The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-03-30
The Problem Of the Ages.

For ye have the poor always with |
you.-Matt., XVI IL.
Does this mean that we not only |
do have the poor with US, but that
we always shall have them? Is pov-
erty consequence of social organi- |
cation or is it simply the result Of
bad methods and policies? If society
were to be reconstructed on principles
of high morality would painful pow
erty still inhere in the system?
The lower sections Of New York
are constantly unrolling tragedy,
and the question is, VIII it always
be SO, or is there remedy which can
be applied when public sentiment
becomes strong enough to demand il?
Mr.. Jacob Riis recently ventured to
make the assertion that one-tenth of
all who die in this great and wealthy
metropolis are buried in Potter's
Field. This seems startling, for be-
hind such burial is long and fruit
less struggle against odds. The rich
sometimes grumble in an environ
ment whichis adorned by half dozen
Aladdin's lamps, but how many wage
earners would feel themselves pecu-
liarly favored if they could be assured
steady work and even hard work to
the end of their days? These things
are purely relative, and the million
naire thinks himself ilI-used with an
income which would drive ninety
hundredths of the community insane
with delight.
There is no doubt that the chief
happiness of life is derived from the
daily effort to win in the fight; from
J encounters on the speculative skir-
mish line and from pitched battles in
which fortunes are lost and won.-
Business men, as rule, enjoy the
years when they are making money
more than the years after they have
made it. The same principle runs
through all classes, for activity is
health and idleness is disease, and the
laborer is at his best when work is
pressing and constant and wages are
reasonably remunerative. 4 comm
nifty Of idlers would be an aggrega-
ton of idiots. To have too much
money is as demoralizing as to have
too little, though most people would
like to try that interesting expert
ment. The glory of America is that
it is a workaday nation, all its citi-
{ zens being busy from morning to
: night, the merchant and the artisan
: having good appetites and capacity
for sound and dreamless sleep.
But even here the struggle for ex-
istence is in certain cases appallingly
pathetic. Some philanthropists visit
/ ed the slums awhile ago and told the
) story with blanched cheeks. Life
E is not merely dramatic, they said, it
! ! is tragic They felt for few mo-
G ments that society had nothing more
] important to think of than this vexed
problem of poverty and no higher
;, duty than to devise means Of succor.
They went into hotbeds of crime
where children wallow in moral filth,
their only inheritance tendency to
l. evil. Can those little one be saved
before it is too late? What are the
churches doing? Why are they not
alive to the danger of the situation
:, They hunt heresy with unerring in
stinct; why not hunt souls with equal
persisteney? Our little company were
stifed in the atmosphere of sweating
establishments, watched young girls
Y with pale faces and trembling finger:
stitching the hours away for the crns
OF starvation. They saw the reason
why SO many fall from virtue and hal
excused the surrender Of honor fol
the price of loaf. Then they felt il
=, their temporary enthusiasm that char
ity is sluggish. that generosity is mig
gardly and that the pulpit doctrin'
of membership is one great family o