The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-10-08
DR.. Fisk breaches a Sermon on
That Theme.
g Why Has Labor Been De-
spised ~ He Asks.
THE STIGMA OF WORK
1t is the Outgrowth of Ages of
Slavery.
Continue So Long as There is
Property Civilization.

DR.. D. NJ. Fisk. of the First congre-
gationa1 church, delivered a sermon last
night on Why has Labor been De-
spised2H The sermon was delivered by
request of 'werkingmen of the city.
DR.. FIsk's talk at Garfield park on
Labor day pleased his audience, made
up principally OF members OF the To-
peka labor unions. and on that account
he received the request for last nights
sermon. In his sermon DR.. Fisk said;
Labor despisedi That is not Gods
point of view How came it to be mans?
God has had but one crown for labor
honor. Crowned as truly in physiologic
success as in industry and handicraft.
Labor is the purchase price Of life. La
Dor has always been the purchase price
Of all, and always viii be- NOT the
mere mechanism Of bread winning or
manufacture Of Serviceable Objects
everyt hing is what it is because some
one has toileG. Every animal body Is
what it is because somebody has strug-
gIed.
toll And willing parasitism has ever
one end, whether in yellow-doddef,
blanehed beech, blood sucking leeeh OF
fine feathered idler, viz, degeneraey'
which in man IS the Cain mark OF
social crime, Who has dared snatch
that crown of prisnevaI honor from
man. and put the stigma Of social oa-
There is but one answer. Not Goa
Not the plan of the world of Eden,
But a Cain ever who first denied ms
brother, then slew him. All desplslng
of labor roots itself first in desplslng
of man. Every slave civilization from
slave-p piled pyramids to the southern
confedracy has been &. caste civilization
nursed on the heresy that somehow there
are two sorts of people in this world
The gentleman with immaculate hands
an idleF, whose bread is to be won and
social station to be maintained by tnat
other sort of people-helotss operarla'
peasants, serfs. slaves operatives,
hands working people. who are not
born to the same social enfranchlse-
ment but are made to serVe-a qe-
spised majority in numbers but q rapble
that exists for the benefit Of the few
Who has exiled the modern world from
the Eden OF its simplicity. Ambition
Who planted thorns, sowed thlstles N
the pathway Of all feet OF lndustryf
Domestic economy. There has been
Cain civilization opposed to bfothef
civilization Not how can 4 serve my
brother. but how can my prother serve
me. Here are the keynotes OF the aWIul
world dirge yet to be changed to the
worlds Easter song.
INV brother, l wonder if you realize
that to be under the stigma Of dlshollot
for work or the self-contempt Of iad
who has to carry a dinner pail IS
wrong. How completely this raise esLi7
nation is pagan. This whole problem AT
ethical AS in every other great prob
lem, whether scientific. economic. politl-
cal or social by digging down you can
find God. When you leave out the fath-
erhood of God on the high sea. of ciyili-
zation then there is no compass Ihe
fatherhood of God is the only true basis
of social estimation. All contempt Tor
labor began with the loss of a common,
loving heavenly father and hence the de-
NAL of a common brotherhood All
stigma on work banks on an earlier de-
spiRing Of man. 1t is the one longest
chapter in the tragedy of lawless indi-
vidualism. We despise labor because
we essentially despise man.
slavery Is the mother of dishonorsd
labor We are not out of the malign
shadow of contempt for work because
we yet lie under the cloud of originally
world wide slavery. Toll became stig- |
ma But this awful inversion of fact |
must be defended-by a false philoso-
phy. Cicero said taIl who live by paid |
sentiment can come from a work shop. /
Seneca the elder said; The invention of |
arts belongs to the vflest slaves; wisdom |
dWefIs in the loftier regions; she soils /
not her hands with labor Plato said.
1t is right to despise men who cannot /
devote themselves to the state Aristo- |
tie said: All forms of bodily labor are /
degrading TO a free man. Nature has /
created for rs special class,-day la /
borers and slaves Aristotle defined /
slaves as implements with souls; tools, /
implements without souls
THE idea that one is socially damned /
because the hliment of wool in his coat /
sleeve is not so fine or long as in some I
other mans! That is essentially pagan. I
So long as our civilization is a property /
civilization estimating man by the I
things he can rake together by fair Il
means or foul, but despising a man that 4
has no property to show, IL will be a /
civilization of sweat shops midnight I
needles. unbounded hours, tenement al