The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-02-02
TERRIBLE CONDITIONS
MKINLEY PROSPERITY IN THE CITY
OF SAN FRANCISCO.
Men FOOdless and BedIeSs-The e
Great Work of One
Good Man.

Last Sunday mornings Examiner de-
voted two pages to the awful social
conditions prevailing in San Francisco,
part of which is here reproduced:
Sending the bedless to bed. One
of the great ministers of the country,
the Rev. j. A. B. Wilson, has devoted
most of his life to that singular en-
deavor.
That great minister is now in San
Francisco The Examiner heard only
few days ago that he had been called
here from his church in New York.
Mindful of his national reputation as
the prOvider of beds for the bedless, the
Examiner at once communicated with
him with a view to ascertaining what he
could do for the bedless ones of San
Francisco. He entered into the spirit
OF the proposition with alacrity and he
has just provided the people of San
Francisco, through the Examiner, with
striking object lesson"
If the Examiner knew of the great
Francisco why has it remained silent SO
long?
Travel, If you please, from the At
lantic to the Pacific ocean, from the
gulf of Mexico to the British line on
the NORTH and you will find the granar-
les, cribs, mills, factories, warehouses
and stores loaded with the necessities
Of life, and yet millions of people idle,
ragged, bedless and without food!
Why is this thus?
There is but one answer and that is,
Bad Government This the Examiner
knows full well. Then why does it ap.
peal to lone man from New York, If
no moons save that which he begs from
the robbers to feed and house the rob-
bed. Why does it not appeal to con-
gress for better system of govern
ment?
"Dr. Wilson kindly gave his assist
ance to the Examiner in seeking out and
providing for the bedless men in this
city last Wednesday night"
Reader, do you believe for half mo.
ment that the Examiner would have
raised a hand or a voice in behalf of
these unfortunate wretches which it has,
and is today, crushing in different ways
if it was barred from the privilege CT
making blow about itself? We have in
San Francisco and vicinity milionaries
by the hundreds. What was there to
prevent them and the Examiner from
carrying on this good work years ago?
OF inconsistency and egotism the Ex-
aminer is replete.
The party started about 10 o'clock
that night and walked about until nearly
o'clock the next morning. Before
that hour 70 men had been sent to bed,
and as many more were incidentally
furnished with warm meal, including
mush, milk, coffee, beans, soup and
vegetables 1t was believed that hun
dreds of hungry and bedless men were
walking the streets. That this is true
will be inferred by the results of five
hours work along that number of
streets"
And how many poor, helpless. faith
ful, hungry mothers were there in San
Francisco, who, during the hours in
which this imported good Samaritan
and the great philanthropic journal were
going about the streets with lighted
candles to find bedles-, and hungry men,
were in their huts, novels and rented
cabins bending over the forms of their
puny, pale, emaciated babes, bathing
them to sleep with scalding tears while
they lay moaning with the pangs CT
hunger?
Why is it thus? Does the egotisticaI.
self-infiated journal whimper word
about the causes of this suffering in a
land of superabundance of everything
but justice and Righteousness? 1t has
told us that the trouble is overproduc-
tlon. Yes, homeless, bedless, hungry,
ragged men of brains and energy are
walking the streets of San Francisco by
the thousand who are snubbed kicked
ana cuf1ed around like SO many dogs,
with no friends or sympathy save what
the much despised saloon keepers ex-
tend to them. And the lower the den
the more the charity it seems. Oh! Won
sanity hyprocrites, come down from
your silk-adorned pulpits and lend a
hand to overthrow the barbarious sys-
tenn of government under which we live
and which breeds such horrible con-
ditions.
ut is not an easy matter to offer man
bed. Some men are proud and high
tempered and do not always signify their
refusal of your offer in words.'
If man in the common walks of life
feels the insult in an offer of charity it
is because he knows that the money em-
ployed to supply comforts for him is
money wrung unjustly from him and
the army of homeless, houseless, hun
cry sovereigns to which he belongs.
The present social conditions are an
insult to every man and woman en-
dowed with a Christian spirit or a spark
q humanity.