Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-03-20
DISEASE And CRIME.
Results Of Poor and Insufficient
Food and Clothing.
WHEN STEALING Is NOTAN OFFENsE

WHEN STEALING Is NOT AN OFFENSE
How Police Court Reports md Vital
Statistics Answer the Republican
Claim That "There Is Work For
Every Man ut GompenSntinG
Waee"-Repubiirnu Responsible.
Disease and crime are epidemic in
many of our great cities. New York.
Chicago, Pittsburg and Cincinnati are
AMONG tie worst sufferers. Iho NOR
taii'y i'll these and other cities is very
Ai4if. one OF the most fata Diseases
tt5l~ rpar iS nnetHaoui@. The average
nCs. s" cf deaths from pneumonia in
New .0..G citI alone is NOW about 80
4 wseI; a,sH in one Week its victims
eAeaetits: So,
There 8 ;1~e u great incress,e in
crime IN those .na d i.ct cities, e>i8aeiaI=
ly iii t!.:e:.rE .aI burglary. IN tsn-
eiaI.8ti tae u.;..saera Of justice has
partly l9.nl:a Ga.za hte:snse:# OF tie
great aa69:7t=p4 t..i=,4s,#y af4 tlle great
number G: = 5tF e;.=.=..ss:,, Tae grocer
Whose .aaat sfatza +. fts.es to prose
cute. tI.s. a..z =...z.I ...se5s fer the MAN
caught stna.t-e .z.si. a4ei tie Judge
refuses - id ill laoaal.5 be-
fore hi5a Why
Taia@- ID ~ sas:1a:.# b e...s.44s.
There is a s;ga,. t.7., .:.-.-cc....t.s @.lGt.
then is TIE t,5,.7s = u present ep5-
demie OF disease aa5 e.544e: Is il
hard 10 li!.f
TIn grQeer did net pies sea;e tl-9Ss'
Who slaIe Hi5 lisrat. lie t3sd Tie police
man, Lord knows. t!4Hl@ Apstl it, Tie
policeman said: judge, tiler1 are near
ly 200 people down there who are
starving ! his man Jones is " work
insman and not thief. He WAS 60
ing to share what he stole with the 9th
ers. In the buildings at 31S. 52O and
322 there are many who have not a
cent and who have nothing to eat"
The judge said in his verdict "eIne
stealing Of bread under such circum-
stances is no offensc.'
Thus, in the opinion of the grocer the
policeman and the judge, the cause OF
seue at least Of the thievery is poverty
poverty for which the thieves are not
directly to blame. for if it could have
been shown that, as Congressman Hep
burn said few days ago, there is
work for every man who wants to
work and at a compensating wage
then the grocer. the policeman and the
Judge would have behaved very differ
emily toward the thieves.
Pneumonia, which is raging every
where this year, is recognized as dis
ease due to a particular germ and is
therefore transmissible from patient to
patient. In order for the germ to de-
velop, however, it seems to be neceS-
sary that there shall be some undue de-
preston Of bodily vigor. Such depres
sion commonly finds its origin in expo
sure to cold, in improper clothing in
lack of food and in poorly heated and
badly ventilated rooms. The man who
is we'll fed and clothed is not likely to
suffer much from exposure-in fact he
does not often have to expose himself
in the worst weather.
During the recent zero weather in
New York city the street cleaning COM
missioner generously gave coffee and
rolls to the thinly clad, hungry and
shivering wretches who We're shoveling
snow. 1t enabled them to do much
more work. he said. Had these poor
men and their families lived in COM
Portable homes and been we'll fed and
clothed they would hardly have ex-
posed themselves day and night for
the little they could earn in this way.
But even if they had shoveled snow
they would not probably have suffered
greatly from such exposure and have
fallen victims to pneumonia, as many
of the 1000 undoubtedly did Poverty,
then, Is a cause of disease as we'll as Of
crime.
What is the cause of poverty? Why
must half starved and shivering men
work? Why are so many out of en-
pioyment in this country of boundless
opportunities and at a time when 1t is
blessed with the best crops the world
ever saw!
We do not have to look far for one Of
the principal causes of poverty 1t is
found in the Dingley tariff law. This
law keeps foreign goods out of our
markets by levying the highest import
duties levied by any nation on earth
except possibly Russia Under this
law trusts have developed and -four
ished to an unprecedented extent.
These protected Dingley bill trusts,
having monopoly Of our markets,
have put up the prices of commodities
until during the last two years the cost
Of living has been higher than ever
before in modern times and fully 40
per cent higher than in 1897, when the
Dingley bill became law. There has
never been greater prosperity for trusts
fhop 1ur;Op thosa TjpoloU hill x,oOvc