The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872: A Monthly MagazineVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872: A Monthly Magazine
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
We will now leave off generalizing, and descend to some
particulars. Merchants and others in similar positions ought to
take more interest than they do in the welfare and happiness
of their clerks. Those who know something of the hardships,
privations, and moral danger to which this class of young men
are exposed in New York will not dispute the assertion we have
made.[13] It may be extended to the corresponding class of young
women. And we have here the opportunity of citing the example of
a work undertaken by one of our merchants, which illustrates our
thesis much better than pages of explanation. We refer to the great
institution contrived, and now almost completed, by Mr. Stewart,
which may be seen, and is worth being seen by every one, on the
corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirty-third Street. This princely
undertaking is a sample of that benevolent and magnanimous effort
in behalf of a numerous and interesting class of the employees of
the rich which we are aiming to recommend.
The need of looking after the interests of those who are engaged in
the harder and rougher kinds of labor is much more stringent. The
tenements and daily surroundings of the laboring class of people
in great cities, the many squalid discomforts and miseries which
invest their lot in life, have been the frequent theme of those
who, either from real or pretended philanthropy, concern themselves
with social questions. Here again, we may cite the example of
another princely merchant, Mr. Peabody, as an illustration of
what might be undertaken and accomplished, if the whole body of
wealthy men had the same spirit and would make similar efforts.
The condition of the laboring class is too hard. They are too
much neglected. It is not safe to leave them in this condition,
and, more than this, it is not right to do so. Let us specify
some particular instances of the ill-treatment or neglect of
certain classes of workingmen. There are not a few who are most
unreasonably and cruelly overworked both by day and by night,
especially such as fill the most arduous kinds of employments about
railroads. The life of the Southern negro slave was paradisaic,
compared to that of the miserable drudges who work in the stables
of our horse railways. The conductors and drivers of our city cars
and omnibuses are worked to death on a pay so meagre that stealing
has become a kind of recognized necessity of their situation. How
can these men go to church on Sundays, approach the sacraments,
or enjoy an innocent holiday? There is a wonderful amount of
breath and ink expended in our enlightened city upon our religious
rights and liberties. Yet the men who are employed to take care of
the Central Park cannot find even a single half-hour on a Sunday
morning to go to Mass.
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