The Labor enquirer., 1888-01-14
prise. And to these EMS various
suggestions have been made:

PElse. Anu 10 thesT ehfS vdilop
suggestions have been made:
i Were the railroads and tele
graph lines controlled by govern
ment; were a limitation pu
upon land ownership; were Gus
tom duties, with certain excep
tions as to liquors, ETC.. abolished
and revenues raised by wisely
regulated and graduated success
sion and income taxes. something
would be accomplished. Railroad,
and. telegraph lines are in theil
nature a monopolys They have
become SO essential to our moderr
life Hat6nterruptidh in them is a
pub Calamity. There is there
fore a prQpriety in government
coptrQkspr ownership. that the
" x<N-- -
be IS of the moncpoS raay ac-
crde4p the whole people, and that
thepublic icmay be protected from
interruption.
There is an especial necessity
for government control of the tel
egraph. and in the preservation Of
the independence and purity of
the press. 1t is alleged, ! know
not with what truth that the tele-
graph now makes and unmakes
newspapers by determinations in
its rates Swever This may be,
the power to- do this should be
taken away. 1t is tnhe, this gov
ernment controlin affairs violates
certain well-worn maxims ofstate,
such as "the world is governed
too much" But zAese. maxims
had their origin in different con-
dition of things, and are no longer
applicable. Where government
represented the few, and was used
to Cypress the many, the e'less gov
ernment the better. But now,
when government represents the
many. it should serve them.
1t is also said that government
work is blunderingly done; were
this true, yet done in the interest
of the people, it would serve them
better than more skillful work by
the skilled few, done in their own
interest. At least, government
control would prevent railroad
Sreckihg, Watering nf sstAcks
strikes. and the war ST rates; and
the dice of the cunning gamesters
would be greatly diminished. We
repeat: no doubt these sugges-
tions are offensive to the iasses-
fare principle that has had par
| tial sway in the world for the last
hundred years.
But Let it not be forgotten"
says Mr.. Goshen, M. p, in an ad-
mirable address at Edinburgh,
that this principle owed its ori-
gin not to hard, impassive theory
and cold-blooded economists, but
to a school of ardent and almost
revolutionary social and philo-
sophical reformers, the physio-
Gratis. as they are called, of the
eighteenth century" So rapidly
] have inroadsupon these principles
been made recently in England
conspicuously seen in the Irish
Land Act and in the recent move
ment to build houses for the pool
that the London Times of date
November 9, 1883, declares: "Bt
the result what it may, it car
hardly be doubted by any one
who watches the tendencies OF
the time that iaisses taire is prac
tically abandoned, and that every
piece of state interference viii
pave the way for another" Th'
Times maintains that this aban
donment of the niS5Fs fare is il
obedience to the laws of nationa
evolution; that when population
is "sparse," when men grow thei
, own food, spin their own wool
and practically make their owl
clothing, social relations are nee
essarily simple. Let population
be increased. labor divided, ant
, society organized so that interde
, pendence takes the place of sub
' stantial isolation, and the need TO
regulation speedily makes itsel
S felt. Here, as elsewhere. Anglo
| Saxon civilization is the helples
bondsman of no theory, but doe
: the thing needful without to