The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-01-10
AIMS AND INJUSTICE.
HANC IN HAND IN THE GREATEST
COUNTRY ON THE GLOBE.
Unhappy Condition Of the People Viewed
Through the Eyes Of Sympathy-The
Gentle Dew From Heaven That Softens
Wrath-The Power For Good.


resorted to for the purpose of raising
funds for charity; never so much said,
done and written in the philanthropic
vein as now. And yet, with it all, there
is visible an uneasy. awkward reluctance
to admit in so many words that we are
bestowing charity by the wholesale and
must Of necessity continue doing so, or
see unpleasant, frozen corpses lying
round the streets and on our very door
steps. 1t is extremely embarrassing to
have to admit it, when even now our Pc
riodicals boast of our prosperity. We but
recently were engaged in our holiday re-
joicings, and none of us would give
up for moment that this is the freest
and greatest country on the face of the
globe. It is the national skeleton, and
we want to close our eyes to the fact
that it walks, even while we are trying
with our hands to push it back and lock
the door.
Out in Pullman, for instance, it is not
the proper thing to speak of restitution.
The Pullman company says, "There is no
want in the whole town of Pullman"
And so, of course, there isn't, but the
kind hearted quietly go about kindling
fires in blackened stoves, putting shoes on
little bare feet, eking out in various ways
the Deficiencies left after the company
makes it's returns for labor done in its
service just the same. The working peo-
pie there live in model" cottages and en-
joy the advantages of hot and cold water
pipes, gas fixtures, etc., but their hunger
and cold are no easier to bear than if they
lived in ordinary houses. And so the
kind hearted come in and relieve them,
but dare not call their efforts "charity''
or "relief," because that would offend
the members of the company.
But all over this big, abnormally grown
city charitable schemes are under way.
Meetings are held, subscriptions are So
icited, churches are kept open, all sorts
of impossible buildings are being turned
into barracks. Workingmen, clerks,
small tradesmen are giving their 81, s.
and $40 bills, when they do not know
that they are at all secure from needing
help themselves. Money raised in this
way looks such a pathetic little heap.
Twelve and Is years ago the feeling of
the general public toward tramps-i. e.,
workingmen out of a job-was entirely
different. Some of our readers will re-
member the Chicago Times wanted to
give them leaden bullets. The Tribune
advocated strychnine, and other papers
were equally savage. Nothing of that
kind appears today; even the old, wormy
tramp jokes have been eliminated. The
managers of different papers seem fairly
tumbling over each other in their desire
to offer the most practical schemes for
the care of the homeless. Why this won
derful, new, generous, all pervading
spirit?
Is there not under it all a vague, I'M
acknowledged, guilty fear; an appalled,,
terrible consciousness of something aw-
fully wrong after all our complacent
belief in our institutions and our sys-
TENS; startled sense of that black
specter, injustice, stalking over the
land; a despairing hope that some
brooding, incomprehensible storm may
be averted if we send charity to walk
after injustice and cover her ravages
with gentle dews from heaven? I can
feel the presence of this fear and hope
in every days events.
Many are merely startled to find such
vast numbers. Of needy at their very
doors, and hurry out to change a state
of affairs that will certainly be a dis
grace to the country if it were anything
but temporary. Others see one picture
after another Of misery, misery, misery,
and with only the deep, sweet, humane
longing to relieve in their hearts, with
no theories, no creeds, no reasons, no
prejudices, they go forth to do what can
be done.
And, ah! the pictures are so plentiful,
SO vividl If one sits down to write these
days, nothing presents itself but some
sorrowful vision. The dark scenes come
up one after another and blot out every
other thought or subject. It makes dis
NAL reading perhaps, but the stories
must be told over and over again if we
would make their truthfulness thing
Of the past. Even yet many are serene
and happy in the belief that everything
is as good as could be xpected-nobody
suffers unless he deserves it. Labor is
apathetic, and even labor's advocates are
not awake to the intensity of the situa-
ton. wish these could look on some
of the scenes of the last two months in
Chicago.
Think of 1900 men crowding into the
corridors of the city hall at night for
warmth, lying on those cold, dirty stone
pavements, hungry, worn, shivering.
aching and hoping for no cessation of
such suffering! Imagine the desperation
of hunger when these men, some of them
well dressed and accustomed to decency,
joined in terrible, scrambling, raging
fight over half a dozen sandwiches!
What bitter pangs of distress must these
unfortunates have endured! And in the
morning to be turned out where the
sharp lake winds searched out every
weak spot in the thin clothing, without
food or purpose or place to be; and,
what seems to me as hard to bear as any
misery, without means of bathing, clean
ing up, combing and making ones self
feel like man. These people were but
short time ago worthy, industrious,