Evening star., 1901-10-09

Ihe Tendency of Some ImpOrtant
Governments of the World.
From the Forum.
Inc present tendency in the leading
countries of the world clearly seems to be
toward the general public ownership of
railways; though the adoption of such a
policy by Great Britain and the United
States is perhaps far in the future In
hoth OF these countries there is the tre-
mendously obstructive political influence of
the railway companies themselves to deal
with. And though Great Britain has the
most democratic constitution of any of the
great powers, and her policies respond
more freely to public opinion than is the
case In any of the other great countries,
yet her institutions and policy include con-
tradictions and Inconsistencies which her
traditional conservatism or inertia leaves
undlsturbed in their incongruous demo-
cratic setting. In the United States we
nave inherited this same slowness of po-
litical growth, and 1t is favored by our
obstructive written Constitution which is
characterized = by 1.-The Hamiltonian fore
thought of hirdering legislation or amend
ment to the extent; it may be feared, of
hindering healthy progress.
moreover, BY the prevailing test of ex-
pedieney, 1t does not follow that because
the wide-open policy of municipal trading
may be good I'm Great Britain, or because
the public ownership of railways is ex-
cellent for Belgium Prussia, these sys-
TENS would be equally good for the United
States, or does it follow that If the
state operation of the post office in this
country is efficient or popular therefore
the state operation of the railways is also
desirable. For while a paternalistic or
military-like establishment of certain
size, such as the Post Office Department,
is practicable and inoffensive in this coun-
try and Great Britain, yet the immense
and complex organization Of the same
oh. afn, /, ,tal tl,@
the railways would involve. and which is
necessary, inoffensive and practicable in
military country like Prussia, might be
offensive and altogether impra in
the more democratic English-speaking
countries. In these countries this question
will doubtless be long considered as that
of a choice of the lesser of two evils with
the odds against the evil we know not
Of
But I think that, according to the pres
ent evolution of the social organization,
there will be a growth of public confidence
and courage which will ultimately over
come the present somewhat overbalancing
public opinion that our government, which
is representative of the whole public, is
neither honest nor otherwise efficient
enough to undertake safely SO gigantic
an enterprise as the ownership and opera
ton of the railways. Public sentiment is
no longer dismayed at the financial feature
of the undertaking. Recent colossal capi-
talization of railway and other Industrial
whole people has swept away this once
formidable objection, just the actual
fact of successful public ownership in
other countries has swept away the sweep
ing adverse congratulations and Quashed
the priori indictments of Mr.. Spencer and
countless philosophers of lesser note.
While the exercise of so vast a power and
minute a social surveillance would
be involved in the government operation
of railroads would seem like a dangerous
undertaking from a practical business point
of view, and a serious Interference with
individual freedom in such democratic
countries as the United States and Great
Britain, yet 1t is at least open ques-
ton whether this objection is not fully
offset by the Unjust determinations and
ether impositions which incident to
private ownership. With the spectacle
daily before their eyes, of great business
advantages enjoyed at the hands of the
railroads by the influential and the strong,
and of their perennial free rides, with
their sisters and their cousins and their
aunts, to the ends of the earth, at the ex-
pense of the less fortunate masses, no peo-
pie can long retain that sense spirit of
freedom and equality which is essential
to contentment and even to the stability
Of pop,,iar institutions