The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-02-28

Congress Of the United States
can put an end to this wars rob-
berry Of the workers of America.
The Congress can stop that.
The Congress can protect its
own people from ruin.
The Congress can stand be-
tween the food supplies of our
peaceable and industrious work.
ers and the grasping hands of
Europe's belligerent govern
ments.
The Congress can write across our
seaports the words: America First"
Food Shortage 10 General.
The whole world is short OF food.
EurOpe's two great granar1es and
sources OF food-Russia and Rumania
ARE unable to supply pound OF food
above the wants Of their inhabitants
and the acquisitions OF their conquer.
ors.
Argentinas crops we're short and are
exhausted.
Canada has been more engaged in
80
making bread at home.
Our own crops were not up to stand.
ard last year, and will be less this
year. In the one item Of wheat we
we're short about 40 per cent. OF the
normal crop.
The normal production Of England.
France and italy has been reduced by
the demands OF the military chiefs for
more men to be wounded and killed.
The cannons must have food, II the
people starve.
Under these conditions the newt.
able has happened.
America Begins to Suffer.
Our own food supplies are reduced
to the danger point by abnormal sales
TO European belligerents. and the la.
Dor necessary to grow greater crops
to supply the loss Is drawn away from
the farms and fields to the huge fac
tories, where tho munitions makers
add new millions Of blood.money to
the millions that have already swollen
their riches beyond all former dreams
Of greed.
Our peoples food is sold away from
them and the sources OF new supply
arc then closed by the same unpatri.
otto greed.
The results are that while these
parvenu millionaires cannot find meth.
DDS extravagant enough to waste their
riches, the industrious poor cannot
find methods economical enough to en-.
able their wives and children to keep
warm. to have decent clothes and SUI
ficient nourishing food.
Real Danger Ahead.
And we say to any one who smiles
at these declarations and warnings
that there Is DANGER in such condi-
tions-REAL DANGER.
And gentlemen of the Congress Of
the United States-you who are the
representatives Of the common people
II you are anything at alive say to
you that you should end these condi-
lions before they become more dan
gerous, before hunger becomes starva-
ton. before discomfort becomes riot,
before street assemblies become mobs.
Not only are the whole people, out
side Of the small circle OF the rich and
their dependents and parasites, exas-
perated, but many thousands of them
are at their wits ends to keep body
anQ Soul LOScINeT.
People Need Food.
That they are not actually dying Of
famine is true.
But they are actually suffering from
lack OF enough food and of the right
kind Of food.
That Is true.
And those who are not suffering are
being robbed Of their wages and their
savings. --
And for what?
What are we selling the food of our
people for-and the clothes from their
backs?
Why. for the paper promises to pay
OF bankrupts who already owe more
than the wealth Of all the world could
pay.
Ensiand's Fault.
For II all the gold that has been
mined from the earth since the day
that Jesus was born in Bethlehem un.
til this very hour was piled up in one
heap 1t would not pay one-fifth Of the
debt which ENGLAND ALONE has
contracted In these two years OF hor-
ror and massacre.
We are actually stripping our people
Of food and clothing and all necessi.
ties, and destroying the savings of our
industrious working classes, in order
that our banks and our investors
strong boxes may be filled and heaped
up with promises to pay that will not
be worth the paper they are printed
on when the butchered and oppressed
and harried peoples Of Europe rise
against their ruling classes and the
conditions OF their living and tumble
every government from Petrograd to
London in one common heap Of revo-
lutionary ruin. -'....
But there is still another and a most
weighty and compelling reason why