ARTICLE IX.

NOTES AND CRITICISMS.

I.

MINISTERS AND MOBS.

THE recent outbreaks of lawlessness and disorder at Homestead and among the striking switchmen at Buffalo have not been without cause. But the cause is not to be sought alone in the oppression of the capitalists, but in great degree in the wickedness and ignorance of the working-men. For this the clergy must assume a large share of responsibility. Without adequate knowledge of the laws of business, or of the exigencies of modern industrial enterprises, they have united to a lamentable extent in blind denun. ciation of corporations and capitalists, and have been among the most active in disseminating erroneous views as to the rights of labor, while they have not had the courage to preach with proper emphasis to laboring-men upon their duties and responsibilities. To a great extent preachers have neglected to remind their hearers of the repeated and explicit injunction of the Mosaic law that the judge is "not to favor a poor man in his cause" (Ex. xxiii. 3). While constantly emphasizing the admonition of Moses to the judges, “not to honor the person of the mighty," they have too habitually passed over the equally solemn admonition "not to respect the person of the poor," but in all cases to judge in righteousness (Lev. xix. 15); so that it has almost come to be a question in the public mind whether capital has any rights which laboring-men are bound to respect. In this growing sentiment lies a most threatening evil.

The attention of all who discuss the industrial situation is most earnestly commended to the significant facts brought out so clearly by Dr. Gladden in the last number of the BIBLIOTHECA SACRA (pp. 385-411), namely, that the production of the necessaries of existence even in this the richest country in the world, is so small that there is no large margin of annual surplus for luxuries. There is a significance which few realize in the fact there mentioned, that, were the total production of all the industries of the United States equally divided among the people, it would give to each person less than fifty cents a day for his recurring wants. Any unmarried man who gets more than fifty cents a day, and any man with a family of four or less who receives a larger share than two dollars a day, is getting more than he would receive on an equal division of the country's productions. Nature is not prodigal of her bounties. As our Saviour said, the poor we shall always

་

have with us. The cares and responsibilities and rewards of riches can belong only to a few. There is not store enough ahead in the world at any time to tide the world over a single season in which productive labor should generally cease. A life of labor is the normal condition of the human race. To pray for a daily supply of bread must always be the precious privilege and the bounden duty of mankind.

The so-called labor troubles of the present time are not in any great degree strifes between the rich and the abject poor, but rather between two contending classes of capitalists. The laboring-men of Homestead with skill enough to earn from three to ten dollars a day are not poor men. Their skill is capital, and brings to them an exceptionally high rate of profit. This is as it should be if only they can maintain their position of superiority in an open market. But an organization which tyrannizes over other laborers, and will not allow non-union men to learn a trade, has in it all the evils of a monopoly of capitalists, with the added evil of inordinate temptations to violent lawlessness, arising from the general ignorance of the class endeavoring to maintain the monopoly. Switchmen getting sixty dollars a month are not a class to be commiserated, but to be envied; and they are envied by hosts of workmen whose lot is doomed to be much poorer than theirs.

One of the most serious errors of all, and one very frequently made, is that of assuming that capitalists do not labor. Whereas, the truth is that no class labors harder, that none is more harassed with care, and none more likely to fail, in the end, of getting returns for its labor. Of those who venture to invest their means in business, only a small portion make it permanently profitable. As a rule, those who do succeed in managing great industrial enterprises so as to make them profitable, are the ones who ought to remain in charge of the business; for they not only are profitable laborers themselves, but conduce to the prosperity both of their employees and of the general public. The great burden of the industrial world is the many unprofit able investments which are constantly made by visionary or incompetent men who become managers of capital. It is the easiest thing in the world to mismanage a great enterprise, so that its capital shall be frittered away in unprofitable lines of labor; while it is the hardest thing in the world to secure long-continued success in those great manufacturing and commercial enterprises upon which so much of the world's prosperity now depends.

Clergymen are in danger of betraying their narrowness of view in the extreme emphasis they place on the wisdom and virtue of the eleemosynary gifts of the rich; for, in fact, these are usually the smallest parts of the benefits bestowed by a conscientious business man upon the world. The accumulation of capital is itself a great public benefit. Even though it be under the management of a few, capital inures as much to the good of the general public as to the benefit of the capitalists themselves. For, concentration of capital is essential to cheapness of production and to steadiness of business; and, as already said, if capital has accumulated in the hands of a particular person, it is prima facie evidence of the existence in him of that instinct of personal

economy, and that sagacity of investment which will secure its preservation. Were the accumulation divided among the many, it would be impossible to get, in the average, either the same economy in expenditure, or equal skill in management. Capital, like an army, is managed best under unity of leadership. It is thus that we can best justify the ways of Providence in the actual construction and development of human society.

As an illustration, we have in mind a business requiring large capital and hundreds of co-operating workmen, close calculation of distant results, and careful adaptation of means to ends, which has been maintained in a New England town for more than half a century. Yearly the ships have come from Archangel, Russia, laden with the raw fibre that was to bring returns only after many transformations and much waiting and numerous risks. The bills of the Russian flax grower have had to be met in advance, months or years before the manufactured article could reach the consumer. In ma chinery, and in processes of manufacture, the firm has had to keep pace with all improvements. Fluctuation in the markets, financial convulsions, and risks from fire and flood must be guarded against; while, to secure the highest success, there must be a generous expenditure for the promotion of the national welfare, and liberal investments in furtherance of other branches of business in the immediate locality. Mines must be developed, railroads built, business blocks and other factories erected, experiments of more or less hazard in various directions of enterprise must be encouraged, general education and morality and good feeling must be promoted, and honor must be maintained. Thus it will be found that the investments of a large-minded capitalist are interwoven with almost every interest of society. There is no ability which is of more economical value, than that which enables its possessor to make safe investments in industrial enterprises. The failure or suspension of such a business firm as that referred to would have been at any time a widespread and far-reaching disaster. Scores of families would have had their means of sustenance cut off, and hundreds more would have been indirectly affected.

It cannot be denied that the devotion of a capitalist to his business and the wise liberality with which he adjusts his personal expenses, may be actuated by selfishness more or less refined; and God often makes use of the low motives of our nature to accomplish his beneficent designs, suffering the business man himself to be little more than a galley slave. But all this may equally be the result of a broad view of the general welfare and an accurate knowledge of what will secure it. Whether it arises from one or the other of these motives must be determined by a great variety of observations of a personal character, and can be fully known only to the agent himself and to God who seeth all.

Nor are we at liberty to disregard the part which Providence has in giving to certain persons special responsibilities and opportunities in the management of the world's capital. Speaking roughly, business success is the product of two factors-what is within a man and what is without him

his ability and his opportunity. The one is always useless without the other. It is no uncommon experience of the world to see abundant opportunities wasted for lack of some one to improve them. The lamentation is always more or less in place, that the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. And, on the other hand, in an administration of nature in which general laws prevail, it is unavoidable that much natural ability should seem to be wasted on account of the difficulty which each person has of getting into his appropriate sphere of labor. It is not unfrequently the case that an opening for business, like the troubled waters of the pool of Siloam, is watched by a crowd of anxious persons, while only the first one who steps into it can obtain the desired advantage. There is always an imperative call to adore the Providence which brings the man and his opportunity together. This leads to the remark that the world cannot get along without paying proper respect to "the powers that be;" for in an important sense they are ordained of God. The officials of a railroad hold their position, for the present at least, by God's appointment. Whoever rides upon a railroad train commits his life to the efficiency with which the rules of the road are obeyed by the employees. A mob cannot be trusted to run a railroad train. By all just rights the employees of a railroad assume some of the moral responsibilities of a common carrier. The idea that, in violation of contract, railroad men have a right to strike for the redress of their individual grievances is monstrous. Railroad employees who can conspire with others to disarrange the whole business of the country, and in violation of their own contract, in an effort to keep non-union men from filling their places, are public enemies, and clergymen ought to have courage enough to tell them so. The contract of an employee ought to be as sacred as that of the employer. The misguided sentimentalism and culpable cowardice of the ministry are largely responsible for the mental and moral perversions which have produced the lamentable outbreaks of the past few months. To the clergy we naturally look for the enforcement of the almost axiomatic principle, that, in general, true progress can come only through an enlightened public sentiment, and an orderly and wise readjustment of the complicated systems of laws required to meet the new emergencies of changing conditions. Revolution is not the ordinary road to reform.

As an instance of the ease with which revolutionary and destructive ideas can be smuggled into current thought by deceptive phraseology, the widespread advocacy of "compulsory arbitration" of labor troubles is a notable illustration. What "compulsory arbitration" more than now exists can we have without destroying the whole idea of property rights underlying the command "Thou shalt not steal"? All parties may now be compelled to arbitrate before the courts their violations of existing contracts. But, in seeking redress before the courts in civil cases, the laboring-men have now, in most respects, a great advantage over the capitalist. The laboring-man can levy on the property of the capitalist for injury done, whereas the capitalist may suffer untold direct injury from laborers who strike in open viola

[Oct.

tion of contract, and there is usually no redress, for he cannot levy upon the homestead or other exempted property of the employee, and imprisonment for debt is not allowed.

If the phrase "compulsory arbitration” means anything when analyzed, it signifies the total surrender of property rights and of personal liberty in future contract. If, for example, when an employer and an employee differ as to the continuance of future employment and wages uncontracted for, they are to be compelled to accept the decision of an arbitration board, that board practically takes possession both of the employer's capital and of the personal liberty of the employed. If an arbitration board is to say to A, that he must employ B at definite wages for a definite period in the future, it may say to B, You must agree to serve A at definite wages for a definite period in the future.

The point is of so much importance that we may be more specific. The phrase 66 compulsory arbitration," as used against employers, cannot refer to the carrying out of past contracts. Capitalists are now obliged to do that, or pay the damages, and compulsory arbitration could do no more. relate to contracts for the future, unless made in violation (as sometimes Strikes happens) of contracts already made. Compulsory arbitration means that to a compulsory board shall be submitted the question of the employment, for the future, of definite men, at a definite rate of wages, for a definite time; for, unless each of these is definite, the compulsory arbitration may be defeated. The board of compulsory arbitration would, in fact, be a species of court, and compulsory submission to it would mean submitting to a tribunal (in effect a court) the making, against the will of the employer (and of the employee as well in justice), of an unwilling contract for the future.

The principle may well, and if it be a good thing should, extend to every contract of employment, and of purchase as well, and when analyzed and defined will be seen to extend to the depriving of all individual liberty of contract and even of the control of the use-as to by whom-at what rateand for what time-of what we have heretofore called one's own property. It needs but a moment's consideration to see that this wholesale destruction of the freedom of contract is subversive of all the principles upon which our civilization and our common code of Christian morals are based.

In the improvement of public sentiment the ministry, it is clear, can be successful only as they have some real light to shed. The greatest danger is that, on sociological questions, they will become sciolists and charlatans, accepting crude theories of social reform, as the great desideratum, without due comprehension of the complicated nature of the questions involved. We may well look with apprehension upon the efforts to make political economists and social reformers out of theological students. A little knowledge on these, as on all other subjects, is a dangerous thing, unless the possessor of it knows how little it is. In general, we may say that lawyers and judges and business men and statesmen of large calibre are the ones to whom must be entrusted the main burden and responsibility of this delicate task of read