The age-herald., 1901-01-28
TRADES COUNCIL
 AND ITS GUESTS
Continued from Fifth Page.)

wealth. He said the population had in- creased about three-fold in the last fifty years. and the wealth about fifteen times. He said it was not his intention to be- wall the accumulation of wealth. or to say there is a preponderance of wealth in this country, but that the material interests of the country should not monopollze the time and the attenion of the people He said the cause that brought about such great difference in the growth of popula- tion and wealth was wrong and must De remedied if the country continued pros porous and healthy, and quoted Senator Fdmunds of Vermont as saying that the cause of this difference was organized greed organized wealth and political lnlu- ence and that these were the greatest problems the twentieth century would nave to solve; if they were not solved, liberty and justice would suffer. He asked If Sen ator Edmunds was right, ana IT 50, wny' and then answered by sayi--g that the growth of wealth and of population were not in proportion and not equally distrib- uted and that something was wrong some- where. He said the wrong existed in the control of legislation by capital He urged those who heard him to look carefully to the men who were selected to represent them in legislative bodies, and to see that only honest and capable men are elected to office If you do that, he added, your laws will be just He said that both capital and labor had rights that must De recos- nized. and that they must stand together
 pr. J. p. McFerrin.
 Dr. J. P McFerrin pastor Of the Flrst Methodist church, was next on the pro- gramme for an address, He began by say ing that he had been trying to locate him self that he was not capitalist, neither was he a laboring man, but that he was wage earner and that after all that came nearer expressing the situation than labor CT. He said he was glad to know that wage earners of the district were organized for their protection-that this is an age of organization. The one characteristic of the nineteenth century, he said, was prosperi- ty, development. He said he could remem- Der when there were only two or three mil lionaires and that now there were thous- ands of them and at the present rate it would not be long until we had billionaires. He said that one thing this age needs more than anything else is a high sense of honor and manhood, and that he wanted to see the time when principle would over shadow partizanship. He said that one of the troubles of the labor organizations was that the men did not have the self respect they should have and that if they did not have self-respect they could not expect others to respect them.
 Miss Irene M. Ashby addressed the coun- cil on the movement for the adoption of a compulsory educational bill and bill to regulate the employment of children in mills and factories. She said that the State must protect its children and that the only. way to do so was to enact laws for that purpose. She said she had made a study of the situation in ths-State, that
 she. had visited twenty-three mills in Ala
 bama and that she found over three hun dred children under twelve years of age em- | ployed in those mills.
 The orchestra rendered a selection after | which Father F. A. O'Reilly made short | talk. He said that it was labor and capital working hand in hand that developed the l Birmingham district, and that it was | through organization that the Book of books had been preserved for the present | generations. He said through the Trades l Council vigor and order can be given to labor not obtainable in any other way. By | banding together he said the stronger or
 ganizations could help the weaker that | they could do more justice where all were united than when not organized.
 l The benediction was pronounced by Rev. | G. A. Sharits and the open meeting came to
 an end.