{ title: 'Hammond advertiser. (Hammond, N.Y.) 1886-19??, May 20, 1886, Page 3, Image 3', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84035822/1886-05-20/ed-1/seq-3/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84035822/1886-05-20/ed-1/seq-3.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84035822/1886-05-20/ed-1/seq-3/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84035822/1886-05-20/ed-1/seq-3/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Northern New York Library Network
- ---Ms 4. ' K>& •m* M. : |if fence, no family, no church, no peace, no happiness and no God, That In anarchy. NoWj who wants-it in thiscountry? Lot us look at th« 'jlil dragon, Lot mo take one square nnd serutinizinglookntbim boforu we allow iifm to put his foot on thin continent. The people wnnt to know what anarchy is, and thon tlioy will rise up, all tlio good poo- plo of the United States, and in conjunction with the officers of the law, city ollleors, stuto officers, national ollleors, wo shall com- mand peace, and- have pcaro uuivc sal, and peace all the time, Within six mouths there will in this country bo a better state of feeling between Capital a. d Lab r than there ever has been, because thuy nave learned as never before, thoy have had it demonstrated that they are absolutely de- pendent on each other. Meanwhile I give three words of advico to the laboring classes of America ho far as my words may reach them. My first word of brotherly counsel to laborers is to those who have work now. Stick to it. Doubt under the turmoil of tho present excitement give up your employment with the idea thai something better will turn up, ,Bocausi you do uot like the line of steamers on which you tail, doiiot jump ovorboard in the mid. die of the Atlantic Occam Those railroad men, those mechanics, those carpenters, those masons, those clerks in stores, those employes in all styles of business Who give up their work, probably give it up for star, vatiou. I would say to this class of laborer! who have work, uot only stick to It in these times of excitement, but make this change Go a little earlier to your place ol work and do your work better that you ever have done ' it before with more intensity and more earnestness Let additional assiduity characterize you. That is-my first word of advice to those wh< havo work. My socond word of advice is tx those who have had work but have resigned it. Tho host thing for you, and the best thing for everybody is to go back immediately. Be not wait to see what others will do. Yot f et on board the train of national prospei-itj ofore it starts, for start it will, and starl soon, and stai t mightily. We have a report of tha strikes of last Vear, whicl says there were forty-five genera! strikes in the State of New York: 177 shoj strikes; successful strikes, ninety-seven strikes lost, thirty-four;, strikes pending al tha timo the statistics wore-made, flffry-nmei strikes compromised, thirty-two. So thai we have enough facts before us to philoso. phfzo a little and to make up a good opinion. JMOW, do you want to know who of ail the laborers will make tho most out of these strikes? I can toll you, and I will tell you. The laborers who will make tho most out of these strikes will be the laborers who go to work first. My third word of brotherly counsel for tho laboring men of this country is to that • class of men who have for mouths and. perhaps for years been unable to get work. Before this great trouble began.'there-were nearly-8,000;-. 000 out of employments the, ©Sited States. ff /IhByeibeon'bUsymjcjchpf ..the, timeVdwiM. n 'ill f ti # i K> ardly tell how maSrj^leli^iWJofcdiiimen- datioil we have written, such as: \Qive this man work, in your store, In your factory, in your foundry; I know him, t know him to he an industrious man; his family are 1 starving to death; give him a place; I'll take it as a personal favor if you will help this man into some kind of business where he can support his family.\ There is hardly a respectable man in this house who has not written such a letter as that. Nigh two million. Now, my advice to those nigh two million is that for the sup- port of themselves and their families, they go up and take the vacated places. Nearly two million strong. That is my sentiment. Full liberty for all men to strike who want to 'strike, and full liberty for all who want to take their places. (Applause.) Hushl You will be green hands for a while, but you will not be green hands long. For those who have resigned their places perhaps other oc- cupations will open, for we are just opening the outside door of this continent. This con- tinent can support eight hundred million peo- ple, and there is room in this country so that every man shall have a livelihood, a home and a God. So you see, while some are in depair ' about the times, I am not scared. a bit. This tempest is going to be hushed and Christ is going to put His foot on it as He did on agitated Galileo. As at the beginning, chaos is going to turn into beautiful order as the spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters. But here is a word that I would like to say in the hearing of the American people, especially in the hearing of those who toil with hand and foot. Your first step toward light, and to- ward the betterment of your condition, oh: workmen of America, is in your assertion of your personal independence from all dicta- tion of other workmen. You are free men. We fought to get our freedom here in America. You are free men; Let no man or organization come between you and your personal rights. Let no organiza- tion tell you where you shall work) where you shall not work ; when you shall work; when you shall not work. If a man wants to belong to a labor organization let him have full liberty to do so. If a man wants to stay out of a labor organization lethiin be just as free to stay out. You are your own master, let no man put a manacle on your wrist, or on your heart. I belong to a labor or- ganization, a ministerial association, that meets once a week. I love all the members. We can help each other in a hundred ways. But when that ministerial association shall comeand toll mo to quit work here because some brother minister has bsen badly treated in Texas (Laughter), I will tell that minis , tOTial'association:\Gottheebohmdme ' (Laughter). I may have a right to leave my Work here; for some reason! may say to this people: \I am done, I will work for you !.,,.. ao longer; good, bye, lam going.' But I have •. no riijht Sunday mornings and Sunday nights to linger around the door of this church with a shotgun to intimidate the man who comes to take my place. J may leave sny work here and still be a gentleman; but when I attempt to inter- fere with the man who comes to tako my place then I become a crimiual,and I deserve nothing better than the thin soup in a tin bowl in Sing Sing Penitentiary. There ir one thought that I wash overy newspaper man in America would put at the bead of a column, and which every laborer would put in his memorandum book and paste in his hat— the fact that there are in tho United States 12,000,000 earners of wages. There'areahonh HOO/JOO of thsm that belong to labor organizations of various style?. My theory is, lot tho OOOjOOO who belong to the organizations do as they, please. Let the 11,- 40(7,000, who do uot belong to labor organiza- tions, do as they please. But ther» is no law of God or man, or common sense, or common justice that will allow 800,000 men, who do belong to labor organizations, to dictate to ll,400j000mou who do not belong to them. Freedom for those inside organizations. Freedom for those outside. Now, when wo shall emergo from this present uuhappi- ness, as wo shall emerge, Lauor and Capital will march shoulder to shoulder, and they will have broken some tyrannies that need to bo broken, Labor in this country has two - tyrannies to break—the capitalistic tyranny nud tho tyranny of follow workmen; and when American labor can do that it will bo free. Mr. Powderly is right and Mr. Irons is wrong. The old tent maker had it right —I mean Paul—when he said: \Tho eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee.\ That is one of tho most skillfully put things I ever road, by the old tent maker. \The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee.\ What if tho eye should Bay: - 'If thero is aught I desnise, it is those four lingers and a thumb; Icau't bear tho sight of you; you are of no use anyhow; got out of my way?\ Supposo the hand should say to tho eye: \I am boss workman; you couldn't get along without mo; it thero is anything I despise, it is the oyo seated under the dome of tlio forehead doing nothing but look.\ Oh, you silly eye, how soon you would swim in death if the hand did not support you. Oh, you silly hand, how soon you would be fumbling round in the darkness if the eye did not give you a lantern. That is the first thing to no understood in this country—that Labor and Capital are ab- solutely, entirely dependent on, each other. You go into a large factory. A thousand wheels, a thousand bands, a thousand lovers, a thousand pulleys, and all controlled by one great water wheel, but all the parts of tho machinery in some way re- lated to all the other parte. That is human society. A thousand wheels, a thou- sand levers, a thousand pullie?, a!'' on trolled by the wheel of divine providence, but all '• the'.parts related to each other. Dives can- ndt'Tsicfc JLazarus without hurting his own foot.;ijSj|rey cannot throw Shadrach into a furnace%itliout getting their own faces scorched and blackened. That which smites \\ralisnSii&i Labor,, and pic.e.veraa. Spirit '\'*|i&W^ry-«»a' : '*MS«Mfc^«^«Ssas „r.„jf largely prosperous you -find wages : )18Sw;ivhe'rever , ; you find wages largo you find Capital prosperous. When Capital de- bounces Labor it is the eye cursing the hand. When Labor denounces Capital it is tho hand cursing tho eye. The Capitalists of this country are for the most part success, ful laborers, and among all the styles of work and in all the shops you will find men who wore capitalists. In other words, they are all tho time crossing over. Men who are capitalists are becoming laborers, and men who are laborers are becoming capitalists. It is not any great Niagara suspension bridge over the chasm; it is only a step. Would God thoy would shake hands while they pass. If the capitalist in this house would draw his glove you would see a broken finger nail, the soar of an old blister, a stiffened finger joint. Nearly all the capitalists of to-day are successful laborers. Nearly all the great publishing houses of America are conducted by men who set type or were en- gaged in book binding, Nearly all the men who own carriage factories used to sandpa- per the wagon wheel to got it ready for the painter. Peter Cooper was a glueniaker and he went on until he glued together an im- mense fortune, and he established that princely institution, the Cooper Institute, which has mothered 500 such philanthropies in the United States, and I never pass it without saying within myself: \What a magnificent monument that man built to himself and to Christian charity.\ The laborers of this country have no greater friend, because Peter Cooper practically said to every laboring man in this country; \Do you want your boy to have a splendid educa- tion? If you do send him up to my Institute; it will cost you nothing.\ An elder of this church was some time ago walking in Greenf wood and saw two young men putting flowers on Peter Cooper's grave. H« thought: \Why they must be- friends or relatives of the old man.\ But after a-while he got into conversation with.them, and they said: \No we are not relatives, but we were poor boys, and we got our education from Peter Cooper, and that is the reason we put flowers on his grave.\ If the people who were blessed by that glo- rious old man should put flowers on his grave, they would be mountain high. Abram Van Nest was a harness maker in New York. Yearmfter year he stood at the bench. He had large success. He told me many times he thought he made the best harness in New York. He went on and gathered a large fortune, and he distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to tho poor, to Bible societies, tract societies, humantarian so*- cieties. No poor man ever asked help Of Abram Van Nest but he gave it. I never shall forget one night when Iv.-a 'green country lad, called 1 on Him; and after spend- ing the evening he accompanied me to the door and said: \De Witt,, nereis $50 to buy books with, but don't say anything about it.\ And Inever did until the old man was dead So they «r» all the time crossing over. Do you know who will be the million- aires of the twentieth century,? They are, in this last fourteen years of tho nineteenth century,with foot on the shuttle, band on the pickaxe, or doing some kind of hard manual work. Do you know out of that class are coming the poets, the oiators, the phllan- throphists of tho world? Henry Clay,, tho Demosthenes of the American Senate, Was tho mill boy of tho Slashes: Hugh Mfiler, a quarrymnn at Cromartic, Scotland; Column bus, a weaver: Arkwright, a barber; Haw- ley, a soap boiler; Hloomflold, the glorious theologian, a shoomakerjand Horace Greely stnrtod life in Now York with *40.75ihhls pocket. They are oroBsing over— the laborer to become the capitalist' and the capitalist to become the, laborer, and I thisday wavea flag of truce be- tween thorn. There is going to bo vast im- provement in affairs when we shall realize that tho old tent maker was right when ho said: \The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee.\ There is also goin£ to come a great allevia- tion on this subject by co-operative institu- tions. I am not referring now to labor or- ganizations, I am not referring to trades unions, but to that plan by which laborers put what mohey they can sdvo in an enterprise and conduct it thomsolvos'; It has passed beyond experiment. Do not say it is experiment. In England and Wales there are now 70,5 co-Operative in- stitutions, with 800,000 members, with a cap- ital of $14,000(000, doing a business ono year of $57,000,000. The first experiment in this country was the Troy Co-operative Foundry which had largo success and went on long enough to demonstrate possibilities. But there are scores and hundreds of these co-op- erative institutions, and they are going to do vast improvement. They have ceased to bo an experiment or a mere theory. Thomas Hughes, the most- brilliant friend of the laboring mou in Eug- land> says the co-operative institution is the* path out of these troubles. Lord Derby and John Stuart Mill gave half their-lives-to the discussion of those subjects. Sir Thomas Brassey said in tho English Parliament co- operation is,the one aud only solution of this question. It is the sole path by which tho laboring classes as a whole, or any largo number of them, will ever emerge from the Hand-to-mouth mode of living and get their share of the rewarls and honors of our ad- vanced civilization. The principle was illustrated in Ireland,where atraveler left the maib coach and saw a workman standing up to his waist in tho water repairing a dam, a mill dam. He said to tliis Workman: \Why-. you seem to be alone—nobody to watoh you.\ The workman replied: \I dm all albno, I watch myself.\ \Where is your steward?\ \We have no steward.\ \Where is your master?\ \Wo have no master.\ \Why who sent you?!' \The committee,\ \Whose committee)\ \Well; I belong to an association and we elect certain members as a committee and -they regulate this, whole things We belong tothe Jiew svste'nvof -Iatwr4ith&.^ewi;ir/^ielnfi}ljia1k' : y6uSskime:if sometimes these efiortsihave • Uot been a failure? Oh, yes; all great.move- nients have been a failure attho start. Tho> application of steam power a failure, electric telegraphing a failure, railroading a failure at firs*: but afterward tho chief success of the century. Co-operative) institutions will go on to larger success. Yousay—some ono says to me: \Why it is absurd to talk about laborers who cannot get enough wages to support themselves aud their families, putting their surplus into an institution of this kind.\ My reply is, that if you will put into my hand the money which during tho last five years has by the laboring classes of America been spent for rum and tobacco, I will establish a co-operative institution might- ier than any monetary institution in America. There will also be alleviation of this whole subject when employers find the importance of tellingtheir employes just how matters stand.. You know a3 well as I do that here is the difficulty in\ a great many establishments—while thelaborers are at their wits' ends the capitalist is also. How he shall pay the rent,, how he shall meet the taxes, and how he shall keep the machinery going. Meanwhile the laborer thinks this man is rolling up a large fortune. . It cannot bo so at all in that case: Tho vast majority of the capitalists of to-day are not making out of their investment 10 per cent,,nor 9 per cent, nor 8 per cent., nor 7 per cent., nor 6 per cent., nor 4 per cent., nor 3 per cent. Labor atit's wits' ends because of small wages, Capital at it's wits' ends. I know there are ex-- ceptions. There are groat anacondos that are swallowing, down everything. I am not re- ferring to them. Inmreferring to^the great mass of capitalists. N.ow doyou not think i t would alleviate this matter if ,the capitalist should sa>y: \I'llerrolBilnTth'is whole matter to my men.\ Thereisah immense amount of common sense abroad in the world. There is an immense, amount of good, kindly feel- ing. I \do not \believe there would be one strike, where there are ten strikes, if it were the universal plan that capitalists shou Id let their laborers know iust how matters stand. I had a friend who had a thousand men in his employ. Some years ago when there were strikes often I said: \How do you get along?\ He said: \Very well.\ \I suppose you had-strikes?\ \OhVno; I never have any.\ \Never have any? What do you mean?\ \Well.\ he said, \I call my men together every little while and say: 'Boys, let us see how matters stand, Last yea)\' I made so miich. This year you see we are malting less. I want to know what yon think about it, what you think your wages ought to be and what I oughtto get on my invest- inent; far, boys, you Know I have got every- thing in this: thing and I have got to keep it going. I want you to tell me, looking Over the whole affair, what your wages ought to be, and what my interest on the. investment ought to be. We are al waysiunohimouSj and my men would die for hue. 1 ' But suppose a capitalist- acts\ with supercilious air, and drives up to his)factory as ihougtehe wore the autocrat of the universe, ths suti and the moon in his vest pocket, chiefly anxious lest some greasy oi smirched hand should touch his French broadcloth. That man will find his awful mistake. In the vast majority of casos I be- lieve there would bo but little or no trouble if the men who own immense establishments fairly and frankly told their employes all about it. * Then there is going to come great altera* tlon of this through the religious influence which is to be brought upon the country,. Why is it that in this country we have noth- ing less than a penny, while in China they have tho. money thoy call cash nut on threaai and put around the heck, and this cash—if takes ton, fifteen, twonty of them to make a penny? The only difference is that which ii made by Christianity, Heathenism depresset everything,; keeps everything down. Chris- tianity enmrges everything; lifts people up. You go through aeommuufty whore infidelity is abroad ana controlling everything; wage! are down, and employers are hard ontheii laborers. Let the religion of Jesus Christ— the old fashioned religion—dominate a com- munity, and you will find the employer! kind and the wages good,comparatively. Thf religion ot Jesus Christ is d democratic re- ligion. It teaches tho employer that ho ii brother to all the operators in his mill, bom of the same Heavenly Father, redeemed by the same supernal Christ, to lie down in thf same dust. Not much chance to put on airi in tho sapuloiire, or at ttae judgment. U'tte englueor in a New England factory gets sleepy. He does not watch the steam gauge.! Then thero is a wild thunder of explosion, in which the owner of the mill is killed andj ono of the poor workmen in some port 1 of tho factory. The two slain men' come up to wart tho gate of Heaven.! The_ owner of tho mill knocks at the' gate'. Thecelestialgatokeopersays: \Who is; thero?\ He says: \I owned a mill at Fall Fiver; there has been d great explosion there and I lost my life; I camo up here and I expect to outer hoaven.\ \Vyhat right have you to euterhoavon?\ says tho celestial gatekeeper. The-other says: \I was a groat man down there and I employed 200 hands.\ \Employed two hundrod hands, did you? How much of thograce of God did you em- — ploy?\ \Nothing.\ \Stand back, you Can- not enter here.\ Right after him comes this poor laborer who was slain by the same accident. He knocks at the gate. The gatekeeper says: \Who is there?\ He soys; \lama workman; Icame up from Fall Eiver; I was poor there; thero war a great accident there: I lost my life; I want to enter heaven.\ What right have you to come hale to the gato of lieaven?\ \Wellj I have no right in myself; I was a bad man once; I did a thousand things I ought not to have done; I used to curse and swear when I hurt my hand or foot at the ' mill') but I heard a shining messenger come : from this gate to our world tohelp and save it, and I found him and told him all about it; I confessed the whole thing, and tye told iaj«.t<o conie up.here, aud he told,nie;aI«o. ;^«utr*^w»j^t^^;^^fe^ ! J *<Mi.oJi^'.'- - shpsy'Kisjndine' Written on my hand.oryvS'ltten on-Wy forehead.\ Then there is'%-grealrt»t- tlihg of ipulleys,, the gates hoist, and he en* tors into coronation. Iu'the one-case the man hadagreatfuheral'; in the other case'the man bad a small funeral. The than who had' a large funeral, however, had no Christ with him. Theother man had accepted Christ as his Saviour;.. The religion of Jesus Christis a democratioreligiou. You,cannot-buy your way into heaven, and you eahnbt be so poor - that anybody will dare to 1 shut you out If the gatekeeper, smitten with a sense of injus- tice,should halt and stop and try to keep you, all Heaven would fly from their thrones crying: \Let him in.\ I have the best au- thority for saying that Godliness is profitable for the life that now is. It pays employer and it pays employe, this religion of Jesus Christ, and it is going to settle forever and forever this dispute. The time is going to come when the hard hand of toil and the soft hand of the counting room will clasp. They will clasp in congratulation, and they will clasp iu the glorious millennial hour. In that glorious millennial hour the hardhandof toil will say: \Iplowed the desert into a garden;\ and the soft hand of the counting room will say: \I furnished the seed with which the ground was sown;\ and the hard hand of toil wUl say: \I threshed the mountains;\ and the soft hand of tho counting room will say: \I paid for the flail;\ and the hard hand of tod will say: \I pounded the spear into a pruning-hook;\' and the soft hand of the counting room: - \I signed tho treaty that made the thing possible.\ Then Capital and Labor shall lie drawn together—\the lion and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, and there willbe nothing to hurt or destroy in all God's holymountj, • for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken jfc\ THE representative of one of tie great so-called religious papers of the country called at one of our large Con- necticut faotories and offered as a per- sonal favor to write up the whole con- cern in big shape for $1,000. The offer was declined in the same noble spirit of selfrsacrifice with which it was made. Then.it was renewed at $500 (under re- quest of secrecy if accepted). This was declined, too; and the religious •representaiSve knocked himself dpwii step fey step until, while his first der mand was for $1,000, iis last offer was, to do it for nothing if they would takS.- fifty copies of .the paperSspntaiiiing meX, proposed article! \And they wonldn^l!|j\ accept that; they didn't so much pbjeietjti: to being written up, but they didn?i-% know what to do, they said, with the .fifiij- papers.— JSartford Courant. ,», #v •\•^^ t .*& '\{•:*•>> -=tSi<A» ' -•$$•- - <#$••
