Wages – The Lloyd C Douglas Page

The Parable Turned Around

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 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…]

Lloyd C Douglas: “Salvation in Gross Lots”

by Ronald R Johnson

“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…]

Lloyd C. Douglas Regarding Sermons on Wages

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….]