Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-05-25
REV. DR.. TktMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIvINE'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject: Labor Strikes-A Question OF
Present Import Treated in way
Aimed to Bring About Better Feeiine
Ret,veen Employer and EmplOye.
copyright 1901

Aimed to Bring About a Better Feeling
Between Employer and EmplOye.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. Cat q time when In
various districts labor troubles are exist
ing or impending the efforts DR.. Taimage
makes in this discourse to bring apout U
dificult question is we'll timed; texts, Gala
tians. ", Is, "But il ye bite and devour one
another take heed that ye be not con-
sumed one OF another" and philippians
II. a. "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 VIII
90 into the past. OF course the damage
done cannot Immediately be repaired.
Wages will not be so high as they were.
Spasmodically they may be higher, put
they will drop lower. Strikes, Whetner
right or wrong, always inJure laborers as
we'll as capitalists. You will see TINS IN
the starvation of next winter. Boyeottlng
and violence and murder never pay. Tney
are different stages OF anarchy. Gou never
blessed murder. The worst use you can
put a 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
erick Cavendish and Mr.. Burke in Phoenix
Park. Dublin, In the attempt to ayenge the
wrongs OF Ireland, only turned away from
that afflicted people millions OF sympathiz..
ere. Tie attempts to blow up the house OF
common, in London, had only this effect
TO throw out OF employment tens 0i
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 Oh
the rail tracks in front OF midnight express
trains because the offenders do not ike
Tho president OF the company, strikes on
shjpboard 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 scaffoldings so the builder falls In
keeping bis cOntract-all these are only
hard blow on the head o. American labor
and cripple it's 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
| n farthing of wages into ca,lous palm.
Frederick the Great admired some land
| near his palace at Polsdam, and he re-
! solved to get it. 1t was owned bya miller.
| lie offered the miller three times the value
| of the property. The miller would not
| take II because it was the old homestead,
| and he felt about as Naboth felt about his
VINEYARD when Abab 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 he sometimes struck
the officers of state-said to the miller,
| "Now, have offered syou three times the
value of that property, and il you won't
sell it I'll take it anyhow" The miller said
"Your majesty, you won't" YES, said
the king: IT will take it," "Then," said
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 vet cover before the law. Violence and
defiance of the law will never accomplish
ANYTHING. but righteousness and submis-
sion to tho law will accomplish it..
But gradually the damages done the
laborer by the strikes will be repaired, anC
some important things ought now 10 DE-
said. The whole tendency or our times, al
Won havo noticed, is to mako the chasm
between employer and employe wider and
wider. In Olden time the head man OF thu
factory. the master builder, the capitalist
the bead man Of the firm, worked side b,
side with their employees, working some
times at the same bench, dining at TIN
same table, and there are those here VIII
can remember the time when the clerks
large commercial establishments were &C
customed to board with the hoad men o
the firm.
All that Is changed and the tendency |
10 make the distance between employe
md employe wider and wider. The ten
dency is to make the employee feel that b
ia wronged by the success OF the capitals
and to make the capitalist feel "Now, m
laborers are only beasts OF burden. mus
give so much money for so much drudgery
lust so many pieces OF silver Tor SO man
beads of sweat" In other words, TN
bridge of sympathyis broken down at Dot
ends.
That feeling was we'll described b.
+ Thomas CARLYLE when he said: "Plugso
. Of st. Dolly understood, buccaneerlikt
saws to his men: Noble spinners, this
the hundredth thousand we have gained
' wherein l mean to dwell and plant IN
I VINEYARDS. The hundred thousand poun
, is mine the daily wage was yours. Adler
noble splnners! Drink my health with tn
, groat each, which give you over an
a above"
! Now what we want Is to rebuild thu
-. bridge Of sympathy, and put the troW'
TO one Of the abutments to-day, and
/, preach more especially to employers {
such, although what 1 have to say will /
. appropriate to both employers and en-
ployes.
G The behavior Of a multitude OF laborel
+. toward their employers during the La
- three months may have induced some en
. blowers to neglect the real Christian duti
e that they owe to those whom they emplo
@ Therefore 1 want to say to you whom
:, confront face to face and those to who
" these words may come that all shlpowner
70 all capitalists, all commercial firms,
e master builders, all housewives, are bouI
% to be interested In the entire Weilare
~ their subordinates.
= Years ago some one gave three prescrl
tions for becoming millionaire: "Firs
- spend your life In getting and Keeping tl
earnings of other people; secondly, ha
no anxiety about the worriments, t
losses, the ,disappointments .of Other
thirdly, do not mind the fact that 20
vast wealth impliis the poverty OF gre
many people,"
Now, there is not a man here who wou
consent to 20 into life with those thr
=, PRINCIPLES to earn fortune. 1t Is your
"a sire to do your whole duty to the men al
women In your service.
First OF all. then, pay as large wages
are reasonable and as your business W
Afford not necessarily what others pa
certainly not what your hired help say y
must pay, for that is tyranny on the pa
OF labor unbearable.
The right OF a laborer to tell his employ
what he must pay implies the right or
employer to compel man into servl
q whether he will or not, and either OF the
n ideas is despicable.
g When any employer allows laborer
N say what he must do or have MS pusine
ruined. and the employer submits to 1t,
a. does every business man In the Unit
"A States wrong and yields to the princil
" which, carried out, would dissolve socle
"a Look over your affairs and put. yo'
- eeIvea in IMAGINATION in your lahore