The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-09-07

"AcA CmPAcyCu W party Al pOWCis
bent on retaining its power. than
when employed by q corporation of
stockholders, exercising at least some
supervision and made up Of all sorts
and conditions of people?
railway service under it's control, and
the telegraph service under its con-
troll. reinforcing standing arym of
Ipartisan retainers already drilled and
in the field, what show would a party
on the outside have of electing it's
nominees except at the end of rev.
Iolution?
i The incident of state ownership of
state lines, which Mr. Bryan throws as
a sop to the old democratic theory of
state rights, is the merest item. 1t
takes away none Of the centralizing
features OF the government owner
Iship of the trunk lines. The federal
idea carried to its Ultima Thule could
| go no further in consolidating the
Ipowers of government. Under the sys
tenn he advocates the government of
public opinion, upon which. in spite
Of organized money, the people yet re-
ltain certain hold, would ebecome a
Ityranous partisan autocracy, the presi-
dent as puissant as a monarch and
1.-THE people the merest appendages of
the politicians. The land would
bristle with officials, the spirit of
the time with officialism. We would
be literally jumping from the frying
lpan into the fire.
| Is there not some better way of
bringing the railways under the com
Iplete subsection Of the law? Grant
that many Of their magnates think
themselves above the law. Grant
that many of them seek to
evade the law. Grant that
they put their attorneys in the
state legislature and in congress to
do their will in shaping legislation to
suit themselves; that they put their
attorneys on the bench to construe
the laws in their own interests; that
their disposition is to sometimes lord
1t over those who have no recourse.
Grant all this. Is human nature to be re-
versed by change of masters and
Of wearing apparel, and will these
same men-or their successors OBJ
serve less of the despotism of oppor-
nunity and place under the general
government than under the several
corporations? - h
Mr.. Bryan speaks of the European
railways the railways in
Germany and Austria-as If he con-
sidered their administration more sat
isfactory than ours Why, in those
countries where rulership exists not
by suffrage but by right divine. where
the bureaucracy is system of red
tape unknown and undreamed of by
our people, and the civil service
changeless from sovereign to sover-
eign, the railway system is merely a
part and parcel of the monarchy, a
sure arm of the central power, the
same as the army Public opinion has
nothing to do with it. Parties have
nothing to do with it. There are no
presidential elections. Such legisla-
Tive bodies as exist have their limita-
ltions. The throne holds a line upon
Everything and everybody, and puts
its sign manuel upon all public SER
wants. Yet the trunk lines there are no
better managed than our trunk lines,
and, IL Mr.. Bryan found it pleasant
and convenient to travel all the way
from Constantinople to Vienna with
out change Of cars, may not he find
| it equally pleasant and convenient to
travel all the way from Chicago to
San Francisco. or from Washington
City to the City of Mexico ON the
same conditions?
In this presentment of the case, we
waive the practical and business con-
siderations; the matter of purchase,
ItOol dnu duluSJlnSut, Tie CEcdtitOu VI
a new and gigantic branch of the pub
lie service; the education of the peo-
pie to totle revolution of prevail
ing methods and conceptions. We
simply express the opinion that pub
lie ownership Is not remedy for any
existing abuse, that it would aggra-
vate every form OF existing abuse,
that it would put in the hands of the
party in chance possession of the
government power untold and danger
Gus to liberty, making the president
of the United States more potential
that the autocrat of all the Russians
and the partisan organizations behind
him irremovable. except at the end of
a revolution only too likely to be of
blood
| The suggestion as plank in a
democratic platform at this time is
not only impracticable in the high
est degree. but IL it were adopted as
a fighting line would cost US the |
election 1t could not be carried out