The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-31
WORK VERSUS AIMS.

From hs NJ y. Tribune.
There is a more individual way of looking
at Work and Wealth than that given MS in
such strong and apt words by MIR. Hughes
she other evening, and one which just now
comes perhaps more directly home to u.s. The
larger classes of the lowest poor lie outside
of and below the reach of the trades unions
and cooperative societies; but it is from these
classes that the aggrega'e of want and crime
assails us. On the other hand, very few of
us are Peter Coopers or Ezra Cornells, but
every educated man and woman employs or
helps during the year one or two other men
and women of this lower, dangerous class.
As the cold weather comes on, the lines
between them in the cities become more
strongly marked; crime increases on the one
hand, and charity on the other begins to bestir
herself. Now, we would like to suggest
before the usual opening of winter aid
societies, fairs, and benevolent balls, that
charity implies quite as false q relation be-
tween the poor and the rich as crime. Soup
and coal societies, as everybody knows, are
mere plasters to stop the gaping of an incu-
rable wound. They put it out of sight for
the time, but never heal it. A long expert
ence in almsgiving is very apt to harden the
heart and sharpen the eyesight of the giver,
and cause him to doubt whether the quality
of mercy blesses either him that gives or him
that takes; it is much more likely to beget
lmpat1enC6 on one mana ana COQte0tm0Qt
with degradation on the other
In another week or two we shall be ad-
jured from every pulpit to remember the
poor" and the hackneyed appeal will be
echoed from every secular press. This is all
very praiseworthy, no doubt; but does it
reach the root of the evil? If one-half of the
money which will be given in New York this
winter to supply the immediate needs of
the poor was expended with the same amount
of system and earnestness of effort) in pro-
viding them with work here, or sending them
where they would find it, the amount of relief
would be incredibly greater, while the good
accomplished would be permanent. Another
point worth consideration is the universal
habit in this country of underpaying the
very class to whom aims are given. The
American and his wife are almsgivers from a
sort of animal, generous instinct; from in
stinct also they are over-shrewd in business,
fearful of being imposed on. Brown keeps
his book-keeper hanging over the verge of
starvation or theft on a salary of $1,000, while
he subscribes double that amount to the Home
for Orphans, which will some day take the
fellows children in as paupers; Mrs. Brown
haggles with her laundress over a shilling and
throws double the sum to the drunken beggar
at the door. Charity would begin at home
most effectually if it would spur each man in
New York this winter into paying living
prices 10 tDe TWO or three people he employs,
and if with the surplus which he has hitherto
i,eid aside for purblind, indiscriminate aims
giving, he would help some other man
into the way of honestly earning his own
living. Trades unions and cooperative So
cieties achieve great results, but the co-ope-
ration of every individual employer with his
hands, of every woman with her servant, if
genial, hearty and helpful, would accomplish
wider and grander ends. In the first settle
ment of the country the aid extended by the
richer to the poorer class was to educate their
hands; the farmer had his apprentices, the
housewife her ''bound girls, to train into
useful, self-helping citizens; now Dives
throws Lazarus meals victuals or coat to
his back, and is done with him.
Practically, we must return to this old idea
of charity before the problem of what is to be
done with the dangerous classes can be solved.
Only when the pauper is made self-support-
ing worker in the body polite is society safe
from him. We commend the theme to both
press and pulpit for the opening winter.
There are emigration societies and educa-
tional asylums already; but there is room for
more. Certain men are only charitable in
concert; let them work in concert here, rid
New York of tincipient thieves, and fill the
waiting fields of the West with honest men.
Certain women are only able to work in pri-
vate; they can find any day at their back
gates children who can be made into helpers
instead of hinderers in the world. eff thine
enemy hunger, feed him, is the old Divine
command. To teach him to feed himself is
more difficult, perhaps, but much more
effectual