The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-12-19

:: Pride
You who are well housed, we'll fed
we'll clad, and in possession of a bank
account that banishes from your fut-
ure all fear Of want find this world,
with all it's drawbacks, not bad place
to live in.
But what would you think of the
world If you were a young man with
wife and baby to support and unable to
get work, with no coal or food in the
house and the thermometer down below
zero?
And what would the world seem like
to you if you were dying with con-
sumption and your wife went out to
work each day to support you and
your four children, earning SO little,
poor thing. that coal could not be
bought at trust prices OF the rent be
paid, so that the landlord had served a
disposses notice on you?
Humane officer Withrow Mrs. D. S.
Forgy, DR.. Ryan and a dozen other
God-like people in the city can tell
stories of suffering and want that are
| most heartrending.
How would you like to be Mrs. Lin
roy of Ounce street, Duluth Heights,
where there was no fuel or food. She
! and her children were freezing and
starving, and her husband was in bed
| with three broken ribs, until in dispatr
! she called upon Mr.. Withrow for aid,
How would you like to share the fate
| of these fellow creatures of yours re-
| NV tho otxC
! In another case-the family name 10
not known to the Labor World-the
mother was sick with consumption. She
was surrounded by four half clothed
and half starved children; one a nurs-
[ ing babe. A big bag Of groceries, some
cast off clothing and fuel brought hap
Epiness to this poor family, and when
promised more the mother fell on her
knees and prayed.
| '"There never was such general suf-
fering and extreme poverty as this
winter" said a good priest yesterday.
I'VE have children that I know of
without shoes and stockings. It is al
most impossible to buy clothing, so
scanty are the earnings of many. Coal
is impossible. They must live in cold
rooms
Thin clothes and ragged clothes, poor
! food and little of it, and icy air to sit
and shiver in while you watch your
suffering wife and blue-lipped, hungry
children-that is what life means for
thousands these days in this rich and
Christian city.
And the people who live this life are
fellow beings, human creatures: just
like yourself, with the same capacity
for pleasure and pain, the same love
| for wife and little ones.
Your instinct is to turn away from
such misery and shut your mind
against it, not because you are hard
hearted, but because the mass of
Indebtedness is so vast that you feel
ward its relief.
But you have no right to turn away
from it. It is your duty to think about
and do what you can to lessen thin
mass of misery.
You can open your heart and put
your hand In your pocket. When you
do that you feed some hungry child,
bring hope again to some agonized
mothers breast and save some mar
| from desperation.
When you are face to face with dire
human distress, it is no time to phil
Il osophize about the failure Of charity
! to cure poverty, or about the PERM
cious effects of almsgiving.
Help the miserable first and philoso-
phize afterward. Be human being be-
fore you are a political economist
Obey your heart. 1t is better, wiser
guide than your head ninety nine
times in hundred.
Don't even stop to reflect that you
can't give a dollar to buy few buck
etfuls Of coal or few pounds of meat
for perishing family without the Goa
trust and the food trust stealing hall
the money.
The thing to do is to give while this
frightful weather is with u.s.
Send bill or a check to the nearest
clergyman-never mind the denominel
tion-with a note asking him to use il
for the relief Of the worst case of pow.
erty he knows, and you will make III
mistake.
The poor are your brothers and sis
tiers. Remember the words of Jesus:
"Inasmuch as We did it unto one O.
these brethren, even these least, Y
did it unto me-