The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-25
This paper is Democratic in principles
and Is Independent in its pseses on all local
questions.


The Crime of Too Much Charity.
The doctors had a battle royal in New
York, last evening, over the free dispen-
sary ana hospital question. 1t was at the
meeting of the County Medical Society,
and DR.. d. b. St. John Rosa, who is said
to be a very good doctor, but who is GER
tainly q very bad sociologist, upheld the
wholesale charities of the ~unthinking
city on various grounds benevolent and
acientihc. The great majority of the
doctors present differed with Rosa. even
to the extent of soundly kissing him.
While the latter were no doubt on the
right side OF the controversy, they are
hardly more deserving of applause than
Roosa himself, for the grounds on which
they held their position were narrow,
shallow, selfish and unimportant.
The d~ispensaries of New York are en-
lowed by 'well-intentioned" but incon-
siderate people who a more money
than they know what to do with. In
H~No4 VA 4AkA4AAk6 cAA " tASAh -
plus by paying good wages to their en-
ployes of ali classes, they take advan-
tage of the market rates. and accu-
mulate vast fortunes at the expense of
creating such social conditions as we see
revealed through the present strike Of
the tailors. When the money is accu-
ro11lof06 fhnU c4orf IN 70 ahnot nfyina
Providence and incidentally to gain the
eulogiums of their fellow citizens by CIV
ing of their substance lavishly to the
poor. In this way they do an amoun of
evil which is beyond all calculation and
some good which is far from offsetting
the tyranny by which their fortunes were
won.
It would be too much to undertake here
a broad analysis of the evils of the New
York charity system. We are concerned
today only with the di-spensaries and
hospitals. OF course, we do not mean to
say that the entire dispensary or hospital
system is wrong. There is need for a
certain amount of medical relief for the
very poor, for those stricken with sudden
affliction, and for persons who, while
not utterly poor. still incur medical or
surgical needs beyond their capability of
paying.
But the wholesale endowment of hos
pitfalls. aispensaries and clinics in New
York has run to such a point that it is
Claimed 100000 cases are annually treated
free out of a population of far less than
two millions. The doctors-the vast ma
jcrity of them-are up in arms because
their legitimate source of income is inn
paired; but, as we said before, this is the
smallest of all the evils; the really crying
wrong Ia the generalization of the people
themselves which is the inevitable result
Of such a system of pauperization.
Any New York doctor who has had ex-
perience OF the clinics win tell the most
amazing stories of the abuse to which
they lead. Women are described as get
ting out of carriages to solicit free treat
nent; and real estate owners, bank off,
cials, prosperous business men and pro-
f~essional men in good standing are freely
spoken of a. not i~nfrequent .~'patients''
of the dispensaries. These, it is true, may
be set down as the freak instances, the
extremes of abuse. But the demoraIiza-
ton of the wefi-to-do middleclass is I'M
nnistakabie and appalling. Policemen,
f1remen, clerks of all grades, statesmen
and mechanics earning good wages and
having good homes, with their wives and
children. are said to be far more numer-
Gus at the clinics thai are the very poor,
those employed at the lowest wages or
precariously employed. For the lowest
of society is careless about it's
health, seldom seeking aid until death is
at the door, while the better grade are
solicitous about their physical condition
so long as they can get expert advice
free
The social degeneracy which results
from promiscuous free relief is a house
hold word to all the -world-except, it APP
pears, doctors and parvenu m~illionaires.
The habit of getting something for moth
ing is a progressive one. It grows and
grows into a craving and then into a
sense of right. As it develops, industry,
frugality, self-denial diminish. In the
earlier stages. the free relief can only be
obtained by a certain amount of false
hood and Misrepresentation. With the
.practce Of these, self-respect and in
tegrity take wings.
Medical relief is no different from free
soup, free bread. free clothes, free toys.
They are an denominations of ignorance,
folly and selhshness. of lack Of true re-
gard for the true rights and true welfare
OF Others.
False standards and lack of scientific
consideration are the vices of the day
In matters of this sort. 1t is to be hoped
that the present agitation OF the doctors,
however selfish in it's impulse. may have
agood effect.
ADJUSTMENTS.
Ron ron Theatre.
An unusually good performance was