Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-22
CAPITAL AND LABOR
THEME OF DISCOURSE BY DIR.
FRANK M. BRISTOL.
The Pending Strike Discussed in Its
Several Phases-Cost OF
the Conflict.

| at the Metropolitan NJ. E. Church last
evening to listen to the discourse by the
| pastor. DR. Frank NJ. Bristol. who spoke at
| considerable length on matter now ap-
sorbing unusual amount of attention
from the American public-tne differences
between capital and labor He spoke of the
nobility of labor and the laborer, and dep
recated the practices of idle society, incl
dentally experimenting Henry Watterson's
attack on the leisure classes. DIR. Bristol
also touched on the evil consequences OF
strikes and condemned the strikers for de-
nying others the right to work
The attention of the large audience was
closely held throughout the discourse, and
at times the listeners scarcely restrained
themselves apparently from breaking forth
into applause.
In the beginning of his sermon DR.. Bris-
tol said:
There is a reminder of a great conflict be-
fore us tonight here in this church. Inc
lights dim. 1t takes coal TO make gas
and miners to get coal. The miners are
striking, hence the lights go out. HAPPY,
indeed. will be this nation if there are not
more lights than gaslights put out by the
conflict that Is now waging IN the co va
fields between the forces OF capltal anu 'he
forces of labor
In referring to the nobility of labor and
its history the speaker mentioned seVeral
instances where brickiayer, carpenter
cODbier or printer. DIS lIlt NdSS meg S'S
responsible for much of the world history.
He declared that the commanders or con-
quering armies were men calleu from tie
field or bench to take charge OF a nation >
affairs and bring about peaceful Settle
ment of national differences. 1t is, there
fore in the nation where the laborlng man
is the most respected that the greatest
moral and physical advancement will take
place.
Worker is Natures Nobleman.
eft is well and just that this should be
so" said DR.. Bristol. ut is noble to work,
and the worker is natures nobleman He
Is the being for whom the earth was Great
ed 1t is by work that the race OF beings
placed on earth was to ennoble itself Man
would have been little more than the anil
NAL of the fields had things been created
SO.
But there are men who have sought 10
evade work Men who have sought riches
more for the purposes OF escaping toll than
for any other reason, and to amaSS wealth.
for the vicious recognition of having been
discharged from further work In the MS
tory of society OF the past whenever there
has developed a leisure class there has been
found the hotbed of corruption. The great
est danger to the American nation today Is
the growing leisure class The people at
Newport, the smart set arrogate to them
selves and become the same order of crea-
lures that We're in Babylon most corrupt,
Athens most sensual, and in Rome most
bestial. If the American prosperity is to
breed such a rich class, horse racers. male
and female gamblers, divorces, profane
wine bibbers and oilers, then better a thou
sand-fold is the honest poverty and rugged
virtues of our old-fashioned fathers and
Mothers
Capital and Labor.
The relations between capital and labor
were then discussed. DR.. Bristol spoke Of
the value of union and declared the la
borer had as much right to combine against
the trust the trust to combine against
him. A labor trust, he said, was as good
a trust and had as much right as trust as
the beef or steel or coal trust. The organi-
zation of labor becomes a subject of criti-
cism when 1t orders strikes and sympathetic
strikes. Strikes give anarchism and social
ism opportunity to show their serpent-like
heads. The deeds of violence that are fire.
quent accomplishments of strikes laid
to the doors of the strikers. The speaker
referred to the Haymarket riot in Chicago,
when a great strike occurred and band
of anarchists attacked the police. He said
that such things We're happening with the
greatest regularity and that the public was
confounding rioters with strikers. Sympa-
thetic strikes, said DR.. Bristol, were men
aces to individual liberty.
Suppose the trusts should enter a SYM
pathetic combine against the people, what
would be the end7' he asked. 1T would
be called an outrage Because we can get
coal, for instance, suppose the meat
trust should shut down and refuse to sell
any meat, or the railroads would refuse
to do any business, or the steel trust should
close its shops. The thing would be a cal
amity and seems a ridiculous possibility,
yet 1t is just as sensible a thing as the SYM
pathetic strikes. Then there is the phase of
labor that takes its position against a GER
tain thing and endeavors to prevent other
people from working.
Cost Of Strike.
"a great strike, such as the coal strike,
costs as much per day as the civil war cost.
Its financial cost is not SO great as it's cost
to the individuals who are denied the right
to work for their daily bread through it.
The miners of Pennsylvania had 100000 in
bank before the coal strike started. They
had put by money for their homes and had
prepared to rear their families. How much
OF that 100000 will be in bank when the
strike is over? That is the principle that
IS devastating. know of school teacher in
Pennsylvania who was put out of her
school, although popular with her pupils
and their parents, because her father did
not belong to a labor union. There is where
the labor organizations err They do not
allow individual liberty and when this in
dvidual liberty is trampled upon the foun-
dations Of the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution are shaken
AT the conclusion of the address and ser
vice a large number of the members of the
congregation surrounded DR.. Bristol and
congratulated him upon his discourse.
DR.. Bristol has but recently returned from
| his vacation. a part of which was spent in
| the coal fields of Pennsylvania where he
/ -. 11 to-, "a .A-f1.- Il.