The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-27
TALKS ON CHILD
LABOR |N|QUITY
Extract from the Rev. Quincy
Ewing'S Sermon
MAMMONISTIS ATHEISM
When Men Become Things, God Van
ishes-There Is No Longer
Any Reason for His
Existence.

iiN INV QbAASJ AANAh5 pa ooSAANo 80 NN-S
Church of the Advent yesterday morning
at the Ii o'clock services on DO We
Love Men as Much as Money" taking his
text from the thirteenth and fourteenth
verses of the sixteenth chapter of Luke
NO servant can serve two masters: for
either will he hate the one and love the
other, or else will he hold to the one
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve
God and mammon. And the Pharisees
also, who were covetous, heard all these
things, and they derlded Him."
Mr.. Ewing, among other things, said of
the child labor iniquty'' as follows:
What is the meaning of this fact, that
in our southern states $4,000 children are
employed In cotton mills; that in our own
state of Alabama we have a law by
which childhood may be murdered-by
which, In other words, 10-year-old boys
and girls may be worked In the mills
eleven hours day for six days in every
seven; by which 13-year-oId boys and
girls may be worked all night for four
nights in every week; a law by which 1t
is made only a misdemeanor, punishable
only by fine that may be as small as one
copper cent, If little children less than
10 years old, If little children less than
10 years old, If little children just old
enough TO stand on their feet (they must
stand on their feet) and tie threads with
their baby fingers, are worked more than
eleven hours in twenty-four by day or by
night?
What is the meaning of this strange and
cruel and terrible fact, that we do not
need any law at all to protect from work
young setter dogs or Morgan colts. and
do need a law to protect human babies
under 10 years old from the factories of
men, some Of whom are members of ex-
allied standing in the church-the church
of the Divine Great Lover of little chill
dren, who taught that to offend, to put
a stumbling block in the way Of one Of
these little ones was to deserve to have
a great milestone hung about ones neck
and to be sunk in the depth of the sea?
The Meaning.
The meaning of 1t? Why, simply what
Jesus had in mind and heart when He
was teaching that day, long ago, and
the IndIlStts, WIN were IlOuty lONtISg
scoffed at Him. Simply mammon-wor-
ship. and consequent contempt for man,
and consequent despislng of God. Every
body is careful to save from hurt or de-
struction a young setter dog or Morgan
colt because the dog or colt has a money
value that is sacred. Everybody Is not
careful to save from hurt or destruction
the soul and body of the human child, be-
cause the human child has a value less
sacred than the dollars and in the child's
destruction dollars can be made.
l wonder sometimes whether our civili-
cation is deliberately diabolIc or helplessly
insane! 1t must be to some extent one or
the other, or we couldn't possibly put
some men in shackles for shooting craps
and license other men to work 10-ycar-
old children eleven hours a day; we
couldn't possibly regard it as a crime
to toss dice and as no crime to destroy
childhood. A perfectly sane and perfect
ly God-serving civilization would not
sooner tolerate the culture of tuberculosis
germs for indiscriminate distribution. The
cruel, practical, mammonistic atheism
which permits the child labor iniquity
in this day and generation is ten thou
sand times worse than any Intellectual
theoretic atheism which ever fell from
the lips of Charles Bradiaugh, or Robert
Ingersol. Compared with the man whose
heart doesn't ache at the thought of a
1O-year-old child laboring In an atmos-
phere of cotton lint eleven weary hours
out of twenty-four, Mr.. Bradlaugh and
Colonel Ingersol were Christian saints!
Cannot Serve God and Mammon.
The Master who saw to every height
and to every depth of the moral universe
never saw deeper or higher than when He
said, ''Ye can not serve God and Mann
is of one substance with the truth of that
saying, as the whole truth of His gospel
is of one substance with the truth Of
that other saying, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind
and soul, and thy neighbor as myself -
We can not serve God and .nammon for
the very simple reason that no way has
vet been discovered-and none ever will
be-of serving God without serving man;
and to the mammon-server true man SER
are not men, but things-things that he
uses to get other things which he rates
at a higher value than manhood.
When men become things, God vanishes.
There is no longer any reason for His
existence.