Newspaper Page Text
f
THE
& f nan Laborers Have Hard Work, ^
^ L°u> Wages, Long Hours V*
By r R ' AR ; ENTER -
f* t m TS an ^kman
t of a job? If so, he had
tter look for another at
>me - As as 1 can
arn. the labor market of
_,urope i s overstocked.
|1 here are something like
la million idle workmen in
flinglamj. The industrial
centers have many out of
employment, and in Lon
don there are frequent pa
rados of the poor. There
is no room for extra work-
n»e ince , an d Germany i s still in
■ha
^ntry was on the boom for 30
y e i . b0ga " , t0 grow when France
to 1 W °r kshops then sprang up all
^empire. The people flocked from
to c^tlos, and the country
c from an agricultural to a manu
al one. Trade was pushed in ev
iction. The towns grew and wages
state continued until, about 1900
owing to overspeculation, the bal-
of prosperity burst, the gas that
from it asphyxiated some of the
“ and th(, y failed, and factories all
,J h tU empi !? besan td shu t down.
,nn fifteen days 32.000 men were dis-
l-ged in Berlin for lack of work; and
industrial establishmments all over
many either dismissed, cut down their
ces or shortened the working hours,
lis condition of hard times still exists,
though things are looking up in some
ranches, ow ing to the increased demands
rom the United States.
1 have spent a large part of this week
in some of the most notable factories of
Germany. T have gone through elec
trical establishments employing thousands
of hands, and have examined, among
other works, those of the Borsigs, the big
gest engine makers of the continent,
having the place in Germany that the
Baldwins hold in the United States. The
most of these factories are running with
less than their usual number of men, and
some which pretend to be full are giving
short time.
The Borsig factory is one of the most
prosperous in Germany. It has a large
foreign trade, and it is somewhat owing
to this that it keeps its men busy. It is
cne of the big - engine works of the world,
although not as large as the Baldwins.
It builds on the average about four
locomotives every week, and it has al
ready built more than five thousand.
These works are situated at Tegel, just
outside Berlin. They cover thirty acres,
and employ about twenty-five thousand
men. The establishment has also mines
and works in upper Silesia, which em
ploy five thousand hands, so that alto
gether the force is a large one.
This factory was founded over sixty-
years ago by A. Borsig, and it still be
longs to his sons. In the United States
it would be run by- a corporation or trust,
but in Germany some of the biggest of
such establishments, such as the Borsig
and Krupps, are owned in one family.
The two Borsigs who now manage the
works are each under forty. They are
active business men, and spend their time
in the factory-, knowing personally all that
goes on. Indeed, it is said that either of
them could make an engine if he had to.
1 met the younger member of the firm,
Conrad Borsig, during my stay at the
works, and he furnished me an English
guide to look over them.
We walked together through the thirty-
odd acres of buildings where the steam en
gines are made, now stopping to watch
t he men in the foundries pouring red-hot
metal into the molds, and now going
through the rooms where the vast boil
ers are riveted together. There was a
noise like the thunder of many hammers
which almost deafened me. Huge travel
ing cranes, running overhead, lifted boil
ers weighing many tons as easily as a
mother lifts her baby, and machines
bored through steel as though it were
cheese. Here they were making screws,
there lathes were cutting iron like pine,
and here the parts of the locomotives
were assembled and put together for
Shipment to ail countries of the world.
After leaving the works I went through
the colonies which the Borsigs have built
tor their workingmen. Such institutions
are becoming quite com-
Labor non in connection with
Coloaias the larger German fac
ia* Garma* tories. The Krupps have
nv . Are constructed towns as
Very homes for their em-
Numerous ployees. and there are
ether large iron making companies along
the Rhine which have done likew-ise.
These I shall describe when I visit that
region.
Here, near Tegel, the Borsigs have
bought a large tract of land and have
built houses about it which are rented
out to their workmen at such prices as
will make them pay a low interest on the
Investment. None but employees and
their families are permitted to live in
these houses, and the accommodations
are such that they receive more for their
j ent_ than they could get anywhere else.
There is an open space, covering many
acres, in front of these houses. This
lias been planted with forest trees, and it
will some day be a beautiful park.
The Borsigs treat their employees well.
The men seem to be satisfied, and I am
told their condition is superior to that of
other German factories. They work but
ten hours a day, and such as continue
•with the firm a certain number of years
are given pensions.
Germany is a land of low wages and
her millions to Germany. Fac-
Iron workers In Germany get $5 a week.
long hours. In the steel and iron indus
tries $5 per week is good pay, and in the
textile mills the wage is still less. Me-
cnanics think they do well if they get 15
cents an hour, and on the state railways
the best paid engineers receive only $10
per week. Firemen are paid from $5 to
•$7 per week, and porters less than $6.
Workmen employed by the city force are
Uaid equally low, the boys cleaning the
streets receiving 25 cents a day. On the
government works the average day is nine
hours, but it is longer everywhere else.
The most of the factories of Berlin claim
to have a ten-hour day, and as the labor
unions are strong here they can hold that
time to a certain extent. In other parts
of Germany the working day averages
eleven hours, with no Saturday after
noons off, and in certain sections it av
erages twelve hours and over.
There are many clerks in this city who
work as much as fourteen hours every
day. The stores open about 8 o’clock in
tile morning, and the most of them do not
close until 9 o'clock in the evening, and
the restaurants and cafes much later
Nearly all stores are open until 2 p. m.
Sunday, although they are closed during
church hours. Some storekeepers are so
Pious that they will not allow an adver
tisement to be exposed at this time. There
is a glass case of such advertisements
under the railroad at the Friedrichstrasse
Kahnhof. Between io and 32 o'clock on
Sundays some of these advertisements are
covered with paper, which is torn off as
soon as church is out.
Speaking of time in the stores, at an in
vestigation some years ago it was found
that 46 per cent of the establishments
worked their clerks fourteen hours a day,
and that in 6 per cent of them they
work sixteen hours. In nearly all places
there is an hour or so off at noon for
lunch.
In the country districts the hours run
from sunrise to sunset, with very few
holidays. The great exodus from the
farms to the cities has somewhat in
creased farm wages, but they are still
low, being competed with by the gangs
brought in from Austria, Russia and Po
land at harvest and seeding times.
I am told that the Poles work for as
little as 25 cents a day, with poor food
thrown in. and that there are farm dis
tricts'where the ordinary- hand gets only
15 cents a day. Throughout Prussia 50
cents is a good price for farm work, and
in some sections the wages are 40 cents
for men and 25 cents for women.
A great deal of farm work is done by
the women. They spade and hoe, weed
and do other back-breaking work. They
commonly follow the plow- and scatter
the manure, working side by side with
the men.
Some farmers hire married couples,
renting them small houses on their es
tates and taking the rent out of the
wages. Such a tenant agrees to give all
his work to the owner of the estate and
to take 35 cents a day for it in the winter
and 50 cents per day in the summer. The
man’s wife may get 20 cents a day in
the winter and 25 cents in the summer.
At such wages, if one has a good healthy
wife, he may possibly earn as much as
$200 during the year.
Women in Germany are everywhere
poorly paid. 1 have already given the
wages in the big stores, where as nicely-
dressed and as intelligent girls as you
will find in any of our department stores
of the United States get from $8 to $12 a
month and board themselves. The aver
age wages of female clerks are from 25
to 00 cents a day, and it must be a very
good clerk indeed who gets the latter.
Some time ago an investigation of wom
en’s wages in Berlin showed that there
were 60,000 women who averaged from
$2.50 to $2.75 per week, and that there
were thousands who got less. Such girls
who do not live with their parents must
have some outside support, for they must
dress well and look well in the stores.
Berlin is filled with sweat shops. It is
one of the manufacturing centers of Eu
rope, and it has tens of thousands of
sewing girls engaged in
Xn the making mantles, cloaks,
Siveat men’s and women’s
ohops clothing, jackets and in-
ef fants’ wear. Many of
Berlin these sweat shops are in
the cellars and some in
the attics. The houses look well on the
outside, but within you find scores work
ing away in little rooms, and not a few
working and sleeping in the same room.
The police regulations require that the
rooms be of a certain size, but today
there are thousands of men, women and
children who live in cellars in this most
beautiful city of Germany. There are
other thousands in rooms which cannot
be heated, and many of which lack venti
lation and light.
Nearly all the sweat shops pay their
employees by the piece, and .that at such
a rate that only the best sewers can
make as much as 50 or 60 cents a day.
There is a fine for every mistake, and
trumped-up fines reduce the receipts be
low the amount agreed upon. I am told
that few sewing girls earn as much as
$2 a week. Girls make jackets for 20
cents a piece and shir.t waists for 25
cents. You can get a girl to come to
your house and sew for less than 50 cents
a day. and you can hire a dressmaker
who will cut. fit and make a plain dress
for you in two days, charging you 50 cents
per day for her work, and perhaps 40
cents per day for the girl who helps
her.
Music teachers are paid as little as 23
cents a lesson, and singing teachers the
same. Girls in some factories receive
less than $2 a week. In others they get
$3, while forewomen receive from J6 to
$10. Some figures taken by the govern
ment not long ago showed that cloak
makers were earning $2 a week and that
girls on underclothes received from $1.25
■to $3.75, the latter being paid for skilled
hands and overseers. Think of making
collars for from 1 to 2 cents apiece and
cuffs for 20 cents a dozen and you have
an idea how some women work in Bei
lin. I have heard of places where bui-
tonholes are made by hand for a cent a
hole; and where, if the place to work
and thread the needles are furnished by
the employer, a reduction of 25 cents per
head is made.
The percentage of women workers in
Germany has rapidly increased of late
years, owing to the enormous number of
men required in the army. It is esti
mated that there are more than seven
and a half million German women who
earn their own living, and this is an
increase of more than a million within
the last thirteen years. Of these 40 per
cent are employed on the farms. 20 per
cent in domestic service and 10 per cent
in public offices. About 7 per cent work
in the factories and 4 per cent act as
servants in the hotels and in the beer and
wine rooms.
Within the past five years the men
NINTH PAGE
have been trying to Hep the women
from doing certain kinV of work. In the
factories and foundrie* and- the unions
are generally against tie employment of
married women when" their husbands
have work. I
But how can people live on,such wages?
They can’t if you use ‘live” in our sense
of the word. It is tit general opinion
that things are cheap An Europe. They
are not. Here in Germany good things
cost as much as' - la"the United States,
and many things more. A fair price
for beefsteak is 25 cents a pound; mut
ton, 20 cents, and veal the same. Good
butter costs from 24 to 30 cents a pound,
sugar 7 cents and flour 5 cents.
Germany has to ifnport a great part of
her food. We send her much of her bread-
stuffs. Russia is her poultry farm, and
Holland and other countries her butcher
shops. Eggs are imported by the millions,
and they sell for 30 cents and jipward per
dozen. An ordinary chicken costs 50
cents.. and it is a poor goose that won’t
bring a dollar. f
Clothing is somewhat cheaper than with
us, but the better kinds are equally high.
Shoes cost so much that the average
workman wears sandals of wood with
toes of leather. I see men so shod on
the streets of Berlin and the clack, clack,
clack of the wooden sole is heard in
every factory. Fuel is high, and alto
gether the necessaries as well as luxuries
cost much.
Many people cook as little as possible.
You can buy all soits of eatables ready
cooked, and this is done by both rich and
poor. You can get roast beef, roast
chicken, and puddings ready to warm up
in every block, and the delicatessen shops
will supply you with a cooked dinner
ready to take home and serve if you
want it.
There are but few free lunch counters
and public soup houses where you get
things for nothing, but there are many
cheap restaurants were the poor are sup
plied at cost prices. Some of them are
managed by the charitable ladies of the
city, and that under the patronage of the
empress herself. They are known as the
people’s kitchens and are open to all. In
them you can get a dinner for about 5
cents. A bowl of soup costs 3 cents and
a cup of good, strong coffee 1 cent. The
rooms are very clean and well kept and
the food is nicely cooked. As you come
in there is a cashier who gives checks
for the article wanted upon payment of
the money, and by presenting these checks
at the luncheon counter you are handed
your order. Every one waits upon him
self, carrying his bowl of soup or coffee
to one of the tables and sitting there
while he consumes it.
I took dinner in owe of these kitchens
the other day. My first check was for
soup, and it cost me, 3 cents. The soup
was made of beans, and I venture the
howl contained over a pint. It was, at
any rate, more than enough, and that
which I ate stayed in my delicate stom
ach for hours. I had also 2 cents’ worth
of boiled beef, a 1-cent cup of coffee and
finished up with a penny's worth of cus
tard for dessert, so that my dinner all
told cost me 7 cents.
The conditions I have described prevent
the average workingman laying up any
thing against sickness or old age. The
wages are so low and the
Workman’s chances to rise so few
Insunnca that the majority of la-
and Old boring men live from
Atf* hand to mouth. Only the
Pensions fewest own their homes
and fewer hope to make
fortunes. If the same conditions pre
vailed in the United States our poor
houses would be full, we should have
tramps ou every road and beggars at our
doors.
The German government prevents such
a condition by compelling all workmen to
pay a certain proportion of their wages
to a government insurance fund, which
shall Support them “when they : are sick
and give them pensions when they are
too old to work.
The sums paid are very small, the low
est class being only about 3 cents per
week and the highest about 8 cents per
week. Half of this sum is paid by the
employer and half by the laborer. The
employer Is required to see that the whole
is paid or he is Subject to a fine. The
result is he takes i». out of the wages
and the government is sure to get its fees.
Many laborers make it a part of their
contract that the employer shall pay all
the insurance, and some employers vol
untarily pay the insurance o* their em
ployees who receive wages to a certain
amount.
A payment of 3 cents a week gives a
laborer after his retiring age $83 a year;
5 cents may give him as muck as $130 a
year, and 6 or 7 cents from $130 to $270.
If he pays 8 1-2 cents he may annually
receive $270 or more, according to the
time he has been paying in and other con
ditions. There are also certain payments
for accident and permanent disabilities,
and in case of death the widow and chil
dren annually get from 15 to 30 per cent
of their husband's or father's former
earnings.
All wage earners receiving less than $500
per year are by law required to belong to
such associations. They pay their pre
miums in stamps which are pasted upon
cards and kept in books which must be
shown to the police upon demand. The
government watches carefully to see that
the insurance is kept up, and as a result
It has a big fund to take care of its needy
and deserving poor.
PRIZES TO COOKS.
These hoys get 25 cents a day.
$7,500.00 In Cash to be Distributed.
Between now and July 1 family cooks,
whether employees or the mistress of the
household, will be following the plan laid
down for improvement in cooks in a con
test for 735 cash prizes ranging from $200
to $5.00 offered by the Postum Cereal Co.,
Ltd.
The winners must show improvement in
general cookery as clearly stated in the
rules for the test.
No one has to buy or pay anything
whatever. It Is simply an earnest effort
on the .part of Mr. Post to stimulate the
household cook to more .careful and skill
ful cookery.
To have light, sweet bread and cakes
instead of heavy, sour anj indigestible
things. To have no more greesy, burned
or dried-out meats. To have properly
made Coffee, Postum and tea. To have
delicate and digestible, toothsome deserts
and a table, clean, tasty and a pleasure
to look ijpon.
And so $7,500 in actual money will be
spent to encourage the conks of the coun
try to better effort. And you housekeep
ers. please forever abandon the term
“hired girl.’’ Teach your cook the dig
nity of her profession, call her the cook.
If her duties include other service, well
and good but don't detract from her pro
fessional title by calling her the “hired
girl.” That term don't fit a good nook.
A certificate bearing the large seal of the
Postum Cereal Co.. Ltd., will go to each
of the 735 winners In this contest. These
certificates or diplomas will be as valu
able to the holders as a doctor’s sheep
skin is to him.
A postal card to the Cookery Dept. No.
351 of the big pure e 0 od factories the
Postum Cereal Co.. r ftd.. at Battle Creek.
Mich., will bring a sheet of plainly print
ed rules for the contest.
jZ? Porto Pico In First Infancy of
Commetcial Magnitude ^9
Americans are building roads in Porto Rico.
By FREDRIC J. HASKIN.
ILL the world ever
learn
the lesson of the
overdose? We go
the Panama hat.
body wants one.
isn't enough to go
and we substitute
deadly
in for
Every-
There
around
a shem
for the real article. The
first tiling we know our
dear puublic is turning up
its nose at our jaunty,
fraudulent counterfeit, and
we are lucky to dispose of
the big stock on hand at
quotation for “old straw.”
The Porto Rican cigar jumps into the
saddle for a wild, exciting dash down
the road of popularity, only to fall sud
denly into the ditch with the customary
thud. The demand for island tobacco ran
ahead of the supply, and the manufac
turers, falling into the oft-repeated error
of substitution, filled their orders with
cheap, inferior stuff, and by so doing
warmed another seat on the mourners’
bench of sad experience.
The New York market is clogged with
12,090,000 “outlawed” Porto Rican cigars.
They won’t budge. When the balmy air
of summer comes they will probably go
the way of the county fair and the baby-
rack—“One down, one cigar; two clo"wn,
two cigars; and three down, a half a dol
lar. Come on, boys!”
Although the Porto Rican cigar has re
ceived a deserved black eye, it is an in
dustry of great promise. All the dealers
did not follow the penny wise and pound
foolish policy of cheapening their goods
for the sake of temporary gain. Those
who were honest and stuck to the
straight and narrow way, have enjoyed a
constantly increasing trade. In the to
bacco raising districts jhe greatest ac
tivity prevails. The mountain sides are
spotted with patches of the growing
weed. It is being planted in places that
look too steep for a billygoat to browse
on. Viewed from a distance the plats of
broken ground, standing out boldly
a.gaimst the surroundings, appear like
great irregular squares on a massive
checker board. As one follows the cir
cuitous military road a wonderful view
is afforded. In the valleys the giant
lalms look like inverted feather dusters.
The oddest sight of all is where the
tobacco is being grown under cloth
shade. From a distance it looks like a
huge circus tent spread over entire fields
—in some instance, 115 acres in extent.
When first seen the covering looks like
canvas, but when approached is found tu
be a kind of gauze, like cheese cloth.
It is sustained by uprights and is high
enough for a man to walk under. It
serveg. many purposes. It reduces the
hot rays of the sue; filters the rain; pro
tects the growing plants from the wind;
and keeps off all bugs, flies and insects,
except a worm that comes up from the
ground, which must be picked off by
hand. The erection of these shades ovqp
a whole field of tobaco is costly and la
borious, but by Its use a wrapper is be
ing produced that is said to be equal to
the famous Sumatra product in color and
superior to it in taste. This idea orig
inated. in Florida some years ago, and is
an important discovery in the science
of producing fine tobacco.
Coupled with the increase of the pro
duction of tobacco in Porto Rico, since
the beginning of American rule, is the
origin of the cigar and cigarette manu
facturing industry. In the old days the
raw product was sent to Cuba, cured by
the process in vogue there, and put on
the market as Vueita Abajo. Now the
curing experts have been imported here
and the district around Cayey is known as
the Vueita Abajo of Porto Rico. The
quality of tobacco raised here resembles
so closely that of Pinar del Rio that it
can and docs pass for the same. I saw
one large consignment of cigars ready for
transit to the United States, which had
no labels or marks of any kind on them
to show where they had been manufac
tured. You have probably bought one of
LADIES—If you want a regulator that
is reliable address Dr. F. May. Box 99.
Bloomington, Ills.
Ladies: Use our
delayed or suppressed
cannot fail. Trial free
Co., Milwaukee. Wis.
foi
i’
these since as “a guaranteed Havana.”
The product of the great Cuban tobac
co district is deservedly world famous
for its quality, but there are lots of men
who think they know all about it who
have never smoked any of it. It would
be hard to think of anything that has
been and is yet imitated as much as
Havana cigars. But the Porto Rican
goods can stand on their merits and will
undoubtedly have a great reputation in
time. Although the industry is young,
and has suffered a setback on account of
some of the manufacturers being unable
to resist the temptation to engage in ir
regular practices, they have probably
learned their lesson at the most inexpen
sive time. The expert cigarmaker is be
coming an important person in the island.
I visited one place where 1,200 people were
employed, under one roof. This factory
is now turning out 150.000 cigarettes daily
and about 4,000,000 cigars every month.
There are 300 boys and girls in this place
who are earning 50 cents per day, while
the rest are men, who are making from
$10 to $25 per week. This is only one of
the many avenues of endeavor which
American rule has opened up for native
capital and native labor. As the difficul
ties which naturally present themselves
during any period of reconstruction are
overcome, this will enlarge, and others
will follow on.
One industry that will certainly prove
a money maker in Porto Rico, but w hieh
will not begin to yield returns until next
Orange year, is the cultivation
Cultivation of oranges. It takes five
Promises years for an orange tree
Big bear fruit, and the pro-
Financial duct of the groves which
Develop- were planted immediate-
mesit ly after American occu
pation will make its first appearance next
season. Last year we bought $77,000 worth
of oranges from the island, but all of
these grew wild. Expert orange-growers
from Florida and California, who are
heavily interested here, claim the Porto
Rican product will be exceedingly fine.
There is no doubt about the large quan
tities that will eventually be produced,
for over 5.000 acres have been planted
during the past 12 months. Results up
to the present time leave no room for
doubt that Porto Rico can produce al
most anything that will grow in any
other tropical climate. Neither is there
any doubt about her being able to dis
pose of her productions—the market is
waiting.
However, there is one exception to this
statement. While it is true that sugar,
tobacco, fruit and the smaller pro 1 .nets
are prospering, the coffee industry, which
the best posted men claim is the island's
best resource, is not in a thrifty condi
tion. A combination of circumstances
has put the growers of this great staple
in a bad way. They met with terrible
loses from the hurricane. Right at this
critical time, when their condition was
such that they vjere totally unfitted to
make a fight against powerful compe
tition for recognition in a new market,
the change of government came. This
cut them off from Europe, upon which
they had almost entirely depended for
centuries, replacing a good market with
a very poor one.
Not that the United States is a. small
consumer of coffee—it' uses millions and
millions of dollars’ worth annually, but
it does not use as good quality as that
grown in Porto .Rico. While we have
been purchasers of the island's sugar,
:obaceo and fruit—things which we might
have gotten elsewhere in equal or nearly
equal quality—we have neglected to tab”
from her the one product that she leads
the world in. And this when we ooast
about using the best of everything on our.
table. It is conceded that the oest is
none too good for the stomach—that it
is not economy to use cheap fuel in :ha
engine which keeps ns going—but we go
right on using cheap coffee from South
America, which is a stranger to ts tn
every sense, and neglect to pafromue and
encourage this little member of our own
family. What is the reason? Because
good coffee is worth more than the com
mon grade, and the Porto Rican berry
sells for a few cents more per pound.
The jobbers recognize the difference in
the quality, but will not pay for it.
claiming that the public will not stand the
advance. If this is so it is contrary to
the general action of the public in such'
matters. We are certainly well enough off
to pay for the best things to eat and
drink, and usually do so without com
plaint. The fact is that our people are
not judges of coffee. They have been ac
customed to common grades, and are not
conscious of the really cheap quality of
that which they are using. The Eatins
are the greatest coffee drinkers and they
use only the best. France and Spain and
Italy have patronized Porto Rico for
hundreds of years and have paid her
well. New Orleans is the first place in
the United States where Porto Rican cof
fee is beginning to gain popular favor.
The French people of thar city know a
goixl things. Here is an extract from a
letter written by a member of the board
of trade of the southern metropolis:
“As a lover of coffee I can say I have
never tasted its equal. I have given sam
ples to many of my friends, and they all
agree that it is a drink lit for the gods.
Coffee making is a fine art. It should not
be made in tin. for that destroys ^ its
aroma. Tf people only knew the superior
ity of Porto Rican coffee, it would not be
long until the supply would be inadequate
to the demand.”
In its best year the island has produced
$11,000,000 worth of coffee, and if all the
land suitable to its culture were put un
der cultivation it could
Coffee produce four or five times
Also Will .this amount. If we took
Be Big; all the island could pos-
iSource of sibly raise, we- should
"Wealtlx still have to depend upon
South America for many
million dollars worth annually. As time
goes on and the excellent quality of the
berry from here is known, there will be a
great demand for it. The people will not
stand upon the slight increase in its cost
when they become familiar with its worth
a he last year before our government
too_k charge of Porto Rico we bought only
$847 worth of coffee from the island; the
following year we did a little better: tak
ing $4,91S worth: this total has been in
creasing until last year it amounted to
$223,891. This, you will say, is a trend in
the right direction. So. it is, but the plan
ters arc too bady crippled to wait for the
business to gi*ow to sufficient volume to
again be profitable to them. Spend some
■of the money with them you are now
sending to South America! Get vonr
dealer to order some for you. and don’t
be stingy oyer the few cents difference in
the price. Rest assured that von are
getting value received. Every goocl. Amer
ican woman ought to be interested f n
our island nossession. and that interest
cannot be shown more substantially than
in favoring its products when she 'makes
her household purchases—especially when
this preference will secure for her table
something better than she has been ac
customed to having. The American wom
an has been active in raising funds for
the Porto Rican hosnital. and other public
institutions here, which was mighty good
of her, and she can do another great
and grand service jf she will see to it
that Porto Ricnn products are used in
her family.
Our government „ great work un
der wav here. Tt is building better roads
and schooling the children and improv
ing all conditions of living. Tt is hfin
est lv and earnestly trying to benefit its
subjects end create a broiler and health
ier atmosphere for them. It started in
with the avowed intention of doing things
its predecessors either failed to do ->r
lacked the ability to do. Tt is not a •
partisan matter. It is an American is
sue. Our flag is here in the namp of
ifEert.y and advancement: the declared
purpose of its presence is to do away
with oppression and poverty and install
freedom and plenty in their stead. We
should all pull together to make the
island's advancement so certain and last
ing that the rest of the world cannot
possibly gainsay the honesty of onr inten
sions or the good results of our rule.
If these people can be made permanently
prosperous, great credit will be due the
United States government, and great
(benefits will accrue to the American
people from the natural increase of com
mercial prestige. And they will be very,
very prosperous, if you, Air Reader, will
remember to do your part by buying the
things which they have to sell.
$5.00 PER hundred for
opes. Send dime gpd stamp for full
instructions. Steady work. C. E. Miller
& Co., Dept. 16, Ely Bldg., Chicago.
An out time road In Forty Rico.