Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-09-09
WHAT SHOULD CITIES OWN?

WHAT SHOULD CITIES oWN9l
Subject Of Municipal Ownership
Ably Handled by Mayor, Jones,
Of Toledo. s:#ss: y. 5:...
Hon. S. NJ. ones address at
the national convent on 81 the
league Of American munic ipalities,
Detroit, Mich. Aug. 5, 1898:
7; CONTINUED from last week. Is
Mr.. Chairman,, and gentlemen;
what we lack is ideals, not idols.
Our idol has been the practical
man, we must find the ideal man.
We have pointed to the individ-
ual, who by his superior cunning
or prowess and strength has
amassed the wealth of his fellow
men, as our model of success.
But, gentlemen, we are coming to
see that all. such success is pur-
chased at the price of the failure
of the many, and our greatness is
to be proven in the days to come,
not by pointing to the individuals
here and here who are like the
anaconda. gorged with wealth for
which they have no use, at the
expense of an army of paupers
and tramps who have no wealth
to use, but rather by pointing to
a citizenship that is made up of
people truly free and truly happy.
A republic in which there are
neither drones nor idlers, where
the interest Of all sings us to our
work; and when we shall have
passed up the broad avenues of
collective ownership to realiza-
ton of that condition, who shall
be able to fathom our PRODUCTIVE
ity and cheer.
The movement for public own
ership is government seeking the
good of all as against the individ-
ual who seeks only his own good.
It is a recognition of the funda-
mental fact that the humblest
citizen is entitled to the greatest
degree Of comfort that associated
effort can provide. 1t is organ
lied love, manifesting itself in
service. It is patriotism Of the
highest and purest type. It is the
casting down of idols and the
lifting up of ideals. 1t is de-
throning the millionaires and ex-
alting. the millions. Happily, we
a1epassing away from the ,abject
worship of mere dollars to real
ization of the truth so tersely
stated by the simpls Nazarene
nearly 1900 years ago: Eye can
not worship God and Mammon. 5"
And we are coming to measure
men, not by their ability to or
ganize industry and use their fell
low men simply as profit making
machines, but by their ability to
organize industry and serve their
fellow men, and where can we
look for n9bler examples of pat
riotism, or love of country, than
to the men and women whose
lives have been devoted to the SER
vice of their fellow men rather
than to mere sordid worship of
wealth, rather than to debauching
the machinery OF justice and the
peoples legislators in order to
serve their own purposes. ''Bribed
by the rich to rob the poor,' was
the scathing verdict pronounced
by the Hon, Wayne McVeagh
upon the legislators of Philadel-
phia who leased the gas works
created by the vote Of the people
without any resort to the vote of
the people, and in the address at
the commencement exercises of
the University Of Pennsylvania
last year the same honored gentle.
man said to the students of that
institution that the "black flag of
corruptionist is more to be feared
than the red flag Of the anarchist. -
q 1t is short sighted and idle to