The Daily News MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1. A CRY FOR BREAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 6, 1 February 1909, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1. A CRY FOR BREAD.

If Wellington is tin- niraiic-l city in tW Duniinioii. as .Mr. Onirics Wilson recently assured u, is tlic cum'. Diincdin is tile must, ami \v;t rm-liesirtccl city we She lias dcmonsU'.llod llcl" to this claim in a variety ol ways. Her citizens' lo M"' ='l'l* made the oilier day cm oelinH ol tlic

■starving tlmusimU ot n "i kccjti.in with llu'i;* u-ual •inn-ri^ity. and provide a)) i Niiiii|>l»' tor tJii" n--l ih)' J>olll iuion. and parlimlarly m Taratniki, the most lavoivd nl all pniviiitT-;. Wi. cannot understand tin: conditions oliliihiin- in tiic Old Country, bcXa'llH' 1110 M nl' us have "ul been brought, tare to face with them. Financial crises. triuli' ili'iiri'miuns. diminish iug returns, falling-oil' in cX|Mirth and imports, ail' nut. subjects 1" which mi'i anil women usually turn with any groat interest. ami still fewer seek Ui establish a casual relation between tlieni and the hordes of hopclcs.- and despairing men and wciinen wh". in the deplli of winter, both .lay and night, are forced to hear their children crying fur llntl. I,read which. Hod help Llieni! Uiev. fa illicit give. Do ye hear the children weeping, U my brother-. Ki e tile sorrow I'oiiic- with veilr- I Tliev are leaning tli.-ir young hcnch against their mothers, And that cannot stop their tears.

The cry of the child! That, is the sound that has rang through the ages. Wc can hear it as wc turn the pages of history and ponder the story of man's struggle with bis destine. Above the clash ot arms, the roar of victory. Ihe howl ot frenzied mobs, the riot of tlie rich, comes Iha I pitiful wail. And too frequently it has been a cry for bread.

As is pointed out by the Dunedin Star, there is not possibly in tin: whole catalogue of human anguish a moi*; heart-sickening picture than that of the parent who, wheu his children ask food, has to turn away muttering and moaning in .hi* impotence to satisfy them. It is that way madues- lies, and it is there that the germs of anarchy and plunder and the desire to kill aic born. "Let no man.'' says Mark Kutherford, "judge Communist or Anarchist till he has asked fur leave lo work and a 'Damn your eyes' has rang in his ears. The Blankcteers shivering Oil Ardwick Ureen, the weavers who afterwards drilled on Lancashire moors and were liung according to law or killed at Peterloo, arc less ridieulmti than those who hung or sabred them; less ridiculous than the Crimean War and numberless dignified events in human history, the united achievements of the Sovereigns and Ministers of Kurope." At this hour there are at least two million helpless ones in the Old Unid--a land endeared to us by ties of birth, sentiment, and historic association wanting bread. They have neither work, nor home, nor food. The mind fails to grasp one-liftieth part of the mass of human misery and sull'ering statements such as these signify. When we say "at least two million women and children are starving." the people of this district require something definite and tangible to enable thein even approximately to realise what the statement means.

"Two millions" is merely a Jignre of speed), a something of which we have no practical knowledge. When, however. it is said that there are in England twice the number of the whole population of the Dominion who are crying for bread, then the mind shrinks appalled at the stupendous nature of the evil, and men can do their little best to bring help to sumo, if it he but a few, of the stricken homes. Those of us whose duty it is to follow closely the great questions of the hour know only too well that the awful desolation ami the crying need for doing something cannot he overstated. As our contemporary points out. this is neither the hour nor the occasion to discuss the why and wherefore of these things. Hundreds of thousands of our fellow-beings men and women nf the same »tock as ourselves -are (rying for bread, and it is for u= to hear ami. as far as we can. to answer it. 'IVn guinea*, the framers »»f the appeal tell us. will buy one thousand loaves a day. and every loaf, they assure us. shall reach the right hands. How many thousands of loaves is Taranaki going to send? We hope Taranaki will follow the lead of Dunedin and raise funds, privately and by public entertainment, for the relief of the appalling distress amongst our own kith and kin. the women and children of tlw workers of England.