The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-07
JUSTICE, NOT SYMPATHY
 WANTED.

comments the Hartford Post; ''it takes misfortune of one kind or another to bring it out,g but it remains faithful ito thefend when it is aroused.
 Here is a case in point. Six years ago a. New Haven trolleyman became blind His eyesight was sacrificed in ithe performance of his duty. Blind he was helpless, as were his wife and little chiIdrenad jHissmates on the trolley lines centering at New Haven might be said that it takes working men to understand the real pinch of 'mfsfortune-and decided that as far las they could they would make his Hot less hardyaTrgD T TsIsfNs.1
 "A box was placed in the trolley station and every day the men drop ped something in it for their disabled scomrade. There was nothing com fpulsory in the act. It was g yolun- ftary one on the part of the men, done but of the goodness of their hearts.
 sThese men knew that one of their icalling could not have saved much towards @ rainy day. They knew that fmisfortune such as came upon this iman meant mental agony as well as iphysical ability and they sought in every way possible to show him the spirit of true comradry. They kept ,up their disappointed task for six years when the man died.
 'sNo living man will ever know what this sympathy and sacrifice meant Ito the afflicted man. No one can ev- Ter know how it eased his last mo- iments and helped him through the ilast scene of all.
 \ aThe same fine spirit of sympathy was shown in this city few months iago when an employe of the local postoffice met with an accident that fphysically disabled him and placed I him in the hospital for a number of fWeeks. As far as the men in the service could they .eased his condition and made the moments of his disabil- | ity less tedious and tormenting.
 "It is something in a busy world unfortunate brother and to help him along his weary way; to show him \ the true spirit of brotherly love and to demonstrate that sympathy, watch Efulness for others and appreciation of the woes of those others are not dead. 
 And the men who exhibit these traits come the closest to fitting the ideal of the good citizen.''
 What the Hartford Post, says is a very fine and sympathetic and hu- imanitarian from one standpoint and lit is equally unscientifc and useless, from another.
 The important point in this case, which The Post apparently has miss ed, is not the fact that. this blind mo- torman's poor fellow workers warm heartedly eked out some of their ecant pay to support him in his ad- versity. The important fact is that they had to do so, or see him starve or go to the poor house.
 What light this particular instance sheds on our present social and eco- homie status arises from the following facts which may be gleaned from The Post's story of the case:--That the motorrnan's economic circumstances made it impossible to insure himself against just such contingency as arose; that when he lost his sight in the public service, he became de- pendent upon thes4 hap-hazard and chanceful arousing of more than or dinary degree of sympathy for his particular case; that this sympat thy and the charity which flowed out of it, when it did chance to come, had its source in his fellow employees or no more than living wage, had tc deprive themselves in just the meas ure that they contributed to the sup. sport of their disabled comrade
 Scanning these facts we arrive al the conclusion that under ordinary circumstances. a man situated as was this motorman would have gone tc the poorhouse; that this man was lucky in having aroused sympathy enough to save him from that fate and finally, that his support came not from those who owed it to him but from those who owed him noth. ing and could least afford to aid him If this is a fine tribute to his com rades. 1t is equally scathing rebuke to the rest of Connecticut; especially to those coldly unsympathetic legisla tors who opposed the Workmen's com pensation act n the present genera --=embiy, -and to their thoughtles. constituents who sent them there.
 We hope that the Hartford Post 1T future will devote its editorial col umns, not to singing the praises of hu