The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-02-23


We publish elsewhere thoughtful article
from our ingenious contemporary. the Sun Mr.
Dana elAborates great idea. which cannot be
too widely discussed II comes from him with
more emphasis because he has striven ear
nestly during the present unhappy time to
lead to the relief of the suffering. and has
evidently thought anxiously over the best
means of doing 80.
MI. Dumas great idea Is not as important
now as it may be in the future. We entirely
concur with him that "if the best thing we
can suggest to help people who are suffering
hunger and restitution from want of work is
to ladle soup out to them, we should say we
are to be pitied for our want of sense almost
as much as the poor are for want of work. :"
This is a sound principle. We cannot perma-
nently remedy the wants of the suffering poor
in New York by any system Of relief like that
now in operation. by the founding Of soup
houses or the random distribution of any char
acter of bounty. But we must alleviate suffer-
ing and then remedy the cause. When pesti-
lenoe breaks out in the community the first duty
is to go among the sick and minister TO their
wants. After the pestilence then we can look
into the sanitary conditions and see wherein
We have offended them and how we can eradi-
cate the offence. There is an immediate as
well as an ultimate duty. The first is to re-
ieve, the second to prevent. Nothing. for in
stance, could be more absurd as q general priu-
ciple of political economy than the sending
of ships laden with -four and breadstuffs to a
country like Ireland, as was done in 1848
All the breadstuffs in America could not affect
in the least the grave social and political
problems expressing Ireland. A famine is
impending in India. In a.few weeks mill
ions of Asiatics will die from starvation un-
less England succeeds in affording artificial re-
lief by sending rice to Bombay. just as soup is
sent to the Seventh ward. And yet for q gov
eminent to adopt the policy of sending rice to
India as matter Of administration would be
to violate the plainest laws Of administration.
The way to avoid famines in India is not to
send rice to Bombay. any more than the
ladling of soup in the Seventh ward is the way
to improve the comfort and prosperity of its
inhabitants. But calamities had fallen upon
India and Ireland, corn and rice became
necessary, and, Notwithstanding ali that was
done by private and public influence. there
was only a partial relief in Ireland, as we
fear greatly there will only be q partial
relief in India.
New York affords parallel case. A calam-
ity has fallen upon the city. 1t came with
the last panic. No one supposes that any
amount of soup will do away with the effects
of the panic or make US secure against its
recurrence. But thousands of men, who
entered the summer assured Of employment
confident in the solvency of the great houses
and associations who commanded their labor,
found themselves suddenly out of employ
ment 1t was not their fault any moro than
it was the fault of the Irish peasant that the
blight destroyed the potato, or the fault of
the Hindoo that rain did not fall in Bengal
1t was simply calamity, visitation of God
to them, menacing thousands with want and
starvation. There is no large city in the
world with so small q pauper class as New
York. As a general thing our poor. no
matter how poor, are free from the necessity
of begging Mendicancy is revolving to the
mind of the humblest workingman. When,
therefore, we see mendicancy, it means far
more than it would mean in other communi-
ties. When this winter began there was
scarcely a highway where we did not find
beggars. They we're not professional beggars,
because we really have no such class in New
York. They were simply honest, poor,
worthy men, driven to beg or die. And when,
instructed and warned by these symptoms,
we set on foot an inquiry into their causes,
the result was painful and appalling.
We discovered that a large, worthy and
most interesting class of our people
was on the brink Of universal want.
Of course if we had known this last
summer-if we had known, among other
things, that Jay Cooke aud the Spragues and
others were going TO fail; that we were to have
panic in all business, the shrinking of val
ues, the paralysis of industry and the sudden
throwing Of thousands of worthy men out Of
employment we could have devised the wisest
remedies. There would then have been time
for the elaboration and fulflment of Mr.
Dana's great idea and of the ideas of other
thoughtful men. But when the truth came
upon us we had no time. Immediate relief
was necessary. Mr.. Dana argues that as
general rule, those who want soup do not de-
serve it; that the decent and industrious
workingman would only go for soup in ''the
last extremity" This is perfectly true, and
we can best describe the situation by calling
this ''the last extremity" Mr.. Dana has only
to visit one of these institutions to see that
those who seek their aid are not 'the vaga-
bond poor" Would, indeed, that they were
only the vagabond poor, or that we had no
poor but those who became so from vagabond
ways-''the helpless, blighted members Of the
race, the chronic poor and dependent" The