Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-21
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CONFIDENCE CADS

at homo are quite conversant with
the sad fact A certain board is try
ing to make the town dry. The gen.
tie reader rises to say. 20. K. to
thst1" But, dear one, this isn't
booze. 'Tis milk. In Mother Goose
the COW jumped over the moon, but
the product of said female is on its
wsy> to the stars. We can get along
without what the Poles call "polenk"
and '.piva"-maybe, but we can't get
along without the gift of gentle
soasy.
Gangs seem to control everything in
the U. s.. except our souls. Some OF
us can hardly call even our soul our
own. Bahses are dying because OF
this new prohibition. Mothers, with
hard, burning eyes. are watching
beautiful little lives slipping into
eternity, because the middle man
erushes the farmer, and the farmer
won't stand for 1t. The farmer no
longer says, Kick me, and TIL come
to you, my lad"
The land of ours Is flowing with
milk and money, enough for all
hands, IL justice be done, but certain
individuals and cliques want all the
money for themselves, and they don't
care how they get it. So bunch of
profiteers dam up the milk market,
and like the ancient mariner, we
have milk, milk everywhere, and not
q drop to drink. All the Kaisers amt
in Holland raising boards to keep
their ears from aching at what the
world says about 'em.
In New York there's a gang call
ing themselves the Milk Conferenc
Board. I'd dub them the Confidence
Money Hoard. They're just a plain
bunch of confidence cads. This Con-
fidence Board saith to the farmer,
so much shall l pay you, and no
more for your produce, that milk"
The farmer pauses, scratches his
tired head and says: I'll be goll
burned if I'll work night and day to
make nuthin'. I'm doin' time on this
y'ere farm twenty-four hours day.
Sometimes 1 get up two hours earlier
in the marnin', and make it twenty
six. Now am I to hand everything
over to you? I'll be jiggered if l
will"
Then the Confidence Board, pour
ing the sweet milk of concord into
hell" turns to the people and says:
I'VE can't get the juice for you,
alasi Blame that farmer" Now
rises the Dairymen's League, in the
farmers behalf, and saith that band
Of real Americans. You're a liar!"
That's just what the Milk Confidence
Board is. In me own mind 1 stick
. strong word in front O. that strong
word.
Was there ever a harder year than
1918? Does any of us remember
worse? Broken in health and spirits,
the laboring classes and their large
families need milk. It's a necessity
of life. Do we want the masses to
people our sanatoriums, their lungs
full of holes, because in their youth
they couldn't get what the body
demanded? Aren't our cemeteries
quite, quite too full of little graves
with white crosses that hide, oh! so
many hopes?
Come out into Gods acre with
me, ye Herods, with the bloated
waist line. Count the innocents
you're slaughtering. Ye stood be-
tween that baby and his milk bottle.
Now he stands accusingly between
you and God. Ye are numbering the
innocent in his sleep. His voice will
whisper in your troubled dreams
at night, sleep no more! My mur-
dered memory is herei" Lift up your
hands to God in prayer in your hour
of need. All the perfumes of Arabia
won't sweeten those ugly palms,
damned with spots of infant blood;
and Gods heart, sickened, will reject
your brutal fists.
Won turn
smile will come off. See! out of that
slender grave rises a little Easter
lily hand. 1t points at you. You
shut your eyes against it, but under
those red lids, that hand points still.
More terrible than the voice of
Nathan to David, it declares you the
guilty one for his untimely taking
off.
III fares the land, to Fastening ill a
prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and
men decay"
The Milk Trust is doing more to
raise the red rash of Bolshevism on
the healthy skin of our country than
any other agent know. The LIQUOR
Trust made barrels of money with
booze. That was bad enough. But
God once baby! let the trusts keep
eiiSh NhIy paws OIL the milk DOttleSI
is all the milk of human kindness
turning sour in the barreled mem
bers of the Milk Confidence Board? ?
Throw physic to the dogs, if we can
get milk for our babies. 1 was ac-
quainted with cat that fed her milk
to starving puppy. 1 heard of a
mother hound that adopted and
sucked q hungry young pig. Cats
and dogs could hand the Milk Board
a parable.
For thirty pieces of silver a dis
cipie bartered away his Master.
Money laid the cross on the shoul-
ders of Love Eternal, for He was
sold. Money crushed down on His
quiet brow the crown of thorns.
Don't, you gang of grafters, you
pack of bowling profiteers. don't
mock the agony of the innocentsi
Don't hold up the milk market. like
common highway men, and demand
SO much money for so little milkl
sand your ground, We farmers for
were all standing by you. Don't for
get how those other "ambattIed
farmers stood and fired the Shot
heard round the world" Your snirit
is American, which asks for Justice
fou'H get it, and may that miser-
able MIX Confidence Board get
theirs! se'
THE REV. WILL w. wHALEN.
Soldiers In Need Of