Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-01-26

dlScOvererS OF tnat yre1t medtctHe, mop
Bitters, are honored and blessed by all
as sbenefactors-Democrat
The County Aims House Ques.
ton.
MEssRs. EDITORS The public are
certainly under obligations to you for
the generosity which prompted you to
open your columns to the discussion OF
the aims house question, both pro. and
con-, in order that such information in
relation thereto may be gained as shallbe
necessary to the formation of an intel
ligent and just judgment on the subject.
With your permission, | would say
that | am decidedly in favor of the aims
house, for these reasons:
|. The maintenance of the INDECENT
poor is a duty which is not just indi-
vidual or local, but general and even
universal. No one person any more
than any other person is morally bound
to extend the hand of charity to the
needy, unless, it may be there is some
natural connection or relationship with
the corresponding ability to do so /; and
no one particular locality or neighbor-
hood is under a greater moral obliga-
ton than any other to care for The poor
that may happen to have gained resi-
dence in it, for the locality or neighbor-
hood cannot be blamed for the poverty
that my happen to exist in it; and so,
as no one township or borough more
than any other to1 nship or borough ia
chargable with the poverty of its inhab-
itants so, no one township or borough
more than any other township or bor-
ough is morally bound to take care OF
the poor that may be destitute in it.
We know that the obligation is impos-
ed by the law because there is no Other
way Of providing for the needy poor
but we speak of the moral character Of
the obligation as that which makes ii
just or unjust, as the case may be.
If the poverty which prevails in any
district be chargable to the character OF
the soil or climate; or if it be on account
of the isolation of such district, then
the greater need there is that the bur
den of the care of its poor be shared by
others more highly favored and more
wealthy. There are districts iato which
certain class of poor gather because
that rents are low and tenements are to
be hired, for the very reason that bnsi,
ness is dull and wages low, the very
things which in due time make the poor
poorer, SO when work fails altogether
or some affective providence occurs they
became objects of charity and must be
provided for. Such districts, as a
matter of course, are less able to care
for their poor and cannot do it without
burdening tax payers; hence there
ought to be, in justice, distribution OF
such burden, and such distribution can.
not be more equitably made than by
laying it upon the whole county, or
even if it were possible, upon the who's
Cammonwealth.
2, Maintenance for the INDECENT poor
should be provided without ou.raging
their feelings or degrading their man
hood or womanhood. How shameful
and outrageous the practice of selling
out the poor practiced in many districts;
and, very often, the very persons who
bid them in have ne regard at all foT
the poor but only for the price or their
keeping. Here and there pauper has
good home and is treated well, but
the many suffer from neglect and i'll
treatment They are made to feel that
they are burden and despised, until
they wish they were dead Some, 1t is
true, do not show much feeling on the
subject, others "suffer like dumb dogs,
in sullen silence ;" but there are those
who have become poor and dependent
by adverse providences or by reason of
age or increasing infrmity. They have
good minds and remember their former
hott9r lot and grove all the more a.
they are taunted or abused on account
of their poverty This would not be
the case in retreat provided for the
destitute at the public expense and pre-
sided over by intelligence, prudence and
Christian charity.
3. The maintenance of the INDECENT
poor should not be provided without
prudent respect to some recompense.
The taxes paid by the districts OF
the county for the support of the poor,
az it now is, are without the least pub
lie benefit indeed, they often go to
maintain those who are as able to work
and earn their living as many who
have the taxes to pay. This would
not be so much the case if their were a
farm on which TO provide labor fo- such
and house in which to utilize the help
that certain classes Of the poor could
well furnish.
Many of the poor could earn their liv-
ing, or do considerable towards it ;
most of them could do something to
lessen the expense of their keeping to
some extent; while the employ ment
they would have would do them good
in any extent.
Provided for as they are at present,
there is scarcely district in WHICH the
tax payers do not complain of one or
more who seem to be purtured in idle
ness while they are evidently able to
work. The overseers are not to blame,
for they cannot provide them with work
at wages, no one wishes TO hire half
hands, and especially y,notpauper hands.