Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1896-04-10
Return to JefersoMian PRIV
cipies.

ciptes.
The bill to refund the long-over-
due debts due the government by
the Central and Union Pacific rail-
roads has passed the lower house
of congress, and will undoubtedly
be enacted into law during the
present session. The bill practi-
cally gives these corporations their
own time to pay these debts. 1t
is safe to say that they will never
pay dollar Of it.
And yet in spite of these exam
pies of the folly and wickedness of
giving government aid to private
enterprises, we are threatened
with a larger dose in the case of
the Nicaragua canal project. The
ship-builders and ship-Owners of
the Atlantic seaboard are also
clamoring for subsidies from the
public treasury on the plea Of re-
storing our once commanding mer-
chant marine from the ObliteratiOn
threatened by our iniquitous navi-
cation laws. The mask of patrio-
tism, the enticement of statistics
and the most exuberant of prophe-
cies, clittering generalities and
bold assertions of the great things
to be done through government
aid are presented to congress, just
as they were when the great rail-
road grabs were first projected.
patriotism is the last resort of
scOundrels." The plea of patriO-
tism and the common welfare" is
the stale pretense Of every schemer
who wants his private interests fed
from the public treasury. 1t is
the money in the public treasury
they are after, and they are cars
less of the means employed to force
it's doors.
The whole policy of subsidies,
bounties, protection, subventiOns,
pensions, etc, is to make the peo-
pie look upon the government as a
great paternal institution whose
mission is to find employment and
support for every individual in it.
The advocates of this policy, be-
lieve, in fact, that the wealth of
the country belongs to the gov
eminent instead of to the people,
and that the public treasury is
nothing but a great grabbing to
which every schemer can have ac-
cess. This policy has corrupted
our politics, demoralized the peO-
pie, concentrated the wealth of the
country in few hands, and en-
tailed upon us veritable Pando-
ra's box of political and social evils.
| Jefferson taught the old scrip
tural policy: "tO the laborer be-
longs the fruit of his toll" The
policy of Jefferson was to keep the
wealth of the country in the hands
of those who produced it, by limit
ing the powers of the government
and by extending the liberty and
individuality of the citizens to the
fullest extent by allowing them tc
work out their own salvation with.
out interference, molestatiOn or as.
sistance from the government, ant
to prevent those who would unlaw
fully deprive the common peopl,
of their wealth.
These reflections are melted b,
the fact that next Monday, Apri
l3, is the anniversary of the brit
of Thomas Jefferson, who sough
f to incorporate the principles of tn
r Golden Rule" and the "Sermol
on the Mount" into the politica
! system of these United States. w
seem to be departing from thes
, principles more and more as tim
) rolls by; but it is only a question
of little further time when tn
common sense of mankind will re
/, volt at present methods of spoil
, alton of the common people, an
turn for relief to the system mag
urated by Jefferson Of doing "exac
r and equal justice to all and specia
. privilege to nOne." The name {
I the party, or the persons by whor
this principle is administered is i'm
l material. Its application to poll
tics is the only remedy that ca
save us from revolution.