Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-02-13
= rnnn AGAINST THE POOR.

maIntaln tnlS lHSeAeN0 of succoring the poor aud of this county, brings to the surface a question which the public are ignorant of, in the law that is at present in existence gov erning it. From the statute the following extract is taken:
 That all persons who are apPh- cants for public charity, whether for admission to the County Hospit- sI or for out door relief shall make af;davit before some officer of the county authorized to administer oaths. that such applicant IS sick noor or disabled and unable to pay for subsistence, care and medical attendance or either, as the case mav be. provided that any. person knowing the facts may make such affidavit. The above law will at first sight carry no significance with it. Upon consideration, however, it becomes plainly apparent as one filled with great injustice and wrong. It saws to the man who owns an hum- ble home in the hills or among the rocks of this section, you must how in submission to 1t, or, Tn other words, the cares and trials YOU battled with once, you must continue to bear in duty and serEl- tude. No distinction is made ln this law, between admitting the poor of this country or the poor ot a foreign land. All are just as welcome to share it as the poor outside of it have to suffer in main taining it. It is as wrong in prlncl- ple as it is abusive in practice. II an institution is to be created and sustained by levying on the tax pavers of a community, the bonafde residents are the ones who should receive the benefit of the charity extended. To say to even the distressed and stricken unnatural ized person that he is welcome to come and share the comforts ot oul county home and seek the charity within it, may be only natural and humane, but whenever it is extended it is nevertheless an insult to the deserving poor who are made stlL poorer by 1t. In every valley and in every guict throughout this county, what IS t' he seen to-day. There are home to be sure, but what are they. The. represent the toil and labor o wears. of a life blessed only wit strife and an existence still curses with poverty. In many instance in Yapapai, what prevails anon hundreds of the men who with thei families are located among us en deavoring to make living and hay a home. They do not own even th ground on which they live, an furthermore could not secure even if they wished to. Not da passes by in this city when thei condition will not be wildly show and plainly proven in the numbt who are to be seen struggling wit their limited means and resource in endeavoring to dispose of the products, reared by hard labor an encouraged only by privation. l say to these citizens you mu serve the afflicted of other lant and take from your own hearl stones the fruits of your labors, u poor to be supported by the DO in othar words, is repulsive to a fair minded men and rebuke
 American citizenship. If a man unfortunate enough to be poor al desires to avail himself of t charity of the country he has fall in. there are other questions to
 considered aside from that of hi being merely of foreign birth. It the question of abuse the above l' is put to at the expense of chari1
 In past years it is said that
 class of paupers, both native a foreign, have been quietly shiPp to this section from other localiti' for no other purpose than to ceiye the comfort and care of ins tutions which are maintained by tax on the people of this coun Their citizenship or their resider may be of only 8 day, but no d tinctjon is made in that. They taken in as willingly as though tn condition had been known for definite lime. The injustice ot t becomes the palmer as it is so
 dustriously followed.
 We believe that in justice to taxpayers, and particularly tn
 who are only made still poorer
 their obedience to the payment
 this tithe, the present law shor
 receive an entire change and
 thoroughly reconstructed.
 If a person of foreign birth
 one of citizenship is desirous of
 tering this home, let him be idel
 fed long enough with the conn
 nity he asks aid of before he is
 mitted to its home.
 If it be the intention of even
 of foreign birth to come here V
 the idea of receiving public aid
 for that matter if it be the nat
 law should be passed to cover
 cases in question. It is not
 ouestion of cost, it is the off