Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1908 — STARVING CHILDREN [ARTICLE]

STARVING CHILDREN

Innocent Victims of Trust Rulo and "Republican Prosperity." Fifteen thousand school children starving In Chicago— among the causes, lack of employment of parents, and the constant Increase In the cost of living without a corresponding increase In wages! This is the startling announcement made in the daily newspapers of Chicago and which has brought gloom and consternation to the managers of the Republican national committee in that city. They have been preaching prosperity and the “full dinner pail” through the continuance of the Republican party In power and the maintenance of a high tariff. The Republican newspapers of Chicago without exception have given this Republican claim the lie direct. In publishing With big headlines the report of the special committee appointed to investigate the conditions in public schools, they show that thousands of children are suffering from hunger and actually dying from starvation in the great industrial and commercial city of Chicago.

Here are the headlines running across three columns of the paper, from the Chicago Inter Ocean (Republican) : HUNGER MENACES 20,000 PUPILS IN CITY SCHOOLS MANY BEG REFUSE TO EAT Startling Conditions in Chicago Shown by Report of Investigating Commit- > tee, W’ho Find Starvation Has Many Victims. 5,000 Have No Meal in Morning. Body Asks Food for Children, Some of Whom Have Forgotten Taste of Butter, Living on Dry Crusts Earned by Heroism of Mothers Who Go to Bed Fasting. The Tribune (Republican) heads its article: HUNGER STALKING IN CITY SCHOOLS Five Thousand Pupils Don’t Know What a Full Meal. Means and Ten Thousand Others are Underfed.

The Record-Herald (Ind. Republican) heads its story with: THOUSANDS OF PUPILS SUFFER FROM HUNGER

The Inter Ocean begins the horrible story telling of the starving of the little ones in the midst of “Republican prosperity,” with the following: Five thousand children often go to school breakfastless. Fully fifteen thousand school children of Chicago are underfed and habitually hungry. Mothers go supperless to bed in order that their children may have food in the morning. Half-clad and crying children have been found on the streets begging dead fowls and rotten fruit to eat.

These are some of the statements in the report on indigent children filed with the school management committee of the board of education.

Summarizing the causes which produce the conditions of hunger the Tribune (Republican) cites, “lack of employment,” and the "constant increase in the cost of living without a corresponding increase in wages” as the chief reasons for the horrors. During the present Republican panic hungry children have not even been provided with free soup-houses.