"CRYING FOR FOOD"
"Crying For Food" "COLD and hunger know no reason. Such conditions brought on the French Revolution."' Thus, wamingly. spoke Senator Norrip of Nebraska on the Hnor of the I'nited States Senate....
...people who are revelling in luxury and those who are rioting for food...
...Even during the vacation months only about 10 per cent have any profitable employment...
...and for older persons, rest and recreation in the open air and the joy of watching things grow...
...National and State laws make it impossible for most of them to do any profitable work in mill, mine or shop, and many of them are forming habits of idleness and falling into vice...
...Health insurance has rapidly come to the front in social legislation...
...Two of these are the unusual lack of food, and the fact that most of the food is consumed far from the place of production, which makes the consumer pay the cost of storage and transportation, and the profits of the middlemen, many of whom, in times like these, take advantage of the wants of the people to make profits larger than ihey should...
...hut we must in some way...
...Thus 40,000 teachers of this kind would be sufficient for the entire country...
...In addition to the economic profits, there would be for the children health and strength, removal from temptation to vice, and education of the best type...
...Official state commissions in California and Massachusetts, after investigation, have reported favorably...
...There would be some cost for seeds and some for fertilizers and tools, but after the first year the cost of these last two items would be comparatively little...
...Workmen's compensation was a good beginning...
...Well-considered bills are now before the legislatures of fourteen btates...
...THE ENDURANCE of the Inequalities of life by the poor is the marvel of human society.—James An» ihoxy Feolde...
...Many live -where space could be easily had for chickens, docks, or pigeons...
...We in this country have not yet caught up with the same consideration of wage earners and their families as that provided in all the principal Dations of Europe...
...The remnants that are carried out in the...
...t$~>S) Ry ABRAHAM LINCOLN THAT is the real issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent...
...Are the drums of war deafening the ears of those in high places to the cries of hungry mothers and starving babies...
...They are in school less than 1,000 hours in the year, and allowing 10 hours a day for sleep, are out of school more than 4,000 waking hours, more than an average of nine hours a day, not counting Sundays...
...TilK health and well-being of the working population is one of a nation's greatest assets...
...Senator NoRRis.said: ''There is a large ela.ss of people who are suffering for the necessaries of life, while there is another class of people who are not affected by the high cost of living...
...Consider the Workers...
...It is hound to be reached here, without violence, let us hope, • * • Idle Children and Idle Lands A Partial Remedy For The High Cost of Living By DR...
...to many, torture and death...
...The miracle of it is in bringing together idle land on the one hand and idle children and tired people on the other...
...The proceeds would represent profits to a greater extent than in any other kind of production...
...It is the eternal struggle between these two principles, Right and Wrong, throughout the world...
...The citizens who have been led to do the suffering and the dying for Government are, reaching the grim determination to do the DECIDING, also, for their Government...
...only about 5 per cent of them go away from their homes except for a few days...
...fresh and crisp through all the growing months and wholesomely canned and preserved for use in winter...
...To hundreds of thousands with large families of children to support and educate, it has come to be a fearful thing...
...There is a partial remedy at least, but not wholly in investigations or legislation...
...And wage-earners as well as clerks and professional people living on fixed salaries understand what, this t'nited States Senator had in mind when he added, solemnly...
...In our own country the food emperors, the industrial and transportation potentates, the munitions kings, the financial czars may well give heed to the uprising of the Russian people against their oppressive masters...
...These teachers might easily be had for an average additional salary of $f00 or a total of $20,000,000...
...The estimate is very conservative, as has been shown by many experiments...
...Starving Mothers and Money Kings (From the Lineoln-Douolas Debates...
...It is the same spirit that says "you toil and work AND KARN RRKAn AND EAT IT...
...when his earnings are out...
...For four millions of these there is access to bark yards, side yards, front yards, and vacant lots, which might be cultivated as small gardens for the growth of vegetables and small fruits...
...Breaking Cruel Shackles \X7llAT is happening in Russia to-day brings joy to every lover of democracy and freedom...
...Alone, neither is productive, but all would be benefited by the combination even if the vegetables and fruits produced had no value...
...When universal health insurance comes into operation, the next great step following workmen's compensation will have been taken...
...when expenses of family maintenance and of medical care are faced, poverty frequently enters...
...When will the great powers of the Government be exercised to rescue the householder from the clutches of arrogant monopolies and food speculators...
...It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself...
...Most of them are idle more than half of the year...
...The one is the common right of humanity, the other the divine right of kings...
...at some time, somewhere, take care of the' people who are suffering for the want of food and shelter...
...And there are not lees than 6,000,000 oWer boys and girljr and adult men and women for whom an hour or two of work each day in a garden would be the best form of recreation and rest from tb« routine of their daily labor in office or shop or mill or mine, and who might easily find the time for tL With some intelligent direction, these school children and older boys and girls and men and women might easily produce on the available land an average of $75 each in vegetables and fruits for tbefr own tables or for sale in their immediate neighborhood...
...1 would rather issue bonds to help the suffering poor who are toiling and working than I would issue bonds to build a great battleship or to equip a great army...
...Drawing sharp contrast between the...
...How many more appeals, how many more protests, how many more "food riots" must there be to bring about firm action...
...Well may kings and emperors and potentates tremble...
...Its adoption is one of the pressing demands of real national effectiveness...
...They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time...
...This would add $750,000,000 to the best form of food supply of the country without cost of transportation or storage and without profits of middlemen...
...Still, they must live and be fed and clothed...
...Five governors have included the subject in their messages this year...
...Exploitation—whether by political or by industrial overlords—has a limit...
...This might all be attained at comparatively little cost by putting into the public schools for every hundred children between the ages of nine and sixteen, one teacher skilled in gardening and paid for all the year...
...The avalanche they loosened upon peaceable peoples is turning back upon tbem...
...One such teacher could easily direct the work of 100 children, and of the 150 older persons belonging to the families of these children or living in their community...
...When the breadwinner falls ill...
...Is there a remedy...
...The Senator read a newspaper account, "in flaming headlines • * • four or five col-lumns," of a society dinner and ball, and remarked : "This is high society—high life—while thousands of God's poor women, scantily clad, with hungry babies at their breasts, are storming the City Hall in our great metropolis demanding bread...
...P. P. l.XAATOV I'nitert State* Commissioner of Education ill ¥ ICiH cost of living'* is on the lips of all people ^ ^ in all cities, towns, suburban communities, and manufacturing and mining villages in the United States...
...garbage buckets from these dinners and from the tables of the over-rich, would feed the hungry starving millions who, in the midst of luxury, are crying for food...
...Those who are hungry and cannot make a living are increasing in number by thousands as the cost of living ascends the scale...
...To millions of laboring people and professional people on small salaries it is a very real thing...
...But sickness, which actually causes seven times as much suffering as accidents, is still unprotected...
...For the high cost of living there are many causes...
...And the cost of destitution and impaired efficiency is heavy upon industry and society, as well as upon the individual...
...This remedy is so simple and close at hand that, as is so frequently the case, it is overlooked...
...f We are to go on in 1he way we are going, ultimately we will come to revolution...
...In the schools of the cities, towns, suburban communities., and manufacturing and mining villages of the United States there are approximately 6,000,000 boys and girls between the ages of nine and sixteen...
...It is discussed in the editions of every newspaper and magazine...
...the land by the cultivation, the children by th« health-giving, educational labor, and the older people by the hours outdoors and the contact with the soil...
Vol. 9 • March 1917 • No. 3
