The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-13
People with Small Incomes Cease 10
Buy the Articles which They
Need for Proper Nourishment.
ALCOHOLISM ONE RESULT
STRIKING STATISTICS FROM EUROPE
PROVE THE ARGUMENT.
Germany's High Taxes on Food an
Not BE DOne-Trusts TO Blame.

Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK. April lO.-Every arbitrary
advance Of the price OF food stuffs is
crime against the Nation. AS It is. work.
men all over the world, not only I'm I'M
der-fed Europe, suffer from insufficient
food supply 1 do not say that the Amer
lean workman does not eat enough, or
cannot get enough TO eat, but the food
he eats is made inferior by adulteration.
substitution, the addition of chemicals and
other tricks OF the trade that of late years
developed.
Hence, L am forced to conclude that the
average American workman. though In
far less degree than his European brother.
is already under-fed, judged from the hy-
gienic standpoint. Any advance In the
price of a staple food like mest-which
is so necessary for building up the body
and mind of man used to this commodity
lis therefore calculated to hurt him and
impair our strength as a Nation.
The chief capital of a government are
its healthy citizens. and every measure
threatening the physical condition Of the
people is a crime against the state. a
waste of public treasure. A government
might as well deposit it's gold reserve in
the ocean as permit great corporations,
or SPECTATORS to advance the price Of the
necessaries Of life without cause.
For advance in the price of food-stuffs
means curtailment of our daily bread. in
Guiding meat, vegetables, everything we
want 10 make us healthy, agreeable and
capable of withstanding the hardships OF
life. of fighting the battles of life.
If you shorten mans allowance OF
steak or roast. you condemn him &c go
without his accustomed quantity of al
bumen, the substance forming a constitu-
ent principle of our organized bodies, and
if you take away albumen you lessen a
persons capacity for doing things. for
labor, mental or physical.
The loss of albumen means lessened will
power. lack of attention TO business. Look
at poor children who so to school without
breakfast or only an excuse for breakfast.
You can't get them to follow the lessons
with the amount OF attention SaIBy
the rules. Like the lahorer who eats little
meat, these children are tired out very
quickly
PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES.
The advance in the price of meats. neces-
stating the curtailment of the laborer's
daily allowance, means not only loss or
intelligence impoverishment OF individual
strength to workmen; it also means
loss TO the employers, for under-fed or ill-
fed men cannot give that attention TO BUSH
ness that guarantees superior work. Why
are American industrial products famed
the world over? Because they are manu-
featured by meat eating, contented, happy
and good natured men-men made good
natured by plenty OF good food. ample
wages. short hours.
To-day American machines beat the
world, but II American workmen are TO
be fed like Europeans they will eventually
be incapable of doing better work than
the laborers OF Germany, for instance.
where nearly every article OF food. includ-
ing potatoes, is taxed TO the utmost by
a rapacious government that wastes the
peoples strength in order TO keep up a
tremendo is, useless army.
Investigation of conditions I'm all parts
of the world shows that alcoholism, or.
at least increased consumption of alcohol,
is an inseparable attendant upon any ar
bitrary advance in the price of food IL
man cannot get enough TO eat, he drinks.
That may be immoral foolish. but you
cannot argue with an empty stomach, a
stomach that is unable 10 manufacture
the necessary amount OF heat from the
solid food put into IT. Do not tell me
that there are other things just as good
as meat The American workman Graves
meat, needs meat and must have it. IL
he does not get IT. whisky dealers and
beer brewers will be the gamers and the
Nation the loser.
Increase tine price of meat and other
food opd invite iIlpoes and onfdoua-
les A well-nourished body can throw
them off or resist when stricken: an ILL
nourished body never. 1 could give you
pages of statistics proving that the history
of epidemics is linked with the periods
when food-stuffs were scarce and prices
above the average. while at all times the
mortality among the epidemic-stricken poor
is three times az large as that among WE'LL
to-do people; fact that also holds good as
TO drunkards and sober people. as TO pris-
oners and free men. During certain
periods Of the eighteenth century London
was the ''unhealthiest" city OF Europe.
because Londoners were the greatest
drunkards of Europe.
1 have now before me the mortality sta
tistics Of Upper Silesia. The death rate
rises and falls with the amount OF schnapps
taxed ana consumed ana the consumption
Of schnapps huctuates with the rate OF
wage and the price OF food.
In England food is about one-third cheap
er than in Prussia. where all food-stufs
are mercilessly taxed. and in Prussia the
death rate from consumption is twice as
high as in England.
That. in respect to the care for consump-
tives Germany marches at the head OF all
governments. is no more than right. con-
sidering shat by raising the price OF food
she makes consumptves, hundreds and
thousands per year.
1t can be proved by statistics that Ger
many lost annually 225 individuals per hun
dred thousand OF inhabitants by consump-
ton before the present commercial tres-
ties placing immense tariffs foreign
food-stufs Cor prohibiting their inportA-
ton altogether went into effect
Since then, that is. since the last ad-
vance in the price of meat. -four and other
essentials for the healthy development OF
the race, the death rate from consumption
il rs per hundred thousand inhabitants.
an enormous increase that ought 10 be
q warning 10 al people. In the face OF