RELIGION IN Ttf ALLIANCE. 315 



deprived of their honest earnings than the citizens of the United States. 

 Competition is no longer the life of trade. It has grown into a system 

 of combinations and trusts. Shylock rules the commercial world. The 

 worst feature of the whole matter is, that the names of these modern 

 pirates often can be found upon the records of some religious organiza- 

 tion, and they are known as liberal contributors to our benevolent and 

 religious institutions. 



There was a time when you might make the masses believe that it was 

 a part of the divine plan that some should be very rich and many very 

 poor ; but you cannot deceive all the people any longer on that line. 



The members of our labor organizations know that it is God's plan 

 that men and women who are able to work must live by their industry, 

 and they are not the poor that " we have with us always," who are 

 spoken of by Christ. He meant that those who were disabled so as to 

 be unable to work should be cared for by alms or charity, and not those 

 who were able to work. 



The old rule was that those who could work and would not, should 

 not be allowed to eat. But this ancient rule has been changed, and 

 they who do the least now, get the most. Organized labor proposes to 

 correct these abuses. The revellings of these modern Belshazzars and 

 their thousand lords have been heard, and the expense thereof has been 

 borne too long for the good of the whole. " Weighed and found want- 

 ing," is the writing on the wall ; and the hand which writes is the hand 

 of the Alliance, and the sentence is against our political and religious 

 leaders. Let the religious organizations of this country practise what 

 they preach before they dare to throw a stone at organized labor. Let 

 all men who claim to be Christians vote as Christ would have them vote, 

 and see how soon all wrongs would be corrected. 



Labor is the creator of all wealth. What can capital do without labor? 

 What was this country before the hand of labor seized hold of it ? The 

 Grand Master Workman of the universe has arranged matters as well as 

 they could be, so far as natural advantages are concerned. Our country 

 is a world within itself. Everything needful for man's happiness, in this 

 life, is or can be produced within the limits of our country. But what 

 was this country before the " keel of discovery " touched its shores ? 

 With all its natural beauty, it was a waste, howling wilderness, inhabited 

 by wild men, ferocious beasts, and venomous reptiles. What power 

 wrought these mighty changes ? Instead of the lonely wigwam of the 

 aborigines, we have innumerable beautiful cottage homes, inhabited by 

 millions of farmers and mechanics, the bone and sinew of the grandest 

 government, ancient or modern. Instead of the mud village of some 



