288 LAND AND LABOR. 



employed to the extent of their physical endurance, 

 at compensations that barely sustained life, whilst the 

 other half got but little or nothing to do, and lived 

 God only knows how. But it is the case at this time. 



Fifty years ago we had the poor with us, as we ever 

 shall have, but not as we have them to-day. Then 

 the poor consisted of the halt and the blind, the aged 

 and the infirm, the widow and the fatherless. Then 

 the healthy and able bodied never went hungry and 

 cold because work could not be found to pay for food 

 and clothing. But to-day there are multitudes of the 

 most healthy, the most able bodied, the most skilled, 

 the most cultured, who are compelled to accept their 

 food, if they get any, from the hands of charity, and 

 their bed upon the bare bosom of mother earth, or the 

 stone floor of the station house. 



Fifty years ago the beggar, in town or city, was a 

 rare visitor, and in the country he was not to be 

 found. But to-day he is everywhere. 



And it is a notable fact that intemperance, igno- 

 rance, insanity, and crime keep even pace with the 

 development of all the evils that are here enumerated. 



Neither did these things exist forty years ago as 

 they do to-day, nor thirty, nor twenty, nor fifteen, nor 

 ten, but have been steadily growing upon us for the 

 last half century, or more, with one notable reaction, 

 since which time the development and growth of these 

 evils have been appalling, and challenge the earnest 

 thought and careful examination of all. 



Who does not know that during the last fifty years 

 there has been an enormous increase in pauperism and 

 crime ? And, at the same time, that there has been 



