I 2 



an appeal is made that can establish itself on these grounds, the front 

 lines will be covered and the best talent will be available. 



The great need of to-day is reform, not "social" or "political" 

 but a reform that shall change the whole structure of human society — 

 a reform tlj^^t shall abohsh poverty, and initiate an era of prosperity, 

 in which morality can be possible, for no society can be moral while 

 a majority of its members are suffering all the discomforts and most 

 of the horrors of i)Overty. 



In the light of the knowledge we possess of sanitary measures, 

 and hygienic Hving, what becomes of our boasted civilization ? Why 

 preach and print so much about the rules of health, the necessity of 

 ventilation, drainage and cleanliness, while the great majority of man- 

 kind are doomed in their poverty to be filthy, breathe disease in the 

 polluted air of cesspools, and suffocate in houses they pay rent for, 

 but cannot reform. Is it filth, ignorance and injustice that we should 

 seek to abolish ? Then let us abolish poverty ! You may labor in 

 "civil service reform" while the universe lasts, but you will not thereby 

 abolish poverty, or put an end to these financial crises, which periodi- 

 cally visit our commerce and our industries, and whose presence are 

 more disgraceful than their effects are ruinous. These, as well as 

 poverty, have a special cause, which must be sought out and removed. 

 To confess our inability to do this, is unworthy of- a progressive age. 

 To leave to posterity an inheritance so shameful, ami seek refuge from 

 responsibility behind a supposed ignorance of its cause, is unworthy 

 of those who labor under the banner of reform, inconsistent with the 

 -pirit of their teachings, and contrary to the objects they wish to 

 accomjjlish. 



To say that most men and women must forever toil in a condition, 

 less favorable than that of the common brute, that nature, with the 

 magnitude of her inexhaustible sui)|)ly, her countless and untold 

 resources, and the jjrodigality of her productions has left man, the 

 highest and grandest of all her achievements, to be the victim of his 

 own necessities I That she has imposed on him the ' ' M'rions under 

 which he shall live, and has failed to provide the m. ,.^ of fuifiUing 

 those conditions I That she has said to am,, eat, or )S shall surelj"* 

 die; yet not have provided for all! That she inflicts the penalty of 

 death for violating her health laws, yet rendered compliance with 



