Rock Island Argus., 1904-02-02

many of our great cities New York.
Chicago, Pittsburg and Cincinnati are
among the worst sufferers. The NOR
tality in these and other cities is very
Eigh One of the most fatal diseases
this year is pneumonia. The average
number of deaths from pneumonia in
New York city alone is now about go
week, and in one week its victims
exceeded 300.
There is also a great increase in
crime in these and other cities, especial
ly in thievery and burglary. In Gin
cinnati the machinery of justice has
partly broken down because of the
great amount of thievery and the great
number of petty criminals. The grocer
whose meat is stolen refuses TO prose-
cute, the policeman pleads for the man
caught stealing bread, and the judge
refuses to hold the thief brought be-
fore him. Why?
Things DO not happen by chance.
There is Il cause for everything. What,
then. is the cause of the present cpl
demic of disease and crime: Is it
hard to find?
The grocer did not prosecute those
who stole his meat. He told the police
man, Lord knows, they need it," The
! policeman said: Judge. there are near
! ly 200 people down there who are
| starving This man Jones is work
! inGman and not a thief. He was GO
/ ing to share what lie stole with the 9th
ers. In the buildings at 3lS. 800 and
322 there are many who have not
cent and who have nothing TO eat"
| The judge said in his verdict. The
stealing of bread under such circum-
stances is no Offense.'
Thus, in the opinion of the grocer. the
policeman and the judge, the cause Of
some at least of the thievery is poverty
-pOverty for which the thieves are not
directly to blame, for if il could have
been shown that, as Congressman Hep
burn said a 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 n dis
ease due to a particular germ and is
therefore transmissible from patient to
patient. In order for the germ to de-
velOp. however. il 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 well fed and clothed is not likely 10
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 were 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 well 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-
ployment in this country of boundless
and at n time when it is
u Ia 3
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 ir 1S9z. when the
DnGiey hill became law. There has
never been greater prosperity for trusts
than during these Dingley bill years,
but it has been at the expense Of the
is. of the people at
large These monstrous trusts have
sapped the people until their buying
power is 50 nearly exhausted that even
the trusts are suffering for new peoples
to bleed and are looking abroad for a
fresh supply of victims. As. however.
foreigners are not protected by our
Dingley law. they cannot be made vic
tins OF our trusts. and they are getting
our manufactured goods frequently at
less than half the prices we must pay
for them.
We have thus been impoverished by
the protected trusts. which control our
supplies OF food. clothing and other
l. =.