New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-02-12

= Washington Capital.
A Plan Of Cooperative Charity.
THERE are two classes of people who
need and should have assistance: First,
those who, through physicalincapacity,
are unable to provide for themselves
wholly or in part; second. those who
are able and willing to work, yet are
without employment. The first class
includes orphan children and aged peo-
pie having no friends or relatives able
to care for them, the sick, the crippled
and the like. These need the assist
ance of the charitable, and it should be
given kindly, and as abundantly as the
means of the charitable may Justify.
The second class includes some in tenn
porary want from accidental causes,
and vastly more chronically in want
through incapacity to compete with
average workers in point of skill, in
telligence, or endurance.
Is it not possible to employ the latter
class to their own advantage, and at
the same time as means for providing
more Complementary for the wants
OF those that are entirely helpless
this, too, without diminishing in the
least the productive value of the labors
of others3
Call the two classes respectively A
and B. Charity says that b should be
provided with work according to the
individual capacity of its members. 10
furnish that work requires capital and
supervision, which under the circum-
stances must be provided without
charge. Obviously it will not do for
charity to provide work beyond the de-
mands of trade and at the same time
pay the market rate of wages TO the
incompetent. That would hurt the
self-supporting classes certainly by d.
minishing the value of their labor,
possibly. also, by seriously diminishing
the demand for labor. For the regular
manufacturer to compete in the open
market with the products of organiza-
tons charging nothing for capital or
supervision would be impossible except
by paying his workmen less or working
them harder, neither. of which would be
Q satisfactory result of charity. On the
other hand, it would utterly DESTROY
the bene6cence of the nominally chart
table labor organizations, if the slight
est suspicion could arise that the man
ayers of it were specializing on the ne
cessities of the poor.
There are in any community, say,
one thousand men and women of class
B. They are out of work, and there is
no demand for their labor. Yet they
would be glad to do anything for the
time to gain an honest support. They
will work for half the usual rate of
wages rather than waste their time in
idleness or be an absolute burden
upon the charitable; and it is infinitely
better for them and for the community
that they should be SO employed in de-
fault of something better.
There are in the same community
larger or smaller number of class A,
whose wants are now meagerly sup.
piled by charity. Atpresent the larger
part of them affect but imperceptibly
the market for food, fuel, clothing and
the like. They simply 60 without, and
to considerable extent the members
of class b fall under the same rule.
Now we believe it quite possible,
without adding to the already heavy
burden upon the charitable, save in
organization and direction, also with
out materially affecting the status of
the self-supporting workers of the COM
munity, to make work for the unem-
.ploycd, for the better supplying of the
needs of both A and b. In this way:
Provide productive occupation for the
unemployed; pay for such work all
that it is worth; and use the products
Of it exclusively for charitable pur-
poses. So far as possible let the in-
mates of all asylums, hospitals and the
like be clothed by the labor of those
employed by charity. In like manner
let those furnished with employment
have the benefit of the products OF
charitable workshops. Also, SO far as
possible, let all outdoor assistance be
drawn from the same stores.
For example: A sewing woman is
out Of work. True charity would set
her to work for pay. But it will not
do for organized charity to furnish the
needed work and pay the same for il
as is received by the sewing woman
who finds work for herself. Nor would
it do to pay less and throw the cheap
.ened product upon the market to COM
pete with the unassisted work of the
self-supporting. But, by means of the
furnished work charity might secure,
with q given outlay of money, a double
good employment for the unemployed
and larger bounty for the helpless.
And it would also furnish suitable
means for sitting out from the deserv-
ing poor the lazy and undeserving.
The wider the association Of such
charity workshops, the wider the
range Of employment that might Be
furnished, and the greater the aggre.
gate benefit. And, by means Of them,
willing workers out Of work through
the natural operations or misfortunes
OF trade would run no risk Of pauper-
Ism; and at the same time their limited
pay might be made to 70 much further
than otherwise in supplying their me-
cessities, without cheapening III the
least the value Of independe nt labor. -
Scientific Anserican.
piece Of good news from South
Carolina IS the announcement In the
Governors message that the attend
5ance upon the public schools last wear
VS. nearly 1000 greater than the year
before. &
q