THE GOLDEN RULEand gold, are so hard that they are not touched by any human
feeling, and care not how much others suffer if they can make
a cent by it. But they are the exception, not the rule. We are
influenced by the regard and devotion of others to our interests.
The laborer who knows that his employer feels kindly toward
him, desires to treat him justly and to regard his good, will do
better work and more of it, and will be disposed to look to
his employer's interests as well as his own.
I am well aware that many will think this Divine and
humane law of doing to others as we would have them do
to us, is impracticable in this selfish and worldly age. If both
parties would be governed by it, everyone can see how happy
would be the results. But, it will be said, they will not. The
laborer will not work unless compelled by want. He will take
advantage of every necessity. As soon as he gains a little inde-
pendence of his employer he becomes proud, arrogant and
hostile. The employer will seize upon every means to keep the
workmen dependent upon him, and to make as much out of
them as possible. Every inch of ground which labor yields
capital will occupy and intrench itself in it, and from its
vantage bring the laborer into greater dependence and more
abject submission. But this is a mistake.
The history of the world testifies that when the minds of
men are not embittered by intense hostility and their feelings
outraged by cruel wrongs, they are ready to listen to calm, dis-
interested and judicious counsel. A man who employed a large
number of laborers in mining coal told me that he had never
known an instance to fail of a calm and candid response when
he had appealed to honorable motives, as a man to man, both
of whom acknowledged a common humanity. There is a recent
and most notable instance in this city of the happy effect of
calm, disinterested and judicious counsel in settling difficulties
between employers and workmen that were disastrous to both.
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