The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-06
REV. DR. NEWMAN SMITH
THE GOLDEN RULE FOR SETTLE
 lIEST OF STRIKES.

Our City Sets Good ERamPie-Not Rent ! bV Strikes Because AmicAbIs Methods
 of settlement of Labor Disputes Pre-
 vntI-ExamP.es Of Opposite Methods 1 EIsewhere-The Wabash K. R. Case The New Haven Roads Equitable
 spirIt-cause for COngratuiatiOD by Oar Citizens-Mr. Fitzpatrick a Model Labor Leader.
 Rev. Dr. smyths admirable and time ly sermon yesterday forenoon at Gen. ter church on the golden rule method for settling labor disputes was listened to with deep interest by the cOngrega- 1 tion and the essential features of the sermon are herewith given as follows: 1 The text was Romans xii, 21:. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good"
 In the course of his sermon Dr. Smyth said that men too generally are 1 disposed to act on the first part of this 1 text, and to leave the last part of 1t III the air. They will resist evil, overcome their own passions, stand up for their own rights, but do not seek to overcome wrong by finding some good with which to meet it. But herein lies the differ ence between Christian and churl. As one illustration of this rule, Dr. Smyth referred to an address, prepared for an association of manufacturers which called employers to resist cer- tain evils which are threatening, such as assaults upon free labor; but it fail GU to seek for any good among these evils, or to bring forward anything bet ter by which they may be overcome. To assert only the half-truth Of resist ance, and not the whole truth ot this gospel rule, serves to excite mems pas sions, and to provoke the very evils to l be overcome.
 1 pr. Smyth referred to the fact that here in New Haven we are living and working peaceably together, while some other communities are rent with strikes, with bitterness on the one side and fear on the other; and he attribut- ed this to the fact that those in charge of our industries, as well as the work ing people, have wished to settle any differences in a reasonable way, and not merely in a spirit of resistance. He pointed out three marks of this better way of overcoming evil with good: | l. The use of methods which are clearly right, and the refusal to fight evil by methods tainted with wrong. A young man was asked to join with oth- CTS in reforming the politics of his ward; he found that the Would-be re- formers were falling into the same methods, smelling of corruption, which wished to resist. This is q good rule for citizenship; the whole text needs to be taken by young men into politics, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good"
 As another illustration, Dr. Smyth read a clipping from newspaper in which it was stated that an organiza' tion of manufacturers in certain re- zion were organizing to fight threat ened union strike by banding together under bond of $250 not to sell supplies to others of ther number employing Iunion men. This is seeking to over come evil with evil, fighting fire with fire We may perhaps find some excuse for men who, with blind sense of in- justice in their hearts, are swept away into a disastrous flood of passion; bu' the more intelligent men are, the more they are charged with the responsibiii' ties of our prosperity, the more il should be required of them that they avoid any methods which are unlawful and wrong in resisting the industria evils which they fear. Dr. Smyth re buked scathingly anything tainted witt the evil of a boycott in combinations o employers,
 2. The increasing appeal to reason and the diminishing appeal to force Alike in religion and in civilization both in the progress of revelation ant in the advance of civilization, the ap
 peal to reason becomes greater and th'
 use of force less. The Bible begin
 with the revelation of the Almtsht!
 One; it closes with the vision of tn
 lamb upon the throne. For men to ap peal in their disputes to force, not t'
 reason, is to set the wheels moving backwards. Not more strikes, but nor 7 reasonableness all around, is the tru
 way of industrial progress.
 Dr. Smyth referred to the hopeful set
 clement of the strike on the Wabasl
 system by regard of all concerned fo
 the law, and fair delverance of tn
 court, and subsequent negotiation, as
 notable example of the right way o
 overcoming evil.
 3. The evolution of sane leaders, an
 the rejection of the unfit. No man vii be allowed by public sentiment to kee
 his power either as a great captain 0
 finance, or as a leader of any class 0
 men, unless he shows himself to be broad wise man, regardful of our com
 mon prosperity, and not selfish ad
 venturer. We should honor sane lead
 CTS among all classes; we should rejec
 wild men. utterly selfish, reckless lead CTS, who ought to be damned.
 One of the hopeful signs of the pres
 ent industrial situation is the slow per
 haps, but sure moral evolution of san - leaders. In this connection Dr. Smyt referred to the New Haven and Hart n ford railroad trouble and said of MI e Fitzpatrick: "There came to this cit ; a leader who showed himself to be, no
 TI