The Labor enquirer., 1885-01-10

get The poor to Understand the real
causes Of their poverty, 80 that they
may themselves attack the disease in
stead of sitting hopeless while others
feebly palliate its worst symptoms.
Well, the Philanthropists may, first Of
all, be broadly divided into two kinds,
the old and the. new, or the uneconomi-
cal and the economical; the first give, I
think, with some pleasure in the act Of
giving. with pity also, and perhaps are
able to imagine the transient pleasure
which their gifts may confer on the poor
wretches that receive them; they have
of course no other hope than this tram
sient good done to individuals, for the
bitter words of the Judao- Christian
chronicler, "The poor Ye have always
with you,n convey to their minds no
taunt against their own privileged COM
fort, but are accepted in all good faith as
statement of providential fact, at which
neither the poor nor the rich have any
right to repine. These good souls are
clearly survivals from the alms-givers of
the medieval church, and sometimes
have share of the ,imaginatively pious
generosity of the days before the rise of
Capitalism drove both Catholics and
Protestants into mere hypocrisy ; doubt
less if ever they have heard Of Socialism
it has only been toshudder at its wick
edness; nevertheless we have no call to
class them as enemies, and may pass by
them easily, if for no other reason, yet at
least because they are nearly extinctand
have no principles to Impress on society,
and no power to impress them If they
had them. s.. .a +
q The other kindiof Philanthropists, the
economical kind, may again be sub
diy3dsd laIs e I'VE v 9; Aess esst snez Y.
and are the money-bdp Of the species.
giving sums which, though not very
large relatively to the profits which they
have squeezed out Of labor. look com
Portable enough to man of moderate
means; BUTT seems to me that they take
it, out in preaching, unlike the aims
givers of past times to whom suffering
was suffering, and to be alleviated how
ever it had been incurred, these men are
stern moralists, and from amidst their
luxury preach the virtues of Stole phil
osophy to the artisan and the laborer,
the minute and individually helpless
portions of the great proft-grinding ma
chine of labor. Temperance and thrift
are the gods which they set up to be
worshiped by the wage-slayes whose
hard earnings they. themselves waste in
vulgar ostentation and aimless, degrad-
ing luxury. From the unfothomable
depths of their stupidity they have ished
up the idea that the 'lower classes" can
be raised" that is, made permanently
servieeable as machines to be- depended
upon, by holding out to them the hope
of comfort founded on thrift and temper
ance, by which they mean if they knew
it, as they probably do not, life de-
graded by the meanest pinching niggard-l
illness. 1t is almost incredible that these
preachers should venture to preach
to working people and expect to be
believed; but it lis thought by some
that they are mostly not 80 much con-
scious hypocrites, as very specially cal.
lous and stupid rich men soaked through
and through with middle class prejudice.
There remains the second variety Of
the economical kind of PhiIanthropists,
who might be called Philanthropists
proper. | am sorry to have to say Of
them thatthey to a great extent accept
the doctrines of the preacher Philanthro-
pists; sorry because they often work
hard and disinterestedly at their wizened
scheme for the regeneration Of society i
as rule they would dsanything toward
raising the condition Of the workers
which would not involve an encroacE
ment on the profits Iof the capitalist.
They have madeup their minds that the
basis of society cannot be altered; and
this, coupled with the TACT that their well
intentoned work brings them face to-
face with the wretchedness of our So
ciety, drives them into des pairing cal
lousness which not seldom places them
IN an attitude very like hostility to the
people whom they mean to help. In
short their desperate efforts to ignore
the great fact Of tie antagonism Of
classes makes that fat the clearer to
those who have eyes t see. Their ideal
of comfort and deceng is SO low that
they are ready to acSpt as tolerable a
state of things that would be intolerable
except to a slave class their making the
best of 1t sometimes aoes so far tto ny
oorfo;n Lnoul adrol oost 4 ,o., 90 rofbor