The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-09-05

was a rail splitter.
Time was when labor was despised
and workmen regarded as slaves.
Jesus Christ brought about change
in the condition Of labor.
Moral education will be of great
help to the toiier. II will tend to
bring employer and employe to-
gether.
Declares against the bomb-thrower
and the man who would beat down
the laws in hope Of lettering condi-
tions OF labor.
Does not believe in the new
woman but it is the old woman who
Is going to be the glory of the
future.-Points in Labor Day Ad-
dress.
City Attorney Arthur Schaub this
afternoon delivered the following adj
dress at the picnic which is being
given by the Mems Sodality of st.
Peter and Paul's church on Counsel
hill:
Ladies and Gentlemen: The legis-
lature of our state has designated
this day as Labor day, as the day
on which we honor the countless
sons of toll, on which we recognize
the dignity of labor, and the true
nobility of work Fittingly have you
chosen this day for your harvest
festival, for the men who till the
soil, the men who swing the axe,
the men with the trowel and the
hammer and all men who labor
either with Drawn or brain are
brothers the world over, and it is
proper that they should get together
as they have here today.
To-day we remember with pride
that the greatest president of our
country was a rail splitter, our
greatest soldier a cabin boy, that
the greatest of our leaders in con-
gress, in the pulpit and in the forum
sprung from the ranks of labor,
and we remember with still greater
pleasure that these men no matter
how high they rose in the worlds
regard never forgot for one moment
their humble beginning, and never
for one moment were ashamed of
it. Today in this country and in
nthnr country II iC hon
to have worked no matter how
lowly the work may have been. To-
day in this country and in every
other country hands hardened and
hlackened by toll are an insignia
Of honor Today in this and every
other country work no matter how
coarse IS honorable, and idleness no
matter how refined is a disgrace
and a shame .... ..
When Labor Was Despised.
There was q time, however, when
this was not SO Nineteen centuries
ago labor held an entirely different
position in the world than it does
now. No nation ever surpassed
Greece in intellectual greatness. But
read the greatest utterances of her
greatest philosophers, read them all,
and you will not find an expression
in favor Of the dignity, worth and
nobility of labor. On the contrary
even to these great minds labor
seemed a curse, the toiler seemed
hardly human. Labor was thing
to be stunned, the laborer being
to be despised.
''No nation ever excelled Ancient
Rome in political greatness. But in
that great city all the incense of
praise was reserved for the arm that
welded the sword, the hand that
held the pillow or the hammer was
held in contempt. Practically all
the work was done by slaves. The
slave carried the pick, the shovel, the
hoe, the hammer, the saw; the free
man carried the sword. These
slaves were held in utter contempt,
even though they were captives from
the best families of conquered ma.
tons. What has brought about this
marvellous almost incredible, change?
l will tell you.
The New Religion.
Nineteen centuries ago new re.
ligion was beginning to be preached
in Powerful Rome and intellectual
Athens. No doctrines could have
been more at variance with the
ideas of those two cities. 1t taught
the poor slave girl down upon her
knees cleaning the marble floors OF
an imperious mistress that in the
eyes of the Great Father of all her
soul was just as precious and just
as dear as the soul of the mistress
who scorned her. How strange?
These Ancients deified their emper
,ors no matter what their character
This new religion almost deified the
poor man who lived pure, an up
right and holy life. though it were
a life of labor and hardship. How
different. The apostles of this new
religion were not the mighty OF
Athens, Rome or Greece, they were
fishermen from the lowly Palestine
Preached of God.
They preached of God that sc
loved the world that he was borr
as man not in the imperial palaces
of Rome, but in a despised village
of Judea, not born of an empress
but of a lowly maiden unknown tt
fame, tended by foster father who