The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-10-27
FANTASTIC REMEDIES.

II ANa1Ah Va -
to which the Journal has made refer
ence has imbued a great many people
with the idea that some plan can be de-
vised by which all suffering, p~rivation
and poverty can be banished from soci-
ETY.. None Of these people have, as far
as we are informed, presented a definite
scheme for bringing about this much
desired object. They talk vaguely of
the interference of government as
shadowed forth in Mr.. Bellamy's book.
They seem to think that a government
of the people will be SO much more in
who have created it that it will go for
ward and treat the masses as wards.
They assume that the railroads can be
run better by the government than by
their wners. They seem certain that
the thing which they call government
can, whether the people to whom it be-
longs like it or not, reOrganize
the whole fabric of society, and
ordain that all men shall labor, or put
their earnings into a common stock, to
be divided equally among ALL, A patri-
archal government might undertake such
a change, but a government by the peo-
pie will not submit to such guardianship,
even if they should choose a government
wise enough to undertake reforms or
changes which ignore the controlling ele-
ments and passions of the human race.
We might conceive of a better human
- - W &c.,
some of its impulses, but that cannot be
done by ignoring them. In all efforts
for the lettering of the condition of
humanity we must accept men and
women as they are, and, moreover, we
must come to the conclusion that the
only basis of plans for eliminating pow
erty and vice, which will prove effective,
is to accept human nature as it is.
and educate rather than eliminate it.
What is needed to-day is not theory,
nor government, nor any other foreign
agency, but the true education of the
people. So long as homes are wretched,
and intemperance and other vices pre-
vail, no general elevation of the people
can be counted on. We deplOre poverty,
and benevolent people give time and
money to alleviate individual cases
and lessen suffering in communities, but
they will lament that they are not able
to lessen the army of the poverty
stricken and the needy And they will
not be able to do so until people are so
educated and elevated that cities will
no longer pay more money to the grog-
shop than to the bakery. Poverty and
squalor, wretchedness and vice, will
stalk abroad so long as wage-workers
spend an average of 20 per cent. of their
earnings in the saloons.
What can be donef Shut down on the
trafic7 Yes, if public opinion will sus-
tain it, and, if it does not, all effort in
that direction has been and will con-
tinue to be fruitless. The victim must be
reached; or, if he is past redemption,
his children must be led into better
ways. Better homes for the poor will
keep the children out of the street,
while the value of abstinence must be
taught in the public schools. The self
respected those who are poverty-stricken
because they are improvident must be
touched. In short, humanity must be
elevated itself so that it will desire
higher and cleaner living, and will
make an effort to escape poverty before
better things can be expected. The in
fuence of home, of education, and of
religion must be brought to bear upon
the suffering and crime which comes of
poverty. In short, discover some means
by which the humblest, as well as the
highest, may be moved by the sublime
sentiments of the Sermon on the Mount,
and there will be no need for discussion
of fantastic theories.