The Newtown bee., 1894-03-16
CAUSES OF PAUPERISM.
A LECTURE BY REV Q. W, BARKER.

Rev 0. W. Barker was the speaker al
 Glover's hall on Tuesday night. He was
 introduced by Rev O. O. Wright.
 Among other facts he brought out were the following: Is Herbert Spencer
 right? Let the poor alone, he says; cease
 meddling with the problems of poverty
 let the individual work out his own sal
 vation; do not continue shielding men
 from the consequences of their own fol- | ly. The advocates of Spencer's idea
 would not abandon the unfortunate; but
 they would limit relief sto private char 1 ity, claiming that the State is not in any
 way responsible for the evils of industrial poverty or misfortune.
 Is Marx right? The school of Marx represent modern socialism and they say
 the state is responsible for the evils of industrial poverty and misfortune; it is
 the business of the state so to regulate industry that no man shall be compelled
 to beg for work, or to labor simply for
 the necessaTies of subsistence, or be
 haunted by the fear of future want.
 Spencer says let every man bear his own
 burden; Marx says let some one else
 bear the burden for him; Spencer says
 poverty fs the crime of the individual,
 Marx says poverty is the crime of the
 State.
 lS pONCIbN d Is lb bIlt SOSIdl
 hell enguifing more victims than pesti-
 lence or war?' In answering let us make wide distinction between poverty and
 pauperism. The pauper and the poor
 man stand at opposite poles; the whole
 stretch of manhood lies between them.
 Jesus was poor because He identified
 Himself with the commonest and hum~
 hlest life to show that this may be di-
 vine. Jesus and His disciples were poor,
 but they were not paupers. The pauper
 is really drone and thief, who wants to live by the industry of others.
 From this view the great social prob lem resolves itself to this: What shall we do with the lazy? The lazy live not only in novels and cellars, they are found in palaces as we'll; they dress not only in rags and tatters, they walk in brOadclOth and ve vet too. The millionaire does not make the tramp, but the idleness encouraged In the home of the rich reappears in the beg gar of the street. The eXtirpatfUn of poverty has never been, and iS not now, one of the Utopinn schemes ot Christianity; but laziness Is to bC fought to the bitter end!
 Poverty cannot be argued down nor legis lated out of existence. Every man is born poor and dies poor. If there is one thing man is forced to do, it is to work for living From the necessity of caring for himself and those dependent upon him no man should eX poet exemption. So long as this law holds, TOU will always have the poor with you.
 Those who can work and will not should be uflNpn into the held The ahIe-DOdiet bGggar IS the vampire of society, that class of men who think the world owes them living and | devote their little energy to collecting the debt. Every nun must be made to under l stand that thelC is no bread unless he works for 1t, that life Is struggle, that this law is divine; then only will puuperism disappear. |
 The state is not charged with the duty of l feeding men nor of providing work tor them, l but it cannot escape the responsibility of l clearing for every man the path of honest en- | deaVOr. It has many times been clearly | proved that the ranks of pauperism are re | cruiied rom those in whose character intellt- | geHCc, Selt-rcsp"ct and Self-contrOl are not | sufficiently developed. The causes of pauper- | ism, therefore, for which the state is at least | partially responsible are illiteracy, over | crowdmg in cities and incompetence.
 The common school is one of our national | institutions. Every election makes it clear | CT that universal education must attend uni | vcrsal suffrage An uneducated freeman is a | confusion of terms. Education must be com | pulsOry and adequate as well as universal. l Many oIout NorIheFh cltles nave no truant l law, cannot get one, and would not know | what to do with one if they had it. The eye | and hand must be trained as well as the req | son developed and tho'mcmOry strengthened. |
 Over crowding is first lioutenat in the army | oi paupers and Deggars Tn which lntemper- | ance holds the captaincy. lntermperance | herds men and women together in cheap, | SCunty, unwhOlcsome quarters, while the | foul air, dark passage ways, cheerless and | crowded chambers encourage the free use of l stilnulants for stupor. Twenty-two thous- third the population, and from these crowded | stalls come over B per cent of the city's dead | and 20 per cent of it's criminals.
 lntcmperance holds the citadel of pauper- | ism. From so to s5 out of every hundred, in | cluding the insane, that find their way to the | poor house and he prison, are the graduates | of the saloon. The burden which the drink | traffic imposes on this country is expressed | ivy the enormous sum of SI 400, ,0OO OOO. The | saloons produce no wealth; but the | miner strikes one blow out of every | nine, the farmer ploughs one furrOw | out of every nine, the woman at the loom | turns out one yard of cloth in every nine, to | keep the saloons running. Is surely as 1 slavery was smitten by the bolt of judgement, the fire Of Gods fearful wrath will lean upon this fercer tyrant.