The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-15
SERMON ON THE STRIKE.
(Continued from First PageN

O- SDAASdllou or tne UldJOTlIy or men. n The present strike reveals the moral $ power of large bodies of the poorer and 3 more ignorant men to act together and proclatms aloud that that quality must 3 De reckoned with. For such men in a
 democracy learning to stand together and to act together will some day find leaders strong enough to enable them to accomplish by legislative means what cannot be accomplished in other ways, if those who employ them seek to con- trol by mere force, however that force may be exercised
 Let us consider the moral side as as- serted by the operators of the mines These men practically own both the mines and the railroads, and are there by placed at an advantage. They claim
 (according to newspaper statements)
 that there is nothing to arbitrate;"
 that nothing will end the strike but
 unconditional surrender" that the
 miners should trust to the wisdom and
 justice of the men to whom God has
 given wealth." That is to say, the op-
 orators say the case in dispute is not
 the business of any outside party; that
 the mine owners and the miners must
 settle it for themselves and that. as it
 is case of war, the weaker party must
 yield and the stronger party must win.
 This is the morality of primitive soci- ety. It rests upon the idea that one
 man is not under any obligation to em-
 ploy another unless he wishes to do so,
 and that he may discharge an employe
 at any time It rests upon the idea that
 every man is at liberty to work or to
 cease to work whenever he wishes to
 do so.
 Let me call your attention to the fact
 that what is right in primitive state
 of society may be wrong in a complex
 state of society I can only briefly il-
 lustrate In a primitive state of soci-
 ety, when men live by hunting fishing
 and the simplest farming, and streams
 and forests are free, if a servant leaves
 his master or if a master discharges a
 slave, the man so left or discharged is
 at liberty to fish, hunt, till the soil and gather firewood, and neither does he himself suffer much nor discommode or 1 injure any neighbor. But in complex
 state of society where everything is | owned and nothing is free, where men
 become specialists and do things which
 no other men can do and which men
 generally need to have done, then the i obligations become different. Many of l you will say that q man has right to 1
 discharge his workmen when he pleases | and that workman has a right to quit | working when he pleases, and it Is not l the business of any other man to inter- | fere. But if you were crossing the 1 ocean and the captain should discharge | the engineers, or the stokers should l strike and leave the steamer helpless in l mid-ocean, you would feel that you who wish to reach home and who had trust ed yourself to those)men had right to interfere. This merely, illustrates a principle which has wide applications in life, .0.-
 A local illustration may have force. A few weeks since when a strike oc- cured on our city railroads, every manufacturer who depended on those roads to bring his workmen to the fac tory, every merchant who depended on the roads for his customers, every workman and clerk who depended on the roads for transportation and every suburban resident who depended on the cars to bring him to the city, found that the strike was his affair Anthracite coal, especially as winter is drawing nigh is more important than the street car service of any single city. The present strike reveals the moral fact It that the customers. the consumers, as :: well as the mine owners and the miners, ! have right to voice in the settlement { of this strike.
 Two parties the owners and the min- |, CTS, may both say, This is our fight !! and we desire to be let alone that we may fight 1t to a finish" But if there were no consumers the mines would be and the miners would have no work.
 Coal Is natural, not an artificial product. Anthracite coal fields are very ' lmited. This conflict Is not like con- r 1fct between grocer and his clerks. . You cannot go elsewhere and get your = 'oal. The people by their customs and q avs nave given possession of natural product which man cannot make to cer- ain men. The people in Pennsylvania lave enacted laws forbidding any one 0 mine anthracite coal who has not erved an apprenticeship of two years. The miners cease to work. The owners efuse to arbitrate or settle. The con- % tuners meanwhile are called upon to U 10 two things In their organized ca- u acity as state they are called upon f1 0 protect the persons of the miners nd the property of the owners Citi- " ems must serve as soldiers, and, if need III @, die to protect persons and property. tf he consumers in their unorganized ca- el acity must pay the cost of the fight so kl ar as the owners of the mines are con- erned. Every widow and every work fe lgman who pays from fifty to a hun- ar red per cent. more for coal this au- DC nm is helping pay the cost of this tn ar The people who must give life if VI eed be to protect persons and proper ---- 7. and who must pay the cost of this dustrial war, at least so far as the g~s inc owners are concerned, have some oral right in this matter, and this oral right will one day become a legal ght.
 Let me call your attention now to the of the moral method of set ement.
 There have been three methods of ttling disputes The first is the prim- i've method of war. If two men had a spute they fought it out with fists or eapons and the stronger man won.
 two nations had O 5isDI,ta tbaxy v,oo+ N