The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-10

and if they could there is not room to properly house them, they are SO nu- merous, And so cheap and rapid tran sit to the suburbs becomes a factor in the problem of poverty, When people find that they can go ten miles out in the country In twenty minutes for five cents and there rent four rooms for what two cost in the city rookery, it is only a matter of time when they will be drawn off in that way. 1t IS true they would now prefer Oak street or Mulberry Bend to the country, but 1t is because they do not know the coun- try yet. Gradually they are beginning to know and love the country. The New York Fresh Air Fund alone has taken 133,000 children for q two weeks stay at farm houses in the country, af- ter thoroughly cleansing them; and the effect has been to put life and health in them, when most of them were dis cased and puny; but more than that, it has been 6 revelation to them of things they never knew before, such as fresh air and ample wholesome food and plen- ty of room and growing crops and trees. Now they begin to have ambi- tions to till the soil themselves; and it scarcely needs prophet to foretell that the time is coming when the tide that has long been setting from the country tu the cities shall roll back again, and make the soil of this country more pro- ductive than it has ever been before,
 Another difficult problem which one encounters as soon as he enters the re- gions of poverty is the oppressive con- ditions which surround labor of the lower and cheaper class. Many of the better classes of labor have secured bet ter conditions by united effort in that direction. But the clothing trade, for example, has not been so improved. By what is called the sweating system this work is done at starvation wages, in the unclean and overcrowded tenements where men, women and children work ninety or one hundred hours a week, and it is no unheard-of thing for GUS tom tailor to work forty-eight hours at a stretch, without rest, No wonder that people die of old age before they are forty, and have not the moral courage to sustain a labor union in defense of their rights. Improved machinery and factory methods are not used in this trade, because the sweat shop is cheap CT. Labor of many other kinds is in about as deplorable a condition as it is in this trade, and the penury of these poor people will never be relieved un- til they are enabled, either by their own energy or by outside help, to get living wages and hours and conditions of work, The product may cost lit tie more, but it ought to cost enough so that those who work on it can live decently. It is necessary for capital to unite to secure the best results So is it necessary for labor But the best results of all cannot be until some form of union is devised and executed, which is so comprehensive as to include and control the interests of Doth and of all. The Christian religion can lay that down as fundamental principle. Guid- ed by that principle the humane lead CTS of thought and action will some time work out the problem Several important steps have been taken, but the end is not yet The interest be- comes intense as we move on through the wonderful stages of these world problems. Social and political economy are developing rapidly. New principles and truths are being applied, and oth- CTS are clamoring to be applied.
 The work of education stands first, and in the way of all the others. First, the education of the few leaders who, with the keenneSs and assurance of sci ence and the enthusiasm and sympathy of hand to hand Christian workers, will learn the facts and principles involved and plan the campaigns of reform. Ar terward, the education of the poor and oppressed and unfortunate must be ac- cOmplished. They must know what are their rights and their wrongs; what their privileges and powers are. and how it is possible for them to rise to a higher and richer life, rather than to drift farther down toward the abyss of pauperism.
 This work of eductaion the churches and schools have not yet succeeded in doing for the poorest either in city or in country. Both churches and schools are at work on the problem, however. and they have good hope of accom- plishing some things some time. But the most promising agency in sight at the present time for this work of edl,- cation both for leaders and for the poor is the social settlement. Toynbee Hall and Mansfield House in London, Ando- yer House in Boston, Hull House in Chicago and in some features Welcome Hall in New Haven are examples of a class now rapidly multiplying. The in- stitutional features of many churches are to the same purpose.
 People of culture go and establish 6 home among the poor. They are not dispensers of aims, but personal lead CTS of society. They organize the boys and the girls and the men and the wo' men for mutual benefit. They secure for them social privileges and intellect ual treats suited to their needs. They teach them economy and thrift They furnish legal and medical assistance al prices within their reach, and protect them against the pawnbroker and oth CT sharks who ordinarily take advan, tage Of the poor. A davout religious spirit pervades all these houses, but nc danomina ;ional ear marks are nyWhert to be seen.
 Many of the problems of poverty have not even been mentioned here. but oul attention has a least been turned ir