Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-09-09
Editors Letter Box
Pointed Questions


Editor Kennebec Journal:
The world q decent place to live
IN? Perhaps. II some action takes
place very soon.
Regarding the connection between
the high price We are now paying for
existence and the big meat, packers
and their loud and costly Seclama-
tons OF honesty and efficiency, one
feels like putting some queries. Con-
corning their efficiency there can be
NO dispute. cold. cruel. unsportsman-
like. grinding az ruthlessly but by a
different method. al opposition Of
smaller concerns into the dust as did
the Germans In Belgium and Servia
in the early days Of the war.
Query No. l. Is IT necessary to
spend tens Of thousands every week
by full page ads In the newspapers
and magazines all over the country
just to inform the public that they
are doing business in an honest man
ner.
Query No. z. WHO pays this enor.
nous advertising? Does it come out
Of the public. indirectly from their
labor or from the packers to say two
Per cent. profit?
Query No. !. What IL the connec.
ton between the present dificulty in
getting sugar for preserving on the
part Of the public and the loss to
them thereby and to the farmers by
thousands Of bushels of fruit rotting
on the ground and the fac. that next
winter. these same packers will have
millions of cans Of timed fruit and
vegetables for sale that must be
canned at the present time. Are not
these human hogs using the sugar
we should be having now. SO that
next winter they can sell to US at
three times the price We could get the
fruit for now? Efficiency? Homes
.ty?
Query No. 4. Why will foolish
housewives and others aid and abet
such inhuman methods by paying
next winter about three times the
price for the same amount. six
months old in a tin can. of many
kinds of vegetables and some fruits
| which they could IL they would get
from honest working farmers in their
immediate vicinity? So long as
large portion Of the unthinking pub
lie continue to do this. food must
continue high and the farmer and
through him most others. must con-
tinue to struggle. whilst the big ef-
| fcient beasts wax fat and sleek.
Query No. 5. Any connection last
and the drop. temporarily, of Is cents
pound Of butter in a fortnight
necessitating the low cost Of about
| 40 cents a pound to the wholesale
buyer. at which price he filled his
cold storage, for sale this winter at
double that price. is that the big
mems idea Of less than per cent.
profit? About August each year grain
takes a big jump, result thousands OF
poultry keepers have to sell at a low
price a large portion of their poultry.
to I'LL the cold storage houses with
high priced fowl and chickens foE
Thanksgiving and Christmas. ANY
connection here?
The vast sums and the enormous
control it gives can apparently do al
most anything these times. and mil
lions of US stand. gaping like sheep
and submit to 1t. These concerns
now largely control not only meats.
but almost every kind Of fruit and
| vegetables and dozens Of other nec-
essary things In every day use by us
all what are we going to do about
It? Appropriations. committees, en-.
quiries? Bosh, leading to greater
want and misery.
God give US men and more men,
men big enough. brave enough.
brainy enough to take hold and lift
US from the mire Of despair and pos
sible revolution which Is threatening
to engulf US all and thus our descen-
dants a hundred years hence will
look back with pride and not With
shame, on our solution Of our present
difficulties.
Faithfully,
CHAS. ELv1N.