It is true that the poor sick woman, who has been doing washing all day to support her small children, is a pitiful sight. It is true that the consumptive man, driven to work day after day to get the means to feed his family, is not at first thought an inspiring object as he plods his tired way homeward. But do we help such by getting down in the slough and taking on the weight of their burdens? So long as we see only their unhappy condition, we can never devise any remedy for it.
We should turn our minds to a consideration of the way out for these, and all their kind, if we would help them. We should dwell less upon their needs and more upon ways to permanently meet their needs. Maudlin sympathy will not save them; charity will not save them. A juster organization of society, a mental and spiritual uplift, a more cheerful faith on their part, to all of which we may contribute by our own attitude, will help them more than sympathy. So long as we grovel with them, we cannot help them.
One cannot climb out of his environment until he first looks out. Faith, hope, courage will show him the way out. And those who are more fortunate should use their faith, hope and courage to inspire the weaker ones. We emasculate our ability to aid by indulgence in sentimental hysteria. It is not by adding our own doubts and fears to another’s that we help him.
No matter what a man’s condition maybe it is better to help him to look up than to look down. It is better to plant faith within his heart than to hypnotize him with a hopeless pessimism. He has enough of pessimism in his own soul. Do not add the weight of your pessimistic sympathy. As opportunity offers, teach him to have faith in his own powers to find a way to better conditions. Teach him that he is a part of the creative life of the universe, and that in degree he can work out his own destiny; that courage and faith will show him new ways of advancement; that so long as his eyes are fixed only upon his troubles he cannot see the way of deliverance; that all over the world a constantly growing throng, organized and unorganized, are working for juster human laws by which society shall aid and provide for those who are unequal to the task of suitably providing for themselves, and by which fuller opportunity for life and happiness will be given by society to its members who labor with head and hands for their families and homes.
Help, in any practical way that you can, those who need temporary aid, but do not waste your energy in hopeless sympathy. Do something to bring permanently better conditions to all those who are the victims of society’s barbarism. Work and vote for every law that will promote social and economic justice. Make your sympathy dynamic and constructive and it will then be worth something. It will then strengthen you and its object as well.
William E. Towne | The Nautilus, December, 1912