Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-08-28
V HIM."

IN a recent issue or the M0Dlle Register d CdItVt
designed to illustrate the antagonism of publ
sentiment against the Spectator In food stuff.
The picture Is of an old fellow of miserly fgur
grim and gaunt in appearance, with a hook nos'
IAN unforgiving eye, and damned disinheritin
countenance'' seated beside a garbage barrel.
His hat. a beaver, is labeled, "Speculator
Food'Stuf."
In his lap he is holding a bag of filthy lucrt
bearing the 5 mark, the mouth of which is tight
clutched in one hand while the other embraces it
body.
To demonstrate the contempt and hate of tn
people for the miserable, ~villainous wretch the al
is filled with missiles of every kind and characte
from stale vegetables, old shoes and dead cats t
stoves, ~dat-irons, boot-iacks, hatchets, ETC., Anne
at him, while a bob-tailed. ear cropped, glaring
eyed, snarling, half-starved 'bull-pup" is on tn
scene to signify that even the dogs feel and motto
his ineffable meanness-and hate him.
The lesson it is intended to ~inculcate is timely
There is no picture too strong, or any words to-
harsh and bitter to apply to the persons who's
preed of gain isurging him to speculate in the ne
~cessites of life and artifcially raise their prices t.
such exorbitant figures as to put the cost of living
already too high, to the point at which even thu
well-to-do are put under a severe strain to MAKE
ends meet, while the poor and needy must go hung
ry and otherwise endure the agonies of soul which
Satan would shrink from INJECTING upon the damn
ed.
If there was any real cause for the unlocked
for abnormal rise, there would not he such genera
complaint and angry denunciationS of those re-
sponsible for it.
That the markets would respond one way arr
another to the stimulating effect o. a war was, 0
course, to have been expected.
But the increase of prices is altogether IRA
tional, inconsistent, illogical and Gu rageou5ly un
just to the millions of women and children who
must be clothed and fed, and the tens of thousands
of heads of families in Am erica out of work and
unable to find employment.
The great advance is wholly artificial and on:
of all proportion and has been created for purely
speculative purposes. Con ider the situation.
America is largely the granary Of the world. Rec.
rd-breaking. bumper crops are the rule all over
the great grain growing states of the Union. Aft
er supplying the domestic demand for the crop
year there will be left an unusually large surplus
for foreign shipment, and at present neither an
~insistent foreign demand for that surplus nor can
ships now be had for transporting it to other
shores, even if an ~insistent demand existed. The
risks at present to shippers by reason of the dang.
ers to ocean transportion lines, because of block.
AIDED ports and the vigilant patrol of the sea by
the ships of war and armed cruisers of the respec.
tive beligerent powers, are practically prohibitive.
That's the situation with reference to fooC
stuff ct Get, of kindred nature.
In the meantime in the face of the remarkable
advance of what we will call ''commissary sup
plies" there has been just as remarkable, anC
unnecessary, a decline in the price of cotton.
To the intelligent thinker and observer of cur
rent events, accustomed to applying the teachings
of political economy to conditions and seeking t
trace effect back to cause, the inconsistencies an(
absolutely unjustifable advances and declines O.
the various products of the soil will readily appear
and he will find it difficult to account for the sit
uation, as it is, upon any other theory than tina
the advances and declines are artificial, and wer
brought about for speculative purposes by persons
interest who could control the needed capital an(
machinery, and did so, rocking not of the conse
quences to the public.
The public? THE public be damned is thei
rule of action.
1t is a ~travesty upon fair dealing that may We
end in a tragedy, unless means are quickly adopt
ed to remedy it.
"WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT
However deplorable from every humanitaria
point of view, the great war between the nation
of Europe may be, and, however much we ma
sorrow over the horrors of the conditions it hi
created and the grewsome events and incident
yet to ensure from it, we cannot keep down tt
questionings of our hearts as to what shall it pr
fit us in pecuniary gain or how much shall we los
in dollars and cents by it?