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Show The Uncharitable Rich. Addressing the Catholic Charities Fund association in Milwaukee, Hon. Kourke Cockran said "Charity is the activity that gives the millionaire opportunity to sign a check. And the average millionaire wants to sign checks. How otherwise should he use his wealth? He has money, but no appetite; he generally confines himself to a diet of bread and miik so why shouldn't he sign checks? Or, if he wants to dress well he has the clothes, but not the figure to carry them. So there is charity, w herein ne is permitted to reconcile himself with himself. Gloom impenetrable misery absolute. Where do you find them? Not in the country's coun-try's prisons; not in the slums, the poor house, the wretched tenement. There is no human condition so hopeless as to preclude a flashing smile; a touch of laughter. Men that are about to die and I have known prisoners condemned to death are yet ready to smile at a joke; laugh over a good story. No! the spot where hangs melancholy . supreme su-preme is in the safety deposit vault. When you and I meet in the vicinity of our safety deposit vaults; when we see before us the locks and bars and keys that snap on the wealth we have gathered gath-ered through the year, we forget to smile; our nods are curt and fraught with suspicion; our attitude is one of defense. There is only gloom about us. "Therefore. I talk to you of charity. I address people of my own religious faith. The Catholic church was the first to bring into the world the meaning mean-ing of the word 'charity' in its present accepted sense. In Rome was built up the first, hospital, many years ago. And the. charity that reigns today has sprung from that first effort made to care for the sick and the weak in the first hospital of Rome, established by the Catholic church. "Nothing is easier today than raising money for charitable purposes. I witness wit-ness the array of beauty aDout me. In the Women gathered here is an example. Would you work for yourselves with thefervor equal to that with which you devote yourselves to the work of charity? char-ity? I hardly think so." Cheerfully to fulfill the homely duties in the common field of daily life speaks a heroism nobler far than battle acts. r ' |