The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-19
NEEDS OF LABORERS
REV. w. II. McCORKLE ON THE
woRKINGMAN'S IMPROVED
CONDITION.
BETTER OFF THAN PICTURED.
WAGES HIGHER AND LABORERs
LIVE BETTER THAN THEY
HAVE EVER DONE.

In spite of Their Improved Condition
the Laboring Classes Are Cypress
ed by Corporations and Trusts.
The south Free From the "Sweat
shop" EviI-OrganiEed Labor Dis
cussed-PubIic sympathy I'm Strikes
on the Right side.
A sermon to workirgmen was
preached at Wesley Monumental
Church last night by Rev. W. P. Nc
Corkle pastor Of the First Presbyte-
rian Church. 1.-THE Tears of the OPP
pressed" was the subject chosen by
Mr.. McCorkle, who considered it from
two points of view. that of employers,
who. he said, see little of which those
working for them have reason to COM
plain, and that of workingmen, who
are ground beneath the heel of trusts.
After reciting his text and comment
ing upon it. Rev. Mr.. McCorkle turned
to the practical consideration of the
labor question. He said that the con-
dition of laboring men has greatly i'm
proved within the last half century.
The wages they earn are higher, per-
hitting them to approach more nearly
the style of living that is followed by
those who have more of this worlds
goods than usually fall to the lot of
one who earns his bread by the sweat
of his brow. So pronounced has been
this improvement and so adequate
would it seem were the earnings of la
borers to their needs, Mr.. McCorkle
said, that it seems more necessary
that contentment for workingmen
should be preached than that their
wrongs should be paraded.
The strike al Homestead, Pa, was
instanced by the pastor as an exam
pie of a demonstration by labor against
capital that had not the merit of real
want or trials back of it. The condi-
ton of many of those who precipitated
and took part in the strike was almost
that of affluence. The leader was COM
paratively wealthy, while many earn
ed from 81 to Sc a day. Yet they were
not satisfied with such wages-wages.
the pastor declared, that were better
than the majority of lawyers, physi-
clans, preachers or school teachers
earned
Despite the fact, though, Mr.. Nc
Corkle said, that, as a class. laboring
men live decently in good houses and
have comforts about them, they are in
many instances oppressed. They are
oppressed, he said, by private employ
ers, by frauds perpetrated on the igno-
rant, by taking advantage of the needy
and by the dreadful system of sweat
shops. The preacher thanked God that
south of Mason and Dixon's line so far
as he knew, there is not one such
sweat shop as those that have called
forth protests from the world.
Laborers are also oppressed. he said,
by monopolies-great corporations that
have no regard for the men whose mus
cles and sinews make the wealth upon
which they grow powerful; through ex-
cessive hours of labor; through denial
of Sunday rest, and by the breaking
down of honest competition through
the agency of the trusts.
Methods employed by trusts in max
ing good their position-methods in
volving trickery, bribery and corruption
of the legislative and the judicial
branches of the political fabric, were
condemned. Mr.. McCorkle instancing a
number of facts to show that those
who stand at the helm of the great
corporations do not hesitate to seek
their ends by the most questionable
means. A mistake of the oppressors
he said, is that they have no comfort
err, while God is the comforter of the
oppressed. God" he said, lis on he
side of honest labor and against the
greed of capital"
The increasing power and Importance
of labor organizations was discussed.
He spoke of their number, of their
spirit. of their abiding sense of wrong,
of the awakening of public sympathy
for rightful strikes or labor move
ments, of the victories that labor has
gained, all" the pastor declared,
"auguring a time when the rights of
every laborer will be recognized and
he will be granted a liberal share of
the profits of his own industry"
Speaking of public sympathy for
strikes, the pastor said that the people
of Savannah would have been aroused
had there been right or justice in the
strike inaugurated by the street rail-
way motormen and conductors. Pub
lie sympathy is sure to extend to the
oppressed. and it would not have failed
and the requested boycott would have
been practiced had there been reason
for the strike. The failure of this SYM
pathy to- reach the strikers. Mr.. Nc
Corkle reasoned, would show that the
strike was ill-advised