Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-06-03

the self-denying vocatioHs of science ami
sociology under adverse circumstances.
A BRACE OF POPULIsT SOPHIsTRIES.
The legislative committee appointed to
aid and abet Governor Leedy in his chimer-
ical scheme of building a railroad TO the
Gulf of Mexico have performed their first
public duty after a truly Populistic fashion.
They have issued an address to the people
in which there is a vast amount of dream
ing and vaporing about conditions" but
not a word in relation to the need of an
other road to the Gulf or of the practical
difficulties that must be overcome before
the state enters upon such an enterprise.
1t is plain to be seen that neither Gov
ernor Leedy nor his committee has the re-
hottest idea that the state will ever build
such a road. They have proposed the plan
with the idea that its local coloring will
give them a better opportunity to exploit
certain sociaIistic theories. The address in
question, though pretending to be a dis
cussion of a proposed railroad, is. in fact, a
discussion of two propositions very dear to
the socialistic heart. One is that law
should intervene to make all sections of the
country prosperous alike, and the other is
that the government should furnish work
and wages to every one of its unemployed
citizens.
Along The first proposition the address de-
clares as follows: 1.-THE railroads are prin-
cipally owned in the East and are so man
ipulated as to build up great centers of
in the East and prevent the
building of similar enterprises in the West,
leaving. in the main. these great sections
of our country TO produce the raw mate
rails for the factories and the cheap food
necessary to supply the densely populated
Eastern centers.' A little further along it
protests against the high freight rates
charged between the Eastern centers and
the West. and still further along it proposes
the remedy in the form of a law that will
compel the carriage of freight anywhere at
one price. just as the government now de-
livers a letter for 2 cents, regardless of the
distance travelled.
1t is hardly worth while to answer such
rubbish as this. The memorable laws of
population and commerce fix the location OF
trade centers. These things adjust them
selves with a resistlessness that no power
can stay and no power accelerate. No
doubt there were in Chicago forty years
ago a lot of weak minded dreamers of the
stamp of Governor Leedy, who complained
that the railroads were unfairly building
up New York. and twenty years later they
had moved on to Kansas City and were
leveling their shafts at Chicago. In pass
ing we would like to inquire of Governor
Leedy If he knows Of anything better cal
culated to build up the manufactures that
he is demanding for the West than exor-
bitant freight rates on goods manufactured
in the East.
The second proposition, that the govern
ment should furnish work to all of its
unemployed. is built upon a principle ex-
ploded a thousand times In the history of
civilization. The ideal government is enc
that has so conducted its affairs that no
citizen is deprived of work that under an
intelligent administration might have come
to his hand. Every attempt ever made
anywhere to establish the principle thai
the government is in duty bound to furnish
work for all has resulted in failure and
worse than failure. because 1t degraded
the condition of the laborer who was not
seeking or in need of government employ
ment. 1t breaks down all the moral quail
f~catioEs that make one laborer more val
liable than another. 1t confounds the dis
tinctlon between industry and idleness, be-
tween dexterity and clumsiness. between
sloth and activity. It removes the great in
centive for advancement which rests in
the knowledge that the better orkm
will secure the Job. 1t suspends that great
est law in the province of human affairs
the law of the survival of the fttest.
There are ren still living who can re-
m how the principle of government
employment TO everyon worked in En-
gland. In 1881 the project was attempted
of giving work in government gravel pits
to all who were not more profitably en-
ployed. The result was that labor upon
the farms and elsewhere quickly reduced
itself to the half-hearted condition and low
pay found in the gravel pits. The men who
were demanding and receiving government
work dragged the whole army of labor
down to their own level. Their it was at
tempted to benefit things by advancing
government wages. so that private wages
might also advance, and this resulted in
a vast increase of the numbers who were
willing TO accept government employment
rather than hustle in the field of competi-
ton for private employment. In the end
came the great farm riots in which ma
chimes were destroyed. ricks burned, and
fields ~desolated.