Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1894-01-02

What is the problem Of charityP
That is the elementary question
which / ask you to consider. And
the first and most general answer
to this most general question is
this--that the problem Of charity
in the modern world is a vastly
larger thing than either the name
of the history Of charity might
lead one to expect. For many
centuries charity has occupied a
very limited and special field. It's
sphere has been bounded by the
practice Of almsgiving for tempo
rary relief. 1t has needed but
two elements: on the one hand,
the tender-heartedness Of the Civ
er; and on the other, the mendi-
cancy of the receiver. Let us
recognize the beautiful impulse
which such a work represents. 1t
is an impulse which has its his
torical beginning with the birth
Of Christianity. The solidarity
of the race became practical be-
lief. If one suffered, all suffered,
all suffered with him. The new
philanthropy created new men
delaney. Poverty grew by what
it fed on. Mendicancy came be-
fore long to be a profession, and
unproductive idleness to be one
mark of saint. The workers of
the world had to support an In
creasing number of these sacred
unemployed. There seemed to be
little yirture in making ones hon
est living, but great virture in Civ
ing aims to those who did not
make their living.
But in Western Europe and the
countries populated therefrom,
partly through a better under
standing Of Christianity itself, and
partly through the growth of the
scientific spirit, q new range of
opportunity has by degrees opened
before the work of charity. The
new forms Of industrial life, the
lastly greatey eomplexity of social
life, the increasing Wealth, the
manifold inventions and the dem
ocratic spirit of the last ffty years
have made for us a new social en-
vironment, with new problems
calling for new rules of conduct.
It is not that the earlier ideal
has had to be outgrown, but that
1t has had to be intelligently di-
rected. The old charity was sim
ply the unreAecting cf the sheer
emotion of pity; the new charity
directs this emotion along definite
economic lines. The old charity
satisfied the feelings Of the givel
by aims; the new charity educates
the receiver to do without aims
Often the most charitable course
is that which has the least social
ed charity about it. 1t is better
charity to find work than to relieve
want, better charity to teach I
trade than to encourage the trade
of mendicancy, better charity t.
provide stimulus for thrift than t.
make thrift unnecessary.
And now / 60 on to ask, ono
more, for definition of the con
duct thus described. What is thl
problem Of charity as it thus open
before us in this new breadth an,
scope? It is, / answer, twofol,
problem, ethics applied to econo
mics; the sense of duty introduc
ed as a dynamic into the compile.
} machinery Of the modern world
And what does this problem de
mand of charity2 1t demand
two elements, each perfectly dis
, tinct and each absolutely essential
One element is the method O
charity; the other is its motive
: The method must be the metho
(; Of business. 1t must not confic
: with economic principles; it mus
conform to them and reinforc
: them. The motive, on the othe
hand must be that Of ethics-th
same sense Of brotherhood whic'
once satisfied itself with almsgiy
ing, precisely as active in its inhu
I ence but diciplined in it's use.--
Francis g. Peabody.
DR.. Mary A. Saganums ha
been granted permission by th
Japanese government to practie
: as a physician in Nagaski. ID
Saguma is an American woma
who was graduated from a med