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Brisbane, Arthur, 1864-1936

"Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers"


The great task of humanity is the abolition of poverty. The
great benefactors of humanity are the great industrial organizers
of this day, because, in spite of individual selshness,{sic} they
are planning production on a scale that will in the end provide
for all.
It is worth while to discuss and to realize what real poverty
means. If we can realize its meaning every one of us must be
more anxious to relieve, as far as we can, the poverty around us,
and especially anxious to work for the social betterment that
shall one day wipe out poverty forever
Poverty means dirt.
The thoughtless and comfortable have a way of saying: "The poor
might at least be clean." But cleanliness is a LUXURY; it
demands leisure and peace of mind, as well as bathtub, soap, hot
water and good plumbing. The very poor cannot be clean.
Poverty means ignorance, and it means ignorance handed down from
father to son.
Poverty means drunkenness. The pennies of POOR men and POOR
women pay for more than half the vile whiskey, gin and other
poisons that men buy to help them forget.
Poverty and its sister, Ignorance, fill the jails and the insane
asylums.
Poverty is the mother of disease, and it fills the hospitals.
Tens of thousands of consumptives alone are murdered every year
by poverty.


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