The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-05-20
&C. Co., 60 .
SAVING THE PAuPERS.

Some time ago Browns Farmer sug-
gested that in order to increase the
population of the state. il would be
good idea to secure number of
children from the overcrowded or
phan's homes of the east and bring
them to North Dakota to grow up into
free and Independent men and women.
The idea of the Farmer was merely
to give the state in the end a desir-
able class of citizens. 1t would be
we'll, however, to consider the prop
osition along broader lines.
The tenements of the great cities
are filled to overlooking with humani-
ty which is struggling with poverty
in it's most depressing form. Hunger
and cold are the accustomed lots of
thousands of adults as we'll as chill
dren. We may sermonize as we may
but the fact remains that the physical
conditions of those people are largely
the results of environment and that
they are in their present conditions
because they do not know how to rise
above them.
There are cases of drunkenness
and laziness which do not come with
in the category indicated, but they are
in the minority. But few men care to
go home at night and find their FAM
ilies-the wife and children-begging
for bread. Human nature is such that
even in the most depraved soul there
fingers the spark of compassion and
the instinct of love for suffering hu-
mainly. No mother who rises in her
moral nature above the brute creation,
willingly listens to the piteous beg
ging of her children for bread, nor
does she enjoy the spectacle of see
ing them shivering in rags and dying
of cold.
1t is not impossible to believe, in
view of the appalling conditions of
the poor in the cities, that the mother
who sits at, her needle for twenty
hours out of twenty-four in an at
mosphere reeking with filth would
not embrace the opportunity to get
away from such life if the way
were opened.
The caring for the poor of the great
cities must become, if it is not al
ready SO, problem for the grave
consideration of those who are labor
ing to build up the moral conditions
of the nation.
Usually the efforts of the philanthropy
lists have been directed to the tempo
rary emolliation of the condition of
these people, the efforts being a sort
of avowed charity, which destroys the
manhood and womanhood as we'll as
the personal independence Of the re-
cipients who are in such a condition
that they can not refuse the preferred
aid no matter how humiliating.
If the charitable institutions and
those who are seeking to save the
souls of those people while their bod
les are starving, would, instead of
giving aims to the destitute who are
only temporarily relieved, organize
system by which those Industrious
but unfortunate people could be To-
Gated on the unoccupied lands of the
west, and helped to get "a start where
they could be independent and where
once on their feet they would be able
to help themselves the problem Of
caring for the deserving poor would
be solved.
1t is rather a reflection upon our
social system that the conditions pre-
vail in our large cities which pauper-
ICES a large class of citizens and
makes them dependent on the charity
of others, while the foreigner with
no more chance in his favor so far
as environment is concerned, and
often with less, seeks the opportuni-
ties afforded by our uncrowded con-
ditions and in few years is indie
pendent and often wealthy. He may
have been developed under different
conditions and may not have been so
dependent on the charity of his fell
lows. realizing that he must rely upon
his own exertions. Not so, however,
our American citizens: They hold
fast to the surroundings which en-
slave them because no helping hand
had directed them to the newer life
and brighter opportunities, and not
knowing, they have not acted.
In. the west they would soon be-
come the industrious and energetic
citizens which is the pride and the
strength Of that portion of the ma
ton, and sat the same time not only
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