The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-25

coins hippant declaration that "nobody is hurt
and that "nohody is suffering, u may be found in
the Appeal on behalf of the furnishing thousands |
of this city, which is made by the Association for
the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor,
and which we publish elsewhere. This is mat
ter on which what is popularity called "the inexo-
rable logic of facts, is brought to bear directly |
upon the question, and the statements thus Off |
cially promulgated derive additional force and
weight, from the fact that they not put forth to
promote political purpose, but solely in the inter-
est of humanity. The officers whose names are
attached to the Appeal, speak only of what they
have an actual knowledge Their records are
open to the inspection of the public; their agents,
the very men who have been brought face to face
with this restitution, testifying at the last monthly
meeting of the Association that 'they had en-
"tered the homes of honest, industrious mechan-
Tics, who had never known what want was be-
"fore, and had found their families destitute alike
''of food and fuel; that many persons acho in for
mer gears acere liberal contributors to tie Poor
Fund.- acre themselves petitioners for dsSistance
that those who were poor last year are doubly
poor now, and that owing to the general sagna-
ton in all branches of trade and business, the
usual number of persons requiring relief at this
season of the year was greater, in the month of
February last, by two thousand three hundred
and forty-siX, than for the same month of the
year preceding Would it be believed if the re-
cords of the Society did not establish the truth of
the assertion beyond controversy, that one person
in every twenty-five of the population, is in q
state of restitution? This, also, be it remarked,
comprises only those who have come within the
scope of the benevolent action of the Association,
and, ofcourse, does not include the thousands that
either receive assistance from other sources or res
olutey keep their sad condition from the bnowl-
edge of the community.
The following table gives a comparative view of the
operations of the Association for the months of December
January, February and March, for the years 1850 and
| 1861:
Number of persons relieved during Dec. 1852. 1925
Increase. 2i9
Number of persons relieved during Jan. 1860. 1873
| " " 1891. S,SS7
| 1ncrease..... NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., 900
Number of person relieved during Feb. 1860. S,222
g 1851. 10,56S
Increase. 2,s46
Number of persons relieved during Mar 1860 =. 4266
Increase for half of March, 1891. 734
| What the remainder of the month will show
must be left to conjecture until the next meeting
of the Association. 1t is plain, however, that the
| number Of worlmen thrown out Of employment
in this city at this time is far beyond all precedent,
and the question which demands an immediate
response is. what shall be done for them? If the
finances of the city were in that remarkably -four
ishing condition which Mayor SWAMI, just prior
4. l.
be, active employment might possibly be given
| to large number Of hands in the
struction of a new Almshouse, a new City Hall,
a McDonough Institute, and in improving the
grounds of Druid Hill; but as the million and
upwards which was TO speedily find its way into
the city treasury, has not yet been forthcoming and
as the exercise of the most rigid economy in all
departments of the City Government, is absolutely
essential 10 the preservation Of its credit, it is
manifestly impossible 10 embark in new undertake.
ings while trade is depressed, and the value of
every species of taxable property is rendered
uncertain by the unsettled condition of our ma.
tional affairs. Yet the Appeal of the Association
for the Improvement of the Poor must not pass
unheeded. In general, with the advent of the
! Spring, there has been renewed activity in all the
various branches of skilled labor; but one
knows whether those radical differences of opinion
which have led to the secession of the Gulf States
will result in peace war; in a reconstruction of
| the Union upon a new and more satisfactory basis,
or in permanent disruption of the Confederacy,
| and so long these doubts continue unsolved,
capitalists will withhold their means from
circulation, and trade and commerce must
langush. 1t is therefore, matter of paramount
necessity that whatever assistance be given
to our unemployed mechanics and working
men, should be freely and promptly be-
! slowed. 1t is not matter that admits of
delay, for the exigency is a pressing one, and the
cry of furnishing children for food is the saddest
cry in nature. The ground-tone of one of GLUCK's
most famous Operas was The cry of the Austrian
people TO their KAISER for bread 1t is the wall of
despair. Here, however, it is not likely that such
sounds will CRATE on the public ear. Our benevolent
Associations are unceasing in their endeavors to
afford such relief as the nature of the emergen-
cy demands, and that spirit which actua-
ted our people, in years past, to freight ships with
food for the use of the starving inhabitants of
Ireland and Madeira, will scarcely fail to display
ITSELF still more decidedly and literally, when the
call for aid comes from Society which has
been unwearied in its efforts to improve the con-
dition of the poor, and the donations which are
asked for are to be dispensed in our midst, under
circumstances which have no parallel in the annals
of this city.