The Labor enquirer., 1884-01-19
Words of the Great Scientist
and Humanitarian,
Krapotkine.
Pure Science Will Yield Fruit
for the Future Gener-
ations.
The Day Not Far Off When This
Will be Understood With
Socialism.

Compte, "Proletalre,r especially for the SaI
Francisco Truth; republished In THE EN-
oUIRER by special permission
1t is to the young people that / would
speak to-day. Let the old-the old il
heart and mind, be it understood
throw this aside, and not tire their eye
reading what will do them no good.
/ assume that you are about eighteen
or twenty years of age; that you have
finished your apprenticeship or your
studies and are about to enter OF life. ]
assume that you have minds free from
superstition, and don't go to hear
the harangue's Of priest nor Of parson
and what's more, that you are
not fops sad products of society
in declipe-who air on the side,
walks their monkey faces and swell
pantaloons, and seek only their own en-
joyment at no matter what price. as
sumo, on the contrary, that your heart is
in the right place and that is why ]
speak to you.
The question, know, which is upper.
most in your minds is, "What shall ]
become ?" This you ask yourself again
and again. In fact, when one is young
he understands that after having studied
profession spent years at a trade or a
science at the expense of society, note
it well, it is not in order to become an
exploiter and he must be very deprayed
even rotten with vice, who has not
dreamed of some day applying his In
telligence, his capacities, his knowledge
to aid in the enfranchisement of those
who are groveling in ignorance and
misery. 2s .
You are of those who have thus
dreamed. Is it not 50? Well, let us see
what you must do, that your dream may
become reality. .nu @
know not in what condition of life
you were born. Perhaps, favored by
fortune, you have devoted yourself to
study. And now the question is, shall
you become doctor, lawyer or literary
man, or man of science. "A vast field OF
action opens up before you; you enter ON
life with large knowledge and expe-
rienced talents. Or perhaps you are a
simple artisan whose scientific knowledge
is confined to the little he acquired
when at school but who has the advan-
tage of knowing by heart how hard is
the life working people have to live.
1 pause at the firstsupposition todWell
by-and- by on the second. assume that
YOU have received scientific education,
and would become, let us say, doctor.
Tomorrow workingman will come
to you to go and see sick woman. He
will lead the way to one of those narrow
streets where the neighbors ON each side
can almost touch hands over your head.
You climb up in the foul air, by the
Pickering light of a lamp, two, three,
four, five flights of stairs slippery with
slime and in dark cold den on bed OF
dirty rags, you find the sick woman
Her little children. trembling under
their rags, look at you with their. wide
open eyes. Her husband has worked all
his life twelve or thirteen hours a day
at no matter what labor, but work has
stopped these three months. stoppage
of work is not rare In his trade, on the
contrary it comes periodically every
wear but formerly when his work stop
ned she went to work at whatever she
could get to do, washed your shirts per
haps, and gained 80 cents day, but she
has been confined to the bed these two
months and misery stares the family II
the face. / --- - /
What will you advise the sick woman.
doctor2 You who have OWNED that tbs
cause of her illness is general anemia
the lack of good nourishment, the laci
of good air. Will you tell her she mus
have good beefsteak every day, gentle
exercise in the fresh air, very sunny
chamberP What irony! If she hao
been able to have these things she woule
have had them already without waiting
for your advice.
If you have good heart, an homes
look and frank tongue in your head
these poor people will tell you man.
things. They will tell you the woman
coughing on the other side of the part
ton with the cough that makes you
heart ache to hear, is poor ironer; tha
on the floor below all the children hay
the fever; that the washerwonan on tn
ground floor cannot live till spring, am
that next door it is still worse.
What will you say to all those sic
people2 Good nourishment, change
air. labor less exhausting. You woul'
like to say it but you do not dare, AM
you leave with your heart breaking AM
curses on your lips.
Next day you are still thinking of tn
tenants of the hovel when your partne
tells you that yesterday footman cam
for him with carriage. 1t was to Sc
the mistress of rich mansion, a lad
exhausted by sleepless nights, who de
voted her life to balls, dress, visiting an
quarrels with a drunken husband. You