Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1917 — EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS [ARTICLE]

EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS

Equal rights and equal fights for all: Spuds, beans and bullets—-they win! ' •■Farm or arm—and both are vital necessities. ! -Sir, the United States are present or accounted for!” ■ No work, no eat,is the slogan. The war leaves h<r roqni for slackers. . Uncle Sam’s gun may be slow to fire, but it has a powerful long reach once it does let go. 1 If your old Star Spangled Uncle keeps on kicking lip the dust, he’ll soon be lending a cyclone. I Put the prize fighters in the ■‘army. Their strong arms would be ! valuable in pearing spuds.

-Millionaire youths are coming right to the front,” we read. Good! The poor boy is already there. Following the flag” with some i young bloods is confined to attaching it to the front end of their autoi mobiles, One serious defect is noticeable [in the selective draft law. It should have included food speculators and the idle rich. If your boy balks at using a hoe, escort him to the woodshed and do unto him as you were done by in your own youthful days. It may pain him, but it will train him — and he’ll hustle.

The billions of money the United ’States are lending the allies will be ;spent in this country for food and ‘war supplies. That means work for everybody left at home and good money for work. Well! Chicago packers are willing to accept government price regulation. ISo are we—and we sincerely hope it will regulate not only the, price of meats, but of every other blessed ; thing we eat, wear and use, A J few are becoming rich at the price iof pauperizing many. With a foreign war on our hands and possible famine staring us in the face, every man in the United ■States who is physically and menj tally able should be required to ■either fight or work. If a chronic

loafer is found who will neither fight nor work, then iji is incumbent upon the authorities to take him into custody, put him in a field and’ compel him to. aid in the production [of the vast quantities of foodstuffs ■ that are required to keep the Wolf from the American door. No sentiJnient or friendship should b© allowed to sway those whom we have placed in authority over us, for the public welfare must predominate over every other consideration. To put the case bluntly, Americans , must work pr starve. The cost of living is becoming intolerable. Upon even the flimsiest' excuse prices of foodstuffs are. : rc ’.l'd. and if no excuse exists they are .boosted on general, jirinciples. : Millions of. people who are depnd; - t u: -n tjieir-' daily labor find it ...I ~t impos-ible to keep soul and body together. In hundreds of thousands of cases their vitality is ii •; Ing away from pure lack of ■ <-it j. no'irishment. Yet 'in the . very face of this the insatiable food speculators and profit grabbers are

turning- the' screws tighter every day. There appears to be but cue way in which this sucking of the blood of humanity can be stopped, and that is for the government to take prompt action- and fix a maximum price at which every" article of food is to be sold, and in fixing the maximum the price, should be first scheduled down to normal. The feet that a scarcity in foodstuffs exists should not be accepted as an ■excuse for allowing prices to remain at their present outrageous i figures. And the s>ime action should he taken with reference to every [article of necessity that we use. What can the women of our town ido to help win, the war? She can do much —many things. The principal thing she can do, however, isto reduce: the cost of her own table by increasing the production of garden foods at home. Every penny’s worth of food she raises releases just that much that can be devoted toward feeding some other person who has no place for a garden. In addition to feeding the people of our, own country we must supply food for the people of England, France, Russia and Italy, in which countries so many people are fighting that they can not produce enough food to keep their people from starvation. While the head of the family in this city is conducting h ! s business affairs, the wife and young sons and daughters can do much in the garden, and in this crisis it will be a signal honor for them to do sb. When you see a woman planting and weeding and caring for her garden you will know that there Is a woman who has principle as well as pluck, and one who places the welfare of her country above the soiling.of her hands. “