The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1911-11-11

soft drink and the opium den, the
former to catch the victim and the lat
ter to hold him. We have provided
the cheap theater and the moving pic
ture show to undermine the morals
and to inflame the passions, and we
have provided the brothel to COM
plete the ruin that these agencies have
set in motion.
go into our prisons, our reforma-
tories, and our institutions for the in
sane. and read the records of the in
mates committed to them from our
cities. Liquor, drugs, gambling and
immortality, are the words written
after nearly every name. Go to our
training schools and our institutions
for the feeble minded, and there you
will find their offspring to the third
and fourth generation.
Charity Is Encouraged.
My friends, do not misunderstood
me. I have no intention Of decryin
charity. 1t is not my purpose to dis
courage you whose hearts go out In
charity to your fellows. Heaven knows
there is room here and now for all
the charity that you can practice. Let
it be understood that I am not pes
simist. The contrary is true, I am
an optimist.
II believe the world is getting bet
ter. It is better today than it was
yesterday. 1t will be better tomorrow
than it is today. 1t is good to live In
the twentieth century. We are be-
ginning to ask ourselves and each
other questions. We want to know the
why and teh wherefore of things.
I'VE are not satisfied to trudge
along in the old ruts We recognize
our debt to humanity. We see that we
are the heirs to all the accumulated
wealth, experience, inventions, and
improvem ents of all the ages that have
gone before us. We begin to glimpse
dimly our responsibility to the gen.
erations that are to come after us
We begin to realize that We owe 9
debt to the future. We burn with
zeal to make the world better, not by
salving over the results of past errors
but by correcting the errors, by doing
justice.
Higher Moral Laws.
1--WE are cropping for a better law
of morality than the old one of the
survival of the fittest.' We have be-
come ashamed of Gains excuse, Am
practical ways of obeying the two
great commandments, Love the Lore
thy God with all thy heart and SOU
and strength, and thy neighbor as thy.
SELF
This association, conceived in de.
sire to serve the needy here on earth
Is progressive body. 1t has the vii
and the courage to follow wherever
truth may lead. It's efforts in the be.
ginning were directed along the old
conventional lines, but as the years
have passed change has begun to lie
noticed.
Causes of Poverty.
THE relief of distress, the feeding
of the hungry, the ministering to the
sick, the uplifting of the fallen. i
yet and must continue to be one of il.
principal aims. But while it attend:
to those imm rebate and pressing du
quiries as to the causes that produce
poverty, sickness and crime. But 81
far it has gone about this inquiry ir
a haphazard and uncertain way.
| is beginning to understand, however
| that it must more and more seek, il
| harmony with the spirit of the age
to get to the bottom Of things, to &c.
quire knowledge by careful and o.
tient study Of facts and details.
ALREADY it is beginning to glimpse
! the truth, as yet fragmentary and i'll
| complete, that it Is we'll. when Chart,
| stoops to raise the fallen, but that i
| is still better when it removes the
stumb bling block that would :aust
others to fall.
Lesson from Holland.
| when Holland undertook to re
not set her people to sweeping ~
! the tide or dipping out the ocean; sh,
built bikes, and Nature did the rest
! It ought to be an axiom with al
those who are charitably inclined cha
the removal of the preventable caus
es which make charity necessary i
| their first duty.
The belief is rife that much of II,
need for charity is caused by artificial
social and Industrial restrictions, an,
that the cure for this evil is the re
moval of the restrictions; in othe
words, that the cure for the thraldor
of poverty is freedom. I confess tina
my faith in humanity set free from
Injustice is well-nigh unbounded. Hoy
the condition can be brought abou
is the question that is attraction ant
holding the attention of our hes
minds. It is the way to this goal :,
which present-day seekers after trutl
are cropping.
To Lay Bare the Truth.
'Who can doubt that the spirit o
inquiry which is abroad in the Ian,
will in due course of time lay bare thu
truth and point the way? This asso
citation has already arrived at poin
in its development where definit
steps should be taken to more thor
Oughlv syStematiZe this mart IF it