The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-09-21

Henry Ward Beecher was very
unfortunate in his expressions
with reference to lsboring men, in a
sermon recently delivered by him in
Plymouth church. In his evident
desire to please the people who pay
him forty thousand dollars q year
for preaching what his Master
preached for nothing, he went to
the extreme in saying that any man
who could not live on bread and
water had no right to live. We
would amend this somewhat. We
would rather say that q man who
cannot live on forty thousand dol
lars q year has no right to live, and
Mr.. Beecher's debts seem to indicate
that he is about that sort of q man.
The sermon referred to does not
sound like Beecher. It is devoid of
feeling, sense or eloQuence, one, If
not all OF which, generally charac-
terizes a discourse by Beecher. 1t
is SO plain an attempt to please the
aristocracy in his pews at the cost of
honest conviction and harmony with
his life's teachings, that it Is thor
oughly disgusting.
During q long life Mr.. Beecher
has been q friend to the poor and
oppressed-an advocate Of Justice to
ell classes md q sympsthizer with
the weak. It was this trait in his
character that has led many q good
man to shut his ears against the ter
rible slandcrs which have affected
Mr.. B,cchcr, and would have de-
stroyed almost any other man in the
country. The surprise, therefore,
that his late departure has caused
can hardly be expressed. If he had
confined himself simply to the de-
nunciation OF strikes and strikers,
no one would have objected; but,
when he boldly asserts what we
have noticed that he did assert, he
not only invites criticism, but the
keenest kind of criticism. When
he says that man can support q
family on q dollar q day, because
that il sufficient to buy bread, and
that water costs nothing, he utters
place, lift is much of a family, and
it has nothing to subsist on but
bread, dollar q day would scarcely
supply it. A ten cent loaf of bread
at meal for q hard working man,
would probably not be an unreason-
able estimate. This would be thir-
ty .cents q day, and his wife and
from half dozen to q dozen chill
dren would be likely to take up the
remaining seventy cents. They are
entitled OF course to Ali they can
eat, as certainly Mr.. Beecher would
not expect q man to work hard and
not have enough to eat, aud not pro-
vide enough for his family.
Then there is the water. Mr..
Beecher says that costs nothing
This will be news to millions of
working people. There is not q
working man In Brooklyn who gets
water free, and there are compare
lively very few anywhere who do
not pay for water. In every city
water costs something. In every
town 1t costs something, for there is
the expense OF digging wells, and
providing the apparatus for hauling
the water. In one way or another
all this comes in some sort of pro-
portion upon everybody In the COM
muniTy. If q man lives where there
is running spring and drinks the
water out of his hands, thus saving
the expense offs tin cup, he can ges
his water for nothing, otherwise it
will cost him something, more or
less.
But bread and water do not hap
pen to be all ahat the necessities of
man require. He must haYe shelter.
Suppose he saves q quarter of his
dollar and uses It to provide q roof
over himself and family7 How
much of q house is twenty-five cents
. day going to get in Brooklyn, New
York or Chicago for Q family OF
half . dozen7 And there is q very
general prejudice, during the win
ter, in favor of fire. which requires
fuel, and coal is Q cesh article. Be.
side this. it is customary to weal
more or less clothing which costs
money, and how Mr.. Beecher is go.
ing to provide all these absolutely
necessary things, when all that thC
man gets is . dollar day, and wher
he expends all this for bread, Il
something that lie beyond the gener
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