The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-05-30

helpless old age should be added to
his burden Of poverty.
Have you ever read Victor Hugo's de-
scriptlon of the man sinking in the
Guicksand?s No less tragic is the fate
OF him who experiences that dying out
OF hope that gradual extinction of am
bttlon that fading of the dreams of
youth, that final effacement in the
slough of despond. Do you think the
smile is extravagant?
! Yet in some: respects the man who
perishes in the quicksand is the more
fortunate. It is his body alone that
perishes, while In the boys of poverty
the soul is blackened. In the quicksand
the physical life comes to an end. But
severe and prolonged poverty is de-
structive of moral beauty. In the mire
Of poverty there is something worse
than death, there is the fearful abyss
of vice and crime and shame.
What would you think of man who
would not stop and help a wretch out
OF the quicksand. You could not con-
ceive of creature SO heartless. What
would you think of the religion of a
man who was in such hurry to get
to prayer meeting that he had no time
to stop and throw plank or rope
to drowning man? You would class
such a man with the priest of Levite Of
OF old and you would say that his re-
ligion was monstrous. So I say, if you
have been taught by experience or by
Intimate association with poverty, or
If you had the power Of Imagination to
grasp in all it's dreary details the life
of the poor, and if you saw clearly how
to remove the economic causes Of pow
erty, than you would feel it to be your
first religious duty to tell others, that
Then the perable of the Good Samar-
atan would read thus to you:
A certain man went down from East
Aurora to New York to earn a living.
The man found work but the cost Of
living was high and the wage was
small. The struggle with poverty was
So great that at last the man and his
family lost heart. They began to go
down hill. The children were sent to
the factory and grew up in ignorance
Some of their lumber sank into vice
and crime. They were drawn into the
bog of poverty wherein is the end Of all
hope and self-respect.
Then by chance there came down that
way a certain preacher, and these
wretches cried out to the preacher and
said: Help us that we may find work
and get out Of this terrible place."
And when the preacher heard this
cry he passed by on the other side, de-
claring that a preacher ought not to
NEEDLE with the question of wages.
And likewise a deacon, an officer in
the church, a man rich in this worlds
goods and much reputed for piety,
passed that way also. And the t1nfor-
Inmates cried tout to the great rich man
and said: "Give us justice that we
may not need sell our labor for, the
crust Of bitterness" And when the
good rich man heard the cry he threw
them Tins and passed by On the ether
side leavin them in their wretched state
But a certain layman, as he Jour
neyed, came to the city. He saw how
the people lived and was appalled, He
set to work to study the cause Of this
poverty, and he might be able to help
the suffering. Having found the cause
he began to proclaim the truth to men,
showing them how to change their la VS.
and deliver the poor from their thral-
DOM
Which of these three, thinkest thou,
was neighbor unto the poor; the man
who labored to abolish the cause Of pow
erty, or the man who Withheld Justice
from the poor while giving them char
jty, or the man who denied that their
condition was the concern of religion 2"