The Labor enquirer., 1886-01-09
POVERTY IL \ CRIME.
Arrested and Fined for seeking Work
We Must Expect Dynamite When
This Prevails.

Labor Leaf. /
six young men were found guilty in
the recorders court to-day Of hanging
around the front door of the Russell
house and soliciting drummers to carry
their sample cases. The nuisance has
been intolerable. Two of the offenders
went to the house of correction for
twenty days. The others paid$1 fine
each. Evening News, Dec. Z.
Six young men upon the public high
way because it happens to be before a
high-toned hoteI) are arrested and found
guilty of the terrible crime Of seeking to
earn an honest living. They are fined
81 each, and for the want of that dollar
two Of them are sent to the house Of cor.
rectlon to dwell among thieves for
twenty davs. This is land Of freedom,
and in state where thousands of acres
of land, on which men might earn liy-
ing (land that nature gave to all alike)
lays idle and is kept idle bv the dog in
the manger spectators who hold it.
This in land of churches, whose pas
tors are lamentin2 that they mustpreach
to empty benches.
Great God is it any wonder that the
churches are empty and prisons full, and
crime in all its hideousness stalks over
the land?
Isitianyi wonder that men become ex-
cited and threaten to wreak their ven
geance on society with dynamite when
to seek for honest labor where itmay be
found is considered crime?
For long time it has been held
crime to be found begging on the streets
in Detroit, and now it is considered a
crime to seek employment in certain
localities that the seeker NAV earn an
honest living Is this not offering a
premium for real crime He that
%npanly asks alms or ena:,inyrnart 10 salfso-
to be discovered and possibly fined or
imprisoned. But he that pliers your
goods or blows safe may 60 undis-
covered.
Then would it not be folly for one to
be known criminal when one might 60
undiscovered and be independent
What can we expect but crime in
land where high-toned scoundrels can go
unpunished, though they might be in.
dicted by a hundred grand juries :?
What can we expect but the unlawful
use of dynamite in land where judge
can find law to fine and imprison hon
est workmen seeking to earn living,
but cannot find law to try high-toned
criminals? What can we expect where
the churches spread the mantle of Chris.
tianity over the shoulders of the usurer,
the wheat gambler, the adulterer, and
the land thief? d
They do this by harboring them in
the churches and by refusing to openly
make war upon these wrongs. t.F
Let the church people openly attack
these wrongs. Let them look a little to
the temporal welfare of the masses, and
the people may have some confidence
in their professed solicitude for their
spiritual welfare. 80, "
The world owes nobody a living: but
it owes everybody chance to make a
living. If society makes laws allowing
the few to own the land that was given
by nature to all mankind alike, then,
through legalized customs, makes it i'm
possible for men to get work, and makes
it crime to beg, what right has society
to complain when the estitute work
ingmen turn criminals? Is it not So
ciety that brings them to crime?
rH \ ~ LYMAN E. Stowe.
DETROIT, Dec. Is.
@r.- What He Saw. r..