Capital – The Lloyd C Douglas Page

An excerpt from Lloyd C. Douglas, “In Re Sermons on Wages,” The Christian Century, 5/12/1921.

[The following is from a Christian Century article by Lloyd Douglas entitled, “In Re Sermons on Wages.” It was published in the May 12, 1921, issue, a little over a year after the end of the First World War. Douglas writes:]

“If any profit may be derived from experience, it is about time the church learned that she will have to leave off trying to save humanity in the mass, and by gross lots. We have had an epidemic of huge campaigns – noisy, gusty, windy, bumptious campaigns. Most of them have predicted great results before firing off their master shot. They have been surprised and bewildered when the discharge was emitted from the breech end of the gun into the very laps of the people who had foretold the victory. We must get back to the Galilean idea of talking to people, and dealing with people, as individuals! We can make no headway shouting maxims and truisms at, and of, the ‘masses’ (How I have come to hate and despise that word!), the ‘classes,’ ‘the rich,’ ‘the poor,’ ‘capital and labor.’

“Just now this task is all the more important for us because all ‘capital’ and all ‘labor’ seem bent upon being thus tied up in two definite parcels. They have arranged their affairs so that the general public will judge all ‘labor’ as solidly committed to certain propositions – some of which are obviously unfair – and all ‘capital’ as of-a-piece in consenting to practices – some of which are notoriously mean.”

[Douglas will continue his essay in my next post…]

by Ronald R Johnson

The title page from Lloyd C. Douglas, “In Re Sermons on Wages,” The Christian Century, 5/12/1921.

“It is a great temptation to preach on present economic conditions, particularly in respect to wages, at this hour when more people are thinking of that matter than of anything else. It is more than a temptation: it is a solemn duty. The church has a right to speak concerning an issue that so seriously involves the welfare of the bulk of our American people. But, before he makes this adventure, the preacher needs to consult every reliable source of information, that he may be sure of his ‘facts’; for merely wishing to be honest and sincere in this matter will not furnish a satisfactory alibi if the figures are incorrect or the natural deductions are misleading.

“We must use considerable discretion in the handling of a subject so brimful of high explosives. Many a man, chattering vague generalities about ‘capital’ and ‘labor,’ only drives the wedge deeper between the men who work and those for whom they work. One cannot predicate of all capital that it is greedy and soulless; nor may it be truthfully said that all labor is downtrodden. It is a mistake to job all employers and all employees into two grand and militant divisions.

“Herein lies one of the pet iniquities of the American process of reasoning. We like to tie people up in neat little bundles, and label them, and card index them. The problem is not so simple as that. We persist in cataloguing people into classes and groups; attempting to standardize their place in, and value to, society, with the assurance of the hardware merchant wrapping up packages of four, six, eight, and ten penny nails. Every time we prophets and soothsayers begin mouthing large phrases about capital and labor, we take a chance of widening the breach between the honest people of both causes who would like to arrive at amicable understandings. It is part of our business to operate a sorting machine that will discriminate between the decent folk of both parties, and the others.”

[Douglas will continue his essay in my next post….]

Tag: Capital

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