Lower coast gazette., 1913-11-01

~~ AN WV N~ASNH SNAAJ " SAASA ~ ~
charitable work with all Of the old and enfeebl-
ed people on their plantations, but the condition
of the sugar planters generally is such that
some serious change along these lines must fol-
low and the public authorities will feel them
selves compelled to take care of the poor in the
parishes in some way that shall be effective and
yet that may cost the parish only such an out
lay as the parish can fairly stand.
Among the parishes in the state ours has
been very much favored and it has thus far
been found competent to make allotments of
small monthly pensions to a number of the par
ishioners and in this way take care Of the suf-
fering poor. On the larger plantations these
poor people can generally all get house room,
but many of them now have grown old and are
so infirm as to be unable to work and their sub
sistence becomes a matter of very serious i'm
p%ortance. This condition is confined largely,
but not entirely, to the colored people and they
are generally kind to each other and will d.
vide their food supplies with each other and
apart from that they can live very cheaply. At
the same time this haphaZard way of taking
care of the poor and throwing them on the
charity of their immediate neighbors is not very
satisfactory and leads necessarily to illness and
death with many of these poor people who
might otherwise survive for years and could do
some useful work.
The decline of cane culture in our parish and
under present conditions it's possible extinction,
and the breaking up of the plantations into
cnoo II hnIdiprc 10 q ,.o1iool 4obonrro F,,oro %Lo
methods of the past and yet is one that seems
to be inevitable. Those who have been so much
impoverished by these causes are becoming UNI
able to take care of the poor of the parish as in
the past and common justice demands that the
parish itself should take over this work in it's
entirety and endeavor to take care Of the poor
in the best possible manner and with the least
practicable cost. The whole subject is one
worthy of careful study and we would recon-
mend that our police jury consider the matter
carefully and we believe that such consideration
will lead then to some efforts for the ameliora-
ton of the condition Of the parish poor other
than the prevailing conditions.
We believe that we are within the limits Of
accuracy when we state that there is probably
not a county in any Of the western states with
a population Of Il, 600 or IL, 900, as we have,
which does not make special arrangements to
take.care Of its poor and at many times the
cost OF what we, as a parish, have been con-
tributing hitherto. There must necessarily be
many poor people unable to make a living and
these of both races, white and colored. It is
generally thought that-a-noor faaev talorv vr
less of the supplies for subsistence OF the IN
mates could be secured, would be the cheapest
in cost so far as the parish is concerned and
the most effective in the relief that it could
give.
Our district attorney could readily give to
the police jury the legal status of such efforts
and could make suggestions as best how to pro-
coed in the matter. Such institutions are gen.
orally controlled by some one manager, under
the control of the police jury, a special commit
tee being appointed to look after the poor farm
and to report on it at stated intervals to the
police jury, the manager in charge making con-
tinuous reports to the president OF the police
jury.
The amount now expended on the various
large plantations and in the various %neighbor-
hoods in the unorganized assistance Of this kind
would amount to several thousand dollars per
annum and as we are being driven into econ
omic conditions different from what have pre-
vailed in this parish for a century the time has
come when it would seem to be imperatively
necessary that Plaquemines Parish should take
care of it's own poor in a more liberal way than
it has hitherto done as a parish and in a way
that will bring to them a reasonable amount Of
comfort and health and at the same time re-
curing of them such a limited amount Of work
as they in their condition can perform for the
good ofNthe relief organization.
We throw out these ideas for the considera.
|, ton Of our readers, believing that this question
is now imminent and that some steps should
be taken at once. The secretary of the police
jury could readily learn by writing to the police
juries of the various parishes what their meth.
DDS are in these matters and we believe that il
will be found that organized effort is already
operating in quite a number of the parishes
and probably some of the conditions Of the re