New Ulm review., 1913-12-24

II wonder that charity workers
don't stop to consider the fact that
there is always more call for charity
than can be met, marvel that so
few of them fail to see that charity
is addressed to an effect and not to
cause. Poverty is apparently in
eradicable. But what causes power
ty?
"Do all the we'll meaning folk never
think that there is no relation be-
tween those who have too little and
those who have too much? Don't
they ever see that it is blasphemy
to say that God sends people into a
world in which there is no provision
for them? They don't. They think
that vice causes poverty, not reflect
ing that there is plenty and to spare
of vice among the rich.
"The cause of poverty is that the
poor do not get their share Of the
fruits of the earth. All, but that's
because they don't work, says some
one. But they do work. Some of
the hardest worked people are the
poorest. They work but thev don't
Set IuelI WOIh , tdiuS. AHCy uoA v
get their works value because that
value is filched from them in various
forms of rent and taxes. The worker
is compelled to pay for the right to
work. He is taxed on everything he
needs or uses. The taxes go to the
few and make them rich and keep
the many poor.
"The people are exploited. They
are shut out of opportunities seized
by the few. BY Selling those oppor-
tunities the few have the power to
make the many work for them. No
man ever got rich solely by working
for himself. All men who get rich
do so by getting into positions in
which they can take share of the
fruit Of the toll of others, by taxing
others for living and for laboring.
When. any man gets the power to do
this to other men he has q privilege,
he has a claim on others earnings
and the power to enforce it. And as
the world crowds up the few privileg-
The tax grows heavier as population
increases. More and more people
are crowded by the tax to. the want
line. And that's how poverty grows.
Plainly It must continue to grow. SO
long as the cause remains operative.
And what can charity do that can
undo the perfect work of Privilege?
Nothing.
"Why not give people a chance,
instead of giving them aims? Why
not force out Of existence the fetid
slum, the foul sweat-shop? Why not
let people work for themselves and
get it's value for themselves? Why
not pay them for the service they
render, and stop the tribute to those
who render no service? How can
people who have been reading the
newspapers the past ten years, who
have followed the various investiga-
tions of the doings of wealthy men
how can such people fail to see
chat great wealth is attainable only
BY methods which rob the multitude.
That the huge plutocrats should have
the innumerable dollars they never
earned by creative labor, how many
men have earned dollars they never
received! The money that poverty
should have is the money that the
privileged have piled up. A dollar
Doesn't exist until it is earned. The
men who have the greatest number
If dollars haven't earned them.
Therefore the dollars have been tax
IN from those who did earn them.
And they have been taken by the
power OF privilege to tax labor.
That's why am not enthusiastic
about charity. Of course l know
here is distress that must be re-
ieved. The distressed cannot wait I;
or the establishment of justice. They
must be helped. And charity as
mostly practiced is a sort of anodyne
he practitioners give themselves to
leaden their sense of justice. Most
# us are willing to give little to
he poor, but few of US will give up
lnything to bring in the reign of
economic justice. Charity, then, as
serves to put off justice.
Charity prevents our striking at the
ause Of poverty and wickedness.
charity is compromise with injus-
ice. It is a little largess from the
Jig robbers to the many.
"Help all the charities, 0 reader,
IS much as you can, but don't i'm
Igine you're doing much real good.
BUY the red cross seal stamps for
he open air school, hang out on your
|oor the banner that notifies another
.harity to have a wagon call for
'our old magazines, that they may
,e sold as waste paper in a good
ause, subscribe to the Christmas
Festival Fund, buy the tickets for
orty or fifty benefits that come to =
,ou in the mail-blow yourself to
he top of your bent! It will make
,ou feel good, but it doesn't make
he slightest dent in the great mass
# poverty and suffering. Charity
lever catches up with the demand
lpon it.
II hope l am as charitable as any
nan who is no more charitable than
:, and Pm sure I don't want to stop
Ill charity work right away, but
10 delight to insist, whenever charity
S rampant among us, when it is most
he fad, that people shall do some
while they are doing their
:harity. Poverty can be abolished.
t is not a God-ordained, but man