The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-08-09
why DON'T the Governments Do Is4

Why Don't the Government DO FTP
According to the communistie labor par
tvs ideas all the government has to do is to
so order and the thing is done. Fiat
let paper be money, and it is money. Let
it be issued until some thousands of mil
lions are in circulation, and then every
mans pocket book will be plethoric with
paper, Everything is to be done by
government The innocent helpless peo
pie are to look up to papa government and
receive their means OF life, their wherewith,
al to eat, drink, and be merry like happy
children in a we'll regulated family. Do
any of the people want money? Ask the
government for IT, Ii the fierce north
winds blow too rude and unkindly. and the
winters cold makes fire not only luxury
but necessity, let the government pass a
Law restricting the winds to the Arctic re-
gions -or else say there shall be fire on
every poor mans hearth. Why not let
government regulate the price of shad
and the sale of minneWs-determine the
relative proportion of the sexes-say how
many shall belong to one trade aud how
many to another-who shall be laborers
and who law-givers-all this is consistent
with the paternalistic idea, the scheme
that appeals to government to legislate up
on everything and anything, and wants to
be housed, and comforted, and fed, and
made happy, and to live, breathe, aud
have being by legislative fiat.
Nature occasionally has seasons of por-
tents and calamities, periods when light
ming and storms abound.-times when
the nations are alarmed lest the grievous
"age Of Pyrrhae, complaining of strange
monsters, should return.
Men who expect everything at the hand
of government loose their feelings of self
strength and manhood and lean upon des-
potic power for protection and support.
They would sell their birthright, the proud
manly feelings Of self-sustaining self-sup-
porting manhood, the nobility of personal
individually for mess of pottage at the gov
ernment kitchen aud praise the strength and
power of the government that gives them
sustenanee like innocent children. Virtu-
ally they demand ceutraIization, despotism,
autocratic government. they who are SO
loudly asking for paternal aid and protec-
ton. for national workshops. for loans ol
money from the public treasury. for To-
flation in every form and to the highest
degree. for widespread and expanding
system of internal improvements beyond
the nations needs or means.
All nations of prominence pass through
these awful experiences. There
comes time when liberty is offered
as sacrifice to the protecting
power of the governm ent, because
the latter promises security to property
because strength and protection is pre-.
i ferred to liberty and the worth
ofindividual manhood The people of Rome
went through these bitter experiences
centuries ago, - agrarianism in somt
lOl IL VI OluSI 1S al ctO SUI ob0 bH'
Kearney's and agltators of his kind hav,
had their counterpart ever since the time
of historical record. III such men becam
successful 10 carrying out their plans Their
is only ruin waiting at the end-their idea
are poison and not a panscea. The wei
! fare of the country-especially the wei
fare OF the very class whose rights the
claim to champion will not be promoted
but contrariwise will be irretrievably in
jured by the promulgation and adoption G
such rabid, injudicious, and unsafe senti
ments as these demagogues proclaim
t Every intelligent laboring man ought I
see, whatever his present necessities ma
be, that it is destructive to his own inter
ests as well as inimical to the existence {
Law and order, to urge the laboring people
} as these demagogues do, to combine an
D assail capital and the organized interests
society.
: Fiat government, fiat money. fiat labo
fat happiness and prosperity-from th
very nature of human existence and th
: laws Of life, of cause and effect, of naturi
: seq uences, there is no such Fiat.