Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1900-10-11
Starvation Follows the Flag

New L OK, Oct. Many men
to whom | have spoken of the ter
rible condition in Porto Rico have
shuddered alphabetically, and
then frightened up to answer:
Yves, it is very dreadful that
people should be starving down
there, but how are you going to
remedy itl'
Several philosophers have sug-
gested that the poverty and misery
is only the normal inevitable re-
suit of war, and that we should
allow the means of the dying to
disturb us as little as possible,
comforting ourselves with the re-
Election that there is bound to be a
certain amount of suffering under
these circumstances
Few people have any idea of the
extent of the misery in Porto Ri
co. In the coffee district the NOR
tally has been one death in every
ten of population. In several dis
tricts-notably that of which Ad-
juntas is the center-one-s sixth of
the population has died in a year.
In Ponce there were Goa deaths in
the month of July alone. In New
York City "A corresponding NOR
tally would mean a monthly death
list of 800, 900.
There is no plague in Porto Ri
co, but the plague of hunger, and
to starvation directly or indirectly
this terrible mortality is due. 1t
gives an American a queer feeling
to travel in sight of his own flag
and realize that pretty nearly ev-
erybody he meets is hungry and
that many of them will be killed
by hunger before aid reaches them.
Children beset You as you ride
along with pleas for a penny for
bread, women hold out their hands
and men ask with their eyes. This
distress must not be COMPOUNDED
with the begging as a trade that is
so frequently described by travel
ers in Latin and Oriental countries.
The men would rather work than
beg. Let it be known in village
that you will pay 30 cents to have
your baggage carried twenty miles
oyer the hills and you will be over
whelmed with candidates for the
job. This very willingness to
work furnishes the clew for the
first step toward regenerating Por-
to Rico.
All the able-bodied laborers on
the island, working for ten years,
would not do more than adequate
ly supply the mountainous land
with highways. Let the Govern
ment go ahead on an enormous
scale. Provide the men with an
opportunity to earn Il living, and
then it will be possible to make
pauperism shameful and beggary a
crime. Work for the men will
mean support for the women, and
the immortality which horrifes the
Americans, so conscious and com
placent i'll their superiority, will
soon become as shameful and spo-
radio as in any well-ordered com
munity. These roads should not
be Il charge upon the island; they
should be built by the United
States Government to improve its
territory. Certainly Il government
that could find way to aid the
Western roads as ours did for the
ostensible purpose of opening up
the country could find no difficulty
in building roads for this terrific
ry, with nearly IA million people
requiring them.
No. The road work or other
government employment must be
done under government supervi-
sion. No more work should be
done by contract. The temptation
of the contractor to increase his
profit by taking advantage of the
necessities of his workmen are too
great. With the government as
employer there will be no ) or lOl
cents clipped off the pitiful 50ccnts
n day these road laborers will earn.
There will be no more payments in
merchandise checks, with a com
plimentary arrangement with the
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