to be absurd to argue that the institution. as it stands at present need be neither for young men nor necessarily Christians, so that with regard to two of its adjectives its title seems to be somewhat of a misnomer, and if the public at large come to consider it a place for the residence of men who can afford to pay its charges, which in view of what is given for them do not appear wholly unreasonable, and consequently more or less as a private commercial undertaking the Y.M.C.A. officials, having failed to avail themselves of the opportunity of clarifying the position, have only themselves to blame.
On the question of the suicide lof the Russian watchman there i: number of considerations involved. It can be argued that an employer should pay to the incumbent of a position only what that position is worth. That, it is readily conceded, is good business, and if the Y¥.MLC.A. is merely a business proposition in which the public, its support, has no say, then it is no business of the latter what the YM.C.A. chooses to pay its employees. Whether some are very highly paid, and others grossly underpaid is no concern of the outsider. It is also permissible to argue that it is no concern of the YMCA. whether its employee, this case a Russian watchman, has a wife and family or not. If the watchman thus burdened with responsibility chooses to take a position with the pay for which cannot possibly hope to maintain his dependents, that is his look-out—at course, from a purely business point of view. But it is very poor argument, and one, it {is possible to venture, rarely used fin good business even among the [Scrooges of this world, In the case of a Christian institution it is Jeven poorer if the ideals, which its name would suggest it serves, are really to be taken into account. For in the name of Him who made these things possible His follow-jets have been exhorted: lye one another's burdens," from that point of view there rests a heavy responsibility at the door of those who fixed this unhappy man's remuneration at the miserable pittance that is reported. [Consequently, it was a matter of concern for those in charge of the Jaffairs of the YMC.A. to know the responsibilities which this unhappy man carried; it was their business to know how far his! salary would enable him to meet his commitments; it was for them to see that their servant should be adequately, not extravagantly paid for his work, just as much as it was natural for them to see that their own remuneration was not Tess than that necessary for them to meet their own obligations.. It is not the foot rule of common business that is to be applied, nor should the fact that so much Russian assistance is s0 poorly paid in other establishments in the city be pleaded in extenuation of this case. Money appealed for in the name of [Chr'stianity should be dispensed that name. The people who have given so readily in support lof, certain principles are entitled to expect that it should be handled in the same spirit, and to pay $45 a month to a white man with family to support, not only fails to indicate the operation of the same spirit but has not one saving grace about it, only excuse that can possibly be advanced is that the YM.C.A. is a business undertaking along the lines set lout above, and even then it is a poor one,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.