New-York tribune., 1891-05-25

corruptly OF when large portion of the property
evade the enlistment of their property, and
| by so doing throw unfair amount the prop
erty actually assessed.
| Let me repeat: In this country the people
levy the taxes on themselves and il they had the
power to get an honest enlistment of the entire
| property Of the country and could secure an
honest expenditure of every dollar SO raised, all
taxes should be blessings. III such q state Of
affairs could be realized, then to pay taxes weuld
not be called "burdensome" any more than one
would cal it burden" to buy the food he
eats or the clothes he II all property could
| be fairly assessed and all money raised by taxa
tion honestly and carefully expended only for
public purposes, then this outcry against taxation
would cease, except from persons who desire to
| live at the expense of other people.
STATE CONTROL OF RAILROADS.
! In answer to your third question: Just what
kinds Of business had better be managed by the
General Government is matter which has never
| been fully decided by the experience of the past
ages There has never been any uniform practice
among the cizized peoples Of the world upon this
subject. AS general proposition, it is conceded
by most thoughtful men that the primary object
| of every government should be to protect the
lives, property and liberty of its citizens; and
that no business should be managed by the nation
| except such of public nature cannot well
be done by private enterprise.
AS a rule, it is much more expensive for the
Government to do any kind of work than it is for
private individuals. The Capitol of the State of
New-York has already cost the people of that
State over twenty millions of dollars. The
same building, by individual management, built
by men working for themselves could have been
less than half that sum. AS rule, the work done
by the General Government is much more expensive
than the same grade of work done by private in
dividuas. do not believe it would be possible
for che General Government to manage the rail
roads of the United States anywhere cheap
ly and we'll they are being managed to-day
by the private corporations which own and con-
trol them. This may not be true to any great
extent of the telegraph lines.
As against this theory, well aware that
our great system of mail service is constantly
quoted. ] am ready to admit that this service,
taken O whole, may be named as a great sue
cess 1t is by means clear, however, that pri-
vate enterprise would not have done the same
work Just as well with much less expense. True,
we send our letters and packages at low rate
but we send them at a lower rate than it costs the
Government In the United States, the receipts
few years, have never been sufficient to pay the
expenses of the service. Several hundred mill
ions of dollars have been drawn from the General
Treasury to meet the deficiencies of that depart
meut Several hundred millions more have been
drawn for the purposes of building postofice build
ings which have never been charged up to that
account But the carrying of mails is a matter
of so much interest to almost every citizen In Che
United States and must be done over all kinds OF
public highways, that am inclined to think that
it s on the whole, best that 1t should be done, as
it now is by the General Government am not
sure, If the telegraph business could be combined
with the postofce service, that the same might Do
said Of that business But even admit that and
it by no means follows that the Government
should also run the railroads.
l see no reason why the General Government
should own and manage the great railroad sys-
TENS Of this country but II the railroads, why not
all the stage lines, all the steamboats, ana YES
sells doing business in our coast trade, on the
inland lakes and rivers of the United States
II all those things should be managed by the Gen
eral Government, why should not the farms, the
factories the mines and the machine shops also
be managed and owned by the General Government
IT, seems to me far wiser that all such things
should be managed by private enterprises leaving
power of certain limitations of them all In the
hands of the people. To add to the present enor-
nous patronage Of the General Government the
supervision and management of the entire rail-
road system would be to create such a central
ization of power as would it seems to me. be
dangerous in the extreme. There are of course.
now and then, enormous undertakings which can
be provided for only by the combined wealth Oh
the Nation. The improvement Of the MISSISSIPPI
River. the building of q railroad to the racine,
when that was mere experiment. may De given
as instances of such enterprises In shart my
idea is that the business of any nation is always
safer in the hands of private individuals IMAM IL
nossbly can be in the hands of everybody.
The idea of modern socialism. that the govern
ment should own everything and manage every
thing. that the people should sll work for every
bodv and no one for himself, has no foundation
in human organism There is no proof in the
mast experience of the human race that such plan
,pouId be possible. The whole scheme seems
N he contrary to the dictates of good common
serse LEGISLATION should be so shaped as to pro-
foot cur people in all laudable enterprises and then
carefully to guard the people against the encroach-
msnts and combinations Of all corporate and asso-
o;oted wealth. With these restrictions l would
give individual capacity. energy and enterprise
full scope.
What the people need is not that Government
sbould control more patronage or manage more en-
ternr;ses but rather that the efforts of each in
d,v;dual should be properly encouraged, SO that
oyerv person shall have the same chance Of success
~ his honest endeavor to build up some successful
hrsness II is individual prosperity which
makes up the life Of nation People will always
,rorL more faithfully for themselves than for
ovorvbodv. Give every man an equal chance and
the law of personal interest will solve the problem
of national growth and individual prosperity.
SHALL GOVERNMENT Do BANKlNG'
Tn reply to your last question, will say that
the length of this article prevents very fun
answer. Within a few weeks hope to publish
NV views as to the utility of National banks In
,.,bich this subject will be more fully discussed.