Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1917 — HAMSTRUNG AND STRANGLED [ARTICLE]

HAMSTRUNG AND STRANGLED

Not long ago a train of fourteen cars of potatoes. billed to the Chi■cago market, were d iscdvered at a small town near that city, wher • they had been side-tracked and left t o rot—-at a time when potatoes were selling at 54.00 a bushel. For a number of years how we have, been learning of the willful destruction every season of such - potatoes, cabbage, melons. apples, and other fruits when there was an opportunity by s,:. doing to force prices . urt in the interest of the speculators. These food pirates have purchased acres arid acres of fruit on the trees and then refused to allow them to be rricked— kept them there r ■ rot—‘-in order to keep yiem from the open market. other ways the campaign of ■pillage'' and loot at the expense of the hnSumer has been going merrily on. , Of co rse. ■merely to designate

the perpetrators of these outrages as robbers and pirates does not ons particle of good except to afford some slight relief to our feelings. There seems to be nothing the country can do to prevent these outrages. But there SHOULD be, and if we mistake not the temper of the American qteople, there soon W ILL be. When the countries, of Europe first adopted the policy of government control of food stuffs we in this ebuntry congratulated ourselves that we live in a free countryLately. However we are heginijp ir. ! to learn a few things—that instead of the freedom of which we boast, we are hamstrung and strangled by a horde of piratical food- speculators who have no conscience, know' no law, and are devoid Of the first •element of humanity.

Tywith tiieJ proof clearly before' us that the people are being systematically and outrageously plundered, our congress has the monumental effrontery to dwadle a-round ■ and haggle over minor details while the poorer classes of our population are being driven, to distractibn. With siich examples before us, the action of President Wilson- in demanding food control J) y the government—eveh a dictator, if necesssary looks good to- us. It will not keep the producer. from receiving a fair and just price for his products; neither will it injure the consumer. But it will everlastingly put a crimp on. the golden tail of the remorseless speculator. j It is time for congress to enact adequate laws whereby, the President can once and for all put an end to this hamstringing and strangling! of the American -consumer.