Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-05-24
The Government Alone Can Do II.

A law-abiding, government support
ing people turn more and more to
their elected heads and constituted de-
partments TO grapple with recognized
evils and establish system where chaos
prevails. Perhaps never in history has
civilization so generally understood the
need of centralized control evoked by,
and responsive to, the people.
Today we are turning upon the gov
eminent of the United States to de-
mand Suppression of evils which we
have suffered to grow into intolerable
monsters feeding on the blood and
brain and Drawn of the masses. We
demand the driving out of the drink
traffic dragon; VIC demand the en-
claiming of the Spectator hyena; we
demand the hating of a mad rush of
citizens into the towering tenements,
the sweat shops and the lazar houses
of great cities.
Only the government can step be-
tween the people and their folly. We
ask 20 be saved from ourselves. We
urge that temptation of the social
idiocy of drink slop be removed; that
our own gambling instincts be sup
pressed; that the quiet and beautiful
occupation of cultivating the soil be
made so attractive in remuneration, so
interesting in variety and possibility
that the tendency will be away from
the magnetic excitement" and thrill
OF the city.
We see in such a course as this the
only escape from constantly increas-
ing prices to consumers and the sure
pyramidins of the perplexities of feed
ing ourselves.
Prof. Garrett p. Serviss says: THE
really hard life is the city life, which
drains the vital force and wrecks the
moral character The farms pour
their life blood into the cities to sup
ply the constant waste. until great,
fast expanding city becomes a cancer
in the body polite. A city is a
parasite. IL is not self supporting
thing. for II cannot nourish itself, as
the country can. Imagine a city en-
croaching until 1t covered the entire
area of state--it would first eat up
everything about 1t and then eat itself
up New York city contains half the
population of New York state. 1t has
to reach out its tentacles over the
whole country to draw nourishment,
for the state alone could not furnish
enough"
And Prof. Serviss adds: New York
farmers are letting their land lie fall
low because they cannot get help to
cultivate it,"
The great problem of the hour as
any thinking. reasoning man who
analyses conditions must know, is how
10 turn the certain bent that has be-
come traditional and hereditary-how
to make the country more attractive
than the city and thus furnish food
enough for all at the same time we
are Withdrawing millions of producers
from that class and placing them in
the to- be fed and clothed class.
An army itself not only must be fed
and clothed but it instantly presents a
Ave times greater army in a new pro-
duction: that Is. we cannot make
clothing for soldiers without with
o. tries.
And America today Is confronted with
an even greater complexity-we must
not only withdraw from productivity
the army and it's supporters, and must
feed and clothe and pay them all. but
we must produce for the millions in
Europe who have fought themselves tc
the very brink of the abyss of famine
There is our task, and the bigges,
obstacles in sight are the evils men
toned in the opening paragraph OF
this comment.
Can we not see that If the govern.
ment would take to itself the ire
mendous sums grabbed by the pirates
ana parasites between producer and
consumer. that there need be no issue
Of war bonds. no levying of war taxes
The farmers sell a million dollars
worth Of wheat and the consumers pay
three million dollars for IT. 1t is time
for the government to arrest the
banditti aloag the road from farm field
to city residence.
England has already recognized the
wisdom Of the course now demanded
by the American masses and outlined
by the government. Kennedy Jones. di.
rector Of food economy in England
sAys:
president Wilson has put the case 70,
,oo1 control and food economy in q nut
Sholl: Wo ayU working Just on the lines h
q ovoGouoely projects.
I'VE aSS equally convinced in this ccun
III that thAee viii b only . small eelnsf
Minority which Il viii be necessary to dis
.iniino by the full exercise OF such power'
n the president no WaSlD from Congress
Ne aFc not h1ottatinS 70 make examples
Tor instance. . Ane o9 900 waS imposes
oeSufday uGUn q retired Army eolone!
~ no Alan n 0aGintrato. for Soodtu(