The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1907-09-12

VI AouAuEy -SOulo oIo CONSUMED Oy
the fire Of acute mania, others are in
ert and demented. The temptation to
monotonous routine is almost IRE.
sistible. and foodsturs o. good quality
become hateful from the thoughtless
preparation and serving. No one who
forget the great tins in which institu-
ton food is all but universally served,
with their acrid odor of all grease as
characteristic as that smell of the
worst type Of tenement, which is pre-.
cisely identical in Chicago and Paris,
New York and London. II George Her.
bert was right % to the value OF
sweeping roonis then to keep sweet
the food vessels of institutions would
be service worthy of canonization,
and to so keep house for the $4,000
wrecked and miserable beings who
are sheltered in our public institu.
tons would add intellectually to the
cheer of that scattered nation within
nation which, with the solidarity Of
misery, they perforce compose.
On the other hand. here is a great
penitentiary system which numbers on,
headed and manned by persons who
are placed in charge not because they
have offered to the state the service
of trained ability and ardent love of
their Inflated fellow men, but because
they have stood some esoteric test OF
merit known only in the circles of
dominant political party. BY what
logic do We justify the universal waste
and failure of the public prison and
the ignoring of such interest and ability
to deal with the prisoner as persons
like Mrs. Booth have shown? Why
should the public purse. the public
conscience, divorce itself from the eff
fort to give a man his chance in the
world again? So long as the prison
exists why do do we not call to its serv.
ice the fttest persons who can be
found, whether they he men or wo
men? To undertake seriously the study
of pathological conditions of social
life in these great institutions, is II
not as reasonable and withal as invit.
ing as to study diseased tissue in the
laboratory? Is it not time to remove
this heavy and eXacting task from the
list of unskilled occupations and lift
it into dignified profession?
The colleges and universities have
added schools of economics and soci.
ology, all unknown quarter of cen.
fury ago. and through them the young
persons they educate certainly gain
new view of the dignity and inter.
esttngness of masses of people. At
Vassar 25 years ego there was no his.
tory in the course. much less any hint
Of the study of men in their social and
industrial relations. Now such studies
are conspicuous. No young woman
who is literally educated can escape
contact with that modern interest
which at worst expresses itself in
Summing" whose best has not ar.
rived. but whose progress is marked
by such attempts as those to better
and equalize primary instruction, to
improve housing and living conditions
In crowded town quarters. to protect
children, whether at work or neglected
and mischievous; to cope adequately
with diseases Of poverty, like typhoid
and tuberculosis; to create an agree.
able and refined social life in the cos.
mopolitan loneliness of typical tene-
ment locality, to give to the immigrant
and his older neighbor a civic con.
science.
1t is not too much to hope that from
all the rich output of cultivated minds,
trained in the modern fashion Of In.
terest In human life and its homely
struggles. We may gain AZ a mere by.
product If you please, enough inter.
est in public charities to create new
vocation for women. Further, we may
believe that as the states must sustain
the institutions they will in time con.
meet them with the universities and
will provide training for the highly
specialized service Of carrying them
on.
| once spent few days at the re.
markable undertaking of Pastor Bo.
delschwinger, Bethel colony. at Belle
field. Germany. Every visitor is i'm
pressed by the devotion and efficiency
of the deaconesses and brothers who
care for the epileptic, the sick and
the wrecks of drink who make UP the
population of that wide-spreading
community. A fellow visitor said:
"Ah. we'll, YOU can't expect such devo
ton In public institution. These
people work from the religious mo-
tive" have thought often of that
remark. unquestioned at the time
Why should the public command less
than private undertaking? Why
should that sweet old definition Of re.
ligion. which lays such emphasis on
comforting the sick ant visiting the
prisoner, be less potent in d great
public institution than in one conduct
ed by private persons? Why should
Inc commonwealth command less than
the service of her wisest and best