The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-06-11
Open Letter to Rev. Mr.. Lansing.

Open Letter to Rev. Mr.. Lansing.
To the Rev. I. j. Lansing Scranton, Pa
Dear Sir and Brother: Together with
several hundred of our townspeople
had the privilege, on Sunday evening. Of
listening to your discussion of the merits
and dement's (chefly demerits from your
point of view of the present miners
strike. now on in these valleys. I must
confess to you. ! came away with great
sense of disappointment.
You began by assuring your hearers
you proposed to consider the matter in
calm. dispassionate and judicial man.
ner. You began in most admirable
way, but you fell far short of doing JUS
tice to both sides of the question.
Respectfully. but decidedly, in the in
terests of truth and justice to all con-
ccrned, I must take issue with you on
the following points, developed in your
address:
!. BY every word you used. every in
ference you drew, every impression YOU
conveyed, every accent you made. YOU
placed the entire blame for the present
contest on the miners. Against such a
misuse of the facts and opportunity,
must protest.
Waving the point, for the time. as to
the merit or lack of merit in the miners
request for an eight-hour day. a 20 per
cent increase for those doing contract
work, the Weighing Of coal mined in cer-
tain districts, it cannot be disputed that
no class of men, feeling themselves ag-
grieved, ever undertook a more sane
reasonable and Christian method for
righting real or imagined wrong, than
did the anthracite miners, before this
strike was declared. They asked first
for a conference with the operators: then
for the mediation of the Civic Fedora
tion: then they appealed to impartial
Christian arbitration. And ever and al
ways. the operators would concede moth
ing, refusing to meet them half way. AS
last resort, they struck. Now, in a
dispassionate discussion of the question
engaging you, while so unsparingly con-
demning the msdeeds Of the miners,
ought you not to have spoken of the
admirable and Christian way In which
they endeavored, first to right their
wrongs. df wrongs they be-. and in some
degree have condemned the operators for
their un-Christan attitude.
2. To the intelligent and impartial lis
tener, your discussion was that of a
special pleader for employers. I am far
from saying you purposely made 1t such.
I believe 1t was unconsciously SUCH
Such 1t was, at any rate. From the
dawn OF history to the present hour, is
it not fact that all the laws, customs
and precedents of manknd-yes, the Cos
pei (?)-have favored the employer? Do
they not still do so? In view of this,
why should the employing class need a
special pleader? Whom should the Chris
tian church and it's ministry champion,
those who are the favored or the un-
favored ones? Those who are strong or
those who are weak?
.. With jeremiah lamentatiOn, you be-
wall the money losses involved in such
contests Yes: they are great. But, my
dear sir, crises come to individuals. to
organizations. to nations. when money
losses. no matter how great. become in
significant compared with the rights of
man involved. The progress of Chris
tian civilization for 2,0CO years is marked
by these losses, mankind counting them
as dung compared with right and jus
tice. If our fathers had not so counted
money. You and / and all Anglo-Saxon-
dom would still be In slavery and serf-
dom. Men have been willing to make
these sacrifices. yea, to sacrifice life IT.
self, that those coming after them may
have what was denied themselves. The
right or wrong of a question involving
right, truth, justice, righteousness, can
never be determined from money
standpoint. though you pile your dollars
as high as Mount Blanc, and climb to
it's topmost peak. As Christian minis-
ter myself, II grieved me to the heart to
see YOU apparently so endeavor to settle
the question in the minds of your
hearers.
4. Finding so much ignorance, error
and wrong In strikes, ought you not, In
fair discussion to have pointed out
some of the benefits strikes have
wrought for mankind? This you did not
even attempt to do in your wholesale
condemnation
You could have shown how they de-
velop brotherhood; how they have
righted wrongs and injustlces: how they
have been the means Of bettering the
conditions of the strikers children and
children's children; how they have COM
PEELED the community to think and ex-
anime and Judge; how they have done n
thousand things that have made for hu-
man betterment, il for fifteen years YOU
have gained any real knowledge on the
subject.
But you did not do this, and your ig-
norant, prejudiced and unjust hearer
went away with still more hatred In his
heart for the striking miner who, In his
eyes, never does anything right,
g. With great dramatic effort, You in
sisted on a mans right TO work, free of
molestation and abuse from those who
will not work. It was simple PROPOSE
tion. All Americans believe it. But that
Is not the last word that can be said on
the subject. Granted, a man has a right
to work or not work. Under the Con-
stitution. man also has the right TO the
use of all moral means TO induce as
many men as possible to side with him
on any given question You might also
have said that. In great labor con-
test, as I'm a political or civil revolution,
all those of common interests, hopes.
aims and labors ought TO hang together
or they will hang separately"
g. With an unsparing hand YOU con-
demned all lawlessness and crime ac-
commanding strikes. i Will do tho same.