The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1885-02-12

Adding Insult to Injury.
The wastcful, cxtravagant, and
idle rich are continually occurring
the industrious and thrifty poor on
thrift. With this end In view an
English snob has just published a
book giving instructions how q man
and his wife can provide themselves
In provisions at 48 cents a week.
This sumptuous bill Of fare consists
Of q lbs. Of yellow corn, 2lbs. Of rice,
? pottles small apples. 2 politics Of
potatoes, 5 lbs. wheat, ! ID. trcacle,
! ID. sugar, 2 quarts skim milk, 8
ozs. lard, q little salt and pepper.
When It becomes necessary for the
rich men Of London to consider how
q man and his wife can live on a lit
tie less than Z cents day, It Is time
to introduce dynamite in the very
midst Of that circle OF thinkers. For
centuries the self-induleent, besot-
ted, idle, robber-class, have been
paving the way to this very system
In England and Its dependencies In
Europe, compelling those who pro-
duce all the wealth to submit to pri-
vations almost as horrible as death
itself, for the one purpose Of enab.
ling the idle and indolcnt to extort
more wealth from the toilers 20
pamper luxury and increase the dis
tinction In classes. And In our own
country we have q class OF men (and
women tool who assume to believe
that intemperance Is the cause OF
poverty, when 1t is only the result Of
. system Of wrong and robbery
whereby the fruits OF the toilers' in.
dustry Is turned into the purse OF
the idlers. Doubtless there are those
who IL their simplicity honestly mis-
take the effect for the cause. But
the great mass Of the men who are
leading this hypocritical crusade
are simply striving to divert atten-
ton from their own Systems Of rob-
bling the poor through usury and
other vicious means Of alb
sorbing what others have produced.
We presume that most communities
are like our own. And In all the
country tributary to us not twenty
i've families can be found which
have been reduced to want and
poverty through alcoholic beverages
while the victims Of poverty through
the systems Of wrong practiced by
those conducting this temperance
crusade may be numbered in the
same locality by thousands. Usury
aud corporate rapacity are tie mon
ster crimes OF the world. In the
treasury Of the United States IRE
over $5OO, OOO, 600 collected by taxa
ton from the people, withdrawn
from the avenues Of commerce and
business. In New York City, the
Babylon Of this continent, Justice
Duffy recently sent fifty men with
families to the workhouse for thirty
days warning them that the next
sentence would be half q year in the
penitentiary at hard labor. And il
this the best that modern civiliza.
ton can do for the herds Of men who
tramp the city Of New York seeking
labor and the means with which Il
provide food, fuel, clothing and shell
ter for those dependent on them,
Shame on the clergy which dare
not denouncc the robber systems o.
the men who preach temperance yc
practice the vices which make
tramps, outlaws and eventually
drunkartls. Cresco has four Of such
clergy giving spiritual consolation
to corporate robbed, wronged ant
outraged people. Let US. pray,
when solemnly pronounced by such
must cause the devil to give a know
ing wink to Gould, Vanderbilt an,
all corporate plunderers.