The record-union., 1893-10-07
POVERTY And PHILANTHROPY.
What True Charity Is-The Coming
Winter.
How to Relieve Distress, Employ
Labor and Reap Great Re-
ward by So Doing.

IL ACA4NH 3 10 d large part OF ser
mon preached last evening in the Syna-
gogue by Rev. B. a. Elias. 1t is worthy
the attention Of all. As a means to relieve
distress and wisely aid the unemployed,
he advises the road construction plan that
the convention to meet on the I7th inst.
Is called to consider. He gives sound
reasons for the employment of the poor
being deemed the very wisest, best and
humane form of charitable relief Mr..
Elias said:
This subject had been suggested by the
recent Labor Day celebration in this city.
Inc signs OF the times were Enthusiastically
pointing to a crisis in our history-a
Crisis that might be fraught with dire
calamity, and which it was everybody's
duty TO try and avert.
Inc religious tendencies of the age were
IN the direction of sociology rather than
LneoIogy-earthward rather than heaven
ward. Social reforms are now to the
front. The problem of poverty and its
remedy IS one that comes home to each of
US. Poverty is a disease OF the social
organism OF which charity is the remedy.
!t Is disease that can only be slowly
healed; violence may cOnVulse, but ex-
perlence has shown that it cannot trans
form.
Poverty arose either from misfortune
or from fault. 1t was the former with
which we were more intimately con-
cerned. 1t is a difficult problem to
solve, and all are agreed that it is assum-
ing gigantic and dangerous dimensions,
and which, if not soon remedied, a state
OF affairs may soon obtain among US that
must shock society to its very founda-
tons. No wonder that every new scheme
that promises a solution is heartily well
coined in these days.
The idea of the Indebtedness of wealth
to poverty is spreading. From being an
act OF grace charity is coming to be recog-
nIZed as one Of the most elementary of
social obligations. This is the key to the
whole difficulty. The new temper is the
result of the awakening of the industrial
classes. The discovery that labor has its
rights, has led to the recognition of the
truth that poverty has its rights, too. The
civilized world is going back to the old
Jewish idea stereotyped in the Hebrew
word for "benevolence," a word which,
literally translated, should be rendered
Justice"
In forming this enlarged conception of
philanthrOpic duty, society is only keep
ing pace with the necessities Of the poor,
and with the difficulties of the problem
OF which they are the concrete embodi-
ment.
The poverty around us is heart break
ing. Not because of its extent, but be-
cause of its seeming incurability. The
luxury of the age only makes this pov-
erty sadder by force Of contrast.
And what is done to remedy it? Much
impulsive charity is given, but this is
little better than criminal benevolence."
Many people make the mistake of think
ing that charity means giving money
To beggars." Most beggars are inn
posters. You cannot infliet a greater in
jury on a man than to do for him what
he ought to do for himself 1t takes
trouble sto discover deserving cases,
hence there will always be much harm
ful distribution.
In speaking thus, the preacher had no
desire to depreciate pity. What he wished
to emphasize was the fact that the sad
dest element in the problem was not the
misery of the poor, but the difficulty of
removing it: the uncertainty of reaching
IL. "Ihere are thousands of willing
hands longing to grapple with the evil
which, phantom like, is ever eluding
their grasp. Money is lavished in abund-
ance, yet the poor are not sensibly less
poor.
''How are we to close this gaping
mouth? How eradicate this poverty,
whose roots are entwined in the very
foundations of our social organization?
How are we to do good to the poor with
out doing them harm as well; how give
them the blessing of sympathy which
shall not. by sapping their self-reliance,
prove curse; nay, how distinguish the
true poverty from the false; how guard
against the endowment OF idleness and
crime, in the attempt to raise the indus
trious and the deserving?"
The answer to these questions had yet
to be given. The most serious attempt
that had ever been made to answer them
was that of General Booth in his Darkest
England" scheme. To his everlasting
I. cof1 hot a.,
to-day in its ''social' work was doing
more to solve the question OF poverty and
its remedy than all the churches put to-
getner.
But even if such attempts to deal with
misery in the mass be successful, there
will always remain large amount of dis
tress that has been passed over. These
can only be reached by individual exer-
tions. The ideal social state is one in
which every prosperous person will have
as his clients one or more families among
the humber classes, whose wants it will
be his business to satisfy, whose perplexi-
ties it will be his duty to relieve. Nor is
It an impossible condition. All that is
needed is that men be brought to a sense
Of their personal espOnsibility in the mat
er. to a knowledge of the truth. That
he highest expression of religion to-day
s'to undo the heavy burdens, to let the
oppressed go free and to break every
yoke"
'.You will, every one of you. am sure,
assent to what / have been saying, and
the thought may have arisen in your
minds. How can we put this noble con-
ception of religion, this ideal charity,
into effect?' You have, my friends, the
opportunity at your very doors. Itis
startling fact that there are in this city
Il 600 Osonls-one-half Of our entire popula-
t1on-who actually depend for their daily
bread upon the daily work of the bread
winner. If this work should at any time
and for any reason cease, they will have
to go hungry.
.The coming winter bids fair to be
very hard one for the laboring classes. 1t
is said on apparently good authority,
that it may be the worst in the history of
the state. Our railroad shops are rum
nino on little more than half time, Hun
dreds of idle men are abroad in our State,
looking for work which is not here to be
GIVEN them. There is something wrong
with our whole system. We cannot
rioht it all at once, but some remedy will
have TO be found or the lowering clouds
that threaten destruction on every side
will soon burst upon US.
aYou may think am an alarmist, but