Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-09-13

absorbed by six-tenths of one per
cent of the population Does that
make you feel rich? Is this the kind
of prosperity that is good for you? The
railways workers dc not seem to know
they are so prosperous, for they have
voted to strike-40G 900 of them.
'All of Mr.. Wilson's prosperity can
be picked to the bones in the same
manner. He boasts that our national
wealth has increased SAL 900 900 900,
or 81 per cent since he became presi-
dent Has any gentleman in this au
dience that SAL 600, 900 900? Does any
body here know of anybody in his
block who has any of it? Is it not
scandalous fact that all of you who
are working hard at useful labor are
working for bare living? Is it not a
scandalous fact that your high wages
are not quite high enough TO enable
you to remove with ease, goods from
the shelves of the grocery store?
What are high wages? Do mere dol
lars count? If wages were $40 a day
and pork and beans were IS a plate
should not a great many of you be in
danger of starvation?
Mr.. Wilson. in the new democratic
campaign book boasts that we ex-
ported last year almost $500, 600, 900
worth of foOdstuffs or more than
double what were exported during the
last year of Taft's administration. That
/ is about the only kindly word that |
have ever heard of the Taft admins
tration. So long as human beings are
driven almost to desperation to get
food in the United States, why should
any administration that tries to serve
the people boast of how much food
has been sent out of the country? We
cannot get fat on what we ship away.
Prices are said to be high and daily
climbing higher because the European
war has drawn so heavily upon our
supplies. Is the Wilson administra-
ton trying to run the European war
or the United States? Does Mr.. Will
son not know that all this stripping of
food supplies from the country helps
chiefly the food spectators? The high
price of wheat last year amounted to
about $12 for each farmer. He re-
ceived that much more for his crop
than he would ordinarily have re-
ceived. But the grain spectators
paid the farmer a little more, and
then charged Europeans a great deal
more. Most of the profit went to the
grain dealers and the other food spec
ulators. For whom is Mr.. Wilson
working. the spectators or for the
people of the United States, who re-
ceive very little money and occasion
ally need food? If he is working for
the people, let him turn about. The
price of -four has advanced So barrel
within the last month. 1t has already
been announced from Washington that
the trade commission is going to look
into this mater but the trade COM
mission has already looked into a
number of othe- things, including the
price of beef and anthra cite coal.
About the time that scientists solve
the problem Of deriving nourishment
direct from the rays of the sun, the
trade commission will report Valu
able trade commission, child Of the
brain of Wilson.
| Both Mr.. Wilson's platform and his
speeches show you that he has abso-
/ lutely nothing to offer you. You are
already saturated with prosperity. He
never dared to promise you in his first
platform that you would soon be as
| rich as you are. Your good fortune
! has outrun his fondest hopes. And
| " hat is your good fortune? Is il
more than that you are alive and have
work? If a Wall street man has moth
| ing but work he would start revolu
| ton. Yet when you have work and
| for Mr.. Wilson or Mr. Hughes and
give Wall street a sort of prosperity
/ that is much more than work. Why
| do YOU need so much less to make you
comfortable than these great capital
| lists need? Are they higher types of
/ human beings who require more?
Right Principles in Socialist Party.
! Mr.. Wilson and Mr. Hughes having
been born into the world without
much Imagination and having found
/ if as il is. have settled down to the
| conclusion that it must always remain
as il is. To them it seems entirely
natural and fitting that a few should
town and that many should serve. The
socialist party is devoted to the task
of demonstrating that this is a mon
strous assumption. We do not de-
nounce in harsh terms men like
| Hughes AMI Wilson-we do not call
Them scoundrels-but we do declare
that nothing on the surface of this
earth indicates that il was made for Il
few. we call attention to the fact
that for untold centuries struggle
has been going on in this world be-
tween the workers and those who
would live without work upon the
products of the workers AT different
times in the worlds history, the meth
DDS of robbery have changed Some
men once robbed others by holding the
others as chattel slaves. At a later
period human beings were regarded as
part of the land and were sold with
the land as horses and COWS some
times are.
We socialists beg you to put an end
to these forces that make for both
poverty and war. The calamity Of
poverty is and always has been here.
The calamity of war IS looming up
over the horizon. If private individ-
uals be permitted to continue TO own
the nations industries, war will come
here as surely as it came to Europe.
&c Loves Dickinson, an English pub
lfctst of international reputation, said
the other day that, in his opinion, Eng
! -v-;,F,in Eve wars WOnld nT0TRka