Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1916 — DESTROY THE FOOD TRUST! [ARTICLE]

DESTROY THE FOOD TRUST!

Several years ago a protest was made through these columns against tjie improper methods of the men who control the cold storage business of this country. At that time regret was expressed that a great invention had been debased and prostituted and the people made to suffer. The prediction was made that eventually there would, be governmental interference. It was shown then, as it <an be shown today, that instead of equalizing the price of perishable foodstuffs and establishing a more or less uniform range for them, the system has operated to raise the average prices in the productive seasons, and to vastly increase them in the non-productive periods. With the addition of new storage warehouses more and more available food supplies are abstracted from the market and stowed out of reach, until it has now come to pass that the material is released only in sufficient amounts to maintain a constant semi-dearth. Four years ago the Ohio general assembly, after an exhaustive inquiry into the high cost of living, attempted to deal with the storage evil, but the skillful lobbying tact tics employed defeated all efforts at relief. The storage warehousemen convinced the farmer members that their interests were being imperiled, ,and this blocked action. Conditions are again, becoming unbearable and, as before, are injuring most the workers with the lowest wage. Sporadic inquiries in New York and Chicago show that the storage warehouses and grain elevators are filled to bursting with meat, poultry, eggs, butter, grain and cereals. One speculator in Chicago owns 6,000,000 dozens of eggs, and, in the language of the late Boss Tweed, has coarsely what the people are going' to db about it. A yea? ago, he said, he made a loss, and now proposes to recoup himself. In practice he is fining the because in his last venture he bought too much and the weather became too warm. , It is all vgry well to deplore the inter-

ference of the government with private business and individual enterprise. But it is sheer silliness to permit a few men, a small group indeed, to stand between millions of people and their food, and demand, like robber barons, a toll on every mouthful sought. Congress acted, and with the full approval of the people, to take the taxes off the breakfast table through changing the tariff schedules on foods. If the cold storage plants and the warehouses are to be continued by their owners as agencies for the oppression of the consumers, and if gross and unfeeling speculators insist upon gambling in food supplies, congress should repeat its tactics and strike hard and heavy for the emancipation of the American pantry. It is monstrous that bread made with American flour and beef butchered in American abattoirs are selling cheaper in the warsmitten cities of, Europe than they are in this place of their production. If this be socialism and a blow at private property, this recommendation for stern and even harsh action, let the harriers of the poor accept, it as such!—Cincinnati Enquirer.

ICONOCLASM There is a demand in certain sections of the eastern states to substitute in the reading course.of the high schools modern books in place of the classics which have so long and so successfully held sway. The only surprise in this matter is that it has not come sooner. It is really a marvel that anything bearing the stamp of age and established usage should have so long escaped the blows of the modern iconoclast.

We are well acquainted with the element from which this demand springs. They are the typical exponents of “modernity.’’ They know that, wisdom begins with their generation. They think with a tolerant pity of such men as Milton, Shakespeare, Scott, and others as having been deprived of the many advantages they themselves enjoy. The wisdom of Solomon is as the babbling of a fool to them.

It would be interesting, though, to know what these reformers would substitute for the despised classics. What, for instance, would take the place of such of Shakespeare’s works as “The Merchant of Venice,” “Julius Caesar,” “Macbeth,” and others? Would “Mr. Dooley” and others of his ilk be the substitutes? Possibly these would-be reformers have lost sight of the two-fold mission of the classics in the present day reading course—the analytical exercise and the deep insight into human nature which these works impart. What modern author has painted “Shylock’’ more true to like than has Shakespeare? Find, if you can, a more faithful portrayal of human passions than in "Macbeth.” We must go on record as opposed to the iconoclasts who would destroy our old classic Idols if they are not prepared to give us something better in their place. The

old works have in the past turned but some intellectual giants—men who have indelibly impressed their personality on their age. If our reformers will convince us that any modern substitutes can achieve even a tithe of the success of the old favorites, we shall be ready to listen with patience to their suggestions.