The Labor enquirer., 1884-04-26
Charitable Dodges.
lstice, Oondon England.)

Ours, we are told, is the philanthropic
century century humane, benevolent,
fecund in good works the era of mis-
sions and moral rescues, negro freedom
and systematic almsgiving the mother
of Peabody's and Masons; the age of
arbitratlons, schools, hospitals, and model
prisons. In all this there is more cry
than wool, Examine, for instance, the
most boasted philanthropic movement
of the century-examine the efforts of
public and private ''charity" to lessen
the mass of penniless misery in England.
Let US grant, for the moment, that aims
giving is good in itself that it is beauti-
full and proper for the poor to owe their
petty comforts, if not their bread, to the
benevolence of the rich. How far, then,
is the loYeliness and righteousness of
almsgiving observed by those who have
aims to give2 Their efforts in that di-
rection are grimly ludicrous in their in
adequacy their efforts are but an at
tempt. If we allow that the attempt is
| honestly made, from sincerely human
motive, it is still blameworthy for its i'll
success. But honesty and sincere mo-
tives are more than can be fairly granted
to most almoners. The commonest form
of that almsgiving which has monopo-
lized the beautiful old name of charity
! is giving a beggar coin. How often he
gets the copper less from a sense of pity
than from a reflex selfshness on the
part of the donor, a desire to be freed
from the self-comparisons or the unpleas-
antness the sight of rags and hunger
brings How often the coin is given out
of the giver's dread of being thought
penurious or f1inty-hearted in withhold
ing it These are no honest motives
Then, often our Scrooges give "charit-
able" guinea, lest the state, on behalf Of
the poor, should demand a five pound
note. 1t pays in keeping down the poor
rate. And plutocrats are too polite to
leave the portentious misery Of "the
residuum" quite unalleviated; the gath
ering wretchedness might swell into an
avalanche storm of revolution might
lift the general level of hut and slum by
razing castle, bank, and villa. So the
astute capitalist and the wary landlord
effect, kind of moral insurance on their
property; they throw sop to the many
headed Cerberus in the shape of sub
scriptions and Observation-Disclosures; they
send their wives to play the Lady Boun-
tiful with doles of coal and flannel. Self
satisfied is the duke of Shortlease' s
smile as he reads his name on the last
subscription list He has built another
foodgate against revolution, repaired a
tottering dam, buttressed up that divine
institution, the peerage, and added to
his reputation for benevolence, philan-
thropY, etc. All this he has done at the
cost of a fractional perc entage of his
rent-roll, trifing sum he never needed
and might have been puzzled how to in
vest.
The merchant gives his slave, the
clerk, Christmas box guinea or. bet
ter still, turkey, is cheaper munif-
cence than another shilling q week in
wages would be. So the squire RENTS
that 20 per cent of rents which he dares
not exact, yet does not wish frankly and
permanently to forego; the newspapers
laud his generosity, and the conditions
of property in land are saved awhile
from dangerous scrutiny. In the same
spirit of holy and genuine charity the
millionaire manufacturer with an odd
few thousands builds and endows a
dozen almshouses for the widows of the
underpaid workmen whose time and
life-blood he has coined into gold.
Charity" wrote the Christian Social
ist, Paul, to the luxurious Corinthians,
"Charity seeketh not her own" (has no
cunning selfish ends in almsgiying) 'als
not puffed up" (neyer requires the pub