There are those also who, being too honest to steal and too proud to beg, suffer untold privations.
Victoria C. Woodhull
The Public Record
Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin, was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for president of the United States in the 1872 election. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency, some disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be president if elected.
gutenberg.org
All who would cannot obtain remunerative occupation, or that which they are suited to perform.
To all of these as members of society, as a part of the people, government owes a duty.
Society, of which they are a part, owes them the necessities of life, even if it be compelled to force them to earn them.
Every one who has attained proper age, and is possessed of moderate health, is capable of performing sufficient service to support him or herself, and by so doing is a useful member of society, because contributing to the sum total of its…
If he cannot obtain employment, society should supply it to him.
If he cannot labor, society should maintain him.
Were this practice once instituted, the dens of infamy and vice, the sink-holes of crime and disgrace, the pest-houses of disease, and the crammed-to-suffocation attics and cellars of our large cities, would be emptied of their occupants…
The general influence they exert upon society is even worse than that of the downright criminal—for where the criminal is one they number thousands.
If it is necessary for the interests of the people that he who steals a hundred dollars should be restrained of his liberty—and it is the sphere of government to do it—how much more would it be for its interests to transpose these leeches…
As a subject wherein the public welfare suffers, it is strictly within the sphere of government.
Charity, with its long cloak of justice escaped, has long enough covered a multitude of sins.