St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-06-14

~ REAT BRITAIN is in the throes
M ~ of a revolution. Her antique
NJ customs and venerated institu-
tons are in process Of destruc-
ton. From out their ruins there is
rearing the framework Of an edifice
which may typify new civilization.
The revolutionists are in absolute con-
troll, yet their numberless victories have
been won without blow struck in
anger.
I claim credit for discovery. The
United States is the most conservative
nation on the globe, and Great Britain
is the most radical. We smile at the
visionary and hesitate to grant his the
cries the favor of bored tolerance.
Great Britain elects him to office, in
dorses and adopts his fancies and by
the expenditure Of countless millions
of treasure, willingly raised, transforms
his dreams into monumental and SEEM
ingly practical realities.
In more than 100 Of the larger cities
of the United Kingdom the right of pri-
yate ownership in public utilities has
been repealed by legal enactments
Those of us whose knowledge of what
| has happened is confined to occasional
| newspaper comments have not the
faintest conception of the stupendous
momentum of this movement or of
what it portends not to England alone,
but to every civilized country on the
face of the earth.
Even more startling is the paradox
that this municipal radicalism has de-
veloped among a people who yet stu
pidly cling to obsolete customs and ira
ditions and whose commercial and man
ufacturing prestige is menaced by their
refusal to adopt methods and devices
Of proved superiority. 1t shall be my
purpose to show in accurate contrasts
the products of the new radicalism and
the time worn institutions which sur
round them.
1t had been represented to me that
our English neighbors were divided
into two classes in the matter OF pub
lie ownership of such undertakings as
street railways, gas and electric light
ing plants, baths and washhouses, ten
} ement houses and cottages, docks, mu-
nicipal farms and other enterprises
which have been completed or are IN
, progress of construction. l had been
| led to believe from reiterated state
! ments in various publications that a
s powerful and aggressive minority OF
: the English people were arrayed
against any extension Of municipality
+ owned works and that through their in
& fiuence a halt had been called.
1 The simple truth Of the matter is tina
i. there is no organized opposition IL
n Great Britain against the public own
6 ership of utilities which naturally tent
d to monopolize control. There are indi
+ viduals who protest against what ha
= been done and who sound warning
T. against all that is proposed, but the1
} feeble activity makes not the slightes
impression on the collective Enghsl
T.. mind.
e The citizens and taxpayers of tina
Y country have accepted public owner
:. ship and have installed it as fixed in
0 stitution. They act and speak as /
they have forgotten that any other sys
n tenn ever existed. They do not conside
u new projects as experiments, but a
!. investments. The few privately owne'
" street railways are looked on as curios
s tiles.
n The intelligent observer of this de
Is velopment is almost bewildered by tn
n paradox which it presents. The Eng
ID fish individual-as an Individuals tn
most conservative in the world. He
devotedly welded to that which was
le He venerates that which Is old. Al
IS tiquity is q standard Of value. He n
veres that which an American scorn
. as obsolete and SCOTS at innovations
demonstrated utility. He prefers re-
idence guiltless Of plumbing and an O
fee building without an elevator
~ any of the modern conveniences. b
x. cause his ancestors did not know no
OF to heat a building in winter or vent
i'd late it in summer he Is content to SUITE
his from the inclemencies Of both seasons
Of Politically and economically all of h
re- teachers were Of the individual1st
It. school. In fact, there was no 9th
st school in Great Britain. Germany WI
st forced to listen to the radical theori
he of Karl Marx and Ferdinand La Sail
France was agitated by the teaching
of st. Simon, Louis Blanc and othe
more Or less visionary, who contends
for the supremacy Of collective over
dividual effort But the writings
such men made no impress in Englal
against the sober logic Of Adam Smit
John Stuart Mill and more recent
- Herbert Spencer. All Of these al
- scores Of lesser dogmatists treated t
theory Of public ownership with Ell
in elite contempt or else ignored it as 4
Get worthy of attack.
76 How comes 1t that from such 8
er. and In such an atmosphere the ste