When they know and are
sufficiently interested to personally investigate the problem and aid
the suffering, they will appreciate as never before the absolute
necessity for radical economic changes, which contemplate a greater meed
of justice and happiness than any measures yet devised. But aside from
this we must not forget the fact that we have a duty to perform to the
living no less than to the generations yet unborn. The commonwealth of
to-day as well as that of to-morrow demands our aid. Millions are in the
quicksands: yearly, monthly, daily, hourly they are sinking deeper and
deeper. We can save them while the bridges are being built. To withhold
the planks upon which life and happiness depend is no less criminal than
to refuse to face the question in its broader aspects and labor for
fundamental economic changes. A great work of real, practical, and
enduring value, however, is being wrought each year by those in charge
of local missions work in the slums and by individuals who mingle with
and study the actual condition of the very poor. The extent of good
accomplished by these few who are giving their lives to uplifting
society's exiles is little understood, because it is quiet and
unostentatious; yet through the instrumentality of the silent workers,
thousands of persons are annually kept from starvation and crime, while
for many of them new, broad, and hopeful horizons are constantly coming
in view.[8]

[8] The extent and character of this work will be more readily
understood by noting the labor accomplished by the Bethel
Mission in the North End, which is doing more than any
other single organization in that section of the city for
the dwellers of the slums. Here under the efficient
management of the Rev. Walter Swaffield, assisted by Rev.
W. J. English, work is intelligently pushed with untiring
zeal, and in a perfectly systematic manner. From a social
and humanitarian point of view, their work may be
principally summed up in the following classifications:
[1.] _Looking after the temporal and immediate wants of
those who are really suffering._ Here cases are quietly and
sympathetically investigated. Food is often purchased; the
rents are sometimes paid; old clothes are distributed where
they are most needed, and in many ways the temporal wants
are looked after while kind