Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-06-27
BY BISHOP W. A. GAMBLER

official nobility and no laws of en-
tail. The humblest and most OBJ
scure youth may rise to the highest
station in the land, and one in the
highest place may sink to the lowest
level.
Men who employ others for wages
today may be, and often are, wage
workers tomorrow, and, in turn, men
who are working for wages this year
may be- employers of labor next year.
Nevertheless, since the organiza-
ton Of the various trades-unlons 1t
is customary to talk of labor and
capital as if the terms designated
fixed classes, and in the unions there
is a certain continuity of corporate
life which tends to make a sort of
fixity of class. Hence one will be
understood when he addresses GER
tain bodies as Tailoring men," al
though they labor no more than do
many others not so called.
Just now there are two matters
about which tailoring men" should
not blunder.
One is with reference to prohibition.
IntoXicants are the worst foes of
wage-workers, for drinking habits
waste a mans earnings and diminish
his productive powers. "a laboring
man" who is addicted to the use
of even beer and light wines burns
his CdIulS DIT DOln SuuS; ny SUCH
indulgence he consumes what he has
already made and renders himself
less competent for making more. OF
all classes, therefore, wage-workers
need to have the temptations to
drinking put utterly away.
Mr.. Gompers is not consulting
either the interests or the honor of
labor" when he assumes in the name
of wage-earners of America to de-
ND hot nf iOb
wines shall not be prohibited. Why
should he make the laboring men
of the country appear as the advo-
Gates of indulgence and intemper-
ance? When did they commission
him to put them into any such false
position?
The laboring men Of the south
especially are misrepresented by the
utterances of Mr.. GomperS on this
subject. In our section the wage
earners are in the main our own ma
tive people, bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. They are not wild
revolutionists from Germany, nor any
other sort Of frenzied agitators.
Most of them have been brought
up in Christian homes in which fam
lily worship was observed daily and
in which the most faithful lives of
sanity fathers and mothers exem-
plified and commenced to them Chris
tan graces and principles. In deal
ing with these men and in speaking
for them, Mr.. GOmpers will do we'll to
remember that they are very differ
ent from the sort of men in the north
and west with whom he has been
accustomed to act most intimately.
Most Of them are church members
and church-goers. Most of them
favor prohibition, and will continue
to favor it. They are not going to
them with hcaTUares
of Chicago, Milwaukee and Cincin-
natl. They are not going to become
the vassals of beer lords and dis
tillers.
In the south we have a race ques-
ton which is made far more per-
picking and difficult when liquors are
sold to any and all who can buy.
This the laboring men of the south
understand, as Mr.. Gompers perhaps
does not.
Again, when liquor shops are open
ed in any place, they always de-
preciate the value of property, and
the damage thus done more frequent
ly falls upon the humble homes of
the wage-Workers than upon the cost
lly and fashionable establishments of
the rich. Ground is too costly on
the streets inhabited by the rich for
beer saloons to be set up in those
districts; but they may be set up
next door to laboring mans home,
to the injury of his family and the
damage of his property Let Mr..
Gompers bear this fact in mind when
he assumes to represent wage-work-
ers with reference to prohibition.
There is another matter of not less
Importance to wage -workers, and
especially to the Iaboring men of
the south. 1t is the preservation
Of our Christian Sabbath. 1t is the
very fortress which defends the we'll
being of labor.
:, There are those. who clsmor for
the open Sunday" such as prevails
on the continent of Europe. They
want all sorts OF afnusements opened
on Sunday-moving picture shows
and such like. But all this is some
thing worse than folly. When the
day Of worship and rest is profaned
for ends of worldly pleasure, wage
workers will soon find that it will
be used for work also, and men will
have to work seven days in the week
or lose their jobs. The greed of the
moving picture operators for money
is back of the agitation raised in
some quarters for the opening of
such shows on Sunday, and the greed
OF the operators of other enterprises
will be equally active when the de-
tense of the Sabbath is pulled down,
1t is idle to raise all sorts of petty
questions about the difference be-
tween the Jewish Sabbath and the
Christian Sabbath. The solid fact,
at which we must look, is that with
out day of rest an dworship re-
Iglon will perish, and we cannot be-
come a. religionless nation without
becoming ruined nation. The mel.
who are calling for a SabbathIess
country are really demanding a re-
llg1onless country, whether they
know it or not; and they could not
themselves endure such a country if
we had it.
Both capital and labor are inter
ested in the maintenance of a pure
and vigorous Christianity in the
United States, and we have not too
much religion in the country now.
We can get on with less recreation. |
but not with less religion.
When men who employ labor never
go to church, and men who work for
wages are not found in the house of
God on Sunday, we may look for |
both classes to become hard, fierce !;
and conscienceless to a degree; and |
then their contests will become more |
dangerous and inflammatory. Too J
many capitalists now are in their |
offices on Sunday and too many Ia |
boring men are away from church !
in the meetings of labor unions To |
what desperate conditions moral, |
spiritual, industrial and economic |
would the country speedily come if |
all men did as these men are doing? |
Some years ago James Russell |
Lowell showed in clear and strong
terms what would come if we I'M
dertook to do without religion in this
country, and I beg to commend to
Doth capital and labor an extract