Capitalism – The Lloyd C Douglas Page

Douglas on Speaking Truth to Power

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 has offered two fanciful versions of the Parable of the Talents – one with the lord’s servants becoming members of a labor union and the other with the lord colluding with other lords. There are good managers and bad ones, he says, just as there are good and bad employees. He has just made the rather remarkable claim that it is the church’s responsibility to sort them out. Now he writes:]

“When, twenty-five years ago, the greater nations of the world had gone daft on a great program of building larger navies, if the church had had the sense and courage to say to the powder merchants and the greedy statesmen and all other professional disturbers of the peace, ‘That will be about enough!’ – our world would be in a far different condition at this moment. When the war was over, if the church had pointed the way to a quick and just settlement of the issues then confronting the worn and battle-tired nations, in a voice of command, we might not now be whetting the scythe for more harvest of blood and tears.

“But whenever the church has made as if she would speak, there were always kindly, warning voices saying, ‘Better keep out of this. It is really not your business, you know!’

“The time has come for the church to engage in some straight talk on the whole labor situation. It is not yet too late for her to make a distinct contribution to this subject, if she approaches the matter fearlessly and fairly and informed. But the preacher who thinks of having somewhat to say, anent this question, must prepare himself to hear his closest and best friends (some of whom provide for the bulk of his church expenses) say, ‘You are skating on pretty thin ice, old man! You had better confine yourself to your job of pointing people to heaven and telling them about the Bible!’

“That was the trouble they had with Jesus! He didn’t talk enough about Moses! – said the scribes and Pharisees. He insisted on talking about high rents in Jerusalem, and excessive rates of interest on loans, and shady commercial transactions carried on in the very lobby of the temple! It was for that they nailed him to a cross. And any modern prophet who goes into this business of talking straight goods to all parties concerned – to mean and selfish capital, and cantankerous and unreasonable labor – must promise himself in advance that he has let himself in for something interesting.”

[That last sentence was a form of humorous understatement which Douglas employed from time to time. I will give the conclusion of his essay in my next post…]

Douglas’s Comments on Labor Relations in America in 1921

by Ronald R Johnson

[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 has just finished giving two fanciful versions of the Parable of the Talents – one with the lord’s servants becoming members of a labor union and the other with the lord colluding with other lords. Each story has good guys and bad guys on one side or the other. He writes:]

“It is Christianity’s business to lay this responsibility, and blame, and burden, exactly where it belongs. Honest and self-respecting labor must help. Honest and self-respecting capital must help. Any organization that provides a cloak for selfish capital to hide behind, in these critical days, must go! It is part of the church’s task to show it up for what it is – and what it does! Any organization that provides an opportunity for lazy and wicked labor to exploit and menace the cause of the honest workman must mend its ways or get ready to face exposure! Christianity must say, fearlessly, to the blue laborer, ‘If you want any sympathy or assistance in your cause, stop protecting the yellow laborer and the red laborer!’

“There must be a disposition on the part of the church to say to the employer who has tried to do the square thing by his men, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ And to him who has followed a policy of grinding his workmen to pieces at a miserable wage, and then tossing them out the back door for the infirmaries and jails to gather up, ‘Thou art a low-lived slacker!’

“To the honest laborer, Christianity must say, ‘Thou hast been faithful over a few things. We will help thee to larger freedom and better privileges.’ To the lazy, sullen obstructionist who has always been ready to throw down his toils and quit at the slight suggestion; and to the professional troublemaker who pretends to be labor’s friend, while undercutting labor’s cause by petty graft and nefarious dickering, Christianity must be bold enough to say, ‘Thou art a wicked and slothful servant!’

“Whether the church will try to lead in establishing a new relationship between the honest men of both parties to this question remains to be seen. If one is to judge the future by the recent past, she will not. She has made the mistake of allowing influences, guised as children of light, but quite otherwise as to character, to lead her around by the nose and lash her into line to serve whatever temporary interests are paramount in the minds of selfish opportunists!”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]

The Parable Turned Around

by Ronald R Johnson

[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 has just finished giving an early twentieth-century tongue-in-cheek version of the Parable of the Talents with the lord’s servants becoming members of a labor union. He writes:]

“Now – suppose we turn this parable around and see how it looks from the other side. Suppose it read this way:

“The state of industry is as if three men, to whom fortune and heredity had been exceeding kind and who were possessed of much goods, invested their capital in the building of as many factories. And their ability to deal happily and amicably with their laborers was related as five is to two is to one.

“And it came to pass that they were enjoined to organize themselves into a capitalistic combination, lest they be unduly squeezed by their brethren in the next city thereunto.

“Now on a certain day a delegation of workmen came unto him who had five times the usual amount of tact and sagacity, and begged for shorter hours of labor and more pay. And he, being a just man and knowing he could get about as much work out of them in eight hours, if they were contented, than in twelve, if they were sore at him; and knowing, likewise, that he could pay them more wages without selling his steam yacht, was disposed to listen respectfully unto them; but he could not, for he was organized. Likewise he that had two times the brains and heart of the usual employer was also waited upon by employees; and though he was able to treat with them generously and was of a good disposition toward them, he could not; for lo, he had passed his word to his brethren.

“Then he who had no more sense than the average, but about the same, was also visited by a committee of his laborers; but he did refuse to see them or speak unto them. And it was so that on the next morning, when they came to work, they read a placard on the factory gate, saying, ‘I have locked up the plant and am going to Cuba for a season. Ye are a hard lot, and I hope to see no more of you.’

“Then did the public speak unto these men, saying, ‘How is it ye have enough and to spare, and are able to send your wives to California for the winter, and these men who earn your daily bread for you are living like animals?’

“And they answered, saying, ‘We have done the best we could, under the circumstances.’ Then did the public say, ‘Tell us a little more about these circumstances.’ And they were silent. Again did the public inquire, saying, ‘How about this fellow who nailed up the sign, and refused so much as to talk with them who had made his fortune for him?’ And they, indignant, replied, ‘Verily, he is one of us; and we are strong for him. He is our brother. We will all be judged together.'”

[Douglas continues:]

“That you will not! At that point, we fail to follow! It is Christianity’s business to lay this responsibility, and blame, and burden, exactly where it belongs.”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]