The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1915-03-13
CHANGING IDEALS .s.
IN SOCIETY
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the millions who are the victims of
these profit mongers and law-break-
ers,-the Involuntary offenders. They
are the thieves, harlots, the weak, the
deficient, the men and women badly
poisoned mentally through shameful,
environment and poor food stretched
over generations, the near-zeros of
civilizations; the MANNED, the crippled!
the blind, the hereditary victims of
disease and vicious habits, children of
parents whose labor Slapped them of
the strength that should go to en-
dow a future generation with good
brain and an adequate body; victims
of drink who unavailingly have tried
to snatch q few golden moments out
of gray world; children crippled in
the streets and factories because or
ganized society has not yet reached
the plane where it adequately cares
for its young: the survivors of war
and the wretched victims of financial
panics who have suffered because big
moneyed men know that money
scare ever so often skaters values and
makes it profitable to buy what others
must sell to live.
I call all OF this last named class
involuntary offenders, because they
drop naturally into that class through
economic pressure and environment.
Many of them of course are not truly
involuntary victims, but there is that
in their makeup and in the breeding
they have had that causes them to
sink rather than dash themselves
lineup Of forces which life has pre-
sented to them.
do not. believe that any one can
study at first hand conditions as they
exist today, and by these I mean the
every day facts of life as they affect
the economic condition of mankind,
and not thrill with the zeal OF the
proselyte in the cause of g. better day.
I believe that you can't reach a mans
soul, any more than his heart, except
through his stomach. 1t is positively
shameful to hurl a. Thou shalt not
steaI' at hungry or ragged human
being.
Let us all dress and have dinner
before we talk of morals: >c = -: , -
An element in life that has far
reaching consequences is that we are
apt to live merely by comparison We
take as a matter Of course the crowd
ed East Sides, the Hells Half Acres,
and the other strikingly named dis
| tricts in our big cities. We don't
seek out reasons nor hunt. for sol
vents. We see them from the time we
are able to toddle until we die, with
out a proper emotion nor a. sense-a
gripping vital sense-that something
is wrong. We regard them with the
fearful complacency with which black
death, diphtheria, smallpox and other
dangerous diseases were regarded in
by-gone days, as: something newt
able and in accord with life.
The East Sides and the Helrs Halt
Acres are the foulest blots on civil
zation. They advertise that injustices
and menaces to the health and well
being of: communities are tolerated fol
the sake Of profit. They show that
property is in the saddle riding down
human life They prove that the ten.
ants. giving. up their lives in toll, can.
not earn enough to be decently housed
And we stand for the sort of living
they must have and the kind of wage.
they must take.
Shorter Course Charted,
In placing economic conditions be-
fore moral questions, I do not fnten(
to :belittle the wonderful work tina
has been done in the world to hel1
the unfortunate and to place obstacle.
in the way OF those who would prof.
through the prostitutions of men ant
women by trafhcking in their frai1ties
1t is to the glory Of our race tina
thousands of men and women hav,
gone out of their way to take part il
this task, as arduous and .thankles
as any person could essay. I am mere
ly trying to point out that it is m,
belief that their objective is, in muc1
easier reach. I am trying to char
for them what believe to be a sort
er course to their haven. We know
as rational beings, that human mis-
cry, SO universal as that caused b,
poor wages and viciously sinful hour
of toll, is infinitely worse than tn
result of any individuals moral laps
or folly, degrading and vile though i
may make the victim appear.
Napoleon said an army marche,
on it's stomach. He meant that it wa
only good for severe taxing of it
/ strength as long as it's harder wa
filled. He might have said it witt
equal truth OF the entire race o
men. The poorly nourished are veal
comrades In a war on rotten indus
trial conditions, adulteratedr foodt
vice, wholesale murder, or any othe
of those countless evils that have a.
economic basis.
Does this sound pessimistic? hop
not. for am. optimism incarnated.
believe the world is getting bette
every day. I believe more and NOR
every day that crater number O
persons are becoming genuinely in
terested In the we'll being of human
ity than ever before, some from per
sonal reasons, but more from that di
vine fire which a pure and undefile
love for even the lowliest of us in
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