New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-12-28
Henry Ward Beecller and the
Eight.HOur Movement.

Mr.. Beecher, in a recent discourse at Ply.
mouth Church, spoke of the working classes as
follows:
There is a tendency among the working class
to shorten their hours of labor. l sympathize
with this and l abhor it; symyathize with it
in so far as it is of the signs of advancement
among the working classes of their attempt to
-~;-. n, Cher .-a --eIi~:, --.a -sho- 80 rsr
as it is tending to make men feel that work is
not good thing for them, that they must shrink
in equivalent and enlarge in reward. don't
believe the common people are going to carve
out independent fortunes by any combn alton
except hard knocks, and good many of them,
during q good many hours of the day. Our
fathers did so, and their children must learn
that they must work hard and long to achieve
success. l should be glad to have wages paid
for by the hour, by retail rather than by the
gross, but if men expect that eight hours day
is going to be all that is necessary for their
support, they are wrong. My own impression
is, that there are very few men who can make
enough out of eight hours day to enable them
to educate their children and lift their family
far higher than they found it. Politicians say
great deal about the interests of the working.
men, they are praised great deal in the papers,
and God forbid that l, who have the blood OF
blacksmiths in my veins, should not think we'll
of workingmen. but they should love work for
its own sake, and their children must be
brought up to feel that they must by work
make themselves Independent. Do not expect
division of your fathers estate. Be honest ;
be manly Cultivate spirit Of independence,
and by the sweat of your brow work out your
own salvation. There is pride in this, and just
pride, and honor man who can say, 81 am
not indebted to fortune for my prosperity:
earned it by the sweat of my brow; baptized
| every dollar Of it with that sweat" Money
80 earned generally stays by a man, and usually
has q man to stay by. Laughter. Do not
| rely on luck. 1t is asked, De you not believe
in luck2.. Yes, he that has good father and
mother has good luck. He whose father and
mother whipped him enough had good luck.
de that has common sense has good luck. He
that rises early and tolls late has good luck.
Men that do not drink Intoxicating liquor have
good luck. A man that does not quarrel, but
by kindness wins the love of all around him.
has good luck. He that has good faculties has
good luck, but l never knew a man that was
weak and ehangeable that had good luck.
Luck is in work do not trust to any other
luck fools trust to lottery. to supersttious
| luck. Mr.. Beecher then advised fru gality, and
said that those were unhappy who were so
brought up that they did not have to econo-
| mise. 1t was not so much the value of the
money saved by frugality as it was the mora
benefit of the habit, and the man in this coun.
| try that knew how to save was sure to become
| rich before he died, unless he died very soon
de warned his hearers against habits of self
| indulgence and inculcate the necessity of self
| culture, closing by adjuring the audience in
all things to have a firm trust in God. who
would order all things for the best