Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-28
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Christian Stewardshir.
BY CHARLES M. SHELDON,
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY CONGREGATIONAL
 AND SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLISHING SOCIETY.

''Eric, you have more influence with the men than any one on the ranges. Can't you persuade the union to do something to arrive at a decision?" asked Stuart a little vaguely. He was feeling around after answers to q thou sand questions, and he started the talk aimlessly because he was preoccupied
 'Well what can do? The owners are the ones 10 arrive at q decision. Can't you persuade them to agree to our demands and your own promise of $2 q day?" replied Erie, who never hes itated to say what he felt no matter how abrupt it might seem.
 ''No: I have no influence that way with the other owners. You ought to see some of the letters I get from Cleveland. I tell you the owners will not give in. The whole situation is horrible. Sometimes, Eric, Andrew, I feel as if the men were destitute of all sense What right have a third or a fourth of them to keep the rest from work because all cannot get the same wages?'
 "They dou't look at it that way. The principle is with them all based on the right or wrong side of the demand for the S2. At the same time, as I said the other day, 1 look at the strike from an other point of view. l am ready to ac knowledge it is a miserable way to try to get justice done. The men can nev- CT make up what they have lost by this idleness. But, good God, Stuart" ejac- ulated Eric, hobbling to the window and looking out on the snow covered hills just back of the cottage, what other way is there if the owners refuse to listen to appeals and arbitration? Are we to submit indefinitely to starya- ton wages because we can't help our selves? Of course l look at it from a workingman'S standpoint. Boiled down to it's simplest terms, the men don't see anything but reason in asking that a business like the ore industry, that has made q few men princely rich, ought to divide up it's profits more fairly and 1 make I good many persons more com fortable instead of making a select few uncomforta0ly wealtEy.'
 "Do you believe q man can be un- comfortably wealthy" asked Andrew, with a smile, as if he believed it him. self.
 You don't need to go outside this room to find one,'' answered Stuart soberly. ''What good can I do with all my money in a case like this? l seem to be as helpless as either of you.' ''No, you're not. You can relieve a great deal of distress. Money is Q great power in that way"
 But look here, Eric. Isn't this the situation? Here are 5000 men out on 8 strike. A thousand of them have been offered tlfeir demands. They have re- fused out of sympathy for the rest, who will never get what they ask, for can't compel the other companies to 1 do what I think is the right thing. l Now, then, these men are faced with 1 starvation or at least with great suf- fering this winter. Shall I say to them | practically: Never mind; 1 have mon- cy. l will take care of you indefinite | ly or until the money is gone: It i seems to me that the thousand men l ought to go to work if they have an l offer at their own terms. What do you ] think, Andrew!'
 T think as you do. l regard the ! strike as q disaster. At the same time | the men are doing as thousands of men l have done and will continue to do until 1 we have a better system than we have at present of settling the differences 1 between men who labor with the brain and those who labor with the hand l Would it be possible to provide the men with work of any kind, so that l they would not be fed ill idleness:' Why, what can miners do except their own kind of work? Who can !
 this, where the whole industry re- ! wolves about one thing? Besides-well
 go on, Eric, if you want to speak, said Stuart. who saw Eric impatiently biting his lips and nervously clinch. ing his hands.
 T don't know what to say!' burst | out Eric. 'The whole situation is
 maddening. The men are right, and | the men are wrong. If their methods | Of getting justice are at fault, the de | mand itself for justice, I believe, is
 right. But what can you expect? Who
 for all these years has paid any atten
 ton to the human end of this ore pro
 ducing business? What care do the
 men at Cleveland have for the souls ol | the development of the souls of thest
 men who dig the stuff out of the
 ground that helps buy other men cost | iy luXuries and fine clothes and houses
 travel, education. pleasures and beau ties of all sorts? What are we reapine l now but the fruits of a great sowing
 of selfshness in the one great passion
 for money and what it will bring? | ask you two men, who have been rear
 ed in q finer atmosphere than mine, il
 it is not true that the wageworkers o1 1 the world. ignorant or mistaken ol
 wrong and even vicious though a
 times they may have been and are
 still have sinned according to thei 1 light less deeply or less wholly thai
 the men of great wealth and education and social power. I am not saying
 that we are perfect or never make mis
 takes or that the selishness is all ol
 oife side, but do say that this presen 1 condition would not now be on us her,
 if the men who have made their for tunes by the toll of the miners had act
 cd like Christian men. How many o1
 the mine owners have got together an( vvn6 fA yi,do f<N %l,; |