August 12

“The first thing that men must do in order that they may really, thoroughly relieve the poor, is to profoundly recognise that there can be no complete and permanent relief, until not merely men who have money shall have given it to men who have no money, but until men who have character shall have given it to men who are deficient in that last and only real possession. Not till you make men self-reliant, intelligent, and fond of struggle, fonder of struggle than of mere help – not till then have you relieved poverty. If you could give every poor man in this town of ours a house, a wardrobe, and a balance in the bank tomorrow, do you think there would not be poor men and rich men here among us still? There must be, so long as there are some men with the spirit of independence, the light of intelligence, and the love of struggle; and other men who have none of those things, which make the only true riches of a manly man. And the second thing is this, the rich men of our community must be truly rich themselves, or they can have nothing worth giving to the poor, nothing with which they can permanently help their poorer brethren. Only a class of men independent, intelligent, and glorying in struggle themselves, can really send independence, intelligence, and the dignity of struggle, down through a whole city’s life. This is the reason why your selfish and idle rich man, who has neither of these great human properties, does nothing for the permanent help of poverty. The money which he gives is no symbol. It means nothing. O, let us be sure that the first necessity for giving the poor man character is that the rich man should have character to give him.