The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1896-09-22
OUR CIVILIZATION
SOME DAILY HAPPENINGS AF-
FORD A TEXT FROM WHICH
TO PREACH.
IL Christ Should Return to Earth Would
He Defend the Natural Law of Sup
ply and Demand as just and Proper

ply and Demand as just and Proper
Logansport, Ind, special: Arnold
Kister brought load of garden prod
uce to town, and, being unable to sell
it at price which would pay for the
cost of raising it, hauled it to grove
and dumped it out, where people glad
ly availed themselves of the opportun-
ity.
Dallas, Tex, special: Mrs. James
Ellington was placed in Jail here yes
terday charged with theft and burglary.
She was arrested 10 miles from the city
by party of farmers, who found her
rObbing the farmhouse of John Cook.
In campers wagon near by she had
deposited crate of young Berkshire
pigs, several packages and other arti
cles of provisions. In the wagon was
her husband in the last stages of con-
sumption, with their two 4ittle chill
dren. Mrs. Cook declared that she and
her children were starving, her hus-
band dying, and she had stolen because
of their starving condition. Keen
sympathy has been aroused over the
pitiable state of the family, and citi-
Zens of Dallas have taken steps to try
to save the woman from the peniten-
tiary.
Matter like that contained in the
above two paragraphs is so common as
to excite no comment as the world
goes. And yet, short as they are, mild
as they are-and they are as milk and
water is to vinegar and vitriol in COM
parison with illustrations that might
be made of daily occurrences they
contain sufficient to effectively impeach
our so-called Christian civilization.
There is not town of any size in all
this mighty country which does not
contain dozens Of families who would
not gladly avail themselves of the op-
portunity to obtain free of charge the
products of the farm, and that, too not
because they wish to obtain something
for nothing, but because they are really
unable to get the things they
urgently need in any other way. And
this means that there is not town of
any size in this mighty country which
might not, under very slight altera
tion of circumstances, produce its Mrs.
James Ellington stealing to keep life
in the bodies of her helpless children
and slowly dying husband.
1t is doubtful if more than two-thirds
of the garden products of this country
will find its way to market this year,
not because it's producers are a lazy,
shiftless lot, who would rather sit
around town and white the dry goods
boxes and talk politics, than to take
the trouble to gather it and bring it to
town, nor yet because there are not
people enough to consume it all if they
could get it, but simply because the in
fernal conditions existing in these clos
ing days of the nineteenth century are
such as compel hundreds of thousands
of human beings to suffer from hunger
while God-given abundance of the
very same things they need is left to
rot in the fields as though they were
curse instead of a blessing.
Talk about "the law of supply and
demandr' Say that this great nat
uraI law is the regulator of human
production and consumption! Bah, it's
a fraud as complete as any ever gener-
ated in hell, a swindling pretense as
cunning as any that ever robbed help
less humanity and heaped high the
boards of Unsuitable greed, lying, in
competent god, the stupid worship of
which is responsible for the condition
of the thousands of farmer Kisters and
Mrs. Billingtons, whom its heartless-
ness seems to array as natural enemies!
supply and demand! Our farmers, un-
der Gods good providence, have Gre
ated a grand supply, the citizens OF
our towns. under the long draWn-out
rule of oppression which has steadily
decreased their ability to meet their
needs have such demand" as they
never had BEFORE then why does this
beneficent law not produce the erect
which is said to be natural to it and
at once relieve the distress OF the Mrs.
Billingtons and reward the industry of
the farmer Kisters? Simply because
the theory that demand and supply
regulate each other" is a game which
the worlds sharpers have thus far sue
cessfully used in arraying one class OF
wealth producers against another to
The end that the labor of both has been
made to rebound to the benefit of the
few cunning wealth getters.
Think of it, oh, We astute statesmen
who fiatter yourselves that it is be-
cause of the scant supply of the kind