The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1901-1903, 1903-05-03
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
(By WyIIys Rede. D. D.,

we are confronted To-Day ny one
problems with which the world has
ever had to deal The two great fore
of the most perplexing and anxious
es, labor and capital, have been forced
into an attitude of antagonism. The
relationships between them are grow
ing every day more intensely strained.
There is danger of fierce and dead
" conflict most disastrous in its ef-
fects. How is such struggle to be
STAYED off? How are these apparently
hostile interests to be reconciled?
How are the Industrial problems of
the day to be equitably and perma-
nently solved? No honest man can
blind himself to the difficulty which
these questions present.
Will it be by political means? Some
say that, if labor feels itself aggrieVed
and wronged, it should organize for
its own defense, that great peoples
party should be formed They point
out that capital has already made use
of politics and (sometimes by fair
means and again by fouD has won
many advantages for itself. Why
should not labor do the same? The
answer comes clear and strong-be-
cause the results would inevitably be
disastrous to itself. Political agita-
ton will widen the breach of good
feeling between labor and capital. 1t
will embitter feeling on both sides.
Put the labor cause into the hands
of a political party and you make it
The prey e every low political art.
You sacrifice it to the greed Of unscru-
pulous demagogues. You give over
the half-educated masses off laboring
men to be tools in the hands Of those
who nave no true s. mpathy with their
cause and seek only selfish ends. Then
the noble purposes of the labor move
| ment would turn to selfishness, its
Thigh principles would sink into petty
meanness, its love of justice and right
Into greed of gain and power We
may as well make up our minds at
once that it needs something moro
than party politics to solve the great
problem of the relations of labor and
lcapital
Will it be by legislation? No We
lmay secure the passage of good laws
but we cannot legisate the existing
Estate of affairs out of existence. So
long as human nature remains wha
lit is, laws will have but slight effect
You cannot legislate greed and f2lfish
ness and cruelty out of mems hearts
lYou cannot make men temperate, an'
Thrifty. and industrious by law. 81
Hong as capitalists and laboring mel
are what they are, you will not &C
complish much by legislative means
There is but one agency which can
accomplish this cure. The gospel o
Christ is what the industrial WorlC
Ineeds above all things. The compll
Ications of this disease are too serl
., is--a'-, s+-,, AA,s-4 e-savthinG shoT-.- =
THAT We shudder as we unlnK VIVA
the industrial world, would be today
if it had not had nineteen centuries
Iof Christianity We tremble at The
thought of what would come TO pass
if THE gospel of dhrist We're losf
today. Jesus Christ is the peoples
friend. Danish him from the indus
trial world. and you leave ii barren
land empty, and without hope. Leave
1.-The tolers of the world no Saviour
land you abandon them to black de
Ispair. Let those who hold the wealth
land power of the world think that they
have not n righteous Judge, and God
pity the people who are under them
Fall back upon heather standards OF
morality. and the evils of today VIII
sink into insignilcance in comparison
with the horrors into which you Will
nluuge the world. But give the world
n Saviour and the lahoring man a
friend, and you change the whole
face of things. Then you can cry to
these hostile forces, "Sirs, We are
brethren; why do ye wrong one 10
another? We have common Master
and a common judge. We have mu-
tuoL interests. If one of you su1er
the other suffers yith him. IheSe
are the principles, and they are the
only principles, upon which the labor
questions of the day can be solved
and set at rest a