THE PATRONAGE PRESS AGAINST THE PROBLEM OF THE SOCIAL PATHOLOGIES IN POLAND AND ABROAD AT THE TURN OF THE XIX AND XX CENTURIES

Abstract

Abstract. At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, a new group of the periodical publications appeared, i.e. the so-called the letters of the patrona-ge. They were the response of the Catholic Church to the rise of socialist in-fluence among the workers and the peasants. In their pages there were mainly didactic and moralizing articles. The letters of the patronage were addressed to relatively homogeneous social groups. Their undoubted merit was that they served the theoretical and practical help to many women who came mainly from the villages or the towns. They were mainly servants and villagers. The letters of the patronage were also addressed to the working-class families. Their editors often created very useful institutions, such as: legal advice offices, job placement, night shelters, sewing rooms, laundries, Sunday and evening schools, and even various courses were organized there. The letters of the patronage were closely connected with the association activity, for example with the Polish Union of the Catholic Women or the Association of the Catholic Ser-vants under the invocation of Saint. Zyta. The patronage press was often the only one for readers from the lowest social groups. The first patron’s magazi-ne should be considered as the «Przyjaciel Sług» (Friend of the Servants) (Kra-kow 1897–1918). This group of letters also includes «Niewiasta Polska» (Wo-man of Poland) (Kraków–Lwów, 1899–1907). The aim of the article is to try to answer the question how the creators of these most popular patron’s perio-dicals perceived the causes of the pathologization of the social life in Poland and abroad, mainly alcoholism and prostitution, and what actions were taken to prevent this undesirable phenomenon. From the columns of the periodicals the reader could, for example, learn about various offenses, including crimes that occurred in the world and in Galicia region as a result of alcohol consum-ption, be informed about the forced treatment of alcoholics in England by placing them for three years in special facilities. This was especially true of people who, under the influence of alcohol, broke the law and committed mis-demeanors. Due to the fact that the periodicals in question were mainly de-voted to rural women and the female part of the domestic ministry, there is a lot of space devoted to prostitution in their pages. In particular, the servants and girls who were coming from the villages to cities in search of work were at risk. They too often became victims of traffickers, pimps and numerous cheats. It was written about the institution of so-called railway station care. Its tasks included providing young and inexperienced women with help at the train stations and the railway cars constituting a habitat of pimps and human traffickers, among whom the Jews predominated. In order to stop the trafficking of human beings, it became necessary to create special societies, the activities of which were also informed readers of the patronʼs periodicals.