Labor Day Address by Z. T. Sweeney
Scripture Text.— Matt. 20 : 20-28
THE golden age of the human race will be that
period of its existence when it renders the high-
est possible service to this world, and is best served
by the material and spiritual forces which surround
it. All philosophers and teachers unite in regarding
man as the great object of all teaching, and the end
of all endeavor. Even science accords with philosophy
and religion when, in the person of Humboldt, it says,
*'All the world is but a platform upon which to
erect manhood." As the century-plant toils patiently
for ninety-nine long years that on the hundredth it
may shoot up a spike of glory and burst into a spray
of beauty and splendor, so the long train of ancient
earth life dragged its way through the dust of ages
primeval to find its flower and fruit in man, the
youngest, but the noblest, of God's creative handiwork.
It is a great thing to be a man. I would rather
be a man than to be the Atlantic Ocean. Kepler tells
us that *'man is the only one of God's creatures who
can think His thoughts after Him." In the light
of this reflection it is evident that if we are to have
some conception of man before proceeding to his
golden age, we must obtain it in some other way than
to measure him by any material standard, or weigh
him in any material balance. You can only measure
a man by himself. I institute a few comparisons for
this purpose.
First, man is more valuable than anything he has
ever acquired, and he is an acquisitive animal. He has
been piling up all the time. It is characteristic of
a rude and barbarous people that they measure a
man more by what he has around him than what he
has within him. A savage woman so fortunate as to
have a half-dozen wristlets or anklets of brass or bone,
puts on airs over her unfortunate sister that has
none. Her civilized sister that is so highly favored
as to have a sealskin and diamonds, puts on the same
sort of airs over her less-favored sisters. Now, I am
not criticizing sealskins and diamonds; they are all
right in their place. I am only criticizing the airs
of superiority affected by some weak-minded people
who happen to creep into those things. Such people
fail to realize that you can hang all that flummery
upon a post, as easily as upon a woman, and add
nothing whatever to the value of the post.
Edison tells us that he can make diamonds for five
dollars a pound, but is too busy to engage in it.
Some years ago I had a neighbor to die who, a half-
minute before his death, was worth a million dollars.
A half -minute after his death he was not worth ten
cents a dozen tied up in bundles. He left this world
a millionaire; he began eternity a tramp and a pau-
per. He could not take one of his ill-gotten dollars
along with him; I presum.e if he could they would
have all melted or burned up before they got very
far along in the journey.
You can not set the stamp of your physical man-
hood; you have nothing to say as to the color of
your hair, your eyes or your complexion ; but you have
all to say as to whether you will be good or bad, true
or false, and that is the matter for you to consider.
Second, man is more valuable than anything he
has ever organized. Law, order, government, society
and business have all sprung from the giant intellect
and cunning fingers of this world's organizer, man.
In the sunny defiles of Greece, this world of ours
learned the lesson of human liberty; Rome, the great
civilizer of the world, gave us the idea of fraternity;
it was left to our own young Government to demon-
strate for all the coming ages the everlasting equality
of all men before the law. Not the equality of all
men, for all men are not equal. I do not think the
Creator designed all men to be equal. If he had,
he would have distributed brains and environment in
a far different ratio from what he has. But I do
believe, and our Government has demonstrated, that
every man should have the right to make himself the
equal of every other man if he can.
I ask no favors on God's green earth over any
man because of his race, religion or color. If a
Chinaman, or Hebrew, or a Booker Washington can
get ahead of me in the race of life, he is welcome to
it, and the man who wants a handicap put upon any
of his fellows is a coward and a weakling in life's
great battle.
Third, man is more valuable than anything he has
ever achieved. And here my brain begins to reel
and my mind to stagger when I try to. apprehend
the achievements of the world's great magician, man.
I am tired of the silly twaddle of some men and
books, who talk and write about a man being a slave
to blind forces. God never intended man to be a
slave to anything, or anybody for that matter. The
first thing the Almighty ever said to a man was,
''Have thou dominion," and that is not language to
a slave. Did you ever try to comprehend what
there is in that great commandment, ''Have dominion
over this earth''?
There is in it, first, this thought, "Pry into the
secrets of nature and expound them." As a result,
we have science. Second, "Lay hold of the forces of
nature and employ them;" as a result, we have art.
Third, "Take possession of the riches of nature and
enjoy them;" as a result, we have culture. Now sci-
ence, art and culture make up the unit of civiliza-
tion, and the difference between man in his most
deeply degraded and most highly civilized conditions
lies exactly in the ratio in which he carries out this
great primary command of his Creator. The charter
of civilization is found in that command.
The savage will wander under the great dome of
nature's mystery and majesty and never challenge
it with a question; the civilized man is an eternal
interrogation point. If the savage wants to cross a
continent, he will take his hands and feet, and walk
and swim and cross that continent in a twelvemonth;
his civilized brother will ravage the mine of its ore,
denude the forest of its oak, cage the water and the
fire, make nature push and pull, and cross that same
continent in four days. The savage woman will cover
herself with a straw mat and live on roots and raw
fish in the midst of nature's prodigality; her civilized
sister will dress from every quarter of the globe, and
"the world is compassed that a washerwoman may
have her tea." I was very much impressed with a
young lady, that I met some time ago, going down
into my old native State of Kentucky. I was not so
much impressed with her beauty and culture (for she
was beautiful and doubtless cultured) as I was with her
toggery, her ''get-up.'' She had on a silk dress; I
imagined some worm over in China or Turkey dying
for that. She had on a sealskin coat; I thought some
seal up in the Pribolof Islands died for that. She
had plumes on her bonnet; I imagined some ostrich
hiding his head down in the sands of central Africa
for that. She had on diamonds, and I thought of
South Africa or Brazil furnishing them. She had a
bird on her bonnet. I am glad that birds on bonnets
are becoming rare to-day. I am glad the Legislatures
of our progressive States have made it a crime for a
woman to wear a bird on her bonnet. I hope that the
Legislatures of the world will fall into line and protect
our feathered songsters from such ruthless ravage.
This was not exactly a bird, either, but one of those
things milliners make up to look like a bird. It was
a lot of wings, claws, beaks and tails sewed together,
and looked very much as though a bird might have
lighted on her bonnet and exploded, and she had
gathered the fragments and patched them together.
This young lady was almost a walking menagerie,
for she dressed from the birds of the air, the beasts
of the field and the seals of the sea; and yet this is
civilization as compared to her sister that lives on roots
and raw fish, and covers herself with the straw mat.
I have piled up a few illustrations and compari-
sons in the threshold of this discourse, to impress upon
your minds this one vital, living and throbbing
thought, that man was not made for slavery, but
sovereignty; man was made to have imperial dominion
over every force, organization and institution on the
face of this earth. He will come into his golden age
only when every force, organization and institution
upon earth renders him the highest possible service,
and he returns to this world the highest service of
which he is capable. This is the fundamental thought
of my discourse. Out of it spring a few reflections
which I desire to present for your consideration.
I address myself primarily to the young people.
I love to talk to young people, to those who yet face
the sunrise with the shadows and sorrows of death be-
hind them. Let me say to you, young ladies and gen-
tlemen, as you stand before the parting ways in life,
seeking a work and a ministry in this world, enter no
profession, work at no trade, follow no calling which
does not in some way or other minister to and serve
the purposes of the great monarch, whom we call man.
You will throw your life away if you break its ala-
baster box upon less than the head of God's man.
Man can make life a hard, cold game of grab; he
can live to pile up dollars, acres, mortgages and bonds,
and become a millionaire pretty easily, but at the end
of that life if there has been no moral nor spiritual
significance to it, it is not one whit superior to the
life spent in piling up stone or lumber. If you will
pardon a historic illustration of the value of life in its
golden age, I will give you one with the latter part
of which, at least, I was familiar. About eighty years
ago a young man from Hagerstown, Md., made his
way over the Allegheny Mountains and settled in the
wild slashes of southeastern Indiana. He spent fifty
years of his life teaching school for about thirty dol-
lars a month and boarding around among the scholars,
after the fashion of the day. He called the young
boys around him, ragged, dirty, unkempt little fellows;
little Tom and Ad, 01 and Lew. That man poured out
his life upon them. He instilled into them high ideals
and lofty purposes. He taught them to be upright,
honorable, manly and true. That old man died a few
years ago in the city of Indianapolis, with a mortgage
on his little home; he never accumulated three thou-
sand dollars in all his busy life. He died unhonored
and unsung by the great masses of the land, and there
are not a dozen people who read this article that re-
member his name, or will recall it when I pronounce
it, for I shall pronounce it with the reverence of a
pupil for his master, the honored name of Samuel K.
Hoshour.
But that old man lived long enough to see little
''Ol come out of his obscurity and rags, and stand
in the Senate chamber of the United States as Oliver
P. Morton, and make this great nation tremble with
his words for human liberty; he also saw little ''Tom''
climb the dizzy ladder of fame, round by round, and
sit down in the second highest chair in this nation,
and the statue that adorns the forefront of Indiana's
capitol to-day is in memory of little ''Tom," Thomas
A. Hendricks, Vice-President of the United States.
If you want to follow the fortunes of little Lew, go
to the bookstore and buy that immortal book, "Ben
Hur," and Lew Wallace will join Addison C. Harris,
the great minister and author, Oliver P. Morton,
Thomas A. Hendricks and more than a hundred other
distinguished Hoosiers in declaring that the founda-
tions of their early manhood were laid by the little,
old Hoosier schoolmaster, who taught his life out for
thirty dollars a month and his board.
Young ladies and gentlemen, I would rather be a
Samuel K. Hoshour, or one of the humblest school-
teachers in the State of Indiana, teaching young
Hoosiers to grow up into honorable manhood and
womanhood than to be a whole syndicate of pro-
moters, coal and food manipulators and mortgage
brokers. There is more glory in one life devoted to
the human race than in a thousand devoted to mere
personal ambition and the attainment of great wealth.
What is true of the individual life is equally true of
the organic life. When the Master said that 'Hhe
Sabbath was made for man," He uttered a universal
truth. Laws are for man, government, society, business,
home; the church of God itself is for man, and each
of these great institutions is valuable and only valu-
able in the ratio that it ministers to man here or
hereafter. In the light of this thought, let us try
some of the great institutions of civilization.
I call your attention in the first place to that insti-
tution known as civil government. Civil government
exists that it may minister to, and serve the purpose
of, the individual, and its value is determined by the
ratio in which it carries out that object. As Amer-
icans we are very proud of our Government, and justly
so, but sometimes, I think, a little boastfully so.
Often do we hear our orators and campaigners utter
the statement that **we are the greatest nation on
the face of this earth"; we listen to it and pat our-
selves upon the breast and our neighbor upon the back,
and thank God that we are not citizens of the ''effete
monarchies." Well, this statement is true; true in a
far higher sense than many of these orators ever
dream when uttering it, but it is not true as they utter
it. The man who thinks the United States Govern-
ment is the greatest and most powerful when measured
by the foreign standards by which civil government
is gauged, is an ignoramus with regard to civil
government.
No man, who has not witnessed the clocklike pre-
cision with which the strong governments of Europe
regulate their internal affairs in times of peace, com-
mand united co-operation in times of war and reha-
bilitate themselves in days of reconstruction, is in
position to make invidious comparisons. It would do
us conceited Yankees a little good to get out and travel
around the world, that we may have some appreciation
of those civil governments that are backed by the power
and dignity of long centuries of experience. The first
standard by which governmental greatness has been
measured in Europe is military strength, the second
is that of naval power, and the third is religious ex-
pression. In both military and naval strength, the old
countries have always excelled us, and even now, in
spite of peace leagues and disarmament conferences,
the European armies and navies are slowly, grimly
and surely planning to come back. In religious ex-
pression the old countries have always surpassed us.
Where are our magnificent cathedrals with spires
pointing to the skies as in Europe? Where are
our immense picture galleries, and galleries of sculp-
ture teeming with the works of the old masters? And
where are our ancient museums — archives of art — into
which have been gathered the honey of the genius of
centuries ?
'^But," says one, *'we have our great domain and
our broad acres of territory." Yes, my friend, and
there are governments over there that control vast
stretches of earth by the side of which we are but a
patch. We may as well admit these things if we wish
to be fair to the facts of history. And yet, in
spite of all that I have said, I do not hesitate to
proclaim the fact that our type of patriotism, our
intelligence and the thrift of our people form a wall
of strength about us that is greater than that which
the mere armies and navies of other nations can produce.
When Agesilaus was asked why Sparta had no
walls, he replied : ' ' She needs none ; the concord of her
citizens is her strength.'' It is related of Benjamin
Franklin that when he was United States Minister
at the Court of Versailles, he attended a great diplo-
matic banquet, at which the English Minister arose,
and, lifting his cup, said, *' Here's to England, the
sun that shines for all the world;" the French Minis-
ter, coming in a good second, said, ^'Here's to France,
the moon that shines wherever and whenever the sun
does not;" when it came the turn of our Minister,
Franklin arose and said with dignity, ** Here's to the
United States, the young Joshua who commands the
sun and the moon to stand still, and they obey him;"
and they do.
A few years ago when Grover Cleveland said to
John Bull, *'Go a little slowly down on the borders
of Venezuela," John Bull called a halt; a few years
later, when Theodore Roosevelt said to Germany,
France and Italy combined, ^'You would better arbi-
trate with that little South American sister of ours,"
they arbitrated; when George Dewey said to Admiral
Deitrick, commander of the Imperial German squadron
in Manila Bay, *^If you don't quit running this
blockade and violating the laws of honorable warfare, I
will sink every ship you have in this harbor; move off
shore," down moved the Imperial squadron at the com-
mand of the little Yankee. "Whenever America lifts
her voice in command, the world '* walks Spanish."
Now, why are we the greatest nation on the face
of the earth? It is not because of our army, our
navy, our territory, or our institutions of learning or
devotion. I will tell you why, and tell it in the echo
of the one thought of this address. The United States
is the greatest and most powerful nation of this earth
because everything in it is made to minister to and
serve the purpose of the individual citizen. The Czar
of Russia cared little how much vodka his subjects
drank so he had an army and navy. The Sultan of
Turkey recked little if his subjects lived on black
bread and goat's milk cheese all their lives, if he had
a full exchequer. In the United States we would not
give the snap of our finger for a government that
does not educate, elevate and expand the individual
citizen. In many of the Old World countries it is ^^the
people of the government, by the government and for
the government/' with us it is, as Theodore Parker,
of Boston, first uttered, Daniel Webster reiterated and
Abraham Lincoln incarnated, ^^We are a government of
the whole people, by the whole people and for the whole
people.'' Our government is fitted, framed and or-
ganized to minister to the people in the highest de-
gree. The makers of our government realized that
man is essentially and by nature a thinker, a talker
and an actor, and they framed this government to
develop man along these three sides of his nature, and
stimulate the highest possible freedom. They laid wide
and deep the foundations of the little red schoolhouse,
which became the greatest house on the American con-
tinent or any other. The playground of an American
school is the greatest democratic platform in the
world. Here little Patrick, whose father dug peat out
of the bogs of Ireland; little Sandy, whose father
herded sheep upon the hills of Scotland; little Hans,
whose father wore wooden shoes in Germany, and little
Cuffy, whose father picked cotton bales in the fields
of South Carolina, meet upon a common level. Here
are taught the two most important lessons the human
being can learn: first, to take care of his own rights,
and, second, to respect the rights of others, and the boy
who does not know these lessons will have them
trounced into him on the playground of the American
school.
It is with no little sadness that we watch the board-
ing up of the little, old-fashioned country schoolhouse,
that is being displaced by the modem, centralized in-
stitution; but no one can ever board up the demo-
cratic spirit that has been fostered there and that will
continue to be fostered in its more pretentious
successors.
But man is also a talker, and, that he should have
the right to express his thoughts, this Government
is organized to insure the highest expression of them,
and, as a symbol, we have the great printing-press,
without censorship, without dictatorship, except the
censorship and dictatorship of an enlightened public
opinion.
As an expression of the right to act, we have a
little old box, abused, kicked about and neglected, but
representing the highest political freedom in the world
— the ballot-box of an American election. In spite of
all the abuses that have clustered around it, it is a
great thing for an American freeman to cast an Amer-
ican ballot. These little ballots on election day fall
over our land like snowflakes forming an avalanche of
public opinion, that will sweep away faults, right
wrongs and correct abuses.
It is these things, rather than armies, navies and
picture galleries, that constitute our greatness, because
they minister to and serve the wants of the individual
man. As long as we are true to these great symbols
of our power, this Government will stand because it
ought to stand; but when we neglect these institu-
tions, prostitute them, this Government will die, and
it ought to die and be succeeded by a Government
that will be true to these emblems of service.
Are there no danger signals before the American
people? Are there no red lights to warn us of ap-
proaching evil? Here truth, honesty and patriotism
compel us to say ''Yes"; there are forces coiling them-
selves around these emblems of our greatness which,
if left undisturbed, will work our ruin.
Are you aware of the fact that a sentiment is
rapidly crystallizing in this country that, if it suc-
ceeds, will be the death-blow to all that the little red
schoolhouse ever stood for? If you don't know it, you
should know it. But I wish to speak guardedly here,
lest I be misunderstood. I am not laying this charge at
the feet of any great political party among us, neither
am I charging it against any great religious denom-
ination. I do not believe we have any religious de-
nomination, as such, that has any such treasonable
purpose in view. I desire to be fair with every man,
though he may differ with me in politics or in religion.
But there are vile men in all our parties, political or
religious, secular or sacred, who, to accomplish their
vile purposes, would put out the torch of enlightenment
in our public schools.
I only lay that charge at the door of those who
openly boast of their intention to destroy our schools.
Not long since a great leader of thought discussing, in
one of the largest journals in the land, the destruction
of our school system, said, ''This is what we are com-
ing to, no matter what the Constitution of the United
States says about it/' Benedict Arnold nor Jefferson
Davis ever uttered more treasonable language against
his country than that leader of public opinion, and
he would not hesitate to fight against that liberty for
which stands the American schoolhouse with the
American flag waving over it. On this question all
political parties should stand together, and pledge
themselves to deliver the land thoroughly from men
who stand over the schools to cast them out, thus
showing sentiments at war with our Government and
with civilization. I can only say that if there lives
a man on the American continent whose sentiments
are at war with the American flag waving over the
American school, he had better readjust his sentiments
so they will come into line with these institutions or
take his sentiments back to the land from which he
brought them; for the man or set of men who will
lay leprous hands upon the American school will go
down in the conflict they incite.
Let every American patriot, Republican or Demo-
crat, Protestant or Catholic, line up and touch elbows
in the determination to save the American public
school, the hope of eighteen millions of our boys and
girls, and the protecting angel of American freedom
and patriotism.
Are you aware of the fact that there is a senti-
ment arising in this country that will ultimately de-
stroy the second emblem of our power, the printing-
press? As I said in the beginning, I believe that we
have the best press on the face of this earth; I believe
that most of the editors who sit in the sanctum are
as patriotic as the men upon our platforms, or in our
pulpits for that matter; but it is a notable fact that
we have men in the editorial chair who do not hesi-
tate to prostitute the high function of journalism on
the altar of party spirit; men who do not hesitate
to dip their pens into wormwood and gall, and write
slime and slander over the name of many a good man
for no other reason than that he is a candidate on the
other side of the political fence, and they will ruin
him if they can. Such men ought to be dressed up
a la zebra and sent to their State penal institution for
a term, to learn that the reputation of their political
opponents is sacred from libel.
Are you aware that a sentiment is rapidly organ-
izing in this country having for its object the death-
blow to the third emblem of our power, the ballot-
box? While you are reading this discourse, there are
men all over this land who are plotting treason
against the American ballot and the American voter;
men who call themselves ''practical politicians," who
think that the revenues of a great city, State or
country are the legitimate plunder of men who are
smart enough to organize and loot them. There is hard-
ly a State in the Union that has not been disgraced
with a political gang having for its object graft upon
the revenues of the State or municipality. Such men
do not like to see the average citizen in politics; the
fewer men in politics, the better for them.
The average American citizen is so intent upon
looking after his own business, profession or calling
that he turns over the political machinery of the coun-
try to ^The gang," ''the bosses" and "the boys." I
am a minister of the gospel and one that has politics.
I do not ventilate my politics in print, but any man
can get my politics for the asking. I have not the
least respect in the world for a preacher who gets so
goody-goody that he hasn't any politics; such men
are fit to be put in alcohol (or rather, I would say,
some soft drink), and laid away in a museum. I do
not believe that a preacher ever set a better example
to his flock than by attending the primaries and help-
ing to select delegates and to formulate platforms.
President Harrison said, on one occasion, that '^God
Almighty never endowed any man or set of men with
wisdom enough to frame laws that everybody could
go off and leave/' and this is what we have been do-
ing for generations.
The patriotism of peace is no less valuable than
the patriotism of war. There is as much patriotism
in balloting and selecting good men and measures to
rule in our land as there is in springing to the rescue
of our flag in time of invasion or insurrection. The
golden age of our Government will never come until
the average American citizen realizes the importance
and value of these great emblems of our power — a
glorious heritage bequeathed to us by the men who
reaped them on fields of suffering and bloodshed — and
shall rise in his might to rescue these emblems from
the greed of the spoiler and the trickster, and purify
them for power and for service to the oncoming
citizens of our Republic.
Again, I direct your attention to that institution
known as business. Business is a great organization
having for its object the service of all who engage in
it, and its value as an organization may be gauged
by the ratio in which it performs that service. Do
the men in the business world realize that we are on
the heels of a great business revolution? Forces that
should be pulling together like Siamese twins are
pulling apart, turning their guns upon each other,
and, unless prudent counsel and wise caution prevail,
this country may be rent asunder by dissensions in
the business world.
At one extreme we have the professional striker
and labor agitator, paid to embroil capital and labor,
if possible. He is a dangerous element in the business
world and I have no excuse for him. At the other
extreme is a no less dangerous character, the purse-
proud millionaire aristocrat, who has accumulated
great wealth through no particular merit of his own,
but through business conditions which should not
exist, and has forgotten that he is a brother to the
rest of the human race. He attempts to use men as
he would machines, until they begin to *^ rattle a lit-
tle," and then throws them on the scrap-pile and se-
cures others. Not long since a great manufacturer in
this country said, speaking to his fellow-manufac-
turers: ''The time has come when we must get the
strongest men we can, work them as hard as we can
and pay them as little as we can." Such a man is
as great a menace to the business world as the vilest
professional labor agitator could possibly be.
Between these two extremes lies the great body
of honest employers who are willing to pay an honest
wage for an honest day's work to an honest laborer
willing to work an honest day for an honest wage.
These honest classes are all endangered by the ex-
tremes of which I have spoken. What is the trouble
with business? Instead of being a medium by which
men serve and help one another, it has become a me-
dium by which men prey upon one another. Victor
Hugo would have settled this question for us a half-
century ago if we had heeded his advice. He tells
US, '^ There are two problems connected with business;
first, the problem of acquiring wealth; and, second, the
problem of rightly distributing wealth. '^ We have
concentrated our energies so much upon the first prob-
lem that we have neglected the second problem en-
tirely, but it is up to us for settlement to-day.
Strikes, lockouts and walkouts will never settle the
question. They may clarify the atmosphere and define
the right. I do not wish to be a pessimist upon this
subject. I believe that the business troubles will be
settled speedily and rightly; already I see the gleam
of a coming day. This great country, which has grap-
pled with and settled so many questions, will settle
the* question of capital and labor. My heart was
greatly cheered sometime ago as I read a statement
in a newspaper from the secretary of the Chicago City
Street Railway Company, in which he. said: **This
company is beginning to learn that a large part of its
capital stock lies in the welfare and contentment and
prosperity of its employees." "When these great cor-
porations speak in that manner, it is the harbinger of
peace. Honor to the great railway companies of the
United States, many of which are now inaugurating
pension systems by which the employee who has faith-
fully served the company for years may retire with
an income sufficient to keep the wolf from the door
the rest of his life.
I know a great corporation that employs six
thousand operatives, and the business is built upon the
principle of human brotherhood from the lowest mud-
sill to the highest official. They have a great table
around which thirty or forty men take lunch every
day; half of these men represent the capital of the
company, the other half represent its labor, and no
question is acted upon until both capital and labor
have been heard from. For their employees they have
all kinds of conveniences and accommodations, that
show a keen interest in their welfare. They have
boxes all around the factory over which are inscribed
the words: ^'If our employees see how we may improve
our methods, let them make suggestions and drop them
into this box. Each suggestion that is adopted will
be paid for.'' A young man having charge of their
shipping department, sending out twenty-six thousand
packages every month, wrote on a slip of paper: ^'You
can make a better handle and save twelve inches of
rope upon each package." The board of governors
found that he was correct. They discovered that his
suggestion would save them two thousand dollars in a
year, and wrote a check to the young man for one
thousand dollars, almost enough to buy him a little
'home, and they did not give him a red copper too
much.
There are many such factories in the United States
to-day, and they are doubling and trebling annually.
Honor to the great Pennsylvania Scotchman, Andrew
Carnegie! I am glad he went on giving away library
buildings and church organs until he died a compara-
tively poor man, as he proclaimed it his intention to
do. But when I go to western Pennsylvania, and see
the great fires from the vast furnaces where Mr. Car-
negie's employees earned their hundreds of millions;
when I walk through those manufacturing towns and
see the ill-paved streets, neglected fore yards and rear
yards, the unsanitary conditions and the old red paint
on each building where women are dying at thirty
years of age and men are not living out half their
natural time because they are burning their lives out
in front of those hot fires; when I see their children
who look like half -starved little beggars in the streets —
I could wish that Mr. Carnegie had given a few mil-
lions of dollars less for library buildings and church
organs, and a few millions more to educating, refining
and making comfortable the people who were turning
his pig iron into gold for him.
I was at Vandergriff, Pa., sometime ago in the
great sheet-steel works, where the company had done
much for its employees in the way of building casinos,
organizing libraries and reading-rooms to insure recre-
ation as well as giving good wages. Shortly after my
visit, there was a depression in the sheet-steel trade,
and the company called the foremen together and said :
''We can not continue running this factory at present
prices;'' the foremen called the operatives into a
meeting and acquainted them with the situation; they
immediately appointed a committee to draft a paper,
making a voluntary reduction of 20 per cent, of their
wages, and further said: ''If this is not enough, there
is a rubber on the end of the pencil accompanying
this paper; rub out the reduction and make it more
if necessary.'* That is the reply of honest labor to
honest capital.
The settlement of the labor question will come
when the employer realizes that under God he is the
true servant of every man in his employ, that it is
his privilege to make money through them and for
them as well. The golden age of business will come
when it becomes the great medium by which men
through love serve one another.
In conclusion, fearing that I have missed some one,
I wish to say that in the golden age of eternity, to
which home, church, society and State are bearing ns,
we will not be graded according to our wealth, our
literary prestige, or our political pull; there it will
be what we have done as the servants of God and his
man that decides our eternal destiny. Righteousness
will not be crowded into us by any sort of dynamics;
glory shall not be draped upon us from without like a
garment; they must spring up from within and grow
through a life of service. Beautifully has the poetess
taught this in her ode to the water-lily. Walking the
river brink, and seeing a little lily burst from the
waters and throw up its white petals to the sunshine,
she lifted her thoughts in poetic fervor and said:
''O star on the breast of the river,
marvel of bloom and of grace,
Did you fall right down from heaven,
Out of the sweetest place?
''You are as pure as the thoughts of an angel,
Your heart is steeped in the sun.
Did you grow in the Radiant City,
My pure and holy one
''Nay, nay," said the lily; I fell not from heaven.
None gave me my saintly white;
I slowly grew in the darkness,
Down in the dreary night.
"From the ooze and slime of the river
I won my glory and grace.
White souls fall not O my poet;
They rise to the highest place''