The stranded man or boy, woman or girl needs food, shelter and a
straightforward, resourceful meeting of the issues of his or her
human life _first_. After that, if you possess sincerity, faith and
clear vision, it may be your privilege to speak to him or her, with
controlling power, of the ministry and message of the _Son of Man_.
The sympathetic reader may well ask: "How will stranded men and boys,
women and girls, learn of the existence of a Municipal Emergency
Home, and what will impel the unfortunate woman or girl to accept its
altruistic, humane but vigorous hospitality?"
The answer is easy. It has already been discovered that one of the
chief sanctions, one of the main objects for municipal direction
of such work is _being a municipal enterprise_, a part of the city
administration, a wing of its manifold governmental functions, it
challenges most effectively the co-operation of all public authorities.
The very first step therefore in this mandatory municipal co-operation
will be the closing of the police stations, these degrading and
unsanitary hells of our barbaric age, to the itinerant or local toilers
who have been either "run in" by the police or forced to find shelter
for the night, and provision for the supply of all such applicants
with tickets of admission and directions to the Municipal Emergency
Home. This will partly relieve the police stations of our cities of one
of their most disagreeable duties, rendered in the past without any
adequate means and under conditions that befouled not only the stations
but which degraded the needy visitors, thereby encouraging vagrancy,
crime and vice, creating disease and, in many cases, causing untimely
deaths.
The second answer to the question is that every policeman will be
required to carry a supply of Municipal Emergency Home tickets in his
pocket to give to all persons discovered in need, and to those found
begging. These must be accompanied by a warning that he or she must
not beg, because of the consequences, and that the city will take care
of their monetary necessities. No police officer should be allowed to
interfere or endanger the liberty of any such temporarily destitute
people. All railroad stations should have, in a conspicuous place, an
advertisement of the Home, calling the stranded wayfarer's attention to
its existence and location. Such notices will prove a blessing to them
and a saving to the community. All newspapers should co-operate with
the city authorities in printing in the "want ads" column the fact of
the existence of such a Municipal Emergency Home, its location and the
possible positions that may be filled by applying to the superintendent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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