The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-04-08
FUNNY STATISTICS.
FEDERAL VESTlGATOR'S
GREAT DISCOVERY.
rho Main Cause OF Poverty lie Announ-
ccs Is the Inordinatc Consumption of
Bulky Food-Every Poor Man Should
Be Chemist.


the contrary, they look very solemn
and think themselves very scientific
Their humor is quite unconscious Pc
lltical economy used to be considered
painfully slow. 1t was called the dis
NAL science. People avoided it like a
problem play. They wanted vaude-
vile. Now we know that comic line
can be stretched through discussions of
the production and distribution Of
wealth, and that drollery turks even in
questions Of food and shelter. For
here comes Mr.. Charles D. Wood. a
federal food specialist who has been
investigating life in the east side. After
a series of scientific tests, eliminating
in computations, the accuracy of which
cannot for moment be questioned,
says a writer in Criterion, he assures
us that:
Inc main cause or poverty, in al
most al! cases studied by the govern
ment in New York tenement dietary
districts, was that weight or bulk was
what was sought in food rather than
nutriment value"
IN TINS investigation everything is
correct except the conclusion. The
logic OF the preliminary steps is unan-
swerable. The poor do run after bulk.
They like something filling at the price,
lhey use bad Judgment in marketing;
they are ignorant of the chemistry of
cooking. Yes, they even waste food.
Beside that, they will live in crowded,
nolsome streets, over foul butcher
shops and subterranean dens filled
with stale vegetables. 1t has heen
noticed that they are slovenly. shiftless
and that many of them have little re-
gard Tor appearances. Some spend as
much as rs cents per day per person
Tor food, while everybody knows, or
ought to know, that food sufficient to
meet the demands of one grown man,
at moderate work, need cost him but
from Id to ~ cents day, if good man
agement is used in it's purchase"
have for long time suspected that tho
poor do not know protein and carho-
nydrates when they see them. AS for
this examination, it leaves nothing to
be desired from scientific standpoint.
VIII overlook for the time being it's
lmpertinence, nor will l attempt to
guess what conditions of waste might
be revealed by search through the
abJect wealth Of Fifth avenue What
DO you suppose the slum types were
now and again detected in the act of
eating? Chicken, cod, founder, shad.
condensed milk, canned asparagus, rad
lshes, celery and cherry jelly! Had
they but known it, there is more pro-
TEN In peas. beans, wheat flour, rice
and cheap cuts of beef, veal and NUT
ton. One little girl, who did the mar
keting for the family was caught red
handed buying peanuts. But do not
tremble for her, gentle reader-she did
just right. Peanuts are full of protein,
The investigators patted her on the
head. Some families wasted their sub
stance in riotous round steaks. porl1
chops and green peas, or in great quan-
titles OF eggs and butter. Others had
French rolls and buns instead of bread
or threw their money after soda crack
ers and jumbles. Far too much beer
was drunk. An inexplicable and we'll
nigh Irresistible craving for bananas
was observed, although any schoolboy
dietary expert could have told the cul-
prlts at once that bananas are of NO
account as far as carbohydrates are
concerned. Yes, also, all too true,
Gentlemen of the governmental experi-
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., we grant your
premises. You have conducted your
investigation WE'LL but your conclusion
is pitiable. We would let it pass up-
noticed but for it's desperate character
The step from unconscious comedy to
black tragedy is short one You
have stumbled into common fallacy,
Economy cannot solve the social prob
lem, nor does waste produce general
economical on the lines suggested in
the investigation, they might possibly
better their material condition slightly.
But the moment all the families did the
same, which is, of course, the result
hoped for by the investigators, wages
go down and rents up. Political econ
omists tell us that wages do not de-
pend upon the real earnings of labor,
but upon what is left to labor after
rent is taken out. Where land is mo-
nopolized, as it is everywhere except
in the newest communities, rent must
drive wages down to the point at which
the poorest paid class will be just able
to live and reproduce. BY living more
economically the denizens of the tene-
ment would simply lower their stand
ard Of living and leave more for the
landlord. 1t is system which is wrong.
Land monopoly-that is the enemy.
Just taxation-that is the cure. Rent
is the first care Of the poor, food is the
last. Under the circumstances oh,