Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1917 — DEMAND A SQUARE DEAL [ARTICLE]

DEMAND A SQUARE DEAL

" We as a people are in danger of losing our grip on one of our most cherished traits of character—fairness. Time was when this word and all it stands for was written broad on our national life, and we have prided ourselves on our readiness to accord to any and all people a square deal. And, paradoxical as it may seem. this trait still Wei are as ready as we ever were to* grant large justice to aIL Bat. granting justice is only one-sided fairness- —but one side of the human equation. < j We should demand justice and fairness, each sos self and for all others. This we are rapidly ceasing bv do. Year by year we are more and more sleeping on onr individual and . collective rights, and others, more active and aggressive, are usurping them. The resources —yes, the actual 1 productions—of this great nation ! are so abundant that “want” should be an unknown word with ns. Yet want exists, and exists largely. With our great wealth we should be the most care-free people the world has ever seen, but we are not.' Lines of care are deep upon the national brow. And all of this because we sleep, upon our rights and will not rise up and demand a square deal. We: allow congress to misrepresent us and have not the energy or nerve: to elect a congress which will force justice and fairness for us. It is time we arose in our might ’ and demanded that the price booster and speculator go, and he will not go until we do. We are hopelessly in the ban4s of the exploiter—-the speculator in other people’s rights and privileges. From the man on the corner who sells us a pair of shoestrings for twice their worth because he knows [ we would not walk a block for the difference, ’up to the giant corporation that furnishes the steel for our buildings at more than its worth because he knows we can get it no where else, all are out for the exploitation of the other fellow. We have said that we as a peo-. -ple are as ready as ever to accord fairnes3 to all. Yet the very presence of oppression and extortion in our midst has a tendency to breed in us a disregard for this principle. Doubtless you are familiar with the story of the Arab and his camel —how it intruded its head into its master's .'tent, which the latter kindly permitted. But meeting no resistenee, it was not long before the camel was in the tent and its master was excluded. It 4s so with us. We are systematically exploited and held up by the speculators and the Shylocks until we are in danger of supinely surrendering to th.eir every demand.

There is absolutely no reason for the extortionate prices we have been paying for many months, except the machinations of the trusts, the storage companies, the speculators, or all who can In any way hold in restraint the supply, and by unfair means stimulate the demand and the price. When permitted free movement, the products of this country are always equal to any demand. This is not true, however, when a large proportion of onr production is cornered and retired from the channels of trade until scarcity forces prices to a fictitious leveL When cold storage first came into general use jt was hailed as one cf the greatest discoveries of any age. We very much fear, however, that it is fast becoming our chief oppressor, unless we can take its power out unscrupulous hands. It is -time for us to awake to the importance of demanding the Square deal, as well as according it. National disaster faces us if we do not.