The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1895-11-08
popuLIsr PRINCIPLES.

One After Another They Are Being Adopted
and Advocated by the Twin Frauds.
The Kansas City Times OF October
"a closes an able editorial upon the
government ownership of telegraphs
with the following paragraph:
Although the Times has never
favored the government ownership OF
the telegraph or railroads it fully ap-
preciates the great variances existing
between the conditions prevailing in
Great Britain and the United States,
still it desires to print the truth, COM
prising all sides of all public ques-
tions, and it must be confessed that
the foregoing figures present a re-
markably strong argument in favor OF
government ownership OF the tele-
graph, even though it would introduce
one feature of the pernicious system OF
paternalism into our Institutions"
The foregoing figures" referred to
are those in reference to the govern
ment operated telegraph in England,
embodied in the article by Judge
Walter Clark, with which our readers
are already familiar.
| There is one popularity, or 'fad," the
| Times clings to with strange perver-
sity, through all the changing muta-
tions of time 1t denounces every
proposition looking to the perform
ance of public duties by the public
itself, as ''paternalism."
No logical argument can be brought
against the urgent necessity for, or
the righteous equity and eminent prac-
ticibility of this proposed plan of gov
eminent telegraphs. But there may
be raised the cry of that accursed
phrase ''paternalism,'' which is ever
! erected as barrier in the path of hu.
man progress
| The Times was among the first to
urge the argument (?) ''paternalistic"
against a governmental banking sys-
tenn; though, in its overweening anxi-
ETY. to force a large issue of bonds, it
admitted that it is the duty of the gov
eminent to furnish safe place of de-
post for the savings of the people.
In its leading editorial of January
&c, 1894, the Times said:
Zone of the duties of government is
to furnish safe depository or invest
ment for the savings of the people. 1t
has been proposed many times to have
a postal savings bank system, but this
method has been opposed, on the
ground that it savored of paternalism,
which is obnoxious to the American
people,"
The writer then went on to advocate
the issuance of bonds by the govern
| ment in low denominations drawing a
rate of interest as large as can be paid
by safe and conservative banking in.
situations, which bonds shall be in
tended to be sold directly to the peo-
pie" This, the Times argued, would
be better than the scheme for postal
savings banks proposed by the popu-
list party; and these securities, SAYS
the Times, will be readily convertible
into cash at any bank and at the vari
GUS sub-treasuries of the United States,
thus partaking readily of the element
of circulating medium.
In unguardedly making this comics
sion as to the duty of the government,
Shylock overreached himself and, in
the slang vernacular of the period,
put himself in hole"
| The longtime or savings deposits OF
the people amount to at least S., OO0,-
600, ZOO. AS it was only proposed to
issue $500, 900, 600 of the bonds, such
bonds would have provided the govern
ment with medium of performance of
only one-tenth of it's duty, leaving
nine-tenths to be performed through
the channel of government banks.
But what if there are no such bonds
issued? Then the whole duty of the
government remains unperformed and
government banks remain the only
mode of its performance. And when
it is proposed that the government
shall perform its recognized and
acknowledged duty the cry of ''pater.
nalism'' is raised!
The friends and advocates of the
plan must retort ''fraternalism, not pa
ternalism." Recognizing and &C.
knowledging the universal Father
hood of God, we must emphasize its
corrollary and natural sequence, the
universal brotherhood of man. There
can be no such thing as paternalisn in
nation where every individual is
component part. of the government.
In SUCH a nation. the people govern
themselves as brothers-no one rules
over them as father. Each and every
individual is a member of the body
| polite, as also member of the uni
versal man, the genus homo. The
heart; the brains; the hands: they are
not of the individual, but of the race.
The achievements; the triumphs; the
glories; are the heritage of humanity,
not of individual atoms. So in the
body politic-the social organism
there are functions which belong to
the whole public functions-and
cares which pertain to the individual
private matters.
The telegraph is essentially a public
utility, being a principal medium for
the transmission of news and intelli-
gence. 1t is properly part of the
postal system of the nation and should
be operated, not for profit. but for the
benefit and convenience of the people.
Public ownership and operation in
England has decreased the cost to one
third of what it used to be under pri-
vate management and increased ten
fold the service for private messages
and twenty-fold for press dispatches of
| news. etc.
| Let us press the demand for a postal
telegraph service.
| GEORGE C. WARD.
GOVERNMENT BANKS.
| A Demand for Them Would Prove to he
Popular and . Sure Vote Winner.