davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
Side1ights on the European War

Correspondence of The
Associated Press. )-"Greece is much
more likely to be starved into war than
Germany is to be starved out of it,"
said a prominent official of the pres
ent Greek government to the Associ-
ated Press correspondent The express
sion is scarcely accurate, for while
the prices of the ordinary commodities
of life and especially foodstuffs, have
in many instances doubled and in Writ
ually all instances greatly increased
in the past year, the fault is largely
with Greece If there be serious dis
comfort in the country it is quite as
much due to bad internal management
as to the mastery of the Mediterranean
maintained by the Franco British
fleet. The Starving" process, there
fore, is much more apt to lead to
trouble for the present Greek cabinet
than, unaccompanied. by any other cir
cumstance, to Greec'es enforced par
ticipation in the war
For the common people of Greece
the situation is rapidly growing des-
/ perate. The streets of Athens are
alive with beggars. The island Of
Samos is ina state Of sporadic revolt.
Pireus and Patras have had disquiet-
ing demonstrations of popular dis
content under the increased cost of
living. While a Midland a quarter
pounds of potatoes rot on the ground
in Thessaly for lack of transport, the
price of potatoes in Athens has risen
from "a cents to As cents pound in
the last year. Yet the second attempt
to fixminimum prices of foodstuffs,
which went into effect at the end of
January and which is supposed to be
vigorously enforced by the police. set
the wholesale price of potatoes at Is
cents pound, maximum, and the re-
tail at cents pound. Potatoes to-
day, therefore, cost II times the legal
price and double the market price of
a year ago. though there is no lack If
potatoes within days sail of Athens.
! 1t is much the same with almost ev-
cry other article of food normally
within reach of people of moderate
means. No cargoes of rice have been
held up by the police boats of the al
lied powers-yet rice which in jan
uary, 1915, was 49 cents per pound
today brings 1912 cents. Mutton, the
principal meat consumed in Greece,
was 10 cents a pound year ago; now
1t fetches 10 cents-andN Greece SUD-
plies her own mutton and TO spare.
Beef was 9.6 cents; now it is q cents
a pound. Pork was 1913 cents: now If
/ is ~ cents; chickens were IS cents:
now they bring ~ cents, and the beef.
pork and chickens consumed in Greece
are raised in Greece. Fresh fish in a
country where fishing is one of the
leading occupations, brought 1877 to
10 cents a yea ago-and now run from
70 cents to Sl.0S.
/ onions for the peasants soup cost
IL cents per pound in January. 1915.
to-day the peasant must pay 49, cents
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
FOOD HIGHER THAN EVER

The New York Annalist points out
that the food cost of living now is
higher than at any time before in this
economic era, yet there is no sound of
tumult or clamor. 1t is very much
higher than at the corresponding time
of last year, when retailers, distribu-
tors and producers were being de-
nounced as moral monsters all engaged
in conspiracy to charge war prices
in country at peace. The difference
is due largely to the employment of
labor, which year ago was out of
work, to a general rise in wages and
to very large increase in the supply
and availability Of money. The coun-
try is suddenly very prosperous. The
New York Times, in commenting on
the Annalist figures, says:
Food is not alone All commodity
prices have already risen immoderate-
ly. Steel billets show an increase of
175 per cent in price since the war be-
gan. Copper has done nearly the same
thing. Crude petroleum is $3.50 bar
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
FRANK 7. WALSH IND0RSES
CROSSER BILL.

Washington, D. C.-Endorsing
principle of the Crosser bill, now pend
ing in congress, for fostering, promot
ing and developing the welfare Of the
creating new opportunities for perma
nent and profitable employment"
Frank P. Walsh, chairman of the COM
mittee on industrial relations, has is
sued the following statement:
THE bill invokes and applies to the
lands Of the public domain the abso-
lutely right doctrine that the title to
land shall depend on its productive
use.
THE Crosser bill is not only right
in itself 1t points the way that legis-
lation should go to prevent specula-
ton and private monopoly in natural
resources. 1t recognizes as far as it
goes the inalienable right of the COM
munity to take for the welfare of all
the values that the community Gre
ates, and it recognizes the equally di-
vine right of the producer and toiler
to get and keep that wealth which his
own labor has produced.
THE most searching and widespread
Investigations Of the United States
commission on industrial relations in
to the frightful and preventabie evils
Of unemployment and tenant farming
and the bad distribution of wealth
make the following recommendations
of the main or Manly report of the
commission unanswerable to all fair
minded men:
I. The revision of the taxation sys-
TEN so as to exempt from taxation all
improvements and tax unused land at
its full rental value.
"'2. Vigorous and unrelenting prose
cution to regain all land, water power
and mineral rights secured from the
government by fraud.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
The Daily Story
Two Kisses-By Donald Chamberln.

insult offered my sister. Be at the north
east corner Of the Sierra hacienda.
JOSE SIERRA.
Mansfield was puzzled as to the
handwriting. The letters were large
and bold, but it looked as if the writer
had disguised his hand. The captain
could not but smile at challenge to
mortal combat sent by a negro boy.
addressed to 1.-The American officer
and signed by man he had never
seen If Jose Sierra had no friend to
bear his challenge why did he NOT
come himself? Evidently the senorita
was put to it to secure her revenge.
Possibly the brother was not at hand,
and the sister had written the chaI-
lenge in his behalf. Indeed. despite
the large letters there was more that
was feminine than masculine in the
writing.
At 6 o'clock Mansfield returned to
the hacienda, located the northeast
corner and, climbing the fence. adj
vanced till he came to grove in the
CeuteI VI WHICH was all UpcH SpdSt-
There he stood for a few minutes.
when he saw figure advancing
Though the costume was that Of a
man. the gait was Enthusiastically that
Of woman. Mansfield, pretending to
be deceived. said:
"Senor, your resemblance to your
sister is remarkable"
1--WE are twins, sir
II presume we are to fight without
seconds?"
Are they necessary"
Before We begin | desire to ofer
through you to your sister the apology
she would not receive. | was tempted
beyond my strength from beholding
the most beautiful the most engaging
woman I have ever seen. After
have killed you shall renew my suit
restraining myself so that my fnten-
tons shall not be mistaken
Senorita Sierra-for it was she-haf'
a sword in her hand. which at these
words she let fall to the ground
Mansfield advanced. took her hand
drew her gently TO him and without
resistance kissed her on the lips.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
IS MORE DOCILE NOW.

One month ago, when congress dis
cussed proposition to build a gov
eminent plant for the manufacture of
s armor plate, the steel trust boldly
threatened that, in the event of the
contamination of such an enterprise,
II would advance the price to the gov
eminent of armor 5000 per ton. The
bluff appears TO have had an effect OPP
posite to what had manifestly been
anticipated by the wolfish interests In
control Of the steel industry in the
United States, for congress has gone
. ahead with the idea OF establishing an
sarmor plate factory to be built at a
cost of s11,000,000.
Yesterday, after the senate had
passed the Tillman bill providing for
such a government plant, the steel
interests sneaked under the canvass
long enough TO inform congress they
were now ready and willing TO reduce
the price Of armor from S425 to 1895. or
$50 per ton. This appears to have
been final effort to defeat the gov
eminent plan for making it's own ar
NOR plate.
A difference of $3.50 per ton be-
tween the threat and the last PROPOSE
ton. Think it over And the steel
trust is composed OF men who like 10
boast their patriotism and loyalty to
their country. Yes, they are loyal as
long as they may have their price.
But when is costs them money they
turn traitors. They uncovered their
tentacled hands when they said they
would tack on 5000 a ton if their own
government dared TO engage in a bus
iness that would take away some OF
the enormous profits they had an
nually been pulling from the national
exchequer Doubtless similar bluffs
had proved successful In years past
with the powers at Washington. But it
seems different caiibre OF men have
2 hand in affairs at the seat of gov
ernment.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23

rel, against $3.50 year ago. Rubber,
that is consumed faster and faster in
motor tires, is II cents pound, and
was only SO cents year ago. Lum-
Der and wood and leather have all be-
haved in the same way and are still
rising. Corn costs almost as much as
wheat did before the war, and corn,
even more than wheat, affects the price
of so many things, the most unexpected
things, down to the gaudy boots for
which women pay S12 to $40 a pair,
to wear eight or ten times through the
streets.
Nov what will be likely to come OF
all this economic waste and welfare
and happiness? Are people already as
prosperous as they can be? If so, is it
good for them? and what will the next
change be? Nothing in this country is
static. We shall have either more
prosperity or less, either higher or
lower prices, a greater or lesser con-
sumption of the goods of luxury
Which shall it be-"
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
Claude Soft Pedals.

L wish to announce to the public
that have quit my profession of piano
tuning for time at least. Having 9TH
er work which is increasing materially
in volume as we'll as the piano tuning
business itself, and owing to the fact
that for this reason have just recent
ly been compelled to refuse a large
number OF calls for piano tuning, which
evidently would seem unfair and pos
sibly discommoding to those concerned,
| have ultimately felt constrained to
render this decision and effect this pro-
mitigation. | extend my thanks and
best wishes to the public in general for
their very generous patronage of the
past. and do hereby warn you against
employing any incompetent tuner.
Claude NJ. misunderstanding
Qll) Enquirer.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23

A good many letters reach US from
women, describing all sorts Of symp-
toms which might suggest cancer. tu-
berculosis, auto-intoxication, nephri-
tbs, locomotor, ataxia, constipation,
too close confinement indoors, lack Of
exercise, over-eating or drug habits
Oliver pills and the like.) And, as
seems to be the general rule, the writ
er either assumes or asks il we do not
think that her trouble is caused by
"the change" the menopause. That is,
if she happens to be over thirty-fVe
and under fifty years of age.
In the dark old days of pure guess
work and empiricism in medicine,
even the doctors, such as they were,
gravely agreed with the "old women
that most anything might be expected
to develop from "the change And so
it is that this vicious and absurdly er-
ratio notion prevails widely among tie
women of our time-though it prevails
inversely as the square of the com,
munity's educational standard.
The change of life is normal, phys
biological epoch. 1t produces no illness
whatever But there are a great many
diseases which may befall either man
or a woman at or near middle age,
such as cancer, Bright's disease, loco
motor ataxia, artio-sclerosis, heart dis
ease, apoplexy, diabetes, and many
others. The earlier stages of these
diseases are too frequently misinter-
preted as "the change" in women.
And naturally enough, women who
have passed the dangerous age" will
insist vehemently that they had the
very same trouble during the memo
pause-though they recovered, and in
this case the cancer, let us say, must
destroy life unless recognized at the
very inception.
| There is but one wise thing woman
can do when her health in any way
suffers at or near the time of the ex-
pected menopause: Go to her family
doctor If she listens to the unprofes-
sional advice nothing but disappoint-
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
NO SMOKING DAYS OF
GERMANY A SUCCESS

ELECTROMAGNETIC OF The AS
sociated Press. 1.-The mo smoking
days inaugurated by Herr kirchner
in Breslau for the benefit of soldiers
some time ago-days on which smok-
ers abstained from the use of tobacco
and gave either their customary al
lowance of cigars and cigarettes or
their value in cash to men in the army
have been held now in 81 cities,
large and small, and have had aston
fishing results.
A total of s94,22l in cash has been
collected, it is reported, beside about
100000 cigars. 10000 cigarettes, and
10000 packages of tobacco, The to-
bacco trade. as was originally feared.
has felt no ill-effects from the no
smoking days" so that plans are being
completed for their introduction into
"a other cities in the near future.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
Selected by Tavenner

"'3 A general revision OF our land
avs. so as to apply to all future land
5rants the doctrine of superior use,
as in the case of water rights in Cali
fornia, and provision for forfeiture in
case of actual non-use.'
We would go far toward the solu-
ton of our industrial problems II there
were printed in letters of gold and
hung in the halls of congress and in
every legislative hall of our Ameri-
can republic these words of Joseph
Fels:
81 believe that all are violating
the divine law who live in idleness on
wealth produced by others, since they
eat bread in the sweat of their broth
ers' brows.
az believe that involuntary poverty
and involuntary idleness are unnatural
and are due to the denial by some of
the right of others to use freely the
gifts of God to all.
"'Since labor products are needed
to sustain life and since labor must be
applied to land In order to produce, l
believe that every child comes into life
with divine permission to use land
without the consent of any other child
of God
"The enormous incomes and inheri-
tances that imperil our republic and
the enormous power over others that
go with these fortunes are based on
the unnatural possession by compar-
alive few Of our mines and our high
ways of commerce and of most of our
city land and of much Of our richest
farming lands.
THE iniquitous mother of poverty Is
privilege To abolish poverty, priv.
lege must be killed. Power in the
hands of the people, through laying
such burdens on privilege that priv
| lege shall be abolished and be taken
off Of the back of labor, is the Other
necessary weapon for destroying it.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
CHANCE FOR INVENTOR.

The man who will invent carbure
tor that will adapt kerosene, or any
of the other less volatile oils for gas
engine fuel, to take the place of gaso-
line, will reap fortune beyond the
dreams of avarice. More than that,
he will confer boon upon industry
that will cause his name to be ranked
with Edison, Bell and Selden.
1t is we'll within the memory of the
present generation when gasoline
was sold at few cents a gallon, and
little demand was found for it. 1t
was feared because its volatility
made it a dangerous explosive when
mixed with the proper quantity of air,
and so many accidents had resulted
from its careless use. Kerosene, on
the other hand, was priced high, be-
cause gas and electricity had not yet
come into general use as illuminants
Today conditions are reversed.
There is little demand for kerosene
as an illuminant, while the demand
for gasoline has penetrated the most
sparsely settled portions Of the ma
ton, and, as the demand for gasoline
has increased, its quality has de-
creased until the liquid sold today for
gasoline is of lower grade than what
was sold for benzine ten years age
and the benZine of today is poorer
quality than kerosene was then. Ten
years ago, in the infancy of the auto
mobile, a maker grew indignant if a
man complained because he couldn't
run his auto on seventy test" gaso-
line. Gasoline that tested seventy
two degrees on the hydrometer was
considered then the very poorest fuel
a man could be expected to use. The
usual demand was for "seventy-eight'
gasoline, and prices were lower than
for the present grade that tests from
sixty to sixty-two.
The increased number of internal
combustion motors, in automobiles
trucks, tractors, stationary engines
and aeroplanes, has made gasoline
one of the necessities Of life, and
while the supply has increased from
32,576,6S4 gallons in 1906 to e51l95.-
794 in 1915, the demand has increased
even more than that, and higher crude
oil productions and better facilities
for refining have been able to supply
It. Europe has lately demanded more
and more Of the American product
and, having the opportunity to obtain
higher prices, the manufacturers have
not hesitated to sell abroad, which
has resulted In famine at home and
the high prices that present obtain.
There is but one solution for the
difficulty and that is to utilize the
lower grade of oil refined from crude
Oil, but so far all attempts to do SO
have failed. Carburetors are on the
market today that will carburete kero-
sene. but they are cumbersome and
not entirely reliable, and all require
that the motor be started with gaso-
line first. The need is for a car
buretor, or mixing device, that will
do for kerosene what the present
carburetar does for gasoline. II il
up TO the American inventor.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23

per pound-or eat his soup unf1avored.
Bred, when it can be had at all, which
is by no means always and even then
only after hours of waiting in line be-
fore the bakeries, is As cents a pound
against "a cents pound year ago.
In someinstances, this anomalous
situation is due to the control exer-
cised by the allied fleet over the COM
merce of the Mediterranean. Notably
has this been the case with coal and,
until recently, with petroleum. 1t is
not that the allied powers deliberately
hold up shipments of coal to Greece in
order to cripple Greek internal trans
port, but that the allied nations them
selves have none too much coal to
spare and certainly no very great
number of vessels available for its car
riage. If coal is high in Greece, so it
is also in France; but the French gov
eminent has had the foresight to pro-
vide against anything like a coal fam
inc, while the Greek government has
not.
1t is on this account that from $40
to $50 per ton has been frequently Of
fered for coal at the waters edge, in
Pireus, with none to be had even at
that price. For whatever coal does
reach Greece, it is snapped up by mem
bers of the present cabinet and their
friends. to run their own factories
while the Greek navy lacks the coal to
enable its ships to police the Greek
territorial waters against violations of
neutrality. When Admiral Karr, the
head of the British Naval Mission in
Greece, desired a Greek torpedo boat
TO come to Messina to fetch him, one
of the members of the Greek cabinet
vetoed the order on the ground that
If there was coal enough for a torpedo
boat to nike that trip, he needed that
coal in his own business.
Outside of the very questionable in
tegrity and the unquestionable inef-
ficiency with which Greece's resources
are partitioned, the next leading cause
Iof the rise in the cost of living in
Greece has ben the mobilization. With
all the most able-bodied men of the
country under arms, men are lacking
and labor is high. The extraordinary
advance in the fresh fish market is due
largely to the fact that the greater
part of the fishermen of Greece are
modified. Transport facilities are
crippled for the sac reason as much as
on account of the coal famine. Olive
oil has risen in Athens from 81 cents
in January, 1915, to 1874 cents in jan
uary, 1916, owing to the scarcity of
field laborers-for Greece exports
olive oil in normal times. In every
branch of the economic life of Greece
, labor is wanting Prices go up. The
bread winner is away, so that the in
come of the poor goes down. Every
where the people suffer Meanwhile
100000 men of Greece, soldiers at a
cent a day, march along the hills of
Macedonia-con consuming but producing
nolhing-lot even glory.
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23
When Is a Woman Old?

ment will be her lot She has no mora
right to fail in health at 40 or As than
has her husband-who probably would
not listen long to the old cronies Of his
own sex. If his health were at stake.
Occasionally, influenced by NASTY
nostrum literature distributed by man.
ufacturers of female complaint" rem.
edies, or by the unclean innuendos n.
prurient women, a sufferer postpones
the visit to her doctor because of
dread Of examination. That is terri
BILE, and often fatal mistake. The truly
modest woman never allows such ideas
to bar her from seeking sane medical
advice. 1t is the prude who makes the
episode embarrassing for all con.
cerned
Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23

Ex-President Taft is opposed to the
confirmation of Louis D. Brandeis as
dent Wilson is in favor of his con-
f1rmation. President Wilson's recon-
mendation should have more weight
than the opposition of Mr. Taft. Mr.
Brandeis ought to be speedily con-
flrmed. Not a scintilla of evidence
has been presented to prove that he
will not make an able, impartial JUS
tice of the supreme court.