The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-02
LABOR DAY SESSION
BY REV. P.S. TEACHER
Unitarian Pastor Selects a
Timely Topic.
SELFISHNESS OF MEN
HOST oF TcILERS WORKING FOR
INADEQUATE WAGES.
SELFISHNESS OF MEN

Rev. Philip S. Thatcher, the pastor of
the Unitarian church. selected a most
timely topic Tor his discourse yesterday
morning-''A Sermon on Labor Day
and he handled the veNcd question Of
capital and labor in a broad and in
teligent Kramer. There was no rail-
Ing at either class, but q merciless ar
raignment Of the selfishness and
thougtlessness that dominate the ac-
ti0ns OF men in this day.
DR.. Ghecher found his text in Ro-
mans. Let everyone of US please his
neighbOr Tor his good to edidcatfon %
After speaking of selfishness as the
prime cause of the misery among men,
ne took up the relations between labor
and capital, and spoke in part, as fol-
lows:
'Unsslfsh love can make life pic
ture Of beauty, song of delight,
mirror OF heaven: but who can look
upon the relations of capital and Iaoor
rich and DOOr, 6nd not long for some
radical changer The spirit that MAKES
IL necessary for every man to stand
up FOR his rights and to defend them
against the ems ~oachments of others is
a disgrace to our civilization. Civiliza-
zion is a splendid thing for those at
the top, but an awful thing for those
at the bottom.
w hat we need to pay attention to
just now Is the growing perception OF
the hosts of tOileTs that they are work.
ing at an inadequate wage che law
OF the ia ural and self-adjusting stand
ara OF wages is not infa!lible. Ii is
true thSt no wave of sentiment can
produce change in the Industrial and
economic conditions but the first step
IS 70 evoke G. restlessness and embar-
rassment-a sense Of shame in those
VINO profit by iladeCuately paid labor"
At TINS point Or. Thatcher explained
what he meant by giving many illus
tilallols OF how church people grind
the faces of the poor; how women and
Snldren work in the sweat shops and
how Indifferent people who profit bv
TINS labor are il reality receivers of
stolen goods. The subject was then
pursued as follows:
he curious apathy of The great ma
Jority is often the parent of cruel inius-
uce- We need 20 realize that nothing
on earth is valuable when man has
loSt MS value Through all our fadff-
ference there appears an atheistfc view
o. LIe-a cynical and despairiDc pes
slmlsn. The worst atheism is not the
uenlal or God, but of the reign of
COD. And his reign is denied when
men i've as II ne had no law to govern
TIE individual in business or society.
We cannot congra tpIate ourselves
upon a growth of wealth in which the
alhshOGSe and the prison are as much
the marks of material progress as the
SosSly d"eiilng ard the magnificent
pulldlng- SO long as the Increased
wealth. which progress brings makes
Sharper the contrast be -weerft rich and
poor progress cannot be permanent
10 educate men who must be con-
cenned TO poverty is to make them
EutinOus. To base on a state of most
glaring social inequality political in
sutuuons under which n3en are theoret-
lcally equal. is like trying to stand a
pyramid or its apex
hat is needed to set things right
IS not the equalization OF wealth buf
me morallz3 ton of wealth. As capital
arises from common labor, it ought
IN justice to minister to the common
wants. The worth Of wealth is what
you can do with 1t for your fellows
W ealth is Lot money, but a state of
Wea;' Inc wealth of nations is the
Wesl OF their peoples. To be rich in
persons IS for a nation to have true
wealth. Give up persons of the right
ordeT. and the wrongs of life will pass
snto the right rs quietly as the dark
ness of the night melts into the radi-
ance Of the day"
Or. Thatcher will follow uD this adj
dress on next Sunday morning with
another along the same line Iis sub
Ject will be Capital and Labor