The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-08
HOW
MOULD you enjoy your dinner at one of
Ny DIR. FRANK CRANE

MOULD you enjoy your dinner at one of our beautiful holtels if, instead of
 gleaming nappery, soft-footed servants, subdued lights, and fairy music, you saw out of the window woman looking through the garbage can for refuse meat, or heard the whimper of q baby dying for want of milk!
 Of course not. And the reason you dc enjoy your lobster Newburg and smoke your monogrammed cigarette in. .contentment is not that the aforementioned woman and child do not exist, but merely that you cannot see nor hear them.
 You are not hard-hearted. You are kind. Tears spring to your eyes at the recital Of suffering. This is an age of pity, and no class has more heart than the sports and the furred and jewelled ladies who live in extrav-. agance.
 The trouble is-distanee You don't know where the poor are. If you started to find them you would be devoured by crafty rascals who are experts in abusing sympathy.
 All you can do is to give check to some charitable institution occasionally. This has it's bad side. It prevents you from getting the real benefit of a generous action, which benefit consists in personal contact and inter est. The poor need you more than your money. And you need them.
 And here it seems to me, is the opportuni- ty of the newspaper. It reaches all classes. The rich read it in the luxurious club, and the poor read it by the kitchen stove.
 The newspaper brings buyer and seller together; why should it not bring the fortu- nate and the unfortunate, the strong and
 the weak, the we'll -to-do and the hungry to- gether?
 We'll, suppose the newspaper announced: eve have the addresses of a hundred chl- dren who need clothes, hundred babies who can get no wholesome ~nourishment, hun dred girls who are facing starvation, hun dred mothers too weak to york; and nun dred men who are in actual distress and are worthy to be helped. Anybody with kind heart who wants to help little may send us his or her name and we will put him or her into communication with one who will appreciate aid. All these cases are vouched for by responsible charitable organ nations; we receive no applications at this office" All this is suggested by a true story heard the other day. Several men were lunchlng at a Broadway hotel. Once of them was man acquainted with submerged humanity. During the meal he said:.
 "Isnt it odd that we can enjoy our porter house steak here, while there are DaDles in this city that are starving to death be- cause they can get no milky Then one of the company,sjust man who is known as ca good sport, spoke up ana said: "You give me the name of one DaDy like that and I'll send it tMgquart Of mlS every day for a year"
 And every other man atsthe table said 'NIe, too." @2ss
 Wa do care. We are not cruel. But we are very busy. Besides, we are confused D! the complexities of our social system. we ore ignorant. And we are not little lazy and selfish.
 But if some one could show us exaetl! and clearly how to reach out our hand anG help there are precious few of us who would not do ie VI
 If YOU khew positively there was one Ip man heinz, at such and saeh a street ianc number. you could relieve from pain ot- body and anguish of mind, wouldn't you be glad to do it?
 And why is not the newspaper the natural means by which the warm hand of the good fellow" can be put into the hand of the hu- man being who has stumbled?
 All this without clap-trap and advertising of names. helping your fellow creatures because you are a Christian, or a Jey, or a Mason, or any such thing it is to help them because you are human
 For it is better to be human than to be- long to the holiest and most exclusive broth erhOOd.