am