The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-08-11
GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP
An Interesting Plea There
for by Mr.. H. P. Lason
of DeFuniak.
DeFuniak, Fla, Aug. S.
Editor Pensacola Journal:

I huIIOF 1SHSdCOld journal.
l have read NJ. F. Harringtons ar
ticle to the st. Louis Mirror. as pub
lished in the Woman's National Daily.
concerning public ownership of rail
ways.
4 agree with him as to the neces-
sity for public ownership; but instead
of building a government competing
line, as he suggests, l would have the
government take over and monopolize
the whole business, as it monopolizes
mail carrying and the issuing of pa
per money.
Competition is not government own
ership. The very idea of government
ownership is to carry at COST, without
profit, everything that is to be car
ried.
In order to compete, there must be
two lines of railway, a private and a
public line-rather than one line for
the people to Support.
The government can do all of the
business for. a less rate than it could
do a part of the business. 1t has the
;. legal and moral right to do it all, if
it wants to.
The advocates of public ownership
have no desire to injure the value or
cOnfscate the honest property owned
by private Individuals say honest
property. They would have the gov
eminent buy it at its cash market
value
We are now slaves to private own
lership, and would become free of that.
When railways take your house and
lot for their use, under the law of
Ieminent domain, they take it wheth-
Ter you want to sell it or not. They
do -
1T is mortgaged for that, or because
you think it worth that, if, in fact, it
lis, worth no more than $4,000.
The question before the jury is not
how much it is mortgaged for. or
whether the owner wants to sell it, or
what the owners seHingx price is, but
what is its actual market value.
To be sure, the mortgage or innO-
cent owner of watered stock Gf there
are any innocent holders of sucI
stock will be protected to the full
value of the property
What more can they ask? The peo-
pie who fill the bag ares alsoSinnocent
and have already suffered enough
Must their slavery be perpetual in
order to save, entirely harmless, 9TH
ers who may, or who may not, have
, been defrauded by irrigated mortgages
or watered stock issued by the same
petty tyrants?
, You may say, if you have not stud.
died this question, that the govern
ment debt, if It should. take over all
the railway cars, depots, everything
appertaining to the business, at fair
cash or market value, would be SO
great that it would bankrupt the ma.
: ton.
Examine that a moment, and you
T will see that government railway
bonds, issued to pay for real property
are affected by the property, and not
like a war debt, but rather an invest
5 ment
1t is not material how great sum
of money such bonds call for, if its
equivalent property is producing a
sufficient income to pay expenses OF
running and interest, with some more
for sinking fund.- the crate fixed de-
ponds upon the sum necessary to dc
the business.
The only reason for public owner
ship is because those who fill the bae
are paying this much besides being
robbed by the petty tyrants in private
control. Public ownership is demand
ed in order to stop private robbery
= In Florida, We understand that $12,
600 per mile was never expended or
the railroads, directly or indirectly
and yet those who fill the bag are
/ required to pay on $4,000 per mile
If this be true, who got tie extra S12.
900 per mile?
h Too great Iiberality with other PEG
= pies money-with the contents of the
:, bag-is the sole reason for public own
ership today. There are a hoard o.
no, TI,o J.T1
n the law of decency.
V The individual citizen is helpless:
He must put into the bag whatever
=, they demand, but collectively, they
can if they will defend themselves.
Public control is not the remedy
g because it leaves the bag in the hand.
of the thieves. but public ownership
i takes charge of the bag.
, | Private ownership fixes the wage.
of the agents and photographers, the
conductors and engineers, the tract
layers and bridge builders-all day
labOrers, on n cash basis. stingy
enough and lord it over them: bu
when it comes to their own salarie
and profits. they take all they can get
Public ownership would pay lib
eral wages to men who do the work
The bag filters do not object to lib
eral wages, but they do object to klep
to-salaries, klepto-profits and wateret
stock which the drones in this hive o
human industry absorb, and take on
! of the bag.
Public control AND heavy fines which
are commendable as temporar,
measure, will never cure the disease
Judge Lands is to be commended bu
Iif Rockefeller ever pays the s29.240.00
fine he will take it out of the bag
do not think those citizens WIFI
, have sense enough to understand tn
. real issue should keep quiet.
H. P. LASON.