The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-03-15
MAMMON, THE GOD OF
 THUNDER

Editor of The Farmer:
 .sir-Our boasted 'tcivilization'' is simply commercialisn- Commercial- ism worships at the shrine of Nam mon-the God of Plunder. This ter rible Greed of Profit destroys the body and soul of a vast number of men and are slain by the tens of thousands.
 There is attitude and a course of conduct that will result in soaring the conscience. Those who have their conscience scared are literally owned by the world and the forces that make for evil. The men in the saddle in the great political and mercantile movements and activities are men who bear the brand in their conscience of this world. They are not concerned to obey any higher law than the law of personal advantage. They care nothing at all for the laws of God or the rights of humanity.
 It is claimed that we have tlie best tariff law ever enacted. And we have for the few who are protected. Sev- eral of the necessities of life have risen from 20 to 25 per cent. since this rise in the average price of 96 staple commodities has been nearly 12 per cent. within a year.
 fFich getting richer. The protected iron interests have added $400. 900. 900 or $50, 000.000 to their resources. One firm of the beef trust within few months distributed S20.0o0.e0o of surplus arnong themselves. Great corporations. al- ready plethoric, so full that the carica- turists have appropriately pictured them as great. fasF hogs. are ,continu- ally prof1ting by the tariff.
 But for the common people who de pend upon wages and salaries. and even the small shopkeeper and mer- chant. the purchasing power of their one-tenth within a twelve month Then the big, rich men come to the rescue with words of wisdom. and this is what they say: 'FYou poor and or dinary peopIei You are spending too much. Go to work and save as we have done. Go to the country and Vegetables to feed yourselves-and us. We will take the cream; you can have the milk, when it is skinned until it is blue:'' And then if the ordinary man. the man of small income. sue ceeds in "getting a little ahead. there are ever those on hand whose branded consciences allow them to defraud him out of his hard-earned savings.
 How is it that men can go before the legislative committee and remon- strate against bill that seeks for bet ter conditions in re1a tion to child la Dor? Is it because they really believe that morals and citizenship and health are best conserved and promoted by things as they are? Or is it because may entail upon them some slight pe- cuniary disadvantage? Is their con science branded with the mark of Mammon?
 Veal. and not woe, would be fn- sured for us all if that could be said of us which Cromwell said of those intrepid servants of the Lord, our Pur- itan ancestors: '"They had the fear of God before their eyes and made some conscience of what they did.'' We need another Cromwell to fight and overcome Mammon-the God of Plum der.
 Some time ago a young man com mitted suicide He left a note which mon causes an r-increasing number of the workers to experience the Grind of Poverty. What is their fate? Starve or steal or sufcide-or all three! Workers of the world. unite and vote for freedom-heht for it if need be. Liberty or death!
 H. J. HORSEFTELD.
 Brid geport Conn.