Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-02-04
Charity.
Napavine, Wash.

CHARITY
There is no word in the English
language that has warmerspot in our
memory than charity, and still there
is nothing we abhor more than the
brides and bats which the idle rich
hold out to the poor laboring wage
slaves, to keep them blind and hold
them in humble subsection at their
feet, ready to be fleeced at their mas
ters' pleasure. Our learned professors,
inspired divines, and highly respect
able business men, who are never at
loss for word, and call all things by
nice, smooth, appropriate terms, are
pleased to call these brides and bats
"charity,' and the word has been I'M
Justly stigmatized on that account.
Let us examine the subject and see
how much real charity THERE'S in these
high grade, patriotic citizens who are
SO liberal in their gifts to the poor.
The Apostle Paul devotes a whole
chapter q. Cor. 10, y to the description
of charity, and we wish to notice a
few of its characteristic features.
Charity vaunteth not itself" Do
the plutOcratic members of the fash
ionable church ever boast of the vast
amounts which they give to send the
gospel to the heather? Do you ever
see any account of the donations
which the rich bestOw upon the poor?
Is there any boasting about this thing
we call charity? If there is, then it is
not charity, for charity vaunteth not
itself, is not pulled up
We may be told that it is not the
rich that boast of their gifts but the
newspaper men do that for them. In
many cases this may be true, for it
would be a silly fool chat would do
his own barking when he has a dozen
dogs, and the newspaper men who
uphold the competitive system, are
but human CANNES. standing at their
masters feet, with their heads up,
ears pricked, and mouths open, ready
to bark at their masters bidding.
They have no sentiment of their own,
but are ever ready to publish under
glaring headlines, anything dictated
by their masters, though it send them
to the wall by the score. Which is
the worse, the dog that does the bark
ing or the master that Kisses him?
Charity "Seeketh not her own II
by this we mean that charity prompts
a person to seek that which belongs
to some one else instead of his own
earnings, it certainly is charity that
moves the rich capitalists to bestoW
&c tha r., I hp NI-pg II u
they are seeking is not their own, but
belongs to the laborers, being earned
by the sweat of their faces.
The earth with its uncultivated full
ness belongs to the whole human race.
Every person is entitled to all the land
he needs for his own support and COM
fort, and no more. Labor applied to
land and its natural appurtenances,
produces all wealth. Then it follows
that as the rich capitalists apply no
labor to land they own no wealth,
and the vast amounts they lay up are
not their own.
But this language of the apostle
teaches that charity is SO far from
taking that which is not its own,
that where there is any doubt or dis
pute about the right OF possession, IL
does not even take that which justly
belongs to it. II prompts us TO seel,
not our own wealth but that OF others;
to labor for the welfare of all our
neighbors, instead of individual gain.
Charity is not simply giving to the
poor, for a man may bestow all his
goods TO feed the poor, and give his
body to be burned, and still be void of
charity. When we give anything with
the hope of reward, or from any other
motive save love to our fellow beings,
there is no charity in it.
You need not doubt the rich capita
lists being well on to their job. They
know that the gift blindeth the wise,
and pervectcth the words of the right
eous," (Ex %: 81 and are using this
method to keep the laboring classes