People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-12-15
A SPLENDID SERnON.
Rev. ]. d. BOtkin DiscOurses on the
Present "Reign of Poverty"
A Large and Fashionable Audience receives
some Excellent Thoughts to rIeditate Upon.
-LeweweIIing's Tramp" PrOclama-

good audience when a SUBJECT OF eS-
pecial interest is announced and this
was no exception to the rule. The
spacious church was well filled with
a representative Wellington audience.
The services were opened with the
usual prayer in which the Lord was
petitiOned to cause the people to
realize that each one was his broth
er's keeper.
The discourse was opened with
Bible reading from various portions
of the old and new teStamentS, con-
Quoted by the pastor and members,
bearing upon the duty of people tow
ard the poor. Then he quoted from
an article in the North american Re
oie,o by Bishop FOSs under the cap
tiOn, politics in the Pulpit" paren-
thetically warning the people not to
get scared at the word 'pOlitiCs" as
he did not intend to hurt any mans
partly showing the right and duty
of a minister of the Gospel to preach
upon any subject that effected the
moral and temporal welfare of the
people. He then briefly narrated the
troublous times through which we
are passing in this nation, and pleaded
for the well-to-do to show kindness to
the poor.
He stated that two men, old resi-
dents of Wellington, met on Wash
ington avenue, a few days ago; one
asked the other what he was looking
for; he replied that he was looking
for work; that he was out Of money
and did not know how in the world
he was to support his family through
the winter; with look of despair the
other man replied that he was in the
same fix. A third man came along
and said his situation was the same,
and then a fourth man joined them
and then a fifth and all in the same
fix. Five good, able-bodied citizens
of Wellington, all willing and anxious
to work, coming together simultane-
Ously and actual suffering staring
them in the face. Something was
wrong.
We are confronted with a serious
condition. The first duty of the
| Chr istian was to relieve the distress
and the second was to search out the
cause and remove it.
First, he wanted to assign the liq
uOr traffic as one cause, although he
did not desire to dwell on that ST
long as to cause people to think that il
were the sole or leading cause. Tht
American people spent about $1,000,
100000 annually for liquor, which
would amount TO $40 per head anC
that much of the poverty and suffer
: ing could be attributed to that.
He then quoted from one whom h,
considered one of the greatest ora
: tor Of this country-One who cOulC
and had prObed as deeply as any on,
OF whom he knew and who coulC
, give the result of his researches Il
: the people as elOQuently as any mai
living; that man was John ]. Ingalls,
, He quoted from his famous speech il
, the senate on free coinage of silver il
: January 1891, describing the maSSiny
OF more than half the wealth of tn,
J country in the hands Of 81 200 peopl,
and from the same speech wherein
Mr.. ingalls, quoted from bis speech O
, February, 1878, in which he said VIZ
were on the verge of a revolution be
cause of the conflict between capita
and labor, showing how capital wa
intrenched behind years of enacted
privileges and was seeking to adjust
all values to its own standard" ad
ding parenthetically that in the ligh
OF the past few weeks capital abour
had them adjusted.
As an example as to how capita
was intrenched he cited the Unior
Pacific railroad, where the govern
ment loaned the corporation, mot
the farmer, the lawyer, the merchant
but the corporation, J $4,000, 900, TAX
ing second mortgage on which wa
now due slS,OOO,OOO interest, maxim.
in all s5lOOO,OOO. In order to saw,
, this for the people it was now neces
sary for the government to pay off
, the $S5,O0),O9O first mortgage and
: then those miserable Populist,
would laugh al US and say that wa:
government ownership of railroads "
Without theOrizing at length ht
: stated with great emphasis that he
believed the financial policy of thi
government for these few years pas
was as much at the bottom Of the
, present distress Of the people as any
thing else" Giving his audienc,
time to digest his remarks, he walked