has wrought incomparably more good than evil."
Can any one deny intelligence to those that agree with Palacky? And how can Bohemians agreeing with him be naturally hostile to the Church? No, the past history of the Catholic Church in Bohemia is no justification for apostasy, but only a pretext. The true reason is the weakening of religious convictions brought about within the last thirty years by iniquitous school legislation and forces similar to those at work in France at present. Hence many immigrants, when suddenly deprived of the protecting influence of Catholic environments and example, are too weak to withstand the temptations which beset them at their arrival here, or to bear the sacrifices which the conditions of the Catholic Church in this country demand. Thus many fall into religious indifference, which is negative, and from this state drift into positive or even violent infidelity. Economic conditions among the poorer classes in our cities also foster a tendency to socialism in its worst forms, because people without religious restraints easily fall into these errors. This is the more to be deplored as the Bohemians possess many natural virtues, which counteract to some extent the infidel influences that continually surround them.
We maintain that the Catholic Church always has been, and always will be the most potent factor for the moral welfare of the Bohemian people.
J. G. Kissner, C. SS. R.,
Pastor of the Bohemian Catholic Church,
323 East Sixty-first street, N. Y. City.
[It is not within the province of Charities to enter into religious discussions. At the same time, the church as a social institution and religion as a large factor in human motives, enter into movements of emigration and problems of assimilation in a very definite way. In these aspects—as in the conflicting interpretations put upon political history—the contributors to the Slav number of Charities were quite untrammeled in expressing opinion. Not only were the writers of different racial groups, but included among their number a Presbyterian minister, a leader among the Friends, priests of the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Catholic Church, a Congregational minister, etc. The foregoing letter is published in the same spirit, and must be considered as closing, rather than as opening up, consideration of this phase of the Slav immigration in these columns.—Editor of Charities.]
To the Editor of Charities:
The Agricultural Distribution of Immigrants.
Good homes and steady employment at fair wages await every diligent and worthy man, woman, or child. These homes and this employment are offered by the farmers of America. They are crying aloud as never before for help—for experienced help if it can be had, or for inexperienced help if the better grade is not available. Probably a million homes could be found for girls or young women who are willing to do housework and be one of the family among the farm homesteads of the United States. Many thousands of farm homes would welcome a girl or boy to be brought up in habits of thrift, industry, and, in most cases, would give the child or youth the same care and much of the affection that they would lavish upon a son or daughter. As for grown men among immigrants or for those who are turned out to work in their vocations, the farm demand for such help is practically unlimited, provided only that the man is willing and eager to learn.
There is no better place for the above class of people to improve their condition, to get a start in life and to become good citizens, than to get jobs on American farms or country homes. Of course the sick, the shiftless and the lazy are not wanted, but outside of these undesirables, I want to emphasize again the unlimited market that exists among American farms for help. It is easy also to reach this market. Simply spend a few cents in advertising in the agricultural papers in the section where employment is desired, a connection will be established with many desirable families or farmers in want of help. Each penny thus invested will often accomplish more direct and lasting benefit for those it is desired to have employed than each dollar expended in some other forms of charitable work or uplifting endeavor.
It is not my desire to criticise the methods of charitable work or the cost of those methods, but simply to point out the great void that is waiting to be filled with men, women, and children who are willing to work, and to show how simply and economically this market for labor can be reached. No argument is needed to sustain the statement that the farms and homes of rural America furnish by far the best environment for employment.
(Orange Judd Farmer—American Agriculturist—
New England Homestead.)
Springfield, Mass.
Notes of the Week.
