The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, September 06, 1904, Image 3
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CaSmagc
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank DeWitt Talmage, D. D.
Los Antreles, Cal., S«>i)L 4.--In thll;
eennon. wliich is specially nppruprintt
to the Sunday before Labor day, th«
preacher e.\i*resses his sympathy with
the hard lot of the workingman ant!
points out s >nie of the conditions which
Increase his dilliciiltios. The text h
liKodus i, 12. “The more they aillictetl
them the more they multiplied and
grew.’’
“Some rirtues,” wrote Joseph Addi
son. “are seen only in nlHiction.” Bui
from the Egyptian standpoint it would
take a very long and a very useless
Investigation to find any virtue in the
national catastrophe which, as the text
would indicate, was about to over
whelm the Egyptian kingdom. The
mightiest foreign foe ever assembled
upon the borderland drained by the
arteries of the gigantic Nile was not
to be feared as much as was the host
of enslaved Hebrews wllb were living
among them. It was only a few hun
dred years before that a little handful
of Hebrews, with their flocks and;
herds, had migrated to and settled in j
the land of Goshen during the pre
miership of J >seph, the famous states
man. But since that time the de
scendants of old Jacob had multiplied!
so greatly that now they could bo
counted literally by the hundreds ol
thousands. Not only in numbers went
they to be feared, but in mental powei
also. With the proverbial acquisitive
ness of the Hebrew, these people were,
absorbing much of the wealth of th.o
kingdom. Moreover, the “signs of the
times” declared they would soon be
come rulers of the nation. By a silent
revolution they threatened to take
possession of the Egyptian govern
ment, as long afterward the descend
ants of the o’.d Aztecs, whose fathers
had been conquered by Cortes, bided
their time and finally worked out their
own governmental rnlvation by elect
ing practically a full blooded Indian to
the throne of the Montezumns—I’or-
tirio IHaz, president of the Mexican
republic.
“What shall we do? What shall we
<Jo?” was the one question that was
upon almost every Egyptian lip.
“Shall we allow the Hebrew people to
become the dominant factors upon the
banks of the Nile and to sit upon the
throne of the pharaohs?” This ques
tion was not only asked in the street,
but it was anxiously discussed in the
king's palace. Tonight we set- the;
lights blazing in the privy council
room. As we enter the council chain-!
ber we see the king sitting at the end
of the long room, surrounded by bis
best, and strongest ministers. After j
the question has been talked over long
and earnestly I see the king rise. lie i
looks straight at bis councilors of state ;
as be says: “Gentlemen, we are facing ,
a condition, not a theory. We dare
not and cannot deport the Hebrews 1
from our realm. They are now essen- j
tial to our national welfare and pros- j
perity as labo’ ors, clerks and servants. |
But we can debar them from holding |
property. We can forbid them study-:
Ing in our schools. We can enslave >
them and make them the chattels of
our people. We can degrade them by
ignorance and overwork. Thus saith
the king. I here and now deci e the
Hebrew men and women and children
from henceforth to be in perpetual
bondage. They shall be compelled to
make bricks without straw. My min
isters will see that my decree is car
ried out. When the king speaks the
king’s will becomes the law. Gentle
men of the privy chamber, the council
Is dismissed.”
DtafrnnchiKPinpiit of Hebrew*.
This royal behest was carried out to
the letter. The Hebrew people living
in Egypt were disfranchised. Not only
were they deprived of the rights of
citizenship, but they were degraded to
the most abject and humiliating servi
tude. Their property was taken away
from them, and they could not even
claim their wives and children as their
own. Yet, strange to say, and yet
not strange after all, the more the
Hebrews were cursed and struck and
ill used and murdered by the ‘Egyp
tians the more their numbers grew,
and the more of a menace they became
to the Egyptian government. The la
bor question, on account of the bru
talities practiced under the shadow of
Pharaoh’s throne in 1573 B. C., be
came as imminent and dangerous as is
the labor question in the United States
of America in UM)4, A. I)., under the
shadow of the statue of the Goddess
of Liberty which stands in New York
harbor, and with uplifted arm declares
that all men in this land are free and
equal.
This is the first Sunday in Septem
ber. Tomorrow is Labor Jay. Many
preachers this Sabbath morning will he
talking to the mechanics, the clerks
and the farm hands, to the masons, the
errpenters and plumbers, and to all
those who work with their hands. It
is not inappropriate that this morning
I should present some of the conditions
that are afflicting American labor. If
in this talk I should speak frankly con
cerning capital, I shall speak with
equal candor concerning labor, for I
firmly believe, as a dear friend of mine
said to me a few days ago, that "the
greatest curse labor has to bear today
j- does not come from capital, but from
labor Itself.” One sided or biased
treatment of the labor question will
never help to solve the labor problem
« “The more the Egyptian master af-
l.ic-ted the Hebrew slaves.” says our
text, "the more they multiplied and
grew, and the Egyptians grieved be-
cuuse of the children of Israel." La
bor's afflictions! We first find them
in the American la borer being com
pelled to compete for work in a home
market that Is glutted with foreign
immigrants. We tin 1 them in the gfeat
army of Inv aders which each year bis
embarks at Ellis island. New Yo:' .'s
(’. siic Garden of the present day We
find them in the impoverished Italians
-uni the Bohemians and the Portuguese
tind in the Unman offscourings of
Europe who each year come to our
manufacturers and foundry men and
contractors and say: “Let me handle
your pick.” “Let me lay your asphalt
pavement.” “Let me dig your mines.”
“Let me chop your wood.” “Let me
wal k in your foundries.” "We are for
eigners. We do not intend to become
citrons of the United States. As soon
as we can save up a little money we
inteirl to return to our native land and
live there. But meantime we will work
cheaper than any American man can
w >rk. Why? Because our living ex
penses are practically nothing. We will
live .in dugouts. We will eat food that
no Amerh m family would eat. We will
buy n » books and will wear the cheap
est clothing. As a result of these con
ditions of living we can crowd your
American workman to the wall.”
Protect American Laborer*.
The American laborer, from this for
eign competition, must have help, and
help right soon, to save him from this
condition of allairs. Our national leg
islature must give it. Shall we lift
high our tariff walls to protect capital
and not at the same time lift high our
walls of immigration laws to protect
)ur native workers? Is not the Amer
ican laborer's sturdy arm as valuable
m the sight of our government as the
capitalist’s poekethook? “What do you
me an by such a statement as that?”
some one asks. “Would you start an
other Know Nothing party? Would
your ballot box slogan be ‘American
w nk only for the American born—
American political oflioes only to be
held by those cradled under the shad-
>v s of Mount Washington and Pike’s
peak?”’ Oh. no. I am not preaching
any such political nonsense. 1 do not
be.ieve there ev er was n political party
wrapped In t' e swaddling clothes of
so many errors as that horn in lS5:i.
and which, with ex-President Millard
Fillmore as its presidential candidate,
swept many of our northern states in
1S5i> with tin- politk-al cry, “America
only for the American born.” Ameri
can liberties and American prowess
both on land and sea, militarily and in
dustrially, have been won and built
up by America’s adopted sons as well
as by her native horn children. Were
there not foreigners among George
Washington’s mightiest companions in |
arms? Baron Johann He Kalb, who was
shot at Camden In 1780, and Kosciusko
and Lafayette and many others—they
were all foreign born. Who was the
most valued si desman during Wash
ington's administration next to the
president himself? Alexander Ilamil-:
ton, who was foreign born. Who was
John Ericsson, the inventor of the
Monitor, that revolutionized naval war
fare and saved the American navy off
Newport News? lie was a Swedish-1
American; he was foreign bom. Some
of our greatest merchants, like A. T.
Stewart of New York; our greatest
foundrymen, like Andrew Carnegie of
Pittsburg; our greatest scientists, like
Agassiz of Harvard; our social reform
ers, like Jacob A. Blis of New York,
and the most eminent political leaders
of our day, like Carl Scliurz, once sen
ator from Missouri and member of
President Hayes’ cabinet—they were
all foreign born. If you blot out from
our nation's history all the deeds which ;
America’s foster sons and daughters j
have accomplished for the land of theif
adoption you blot out some of its
brightest pages.
Where to Dra-w the Line.
rtut while we, as American citizens,
would welcome gladly into our midst
the German or Englishman or Scotch- *
man or Swede and the men of any !
foreign nationality who with intelli
gence would come among us and say,!
“Brother, give me thy hand, for today ^
1 would he one with you and become
an American citizen,” yet today we
would not welcome the ignorant, the
idle, the filthy, the pauper, the lazza-
coni or the criminal offscourings of
Europe or Asia, who would come to
this land, not to become American citi
zens, but to stay here just long
enough to scrape together a few thou
sand dollars and then go back to the
land of their birth. We would not
welcome the ignorant and depraved of
foreign lauds, who would underbid our
American workmen and compel our
American boys and girls to live in
dugouts or as rats In a cellar as they
live. These classes have neither part
nor parcel in the glorious inheritance
of freedom and equality for which our
forefathers fought and bled. While we
would gladly open our gates to the
oppressed of other lands, we would
shut them against a horde that can
have no appreciation for the precious
privilege of American citizenship and
no sympathy with our national aims
and ambitious, and whose coming is as
much of a menace to our people as the
cloud of locusts Is to a harvest field.
Nations, like individuals, should be
wise as well as generous in their hos
pitality. We must protect ourselves
against the industrial locusts of the
old world by wise and discriminating
laws which shall do Injustice to none,
and which, while vindicating our an
cient hospitality as a worldwide asy
lum for the lovers of liberty and in
dependence, shall shut out the swarms
of mere mercenaries and the “Inde
scribable elements” which other lands
seek to thrust upon us. from whatever
quarter they may come.
Labor’s next great affliction Is to be
found In the absurd and tyrannical de
mands made by some labor unions.
t .•.Hi seem t > have the suicidal policy
ni :.ill ig.inizinu' capital at all times and
..ii i r all pretexts and of widening the
! r ■ < ' ! , CD r. ; it: 1 and labor, with
t' e result 111; i Li or Itself is the heav
ier sri'.erer through their insane fob
lii ;. The most bntiel tyrant the south
ern i.-erro knew in antebellum days
was n i. .he white man, hut the negro
hir eit who was uirde the overseer
e; - the plantation. In the same way in
in,.ay eases the most brutal tyrant the
1 boring man has today is not the capi
talist. but the “walking delegate” or
the mercenary political trickster who,
as a iab . ing man. manipulates the ex
ecutive committees which govern the
labor unions for their own ruin. Of
course this indictment is not universal
in its application. There are many
honest and upright and beneficent
labor organizations, like that of which
the late Mr. Arthur was president—
namely, the Brotherhood of Locomo
tive Engineers. Mr. Arthur brought
that organization up to such perfec
tion that it not only looked after the
Interests of the owners of the different
railroads, but after the interests of
the engineers themselves. There are
many clear brained, sagacious and no
ble minded labor leaders whose object
is not to disorganize the labor market,
but to steady it, so that employers as
well as the employed may have their
due. "I do not believe in strikes for
the laboring man,” said Terence V.
Powderly a few months ago. “It is
true we bad some when 1 was at the
head of the Knights of Labor, bvit we
settled 1,100 labor disputes without
strikes. Indeed, I might say we pre
vented over 1,000 strikes.” Yet, strange
to say, where there has been one able
and sagacious leader whose chief ob-
joet seemed to have been to make
every man do bis honest quota of work
and get bis just pay there have been
many whose chief object lias been to
find out how little they can permit a
laborer to do and how much they can
make an employer pay without literal
ly breaking his back. Such men are
an incubus on labor. Like theOld Man
of the Sea, who sat on the neck of Sind-
bad, they sit heavily upon the work
ingman's shoulders. Impeding his prog
ress and involving him in endless dis
putes and troul !e. The sooner he rids
himself of such incumbrance the better.
Like Mni-ie Antoinette.
Now. my laboring friends, mark you
this. I am not claiming that capital is j
all right and labor is all wrong. I
think some of the most merciless men 1
in the world are to be found in the |
ranks of capitalists. Borne of them w.ll
squeeze out of a worker his last drop
of blood. Some of them have no more
sympathy with the hunger and pover
ty of the worker than Marie An
toinette had with the sufferings of poor
Baris when she heard the cry of the
mobs: “Give us bread! We must have
bread!” "Why,” said the shallow
brained French queen to one of her
attendants, "do they ask for bread?
If they have no bread, why don't they
eat cake?” But. while capital In some
instances may be merciless, it is quite
certain that if the labor unions will
stop their petty bickerings and tlnsr
unjustifiable tyrannies and unitedly de
mand what is right capital will be com
pelled to yield to all of labor's just de
mands. So long as labor persists in
making absurd claims just so long
will labor not only be refused such de
mands. but labor will lose much of
what she justly and rightfully ought
to have. When a labor union comes
and says, “Capitalist, you must hire
the men I send to you and no others,”
then the capitalist, stung by such tyr
anny, replies: “Bather than have you
dictate to me what I shall do I will
fight your organization to the last dol
lar. My forefathers died on Bunker
Hill and at Valley Forge for liberty.
Free 1 was born, free 1 shall live, and
free I shall die." It is flint against
steel and Is the inevitable result of
such a course of action. This is the
spirit with which capital Is today light
ing labor when labor makes absurd and
unjust demands.
But I would speak also in reference
to another great affliction from which
labor today is suffering. I allude not
to the competition of American labor
with the foreign hordes, but to that
unnatural and ever Increasing com
petition between our American boys
and their American sisters in the la
bor market. Brothers struggle for
bread in competition with sisters; fa
thers compete with their own daugh
ters. Now, I know the few words that
I am going to speak will not be popu
lar with some, but what I have to say
I hope may be heard patiently and
with profit.
T.ie world, by every law of justice,
owes every fnnn, woman and child a
living. If they are ready to work for
It. But God never intended some peo
ple to work for a living In certain
ways any more than he intended a colt
six months old to do the work of u
well developed draft horse. He never
intended young boys and girls to leave
school before their time, or wives and
daughters to labor ns farm hands in
the fields, when there are sturdy fa
thers and brothers physically able to
bear the brunt of the work under the
noontide sun. Yet everywhere we see
strong men, ablebodied men who want
to work and yet who are unable to
find employment because the work that
they should do is being done by women
who ought to be at borne caring for
the household. This condition Is a men
ace not only to the American labor
market, but to the American home and
family. Both must suffer by the sub
stitution of women and girls for men
and boys in the factories and stores of
our land. The natural place for wo
man Is the home. It is there that the
qualities with which God has endowed
her find their proper exercise. To
he the wife and mother, to make the
house a home by her sweet and refin
ing influence, to train the children to
ho good and wise men and virtuous
women by a mother’s love and care--
those are the services she alone can
render, and if she deserts that duty it
will go undone, and this country will
lose its moral tme. There is no com
pensation known to man for the hick
of a mother’s beneficent Influence on
nor children.
TIi«* 'Working Woninn.
I yield to no man in my admiration
for the girl who. being left fatherless
and having no brothers callable of
earning a livelihood for the bereaved
family, g >e« forth to toil for the sup
port of her widowed mother and her
fatherless brothers ; nd sisters. Many
a noble girl is doing that and deserves
to be honored for her conduct. Many
a girl unsought in marriage, seeing her
father gradually losing by age his
capacity for work, takes up the bur
den of helping to provide for the
family which ho is no longer able to
bear alone. All honor to her the
assistance she is rendering, and for
the sympathy and reverence for her
parents which she displays in reliev
ing them of care and anxiety. Many a
widow, clinging to her children and
shrinking from the pain of having
them scattered in the charitable homes
of relatives or friends, finds employ
ment by which she can support and
educate them and lit them for their
duty in life. God bless and help all
such and give them tiie strength they
need for their arduous lot! They should
have our hearty sympathy and our
cordial help in their self sacrificing
labor.
But tbe spectacle of what such wom
en are doing has stirred the ambition
of another class of women. These are
they who voluntarily and by choice
elect to do a man’s work in the world,
in oruer that they may escape the
drudgery of domestic service or the
weariness of school teaching or in or
der to obtain money for extravagant
dress and ornament or for luxuries
which their fathers cannot provide,
they thrust themselves into business
pursuits, displacing some man who
was earning a higher salary, aiul they
help to depress the market rate of
wages.
I protest against a system which
makes it impossible for a strong, able-
bodied man to find work, forcing him
to stay at home and live upon his
young daughters’ earnings when they
themselves should be at school or lielp-
hig their mothers at home. ^ ere are
only two ways to rectify this evil. Em
ployers should hire their employees
in two ways. First, when an applicant
comes for a place give the preference
to men who are husbands and fathers
and the heads of families; second, ab
solutely refuse to employ any young
girl in a store or factory unless that
young girl is fatherless, brotberless
and has others dependent upon her for
support, it is high time that some of
our female clerks who are working in
stores for a little extra spending money
should go back to their homes and
domestically help to care for their
mothers and fathers and younger sis
ter and brothers, where they belong.
Lr.Iior Problem* of Today.
The afflictions of the Industrial work
ers of America are very great. Indeed,
1 sometimes think they are about as
badly off in America today as were the
Israelities in the Egyptian capital over
three thousand years ago. In a blunt
way 1 have tried to present three or
four of the difficult labor problems
which confront the laboring classes of
America at the present time. Do not.
however, even for a moment suppose
that I consider these problems and oth
ers like them impossible of solution.
The same God who led the children of
Israel out of their enslavement will yet
lead his American children to free’o’.n
from their industrial troubles. In 181)3.
from the top of the great pyramid of
Gizeli, 1 had two visions. In the first
vision 1 looked toward the ruins of the
capital of Memphis, in the midst of
which I saw Pharaoh's palace, where
lived the cruel tyrant. I saw the mighty
river Nile changed literally into a river
of blood. I heard the cries of anguish
as the poor Hebrew slaves groaned
and moaned in torture. But theu T
turned and looked to tbe far north.
In my second vision I saw another
s ; ght, for there I saw the promised
land of Canaan. I saw Moses and
Joshua. I saw Jerusalem gleaming in
the glowing sun. I saw the rich grajies
of Eschol. I saw David and Solomon
in all their glory. As Moses led the
children of Israel out of Egypt and
through the Bed sea, I see some other
man, heaven sent, as was Moses, raised
up to lead the American laborers and
American capitalists out of their self
ishnesses and meannesses. I see Amer
ica in my second vision as the land of
true freedom. I see all men, both la
borers and capitalists, living together
in harmony and love —all living as
Christ would have them live. May all
of us. whether we work in broadcloth
or in overalls, try to speed that millen
nial day by doing to our brothers us
we would have our brothers do to us.
Then ail labor troubles will not be
solved by the “black rule of selfish-
ness,” but by the “Golden Buie of
Christian love.”
[Copyright. 1904, by Louis Klopsch.]
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