Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-27
SOME ASPECTS OF POVERTY.
Aeur'o Prayer the Happy Mean We
Should All Strive For.

Seventy one years ago George Tick
nor, in a letter to Maria Edgeworth
from Boston, was able to say: I'm this
town of $4,000 inhabitants, or with the
suburban towns, 100000, there is
no visible poverty. little gross ignor-
ance, and little crime" Today, with
it's 100000 inhabitants, not including
suburban towns, Boston possesses a
district that any city might well be
ashamed of, and its police court shows
an activity far from gratifying to civic
pride.
The all but inevitable attendance Of
crime upon excessive poverty and the
far from infrequent copartnership of
niggardliness and restricted pecuniary
means are matters beyond dispute. And
yet the habit of regarding poverty as a
wholesome discipline, and pathway
to heaven, is one that we can not cas-
lily shake off, and doubtless ought not
to altogether if We could. The extreme
difficulty of a rich mans entering into
the kingdom of heaven seems to argue
a corresponding facility for the poor
man. This fallacy in our logic is n
comforting one to cherish If we chance
to be poor but the comfort is, after all
of an ignoble sort. To place thus a
celestial premium upon Incidence and
inefficiency, or upon anything ap-
preaching thereto, Is hardly wise or
helpful. The old eXpedient, too, for
supplying the inadequacy of ones in
come by diminishing ones wants, les
sening the denOminatOr of the frac
tion instead of enlarging the numera-
tor, does not exactly appear to a spirit
of enterprise and progress, although
the very best things in life are indeed
to be had without money and without
price The poor and discouraged should
rather be inspired with new and whole
some desires, larger longings, and
Herewith a determination to crafty
them by well directed industry and ju-
dicious self-denial. The great mass Of
est stratum of our population because
they have never rightly conceived Of
better things. To preach to them the
blessedness of poverty is folly from
both an economic and a religious point
of view. To encourage by almsgiving
stolid acceptance of an apparently
hopeless lot is equally unwise. Nor
can any system of labor unionism, any
organizing of strikes, help the unskill-
ed poor: they are too numerous. Even
strikes among workmen of a higher
grade, such as at present we are eth
er witnessing or dreading in many
benefit to the participants, and fail dis
astrOusly three times out of four. But
a quickening, energy-arousing discon-
tent, with the stirring of individual in
iative, is the beginning Of better things.
This is all obvious enough, no doubt,
and yet on every side Is visible the
passive acceptance Of inadequate means
and a restricted, unbeautiful existence.
Is there the slightest need Of this?
Henry George maintained that the ex-
listing economic system was making the
poor ever poorer and the rich richer,
with a tendency on the part of land to
come into possession of a constantly
diminishing number Of large proprie-
tors. Since his day, however, there
have not been wanting certain en-
couraging signs of a contrary develop
ment. In spite of the present menace
Of the trusts and similar confeder-
ations Of capitalists, the opportunities
for amassing vast individual fortunes
in a short time are decreasing, and the
holdings of our tillable land are be-
coming smaller and more numerous.
Whereas the national census Of 1850
reported 1,449,0S3 separate farms Of an
average size of 202.G acres, the census
for 1900 gave 5,739,657. with an aver
age of 1865 Mr. Carnegie has de-
clared that the rich are now becoming
less rich and the poor less poor. But,
whatever the truth, the view Of power
ty as heavenly dispenSation, lot not
to be rebelled against without SHINING,
does not commend itself as fruitful Of
the greatest possible good to the great
est number.
John Wesley, in a sermon on the
right use of money, once counseled his
hearers, in very plain language to
gain all they could by honest industry,
to save all they could by wise thrift,
to provide first for their families, then,
If there remained an overplus, to do
good to them that were of the house.
hold of faith, and after that, If there
was still a remainder, to do ,ood to all
men. Give me neither poverty nor
riches" was the player of ASur. One
Of the basest uses Of poverty, which
has its foster spiritual pride, that
poverty, together with chastity and
obedience. has long been made a SOL
emn VOW by hold men, or by aspirants
to holiness, has tended to clothe it with
virtues not properly its own. In one
sense, to be voluntarily poor is to
shirk ones responsibilities. The cares
of wealth are undeniable; but, in q
world that contains so many careless
and harmfully lavish spenders Of mon
ey, is it not the duty of the conscien-
tious and enlightened to divert, if pos
sible, some of this wasted wealth into
their own pockets for the purpose Of
making it productive of good? The re-
lief of distress and the more equitable
distribution of this worlds goods are
works that the piously resigned poor
can take little part in.
Poor and proud" is familiar
phrase, and sometimes has a noble
meaning, although the pride is not sell
dom, because of the poverty, a sort Of
phariSaical complacency in being tried
by wants and forced to practice self
denials that ones ricn neighbors have
no experience of. To be rich, mate
rally as well as spiritually, and still