The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-01-06
Editor The Palladium !:

Editor The Palladium:
Dear Sir: Now that the Holidays
are over and the irony of Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year"
of the working class of this city, l
would like to call their attention to
new diversions.
For instance, we have with us a re-
ligious mountebank who told his au-
dience New Years Day to bring to
his collection pan tomorrow one dol
lar from each man, fifty cents from
each woman and twenty-five cents
from each young person.
This in spite of the fact that the ma
jority Of his auditors are of the work
ing class and as class they were new
er poorer or nearer the precipice Of
restitution than this winter
With a great number of them out of
work and most of the others working
short days, an appeal of this kind be-
comes preposterOus.
Still many Of these people will bring
forth the desired cash, even though
should do their best for the revivalist
said ANY woman can bring fifty cents,
| it doesn't matter how she gets it,
| should think it ought to make all
! the difference in the world how she
| gets It.
Again we have minister taking the
stand that the entire city should stag
nate in order to provide an audience
with dollars, halfs and quarters for
| the aforesaid mountebank
He said from the pulpit last Sunday
that the theatrical stock company
was brought back to harass and com
pete with the revival.
| One would think public sentiment
could have been moulded beforehand
so that everyone would have wanted
to spend every evening (and every dol
| lar, half and Quarter) at the taber-
i nacle Then it could have been err
ected in the street downtown, say fac
! ing Main on South Tenth. and the the
atre could have been converted into a
nursery.
|, in common with most other work
ing people, would like to be church
member, but so long as the churches
devote themselves to such practices
they will notice our absence. If the
money and energy that is being spent
in this semi-religious revival were
used to educate the masses in econO
mics so that they would free them
selves from this worse than industrial
slavery under which they at present
exist, the churches would not suffer
for want of interest or recruits, nol
even for dollars, halves and quarters
With the foremost prophet of CAPT
! talism, Ed Tiff, reminding us that the
Democrats used to kid the Republi
cans about twenty cent bacon and tina,
bacon is now twenty-eight cents, il
would seem that some of us ought tC
conclude that capitalism is breaking
down
According to report of the U. S. Blu
of the principal articles of food il
| reau of Labor Statistics, retail prices
forty important cities had increased
on the average Sc per cent in the four
teen years, 1899 to 1918. These price:
compared with the period 1890 to 1S9!
show an advance ranging from 1879 pei
cent in the case of bacon, to 3S.S pei
cent in the case of milk Round steal
had risen los per cent, eggs &C pei
cent and butter Al per cent. Sugar
alone had fallen in price being % pei
cent cheaper,
Tinkering with the tariff is an ex
ploded theory. Currency reform viii
be soon. Then some other reform
will suggest itself and hold the stage
awhile. Anything to stall off the in
evitable and only remedy-that is