The record-union., 1898-05-30
The Tramp Nuisance,

| Eds. Record d-UniOn": / see that un-
der the caption Not a New, But a
! Wise Proposition" you indorse a sug-
! gestion of Henry Rood in the Forum, -
| holding that communities should organ
| iZe and decline to give food or shelter
! to men unwilling to work for it in ad
/ vance. 1t is not my purpose to find
/ fault with, or dissent from. the posi-
/ tion taken by Mr.. Rood and indOrsed
! by you, as well as by many others, who
! insist upon the tramp as a necessary
/ evil, for under present conditions there
| must be tramps, so-called. But time
and a better understanding of our duty
! toward our fellow-men by those who
can and do provide work for those
/. found deserving by Mr.. Roods rule
may dispense with a system which
often deprives other and perhaps bet
ter men of employment. This system
prevails because most people of means
delight in the thought that they are
doing an act of charity while merely
permitting a man to live-are laying
up treasures in heaven while as a
matter of fact they are but making
exhibitions of themselves as Phari-
sees. While granting the wisdom of
Mr.. Roods proposition, and pleading
guilty to adding the last sentence to
sustain your position on that point as
matters now stand, permit me to sug
gest that all may be changed if we so
will it.
Do not be surprised when I say that
| there need be no such word as charity
/ in the offensive sense in which it is
often used to torture the deserving
poor. Given average health a reason
able knowledge of business methods,
honesty, integrity. industry and pro-
fessional ability; wanting money to ex-
ercise these qualities for the benefit of
self family, if any, other people in any
event to the extent of labor required TO
prosecute business; problem, how to
obtain the money? Who is going to
work out the answer, and who knows
what it will do? Mr. Rood will never
work it out by his method; the asso-
ciated charities have no method for
the work; the Pharisees who delight
in telling their stories on the street
corners of the meals they have given"
the poor whom they compelled first to
earn them, may attempt an answer. but
it will not be the true one; the business
man will not find the answer except
with the sure element of ample re-
turn though he will "go down in his
! pocket to help the man for sweet
charity's sake" whom he would not
oblige in a business way; the banker
will not solve the problem because, at
his own request, the law so hedges him
about that he is obliged to require col
lateral for every dollar he loans.
Where. then, is the answer? Is it
presuming too much to say that the
problem may be made easy of solution
| by simple change in business morals
and honesty among the people who
have the power, namely, money to de-
vote to the furtherance of the interests
of the masses. and the consequent i'm
provement of the country in a material
I sense?
In the glad day when men shall be
actuated by a sincere desire to hon
estly do their duty in all that consti-
tutes the true man and the good citi-
zen, there will be little need for char
ity in the sense in which it is applied
to-day The able. the efficient, the
honorable citizen can find the equiv
alent of these qualities in the neces-
sary means to carry forward his work
for the good of mankind. when that
day of moral reform shall come in
stead of being compelled. as he is now;
to accept a pittance or, worse to be
content with nothing or to try his for
tunes honOrably as a journeyman with
little better success than when he asks
the poor proyilege to toll in the city he
has helped to build 1t is a crime to
force such men upon the road to be