"Many old people whose children do not want them or are unable to help them, or who have no family, become the dregs of humanity and must starve or commit suicide. You can find their bodies in the morgues and on dissecting tables in medical colleges.
"You are probably unaware of the misery of old age dependents. I can tell you of cases of old parents criminally neglected by their well-to-do children, many of whom you will find in flophouses and slum districts of all large cities.
"For the past many years, one of our New York newspapers three weeks before Christmas has appealed for help for hundreds of the neediest cases. It exposes to the public the pathetic problems of sickness and death among people of all ages. Just go on the rounds with a social worker if you wish to witness the inhumanity of man to man.
"I'm going to tell you something I saw many years ago. A man, deeply charitable, stood at a spot near Madison Square and Fifth Avenue in New York every night. There he auctioned off the services of the many unfortunates. He was always surrounded by them, as well as by a group of onlookers. He stood these victims, one at a time, on a box which he called 'the block.' It was pitiful to see them standing there, either flushed and embarrassed, or with tears running down their cheeks. He then called for bids.
"'What am I offered for this person? Who will give him ten cents? Twenty-five cents? Fifty cents? Do you have a job for him?' Sometimes he gave the history of the person with sufficient verification to substantiate his information. There were always offers of money, dropped in a glass on the block by the bystanders, many of whom themselves were in tears. Many of the unfortunates found jobs there. After the contributions had been made, the speaker counted the money in the presence of the auctioned persons and gave each its equivalent in tickets worth fifty cents each. These tickets could be used to procure beds and meals at specified hotels and restaurants. He kept up this procedure night after night, until the last member of his flock was taken care of.
"I well remember one man he put on the block. A bedraggled old drunkard, wearing oversized garments, torn and patched. He said, 'Look at this poor man. He looks like an alley cat, doesn't he? Just as if children threw snowballs at him during the day, and as if he rummaged through garbage cans at night.'"
My friend paused for a minute in his reminiscences. He was evidently lost in thought. I had been listening to him with both pity and a feeling of shame. He evidently had had no opportunity to talk to anyone for a long time. I could understand his need to unburden himself and determined to listen to the end without interrupting him. Finally he began to speak again, at first slowly, and then with passion and force. "You, who are now guiding our destiny, look about you in this busy hive of a city and in our entire country at the benefits we have bestowed upon you everywhere, on land and sea, under and above land and sea. The beautiful edifices, libraries, homes, department stores, office buildings and theatres; the transportation and distributive systems; ships, submarines, subways, busses, automobiles, airplanes and trains, the creative and destructive inventions; radio, television, radar, atomic bomb, moving picture; penicillin, and other new curatives and the thousand discoveries and achievements. All these are for your benefit, so that you young people can live and enjoy a more healthy and longer life.
"I can't say that the system of life we inherited and pass on to you is good. It isn't. But under the circumstances, we have done much better for you than our parents did for us; and we hope that you will do even better for your children.
"A great many of us were stunted by lack of play time in our youth; our education was neglected for necessary labor; but we carefully guarded you and gave you amusements, and sports for your normal physical, intellectual and spiritual development. We were the taxpayers who maintained the city, state, and federal governments. Many of us died in the terrific pressure and struggle of realizing our aims. A great many of us passed away in middle age; many of us are in insane asylums; and those few of us that survived, are now becoming helpless, disabled, and infirm, secundum naturam. The ravages of nature and time take many of us early and take a large toll of us over the age of sixty-five. Our span of life after sixty-five is very short. We die very rapidly; therefore, our cost and responsibility to you are not large or long lasting.
"Your duty is to make us happy and comfortable for the few days or years left to us, if not for love then at least out of gratitude. We don't want you to have to appear in foro conscientiae, before the tribunal of conscience, to justify your actions and to try to attain a future peace of mind.