The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-01-22

The provisions of this act were very
drastic. ON information justices OF the
peace were authorized to issue war
rants to three inhabitants to search the
prcmises of persons who were believer
to have more -four or grain :han neces-
sary for family use. When the owner
refused to open his barn, the inhabitants
were authorized to enter by force. An
inventory was to be made Of all com
modities found and price fixed upon
the overplus. Returns were to be made
to justices of the quantity that could
be spared and the appraised value
thereof.
Seized the Goods.
IL the owner refused to sell at the
appraised value to families in need,
constable could seize the same for the
benefit of such deserving family, who
paid the price fixed by the appraisers.
For profiteerng merchants were com
PEELED to place the contents Of their
shops at the disposal OF the authorities,
who sold the same 10 the public at
prices fixed by official appraisers.
In numerous cases throughout Phila-
delphia and other Pennsylvania towns
stores were broken into by those in au-
thority and the goods therein found
were disposed Of at moderate prices.
The merchants themselves were in some
eases mobbed and landed in jail.
In the newspapers, diaries and letters
of the day we find numerous refer
ences to the crusade against the hoard
ers Of the necessaries of life, the fore
stallers" or "engrossers," as they were
donominated at that time.
Thus Elizabeth Drinker, the cele-
brated Philadelphia Quakeress, writes in
her journal, May -, 1879:
Many are apprehensiye Of q mob
rising on second day neXt-with view
Of discovering monopolies, etc.
Two days later, May "a, she writes
Threatening handbills pasted at We
corners, with view 70 lower the prices
Of provisions, etc They have had this
afternoon a general muster Of review.
A thousand or 1900 men of ye militia
were drawn up between Race and Mar
ket streets sight by no means agree
able to me. Several persons were taken
up today and put in prison"
Writing in her journal May 25, Mrs.
Drinker says:
Men with clubs have been sent to
several stores, obliging ye people to
lower their prices"
FrankIins Daughters Account.
Writing the same day, Benjamin
Franklin's only daughter, Sarah, writ.
ing to her husband, Richard Bache,
said;
There was a printed paper pasted
up yesterday, the copy of which l send
you. You may remember the Ger
man in old Wistar's store, He
is, they say a great speculator. At
tempting to pull one of the papers
down, the mob Il should not call them
by that name) the militia, seized him
and after taking him about on a horse
bareheadd, lodged him in the Old Gaol.
They took up several others and put
them in the same place"
The drastic steps taken by the pa
ulots of 1873 to put an end to the ne
fariouS practices then in vogue, where
by the rich became richer and the poor
poorer. were met by the cry Of "despo-
tism,' "usurpatiOn" etc, but it did not
deter these men from taking the mo
nopoHstic bull by the horns, that food
might be placed in the mouths of starv-
ing men, women and children. who, be
cause of war conditions, We're unable
to obtain the necessaries OF life.
Nor did official authority hesitate to
invade private property, if the necessi-
ties Of the case demanded it, when pri-
vate greed and the public need clashed
with one another.