Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-11-02
AN0THERNEWCULT
The Fletcherites, Who Advocate
Reducing Daily Rations,
Product of Boston.
PLAN A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
Aim to Kill Food Trusts and Save the
Race from Rising Prices-Fast-
ing Cure for Everything.

New cults spring up like mushrooms
I'm Boston and generally live and die
there, but the very newest of them all
the followers Of which are fiippantly
called the milk Chewers," are aInbi-
tiously planning TO extend their mis-
sionary efforts TO ten other big cities
and thereby quickly make their move
ment national. says 4 Boston special TO
the Philadelphia Record. These are
the laudable results which the MILK
Chewers'' aim and expect 10 bring
about:
First.-Death to all food trusts.
Second.-ReductiOn of living ex-
penses to half present amount.
Decentralization of doctors.
Fourth.-Abolition of race suicide.
The Milk Chewers" are not Il lot of
old women faddists or dilettante scien
lists The charter members are staiG
and highly respectable Bostonians.
milk Chewers" is the name given &c
the new cult by facetious unbelievers
Correctly speaking, its members are
Fletcherites, followers of the philOso
ply of the great masticator Horace
Fletcher, who says that each mouth
full of milk should be chewed or insali-
waited as completely as if it were solid
food.
By public speaking and the distribu
ton of literature the FletcheriteS will
strive to teach people that they could
subsist if they would only try it on a
mere fraction of the food they now
buy. Something must be done. they
say. in view of the tremendous in
crease in the cost of foods. What
would be better than the cutting down
of the daily rations?
IF you have been eating two eggs
for breakfast" say the Fletchertes,
begin by eating only one. drink only
one cup of coffee, use only one lump
of sugar-one of everything where you
have hitherto used two or more.
Whats the USE" they say, "of
throwing into your system twice as
much fuel as is really needed, especial
ly as food, like all fuel, has its proper
tiOnate amount of ashes to be disposed
of? It's simply wasting energy and
money"
All Fast Together.
When sufficient number of follow
ers are secured and everything is fully
organized for the grand coup word
viii go forth to the faithful to fast.
perhaps for a week or ten days. and
simultaneously in ten cities all Milk
Chewers" will stop buying.
With such a boycott enforced" say
hn ,taI Ill
corner in provisions. fruits or vegeta-
bles would be conquered and. in spite
Of cold storages, brought to terms"
Much stress is laid on the curative
value of fasting as we'll as upon its
commercial value No less an author
ity than DR.. Robertson Wallace says
he has known patient to fast for ten
days to his great benefit. The aver
age fast recommended by the Milk
Chewers" for ordinary Ills, however,
is but three days.
During his fast the patient may take
as much water as he pleases and Il
moderate amount of exercise-say, a
three or four mile walk each morning.
The return to eating is effected
through the milk diet, each mopthful
being carefully chewed. Between each
pint of milk the juice of lemon may
he slipped to prevent biliousness. The
milk diet is usually kept up from two
to four weeks. an average of about six
quarts a day being absorbed
Many of the Boston milk Chewers,"
who claim to have been cured of vari-
Gus ills through the fasting system.
say they found it required a good deal
of character and resisting power to
put the theory into practice in face OF
the entreaties, eXpOstulations. ridicule
and real concern of the folks at home.
but that the results made it all worth
while.
More than half the ills, imaginary
and real. from which doctors earn
their livelihood could be banished by
intelligent fasting. declare the Fletch-
critics.
Race suicide, they say, is due largely
to the present extremely high cost of
supporting a family. They point to
the army of workers whose weekly
outlay for living expenses leaves them
nothing over with which to properly
bring up a family and say that in
Fletcherism lies the one practical rem.
edy and hope.