Arizona republican., 1905-02-17
The Progress of Socialism.


 The Kansas legislature has voted an appropriation of s410,0O0 for the con struction of a state oil refinery, and it is said that the bill will be approved by the governor. This is the most dis tinct step toward state socialism yet undertaken in this country. The state will buy and refine crude oil and sell it in the market, in competition with private corporations. This action has been taken with a view to fighting the Standard Oil company, principally, all though there are rehneries independent of the trust. The only fact modifying the pronounced socialistic feature of this project is that the laborers en- ployed will be mainly the penitentiary convicts.
 It cannot be denied that there is growing tendency in this country to- ward state socialism. While, in eX- treme cases there may be strong ar guments in favor of this remedy for industrial evils, socialism is gaining ground because its opponents do not bother, as a rule, to point out its dan gers. The fundamental objection to state socialism on the economic side, apart from its serious political dan gers, is it's effect in stifing initiative and inventive resources. Everyone who has to do with government af- fairs, whether in the pestOffice, the telegraph or the railroad, knows that there is practically no stimulus for improvement or for the adoption of modern abor-saving devices. Only within the past year, to name a typical case, has the government printing of flee at Washington tardily followed the great private establishments in considering the adoption of the type setting machine. The difficulty in all government control of public service is that bureau officers are not subject to the principles of competition. How ever poorly they may render. their ser vices to the public, their failure is not brought out by the supreme test of an adverse balance-sheet and bankruptcy which face the private citizen when he is guilty of similar laxity and ineffi- ciency. From the methods, moreover, in which government officials are chos- en. and their short tenure of service arises a system of bureaucracy that stimulates a jealousy fatal to progress.
 Government control of an enterprise tends to keep it in a rut from which escape is almost impossible. More and aIc into self-protective associations, they enter upon the path of the guilds of the Roman empire and the Middle Ages, under whose system it was al most impossible for a man to change his craft, to radically improve his con- dition in life or apply high talent in novel and unusual directions In other words, the whole system of state so- cialism tends to stIe and destroy the one quality that makes America pre- | eminent in the economic fleld-the op- portunity of the humblest to rise by his own efforts to the top. the unre- stricted field for free initiative and the application everywhere of the rule that the greatest efficiency will win the highest rewards.
 State socialism has been allowed to make a certain headway in the public mind of this country because of the neglect and indifference of it's oppo- nents. It will not bear for a moment the searching light of criticism based on sound economic theory and estab- lished facts. It thrives upon delusions and half-truths. The question that the business man of the country should seriously consider is whether the time has not come to take steps to bring out the whole truth. Thus far, the so- cialists have had the public platform almost entirely to themselves, because they are largely people who are writ CTS and theorists and not hard pressed actors in the world of actual business.