The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-05-14

view OF the TACT that there shall soon be held Ill tS
city the National Convention of Charities. This
tional organization will bring together a number of
people of various religious beliefs and ideas. Many
Of them, most worthy and commendable, will come
at their own expense, at the expense o. private
charitable organizations whose lives dedicated to
the works Of charity, receiving therefor neither LAY
nor emolument.
! Charity CRATER Problem.
"Among the many problems, however, that appear
to be most pressing for treatment and solution and
most germane to a convention like this WoulC be
this: How best to get rid of the charity CRATER
1t is difficult problem but it is problem that
every community Of any size has to face. Every
misfortune that overtakes us-every new form that
charity assumes-produces the plausible the phllan-
throDic, the grandly disinterested individual who
preys on the charitable public. Charity, to be really
SUCH should have a religious basis, for the eXer
else of that virtue we have motive our love OF
God, in whom and for whose sake we love our fe-
low-man. In this, charity differs from philanthropy,
for in the latter the idea of God Cat least in far
title goes) is not necessarily included.
''While, however, charity is or should be, eli
gous in It's motive it should not be given to sectar
an propaganda in its results; and more especially
should it not where it is question of the little c
dren, whether they be orphans dependent upon the
public or the abandoned, the many WHO for one
cause another have to look to others than their
parents for patronage and support, Tha one who
would, for instance offer with hand the sand
wich to the dependent child and with the other put
In his pocket anti-popery tract, is not charity
worker, but downright criminal and should be
punished by any decent code for the crime OF soul
suatching.
Now, this proselytiZing may 60 on not only from
creed to creed, but may also find place from creed
to creed There is today restless propaganda in
favor of secularizing everything.
And under the protection perhaps OF our courts
and laws the idea is to take the child away, not
alone from its home, where it has right to be, but
from the faith of its baptism, and by that process
OF law which Is not law, to turn 1t owe, to some In
stitution where it has neither the opportunity of
learning nor of practcng the faith of its baptism.
These people appear to think that religious be-
lief has no rights that they are bound to respect.
They forget that the spirit and the letter of the law
governing these very clearly defines it a
duty to give to the dependent child all reasonable
opportunity to practice and to profess the faith of
his baptism and his home.
In this matter, | am pleading for the integrity
and the rights of all the churches and faiths and
we should be together in saving the children from
the system which by its very nature must exploit
secularism and unbeief at the expense of revealed
religion and definite creed.
"And while speaking of the rights of the little
to their faith Of their baptism and their home
want to add that they have right to their home
also. Detention houses, orphan asylums and indus
trial schools only places of last resort They
do, and they never can take the place of the
home.
''All helpful charity and all sane social activity
today should be directed to the building up and sus-
tanning of the homes of the poor, and every means
taken to render these homes habitabe and hea:hg.
Divorce Court Leads to Juvenile Court.
' Unfortunately the tendency today is to get away
from the home-to throw the children on the city
or the private charity. Divorce courts are the
feeders of the Juvenile Courts. The machinery is
complete and quite effective. When it gets through
there is left the ruined home-the cast-off wife,
and the well-filled orphan asylum
Perhaps our coming convention would 90 OH Zee
ord III opposition to our present divorce laws, and
the general trend both of legislation and public
opinion, which assumes so easily the responsibility
of home and then casts it aside so lightly
ASSOCIATED with this is the further question.
how, namely, to treat those worthless husbands and
fathers who neglect their homes and fail to support
their children; who work when they will; leave their
homes the slightest pretext and become immune
from any penalty for their inhuman conduct
6 In our orphan asylums at least fifty per cent
of the children not orphans at ALL but the chill
dren of worthless, possibly drunken, parents. who
refuse to support them and we are asking the pen
nies of the poor to support these children. while
their parents making the rounds of the saloons
perhaps basking in the smiles and favors of the
politicians. There ought to be law compelling
these men to work for their homes and children
first and if they will not do So then thev should he
would make the usefruct of their labors in some wav
support their children.
1.-TWO specers rise before this Forthcoming con
vention, namely, crime and poverty The congress
may make useful suggestions may suggest means of
diminishing the existing evils, but the specter ike
Banquo's ghost, will not down at their bidding
.'Poverty in some form or other temporal or |
spiritual will remain, and crime, too beealse Il is
human to err, and frlilty and humanity will appa,
entity go together to the end Yet things are bet
er than they were. The poor of today are not as
poor as those of yesterday and the means Of reach
ng and helping them multiplying every day.
"Great forces, philanthropic and charitable, have
,een released, and if wisely guided must make for
he general upift, Many rich men have begun to
Zee the light, have learned the great truth namely,
hat absolute, unchanging possession of anything
outside their own souls is quite impossible; that |
money and such possessions theirs only in trust
and as trust to be administered. The poor enter
into that trust and, therefore, cannot be forgotten
without violating it, and violating at the same time
The law of God For the rest there is left for the
exercise of that charity which the Holy Scripture