Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1910 — TO RID ENGLAND OF POVERTY. [ARTICLE]

TO RID ENGLAND OF POVERTY.

Way to Prevent Poor Dyinit la Workhouse, Prison or Gutter. He who is born in a workhouse will probably die in a workhouse, says TitBits. Not certainly, for there are wonderful exceptions, but probably. The same thing is true of many places, whole districts, which are not workhouses in the technical sense of the term, but are, nevertheless, the houses in which the work, people live, in which, because of their poverty, they are compelled to live. He who is born in one of these places will probably die in the workhouse, or in the prison, or In the gutter. Again, not certainly, but probably—aiost probably. As Sir John Gorst, a minister for education under a tory administration, said recently, you cannot blame the babies for being born, or for not making proper provision for their upbringing. “At present mahy of them had no chance, even before their birth, for their mothers were driven to work until almost the day wheh they came into the world.” He has also said —perhaps he exaggerated; we shall see when we come to look Into the matter more closely, but, anyhow, he said it—that the “great mass” of the children in our public schools were in a state of degeneracy and neglect. Now, if throughout the greater part of a man’s school life he is in a state of degeneracy and neglect, the odds are high that ne will end his days in a workhouse, a prison or the gutter. What we have to do, then, is to rout out and finally to abolish those workhouses that breed paupers, and afterward —let us hope not long afterward —to rout out and abolish those other places that breed paupers, too.