The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-14
KANSAS cOlAAENT
THE BURDEN ON THE RuRDENED.

THE BURDEN ON THE BURDENED.
Charity workers have given ont f,g-
ures to show the inadequaey of the
measures of relief for social ills.
Investigation in Buffalo, N. Y. show
eo tnat I.OO0 unskilled laborers earned
less-oy $2'SSS.0 900 annually-than the
estlmateo minimum on which their
families could be supported decently.
Yet the total public and reported pri-
vate charity was but $2I, 900. So these
1000 laDorers still lacked $2,317, 900 in
necessaries.
We provide only fairly well for the
victims of great disasters. Yet we give
scarcely any relief to victims of the
equally great disasters which occur as
part of our daily life, but which are
less sensational and are not written up.
By the figures of Sherman c. Kingsley.
the so families left destitute by the
mine explosion at Cherry, ILL.,, received
from all sources, including the state
and the union, SIT. 24o. Yet the fam
lilies of so other workers who were
skilled in the grind of Chicagos indus
try received total of but $S,749 in re-
lief from all sources, including the en-
ployers and charity.
Fifty families of wage earners per-
manently injured while at work re-
ceived total compensation of but
$8,755. After some of the children of
these families went to work, and the
wives took boarders, still the average
annual income Of a family was but
$685. reduction Of "a per cent of what
it was before the head of the house
was disabled.
We do not pay our soldiers of in
dustry well when they are fighting for
our comfort and we don't care for them
when incapacitated, charity workers
show.-Wichita Beacon.
USEFUL COLLEGE SPIRIT.
The members of the graduating
class of the College of the City of New
York have furnished something new
in the way of college spirit. Following
the custom of the Athenian youths in
the days of the great glory of Greece,
they have all subscribed to an oath,
engrossed on parchment and presented
to the mayor of New York, wherein
each one swears never by any act of
his to bring disgrace upon the city.
College spirit is something that can
be turned to good account as well as
to the destruction of public property
and the disturbance at midnight hours
of mortals who fam would sleep. 1t
Is good thing for the general reason
that any kind of spirit is a good thing,
and when 1t takes the form of pride
worth having. Some day some man
may be saved to honor by the re-
membrance of that oath when he is
wavering between the two ways, one
straight and the other broad and
populous and lined with easy money.
In the days of ancient Athens the
city was the state, and the oath of the
young men bound them to honor the
city. Nowadays the city is a small civic
division and only a temporary resi-
dence. All the colleges and UNIVERSE
ties in the country might follow the ex-
ample set by the New York college,
merely substituting the nation for the
city.-Ottawa Republic.
THE NOISE NUISANCE.
A st. Louis medical authority says
that human life is shortened by noise,
and that street cars, automobiles and
steam whistles produce nervous
diseases that are more fatal than the
pOxeS and fevers.
There is no doubt but that the au-
thority quoted has a good deal to his
theory. The automobile that passes
along the street just missing the kids,
sounds at both ends, gives even the
ordinary conservative soul few thrills
that are bound to affect the nerves and
heart action. Living alongside of q
street railway with it's changing bells,
its rubbing cars, its flat wheels and its
noisy whir is enough to cause in
somnia and induce tendencies to
apoplexy.
good whistle which makes the town
sound live and causes congratulations
to the boomer, will do more damage 10
the man who is trying to get a morn
ing nap than can be repaired by patent
medicine or druggists prescriptions.
Noise is all right in its way and is
necessary to make the world go round.
Cut out the noise and man would live
longer. But he wouldn't have much
f1r xfoI1f