The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-02-06
ECONOMIC CLUB.
Papers On Organized Charities.
BY MRS. ALBERT TODD.

| t1e WOTiu Has cNCi hIOWHs foi OuiloJ anu
for humanity, and ''for humanity" is the
until ii breaks at the foot of the Great
White Throne.
The thou shafts and the thou shalt nOts OF
Mount Sinai have become ''love God and
love thy neighbour" q living, active princi-
pie i'm human affairs. But in spite of all eff
forts crime, poverty and disease still exist.
It requires no elaborate argument before
this club to prove that the highest impulse
of the human heart is that which impells us
to alleviate suffering and comfort sorrow.
The only thought which need engage our
attention is how we may become a part of
this onward movement, how help to swell
the current rather than remain shallow,
stagnant pool close to the shore.
The question before us this evening is
how best to afford relief to the needy ones
of this city, and if through the efforts of this
club, an organization for this purpose should
be formed we will have established as a
club, our rdisOn d'etfe. Our right through
practical use to our kind to exist.
Let our motto be f.. PI,u'ibus Unlin.
One society out of the many benevolent So
cieties and fraternities all working from one
| common centre and not sectarian. Don't
| let us have to stop and ask a man If he is a
| COngregatiOnalist or Methodist, soldier
| or Mason before we ask him IL he is hun
| cry. In unity there is strength.
| do not think this society should be under
| government, either national or municipal.
1t should not be corporation, but coop
Grafton of human hearts and sympathies.
| From Nationalist point of view, Count
Rumford's success in Bavaria and the broad
and comprehensive plan of the sO-called
German Colonies under the German Govern
ment for the prevention and relief of pau
pers is worthy of consideration.
The audacity of Gen Booths schemes fas-
cinate us, his past successes amaze us, this
man refuse, which other churches regard
with blank despair, the outcome of which
no man can see.
Out of my own researches and thought
am able to offer no more practical sugges-
| tiOn for definite organization than were
presented to us by DIR. COnOver at q previ-
Gus meeting. His plans and suggestions
modified by conditions and needs which may
arise, peculiar to this city, recommend them
| selves to us for various reasons. But most
of all by the past that they have proved sue
cessful
Our fourishng, booming city has been
extremely blessed with neither poverty nor
riches, made up mostly of comfortable but
small homes and wage-eamers whose in
comes and expenditures are about equal
| CThe best class of citizens city could possi-
bly, have). We are thrifty city and actual
destitution is still rare enough to make it
| possible to meet wants that are made known
| When through the sickness. death, lack
of work. or worse still, drunken habits of
the bread winner, suffering comes, there
are many kind hearts glad to help. BY a
| Joining of hands throughout the city we can
| form an electric current of sympathy with
| telephOnic center ut the common center of
the organization and much good may be ac-
complished.
Being of the opinion that both Mrs. Os-
burn and Mrs. Parkiil will serve you with
two good, honest pounds Of cure | would
| like to offer you the omen Of presentation.
1t is not so much the needs of the present
| city of OwOssO with its ten thousand inhab-
itants, but rather of the future city, with S
| twenty or thirty or forty thousand inhabit-
ants according to the power of your own
imagination, that would speak. Now, at
this very present time it is the power and
privilege of the present citizen to decide
in great measure what the future citizen
| shall be.
Although the laws of hcrcdty and en-
vironment are the cause of the greatest part
of the woes of mankind they also make pos
sible their alleviation.
The 10Th century reading of the ten COM
mandments are not only Thou shalt not
murder and thou shalt not steal" but ''See
TO it that thy neighbOrs' children and great
grandchildren do not murder or steal"
1t is an established fact that great por-
ton of the miseres of this world arise from
disregarding the laws of health and moral
ity. Knowing this ii is our duty as citizens
to aid and encourage those institutions such
as the churches, schools, the Y. M. G. A.,
and might add, the Economic Club, which
seek the elevation of the people, morally,
socially and intellectually.
AS a city we must look to il that our san
tary conditions arc perfect. Pure water,
good sewerage, rigid quarantine and a thor
ough knowledge of health laws instilled in
to the conscience of every child of the COM
ing generations will give us the promise of
the sound body without which we cannot
long have the sound mind.
The putting of our hand into our pocket
at every appeal or the setting out of a
square (more often O cubic) meal to a
tramp is self qualification and though
it gives us comfortable glow of benevO-
lence is often the making rather than the
relieving of paupers, necessities supplied eX-
ertions cease; even the busy bee fails to lay
up a store Of honey in the land where sum
mer rules.
If we could awaken in an oyster the desire
to learn to read we would hope soon to make
man of him. IL out of pure love he
should try to awaken the same desire in the
oyster on the rock next to him, we would
know that he would become man. The
truths OF evolution are strongly impressed
upon us, but IL is a good way up from the
original oyster TO manhood. Darwin has
erected ladder in his mind by which the
oyster may climb if he wants to. 1t takes
few hundred thousands of generations,
may be, but the facts remain, and all we
want is facts.
When a man can sleep under tree as
well as q roof, when he can get his daily
bread by picking up the bananas which lie
wasting on the ground, when he has no
winter TO provide for, it seems as though he
could not be reused to the energy and ac-
| tivitv which belong TO our modern idea of