Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
SHOULD MEN STRIKE
Two Noted Churchmen Talk
About It.
CHURCH ANDS0CIALISM
BISHOP POTTER ON THE RIGHTS
OF THE CONSUMER.
Cardinal Gibbons Deplores the Evils of
the Sweat Shop-other Topics
Interesting Notes.
CHURCH ANDSOCIALISM
Copyright, 1904. by Frank G. Carpenter.)

] give you today the views of two of the
ablest divines of the country on the
struggle which is now going on between
labor and capital The men are especially
noted as thinkers and they are the friends
of the public One is Bishop Henry c.
Potter. the head of the Protestant Epis
copal Church of New York, and the other
James Cardinal Gibbons, the chief of Ro-
man Catholicism on the North American
continent.
A Talk With Bishop Potter.
1t was in his apartments on West 10th
street that met Bishop Potter Going up
the elevator, was taken into a little re-
ception room walled with books and fur
nished in blue as delicate as that of the
blue room of the White House. A sawed
off boy in buttons took my card to the
bishop, and moment later tall,
straight, broad shouldered man in cleri-
cal dress stood before me. 1t was Bishop
Potter I should have known that he was
a preacher had ! met him in the midst of
Broadway instead of there in his study.
He looks the eminent divine. His head is
big his forehead high and broad; his side
whiskers are cut in formal episcopal
style and the words drop from his lips so
clean cut that they made me think of
copper-plate engraving. mad written
him my desire for the interview, and in
response to my questions he began at
once.
1.-THE struggle now going between Ia
Dor and capital is a serious one said he
but l have no doubt but that time and
the forces at issue will bring it to
cessful conclusion. Neither the labor unions
the employers seem to regard the great
est factor in it. They forget that the ma
jority of our people are neither laborers nor
capitalists. The capital class is small, and
it is estimated that there are four million
people dependent on the wages of organized
labor. We have a population of eighty mil
lions, so that there are SeVenty-SiX millions
outside That Seventy-SiX millions may al
low organized labor to Inconvenience them
for a time, but they will never permit it
to rule. AS soon the inconvenience be-
comes too great they Will rise up in arms
and put an end 10 it in one way or another.
1 don't think the labor unions realize this.
They do not seem to appreciate the fact
that they may raise a spirit of antagonism
You mean that they may make the peo-
pie hate them? 3 r AZ
Yes, mean just that, - said the bishop.
How Labor Does Not Create Capital.
But, Bishop Potter" said /, Hthe laborer
is certainly worthy of his hire. 1t is labor
that creates the wealth of the country, and
it would seem to me that labor ought to
fight for its rights
Yes replied Bishop Potter sit should,
provided it knows what its rights are. It
is ridiculous, however to say that the
wealth of the United States has been Gre
ated by mere muscular force, that is, by
the work of the day laborer Such work
alone has created no considerable part of
our wealth. The men who furnish it might
toll a thousand years If they could live so
long and have product no greater than at
the end of the first day or the first week.
They have their everlasting daily wants to
devour their daily production, and it is
only when foresight, extraordinary ability
and the genius of invention come in that
their work can be so directed and used as
to create wealth.
THE relations of labor and capital" con-
tinued Bishop Potter, ARE in some respects
like those of the elephants and their mas
tiers in the lumber yards of the far east
AS you enter the shipyard at Rangoon,
Burma, you may see those huge unwieldy
animals loading, unloading and stacking
timbers. They seize great logs of oak,
mahogany or teak wood with their
tusks and trunks they balance them care
fully and carry them through winding path
ways out of the ships to the wharves and
place them just where they needed
Their intelligence seems wonderful and their
ability beyond conception. AS you look
closer, however you see a little black figure
upon the neck of each elephant. He has
stick in his hand, but he rarely raises it and
never strikes. Watch him closely, how
ever, and you will see that his bare heel
rests with an intermittent pressure on the
neck of the huge animal he rides, and there
you have the secret of the whole business.
The brute obeys the man. The clever in
telligence of the Burmans heel guides, di-
reefs, restraints, constrains and energies
the enormous living bulk beneath him and
converts it from destroying monster into
a faithful and untiring servant That is
how the genius of capital uses labor-by IN
vention, construction, organization and di-
rection.'
Capitals Small Profits.
But the elephant has the right to his