Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/15

Rh do by you. I know it need not be so. Would not a reputation for uprightness and trath bo a good capital for any man, old or young? This class owns the machinery of society, in great measure,—the ships, factories, shops, water-privileges, houses, and the like. This brings into their employment large masses of working men, with no capital but muscles or skill. The law leaves the employed at the employer's mercy. Perhaps this is unavoidable. One wishes to sell his work dear, the other to get it cheap as he can. It seems to me no law can regulate this matter, only conscience, reason, the Christianity of the two partiea. One class is strong, the other weak. In all encounters of these two, on the field of battle, or in the market-place, we know the result; the weaker is driven to the wall. When the earthen and iron vessel strike together, we know beforehand which will go to pieces. The weaker class can seldom tell their tale, so their story gets often suppressed in the world's literature, and told only in outbreaks and revolutions. Still the bold men who wrote the Bible, Old Testament and New, have told truths on this theme which others dared not tell— terrible words which it will take ages of Christianity to expunge from the world's memory.

There is a strong temptation to use one's power of nature or position to the disadvantage of the weak. This may be done consciously or unconsciously. There are examples enough of both. Here the merchant deals in the labour of men. This is a legitimate article of traffic, and dealing in it is quite indispensable in the present condition of affairs. In the Southern States, the merchant, whether producer, manufacturer, or trader, owns men and deals in their labour, or their bodies. He uses their labour, giving them just enough of the result of that labour to keep their bodies in the most profitable working state; the rest of that result he steals for his own use, and by that residue becomes rich and famous. He owns their persons and gets their labour by direct violence, though sanctioned by law. That is Slavery. He steals the man and his labour. Here it is possible to do a similar thing: I mean it is possible to employ men and give them just enough of the result of their labour to keep up a miserable life, and yourself