Page:Charities v13 (Oct 1904-Mar 1905).pdf/329

 In some of the beds; the color of the cement in the basement floor did not suit the inspector, and he said that it looked dirty; he also called attention to the fact that there is no fire hose available for use in case the barns should take fire, and recommended the purchase of additional hose and a hose cart.

After the report had been read the superintendent of the poor made a little speech in which, while apparently acknowledging the truth of the statements alleged to have been made by the inspector, he seems to have exercised, at the expense of the inspector, a considerable amount of the dry humor with which rural citizens are so amply supplied. The typical supervisor would seem to think more of the opinion of the superintendent of the poor, who has probably never seen an almshouse except the one he runs, than of the opinion of a trained inspector, employed by the state to visit all almshouses throughout the state for the purpose of giving each county the benefit of expert advice and of the experience of other counties in solving the many problems of poverty. So it is not to be wondered at that the article should conclude as follows:

What if there is danger that the barns "will take fire for lack of hose and a hosecart, what if the beds are infested with bedbugs and the inmates live in unclean quarters and breathe unclean air, what if the discipline is defective and the records imperfect and the institution run in a way that would not be tolerated if it were owned and controlled by a private corporation instead of by the county—what does it matter, so long as the supervisors are satisfied?

But are not these supervisors, and the people they represent, citizens of the state as well as of the county? As citizens of the state they have contributed to the establishment and support of a state board of charities to do the work which, as citizens of the county, they have held up to ridicule. "We do the best we can," says the superintendent, but if that best is so much poorer than the best of other counties, Warren County would better inquire what peculiar local conditions make it impossible to maintain the reasonable standard required by the state authorities. That this standard is reasonable is obvious to anyone familiar with the almshouses in New York and with the work of the State Board of Charities, and it is certainly not creditable to any county that the effort of the state to cooperate in the improvement of local conditions should be received in the spirit exhibited by Warren County.

Your number on the Slavs in America furnishes much information to those who are interested in the religious and moral welfare of these people. We are glad to see the attention of the public directed to this subject. But the articles on the Bohemians by Miss Alice Masaryk and Miss Nan Mashek were severely criticized by the Bohemian Catholic paper of Chicago, which is ably edited by the Rev. F. Kohlbeck, a competent judge of Bohemian affairs in this country. In the interest of the many readers of your excellent magazine who might be misled by some of the statements in those articles, would you kindly allow me to make an important correction?

In both articles it is stated or implied that intelligent Bohemians conversant with the history of their country naturally turn away from the Catholic Church; that the Catholic Church has been the enemy of Bohemian liberty and national aspirations; and this is given as a reason why there are so many freethinkers and infidels among the Bohemians in this country. Your Catholic readers will not agree to this assertion. There are many excellent Bohemian Catholics in Europe and here that are more conversant with the history of their fatherland than their freethinking brethren. The Catholic Church as such can never be the enemy of true liberty and just national aspirations. As regards Bohemia, we will not discuss the question of John Huss and the Hussite excesses. Suffice it to quote the words of Palacky, the greatest authority on Bohemian history. Although a Protestant, and admitting the occurrence of occasional scandals in the church which Catholics are the first to acknowledge, he candidly says: "I am convinced that the Catholic Church, during the whole time of her existence in Bohemia,