The Mistakes of Charity.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3872, 11 May 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Mistakes of Charity.

Tho English taro a great nation; a charitable nation—probably as just and fair-dealing as any of the -world’s civilised 'millions. But in few civilised countries can such a mass of misery, want, and wretchedness be found as London shows with the approach of every winter. Year after year the same problem and the same distress confronts us. How to deal with the class who desire work and cannot obtain it? How- to allev■l.l. • . T... Kir.

TilUi UIUU UISUW) UJ i i' 3vii iti * and sell-respecting .method? Charit; 'has its good intentions, but charity can not offer more than temporary relief And vsiich relief has disadvantages. Few and fire and clothing are necessary gift, which tend to pauperise the lazy am ill-conditioned, and offend tho proude sensibilities of tho independent worker Recently a well-known writer hoh forth on tho sorrows of millionairlsin but she appeared to forget that if i were -not for tho wealthy classes tin poor would suffer even more than the; do; for it is only wealth that create, employment on all sides. In offices towns, mansions; by .means of amuse incut, and of extravagance; in grea cities, as in tho humble country-side in the labour market, and the ehar< market; the factory, and the workshop the large emporiums, and tho small pro vincia 1 .stores. He,sides, the hospital, and convalescent homos arc almost on tirely endowed and supported by tin ■wealthy classes. •The first duly of the millionaire i-s tr nee his millions for the benefit of id; less fortunate fellows, and, to iiis credii be it .said, ho assuredly does this, am often by more .secret and indirect moth od.s than popular novelists seem a wan of. Hut, if the most c-haritabie-minde; patrons of charity were consulted oi ■tho present-day problem, they wonh liave to confess they were lacing a blanl wall. What use to give lingo .sums one year to .see the evil looming large and threatening as ever in the next? 'What uk to subscribe and plan and collect am mismanage lands wrung from pitying hearts, only to know that the cause i.‘ rooted too firmly to curt —and almost for relief? It is a canker eating deep into tile social .soil of England and demanding tho i-jurgeonis knife, not tin ■soothing plaster of annual chanty. The patience of the poor! What r ..subject for novelist and poet! Ami never is it more pathetically displayed than by that waituig on the solution ol a. problem which shall eventually help them to independence and set them fret oi tho iiumiliatioii.s of relief. •Does the millionaire understand tied there are people—even classes of people • -to whom hi.s offer of a .sovereign is at great, an in-vuii as he would feel it tc lio presented with a U,]d. Christm'a.s-box! There are men—hundreds and thousand; cf men, and -women, too —wlio- wonh rather starve than -accept-charity ; whose one cry to King and Government is “Give n.s work by which to Jive honestly -and decently," nr devise .some -methoc hy -which the English artisan shall not bn sweated and pauperised and ground into the dust of alien competition ! Why .should not 'English millionaires hand themselves 1 ogethe-r to devise work f.-r the poor during the isix dreadful months when poverty and hunger lace, them -as their daily lot? Why should they not employ a staff of enquiry to do what they cannot do themselves —find cut, the real nerds, the really deserving cares? 'Why should not their-wealth influence the Government they .support, .and even for one session force it to give time, thought, and h rail us to tho discussion of a national 'abuse Surely it would be a worthier method of spend--11,,,.. +.i t.-iiIAQ

mid squabbling about .straws of custom and opinion. In spite of boosted independence, there is no country mo' - © 'linmpcrrd by convention moro chained and hound by old traditions, more given to bugging its fetters of old-time abuses than is England. Wo .see slaves of greed ami power, or ignoble ambitions and foolish idol-wor.shin in every rank and grade of .society. We .see those who were horn to 1)0 free thrusting their lives and .souls into voluntary Ixmdago, for the sake of what? —some desire of office, place, or dignity; some .strained, old-fashioned prejudice, tomn unexpressed party loyalty which vseeks a majority of votes at

the expense of a minority of justice. Even tho bounty of dhanity stops ; short at the propounding of tho riddle, j “ What use?” For in a year, or a month, > the hungry will hunger and the abject j crowds will gather again, tho parade of > poverty will march again through tho r streets that teem with wealth, past tho ; mansions of the rich and titled, whose j very waste would make their abun- • dance. Patient, wan-eyed, shivering, , starving, so they persistently plod their r hopeless way to lay their wrongs at tho l feet of a benumbed and stupid Govern- ; ment, who can only hold up helpless hands, and say, “ It is very sad, but it cannot be helpedl” But why can’t it be helped. Mby cannot some method bo devised by wlrich this great and wealthy city shall assist its poor —not by useless charities but by some organised scheme of labour ? Hoes .such a scheme need funds?—there arc countless ways of raising them. Think if for one week the class who dine and sup at all the fashionable restaurants, gave tho money usually spent on those extravagant meals to a fund for organising work; if the absurd decorations of churches for fashionable weddings, the -absurd accumulation of nnnceatsary clothes and costumes, the over-eating, over-tipping, over-dressing ■were stopped, and money and time bestowed on tho real needs of foliow-snf- , ferers, think of what it would mean! . But such.things demand self-sacrifice; ’ they lay claims on individual time and - attention; they would force tho wives r of mcriibers of the Cabinet and the ! lion.se to clamour and scheme, not for ■ place and honour for their husbands, ' but for real help and service to the community. It would mean a sort of soc- - ial dislocation, for which society is not , prepared or inclined. It is easy to write [ a cheque, and get up a relief fund; it , is a th ousand times an ore difficult to go into the reason for writing the cheque, I cr inquire into tho methods of adminis- > tering tho relief. _ > But some day it will 'have to be lielp- , cd ! That patient million of starving, , suffering humanity will not always Ik> patient; will not always content itself with mass 'meeting;? and the tall talk of •labour committees; with going on strike, and getting up useless demonstrations. It will scoff at charity, and demand its right as citizen and individual. The \ chained boast that lurks under those ' dismal rags and social fetters, the bid- ‘ den fee marching in annual dograda- ’ tion through the thoroughfares, will one > day leap from chain and restraint, will 1 (how fangs instead of suppression, will ’ vend and tear and drive the mighty 1 from their place, and demand its rights ’ and seize them! • It lias been done before ;It will be ‘ done again. It has blazoned its power ' in that late frenzied revolution in Rnsr sia; Europe has known its terrors, and " England has cowered beneath its : throats. Order and civilisation, and law and equity, aro fine-sounding words, but • they have no -magic for an empty stom- [ acli. They cannot still the cry of the starving child. : However wise or deep the thoughts *■ spent on reviewing this problem, they ’ cannot bo too profound to meet its in- ' creasing importance. At present there > seems to bo a sort of mental paralysis ' in the air. No one knows what, to do, • and each man Waits on his fellow-man. 1 to act, or suggest action. The powers of are, as usual, restricted ' by tho fetters -of convention, and the • obligations of party prejudices. There ’ has been a wide and sudden burst, of > generosity on the part of Queen and ■ nation. 'Money was called for, and ■ money was given ; but the great question is still unanswered, tho riddle still ' unsolved. Can charity really 'help those who doi serve help? Hoes 'it flow through the i right channel? Hoes it benefit the real > t-aifforer.s? Hoes it in any way permeate L to tho root of the problem—this ever- ■ recurring march of misery through # Lon- > den’s noblest thoroughfares and historL real streets? Boos .it help the City slave : to recognise his birthright of citizen- . ship, to learn of life's wider outlook, : of .some clean, soul-uplifting joys, something of Nature that is not cinder heaps and smoke-blackened roofs, and food re- ■ fuse, and polluted water? . When will King cr Government or civilisation give to modern nations what Be me and Greece gave to their peoples i —cleanliness, healthful surroundings, beauty of government, sight and sound of Nature? Even with their attendant drawbacks of Imperial effrontery, these were good and effectual gifts-—at least, they tended to health and wisdom ; not the'debasing brutality of public-houses and pawn-shops, and herded crowds, whose miserable dens are scarce lit for a -velf-respccting animal! How .shall these things he remedied? That is the question of tho day; the question a.skcd by the helpless and patient peer; tho question of the great w< altliy governing bodies of the great town, for the millionaire, as his motorcar whirls him to places of beauty, where -no degrading slur -of poverty davo shew itself; for all that holy of noble and titled and generous persons who so cheerfully subscribe cheque and charily alien stimulated by the example of Royalty; for Church and King; for State ami individual.