The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-08-05
Mr.. Eryan:s New Plan
Henry Wa,tcrson in tho Jo,

Mr.. Eryan:s New Plan
Henry Watterson in the Louisville
Courier-Jonrnal: The bedrock of Mr..
Bryan's scheme is the government
ownership of the public utilities. such
as telegraph lines and lines OF rail
way and street transportation, the
sources OF the water supply and the
lighting and heating plants i'm the
towns and cities, pooling all issues
into II general reservoir to he control
led 10y popular election, federal, state
and municipal. One would think
that we have politicians enough as it
is. Eut here is Il plan to augment
their number by millions. 1T is to
ot''cialize everything. 1t is to red
tape and uniform everything. 1t is
federalism. patemaliSm, pure and
simple. still further supprcssing the
individual as it still further magnities
the state. 1t is the essence of Hamil-
ton, not of Jefferson, at war with
every democratic principle, and ira
dition.
Mr.. Bryan sugars his scheme by the
inclusion of an income tax. an emil
.nently just and enlightened method
of obtaining revenue: but, this apart.
the residue of the scheme is equally
Impractical and undemocratic: it
would, if 1T could be realized, lay the
cornerstone for AN imperial edifice,
impervious to public opinion. impreg-
nable against the ballot; a self pre-
petuating machine. Ultimately beyond
the reach OF the people.
The preteXt for so great an invasion
into our ways OF thinking and doing
is the alleged unbridled rapacity of
the corporations. Many Of the cor
pora1lOnS are rapaclouS enough. Some
of them are at times too r~apacious.
We should find a remedy. But we
should llaye a care that the remedy is
not worse than the disease: because
most of these corporations are but
aggregations of capital gathered from
far and near. the savings of the peo-
pie, and, for all the occasional lordli-
ness and dishonesty of their admins
traitors, arc. in point of fact, popular
institutions How would either their
integrity. or their lleXiblity. he served
by converting them into political
assets: subject TO party control?
Mr.. Bryan escapes the obvious in
consistency of favoring federal control
by proposing for the railways state
control. though he would turn the
telegraph I've to the general govern
ment. Fancy forty-ive state rail
way dircctorates in charge of the
whole business of travel and trans
p%ortation from the Rangely lakes to
the Pecos valley, from the Highlands
of Neversink to Vancouver and Col
orado: here a democratic board there
a republican board, and now a popu
list board and again a fusionist board:
Il very board walk of politicians aud
party workers, chosen by a vote of the
people not because of their fitness or
efficiency, but because of their skill
in setting up primaries and manipu-
iating conventions. Fancy the predic-
ament OF the opposition with the
telegraph in the hands of the party in
power. Fancy the chance of a demo-
cratic picnic With a republican train
crew. Fancy a deadlock between the
populist railway directors in Kansas
and the democratic railway directors
in Missouri. Fancy, in the railway
business, in the telegraph business, as
in the army and navy. every man
wearing a uniform, exercising quasi
sovereignty and listed for a pension at
the end of Il certain term of service.
In short. fancy a cat without claws
in that very hot place with the very
short name, and one shall come fairly
near some conception of the situation
of the average citizen when Mr.. Bry-
an. having revolutioniZ lied human
nature, has substituted otlicialdom
for manhood. and achieved his para
disc OF the government ownership Of
everything, from the %cowcatcher of a
locomotive to the tip end OF an cleo
trlc Sutton, needing only to be pressed
by an upstart in authority to execute
the wrath to come upon the poor devil
ON the ourside.