Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-09-15

laboring man cannot practice the Gold
en- Rule of looking after the interests
of his employer or else he will starve
to death. The first thought the labor
ing man must have is for himself, and
himself alone.'
Mutual Trust.
My laboring friend, if you cannot
reach the high Christian standard Of
loving your employer as you would
love yourself, you are simply heading
toward the social economic wilderness.
The greatest inspiration for future ma
tional prosperity is not to be found in
the gold bricks which are stored away
in the vaults of our national banks; it
is in the mutual trust which the CAPT.
talistic and laboring classes ought to
have in each other. If the average
business firm could not trust it's GUS
toners or was in such condition that
the wholesale business houses could
not trust it, that average business
house would be wrecked within thirty
days. The amount of money which is
in circulation today is as nothing when
compared to the billions upon billions
of dollars worth of business done in
America every year. l was once told
by a keen, shrewd business man that
at least SO per cent of all business is
done upon trust-upon the promise to
pay or to do.
Now, if the capitalist cannot trust
the laborer; if he feels that at any time
walking delegate might come into his
establishment and command his men
to cease work on account of some I'M
reasonable demand, what does he do?
Why, he naturally and wisely solilo-
quizes: II cannot trust the labor mar
ket. If l should invest my money in
a plant, my men may go out on a
strike. Then l will be. left high and
dry with my property upon my hands,
like horse kept in the stable eating
his head off, 1 will not risk my $780,
000 l will buy government bonds or
real estate first mortgages and take
life easy" What is the result? Why,
this rich man builds no factory, as he
would have done, and masons, carpen-
tiers, gas filters and the plumbers Nse
the contracts they would have had up
Of men and women who might have
worked there go without steady en-
ployment Then the commercial trav-
elers and the merchants who would
have been able to sell goods Of that
| factory cannot sell them because the
| goods are not made, and the people
| who might have worked in those fac
| tories have earned no money with
| which to buy. Such evils are often a
direct result of that capitalist refusing
| to build that one factory because Of his
| distrust of labor. 1t is wrong dis
| trust and arises from plumbers and
lack of sympathy on both sides. All
| these evils accrue from the fact that
neither the capitalist nor the laboring
man will practice the Golden Rule and
love his neighbor as himself.
The Dove of Peace.
AS student of social economics
have carefully studied the prevailing
conditions in Chicago during the years
in which l have lived in the Queen
| City of the West. During the last five
years scores of manufacturers have
left our city and have transplanted
| their factories into the little towns far
away from the labor centers because
| they could not trust the laboring
| classes.
Thus the white winged dove of peace
today brings a practical gospel mes
sage to the capitalist and the laborer
alike She brings the same kind of
practical help as the falcon of chivalric
times did to his master. This knight,
being very thirsty, would have drunk
from poisoned well. Again and again
when his master lifted the cup filed
with the deadly water to his lips the
powerful wing of the falcon smote it
out of his hand At last the soldier
examined the brook and found it filled
with the waters of death. So the white
wing of the gospel dove of peace would
knock the chalice of selfish sin from
the white hand of the capitalist as well
as from the horny hand of toll.
Rich men, are you ready to have the
words of my text translated and
brought home to your hearts? Are you
ready to cease lifting up the golden
chalice of selfish sin? Are you ready
to be changed so that your lives may
become a blessing, like those Of Peter
Cooper and William e. Dodge and
Baron Hirsch and Montefiore? If you
are, then you will look upon your mon
ey as a gift from God for the helping
of mankind. One of our presidents
defined public Office as public trust.
Your possessions you should regard as
sacred trust, held not for your own
qualification or indulgence, but for the
glory of God and the benefit of hui
mainly. If you are ready for the les
sons of the text, then you are ready to
say: Here is my money which God
has given to me. By this money l can
give many men employment and pay
them sufficient wages whereby they
can build comfortable homes. l can
surround them with books and instrl-
ments of music. / can make it posi-
BILE for them, with the advantages