The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-25
cash reserve and 81, 500, 900 besides for
railway construction.
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.

| Public ownership IS not an American
idea. and all the talk, and whatever of
sentiment there may be for the govern
ment ownership of railways, telegraph
lines and the like. have come of abuses
growing out Of corporate abuses and
monopolistic greed. The average
American has little use for any policy
which tends to deprive the individual
of his personality. His ideas of free
dom includes every rela ton of life. and
any suggestion of the machine is
very distasteful- So any proposition to
curb individual effort or 10 limit indi-
vidual possibility in any direction is
viewed with suspicion and distrust
! The thing which retarded the growth
of the Populist party more than any
! thing else was its paternal tendencies.
/ Governmental ownership and control
means repression. non-progression and
ieveling down. means a curbing of en-
/ terprise and probable retrogradation
/ The English doctrine from which
America largely drew its policy, is that
municipalities and government shall do
/ nothing, or enter into any business that
private individuals or associations will
undertake. The theory of all govern
mtnts like ancient Rome, Russia,
France, etc, is to mOnopolize or at least
control all these matters of business.
The waterwOrks of the Romans were
! built by slave labor and run by the gov
ernment-so of Paris, St Petersburg
and other large continental cities. 1t
is SO in Mexico and China. while free
London is supplied by private COM
panies
The cry Of some at the present day is
for our government TO OWN the rail
roads, elegraph. telephone, etc. This
is an encrOachment on the theory of
our institutions. and any legislation,
even on the interstate commerce order.
that goes beyond the province of police
control for preservation of national
order, is with us unconstitutional. and
a step towards old Rome's way of doing
business. Napoleon's ideas of govern
ment left nothing for the people and it
would seem that Henry Georges
theory, carried TO its last analysis. is TO
bring about Chinese state OF affairs
with necessarily fountain-head or
ruler in the person Of a monarch or
dictator and everything vested In the
people in common from a socialistic
point of view, producing as a natural
result in time, race wholly devoid of
ambition for personal aims. and ruled
alone by the common will and desire.
The two theories, the one on which the |
English government is formed. cOpied
In our own country. and the one which
the ancient governments, like Rome
proceeded, copied If you please, at the |
present day in Mexico are so entirely !
different in their nature that a refer |
ence TO their styles of business is suf- |
ficient 10 distinguish the point The |
chinese government of today, which is |
Henry Georges theory in exemplifica- /
ton, is really but an evolution of the |
Roman or Russian government carried !
through the ages. A sufficient length |
of time will absolutely crush out in the |
people at large all personal ambition
and effort, and make it but one huge !
mass or family with some central figure |
to pull the string which in China is the |
emperor, in Japan the mikado.