Witan (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1979 Page: 4 of 16
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Page 4
THE WIT AN
February,
WELFARE — IN A NUTSHELL
By Edward Schroeder
What does the word welfare mean to
you? What does it mean to the average
man or woman, to the votary of middle
class America? Actually, it has come to
have a rather bad meaning—people living
for nothing, food stamps, unemployment,
the subsidization of illegitimacy, etcetera.
It has come to have a very loaded
meaning, one far from its original concept.
The word came to us from an old
Anglo-Saxon term meaning how is one
faring, or how well one fares. Faring well.
That such a word could evolve shows a
definite trend toward concern for one's
fellow man.
Let us reflect upon primitive,
prehistoric man, living in what Freud
called the "prime horde". To these early
humans everything appeared as a
threat—wild beasts and other groups of
men who were on the prowl to abduct
their women, steal their food, and murder
them. Nightfall and winter were their
enemies. Virtually all creation must have
seemed a monstrous conspiracy to destroy
them. These groups, tribes or families, if
you like, had to be ruthless and efficient.
Any member unable to contribute had to
be sacrificed. The old and infirm, the
crippled and wounded were of necessity
set aside, much in the way that a pack of
wolves or sharks will turn upon a
wounded fellow and destroy it. But
somewhere along the way a sense of
caring developed and the group as a whole
began to look to the protection and care of
the weaker members. We do not know
when this began but it marks a watershed
in the history of life, for it is a clear
passage from barbarism to civilization,
indeed from animal to man!
The tribes grew in size and power and
kings came into the human family. The
king or ruler became, in part, responsible
for his subjects. Recorded history has no
dearth of examples of social concern.
Hammurabi, King of the Assyrian
Empire, codified (circa 3,000 B.C.) the
laws of his realm. Along with the famous,
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth",
concept of revenge were provisions for the
care of the needy. We find Ruth gleaning
in the fields of Boaz. In Athens (circa 500
B.C.) the masses of unemployed were set
to work putting up public buildings,
among them that symbol of classical
civilization, the Parthenon. Contrast
Athen's" attitude with that of her rival
Sparta. The Spartans were a military
people. As standard procedure they
practiced the cruel custom of infanticide-
leaving a set number of female babies and
any male who did not look to be healthy
and capable of either hard work or war.
How many children of genius were
destroyed by this brutal custom? Perhaps
another Socrates or Sappho. All we
inherited from Sparta were the words
spartan, meaning austere, and laconic,
meaning terse, while we owe drama,
philosophy, architecture, sculpture and
democratic government to Athens.
During his whirlwind conquest of Asia,
Alexander the Great (b. 356 d. 323 B.C.)
made provisions for pensioning his
wounded and retired soldiers and the
widows and families of those who died in
his service. During the Roman Empire's
days of grandeur the unemployed were
set to work constructing public buildings.
The grisly shows in the Coliseum were for
the amusement of the idle. They were
given bread and circuses.
Most of these acts of charity, however,
were with ulterior motives. The Hebrews
wished to allay their consciences and the
Greeks and Romans sought to pacify
potentially dangerous subjects. Charity or
genuine concern for the individual, not his
positions in or effect on society began with
the Christian Church, the first open
society. The early Christians deeply cared
about their fellow men. Even the horror of
persecution did not alter their feelings.
When Rome fell in the fifth century,
government in the West fell with it. The
organization and structure of the Church
remained as the only stabilizing force to
keep civilization alive during that period
of history known as the Dark Ages. The
times were dark and hard but progress
was made. Not only was the knowledge of
the ancient world preserved but
eleemosynary institutions were begun.
Hospitals, orphanages, poor-houses and
free universities were established, all by
the Church. The abbeys supported great
masses during famine and plague. It is
true that abuse was rife, but we owe a
fearful debt to the medieval Church.
Much of what is American is a legacy
from England, so let us turn briefly to
England. The Church in England was
essentially the same as the Church in the
rest of Europe in both structure and in its
programs of charity. Henry VIII
(1491-1547) wished to divorce his lawfully
wedded wife Catherine of Aragon and
marry Ann Boleyn. The Medici pope
refuse to grant him a dispensation to do so
and after long, fruitless wrangling, Henry
declared that England would no longer
recognize the pope as the head of her
church. He would be the head of England's
church. And he granted himself the
dispensation. (And another after that).
Thus was born the Anglican Communion.
He also confiscated all the church lands
not
and properties. There is a popular nursery
rhyme containing the phrase, "four
twenty blackbirds baked in a pie." It was
written in the sixteenth century as
lampoon against Henry. The "blackbirds
baked in a pie" refers to the twenty
black-robed abbots executed by the king,!
This was all well and good for Henry but
the many people dependent upon the
Church for support found themselves -1-
dispossessed. Henry had, apparently,
considered their plight.
Their situation was not ameliorate!
until the reign of Queen Elizabetl
(1558-16031 with the establishment of
Elizabethan poor laws. These laws set u|
locally taxed workhouses and apprentice
ship programs on the parish or townshi
level. The English program set the tempe
of the American colonies and the welfar
provisions of the English-speaking people
could be described as adequate until
Industrial Revolution in the mid 1800's
People crowded into the cities to labor
the factories and live in squalor amongs
the slums. These were the times of almos
pure capitalism and lassez-faire; time
when children were chained to machine
and forced to work their lives away. It v
these abuses that caused Karl Marx
write Das Kapital in three volume!
The Fabian Society, The Oxfor
Movement, the artistic protest of Bernai
Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dicker
all made great effort to rip away the n{
on the surface of society and reveal tl
festering sores beneath. There was
definite trend toward socialism and
filled the governments of the West w
alarm. In Germany, Bismarck beg
unemployment insurance and in Englai
and America, programs of slum clearanc
(Continued on Page 10)
Child Abuse
"The Attorney's Role in Child Abuse
Cases" will be the subject of a panel
discussion co-sponsored by the
Women's Law Assocation and
Criminal Law Association on Thurs-
day, February 8, at 7:00 p.m. in room
102. Participants will include Judge j?
Fred Shannon of the 131st District
Court, Mr. Robert Nelson of San
Antonio Legal Aid, Ms. Sue Hall
Professor of Law at St. Mary's School
of Law, and Mr. John Specia of the
Department of Human Resources. A
film will follow the discussion. AH
students are invited to attend. re
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Witan (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1979, newspaper, February 1, 1979; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth855618/m1/4/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting St. Mary’s University School of Law.