Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1907-01-24
THE COMMON GOOD.
RusSelI's Tour OF the World and
The Study Of Economic
Conditions.

of the world for the investigation OF
economic conditions iii foreign lands, |
and especially for enquiry as to the
manner in which the peoples Of Europe, /
Asia and Australia are dealing with
the problems which beset the people of
this country. In the current issue Mr.. |
Russell draws his conclusions from the
facts and evidence already published. |
He says that elsewhere than in the
United States men are coming to the
conclusion that modern conditions and
modern Industrial concentration have
rendered useless the old theories of gov
ernment, and that for the ills modern
conditions create, two things must be
done: First, to substitute the interests
of the community for the interest of the
fortunate Or powerful individual. Sec
ond, to restrain greed, not by regu-
Iating it, but by making impossible
some of it's most obvious and dangerous
operations. He states the public owner
ship achievements in nutshell:
''In the British towns they did not
think it enough to limit the plumbers
| GudG SdS COuu DdIl10S dIld GTdCIloA GULF
panies might take from the public
they did away with the plunder by
doing away with the companies. In
Germany and Switzerland they did not
think it enough to tell the corporations
to be good and stop lurking in dark
alleys with sandbags for the defenceless
citizens /; they took away the sandbags
and fenced up the dark alleys and
made it impossible for corporations to
operate except in broad daylight and
under the eye of a policeman. All
about Europe they did not think it
enough to declare that meat packers
! should not furnish diseased or rotten
meat except under the official seal of
the government; they did away with
these disease germs by doing away
with the private packing house. In
England they did not think it enough
to regulate telegraph rates they abol-
ished the graft of watered stock and
extortionate charges by abolishing the
z telegraph companies. In Switzerland
italy, Germany, Japan, Australia, New
Zealand, all about Europe, they did not
. stop to bother with fabby and fictitious
4 laws purporting to forbid rebates an6
railroad swindless they put an end tt
rebates and swindles by making th'
railroad an instrument fer the comme
good instead of an instrument for pri
vate gain. In London the count,
council was mot content to tell propert,
owners to build nice tenement house
for their tenants it bought the Lane
and built the tenements itself.
In other words, the substance of al
these mighty movements around tn
world has been to create condition
under which a part, at least, of tn
predataOns of wealth would be impossi
tble.
Now, it is significant fact that non
of these peoples are dissatisfied wit
this new order Of things, or clamor t.
return to the old order. Simply a
business propositions, without regart
to theory or sentiment, their arrange
ments are regarded as sound. Th
IspiriE of the common good, with it
tremendous and almost unknown posi-
bilities, has led them into what they
ifeel to be the right track, and to a de
Iliverance from the grinding power o
private wealth, and the cruel exaction
and injustices of paying dividends upo1
the watered stock of vast corpora ton.
and trusts.
Mr.. Russell cites the item of govern.
ment railroad ownership. In the be
ginning practically all railroad enter
prises were owned by private capital
In 1890 there were 167 1913 miles of.gov.
ernment railroads in the world, out
side of the United States. Since thai
year Switzerland, Italy and Japan have
taken over their privately owned lines
and the principle of government
ownership has been extended every
where, SO that in 1906 there were $780,
4 $50 miles loutside the United States)
owned by government and only 91,-
946 miles owned by private companies.
It seems likely from present indica-
tions, he says, that in few more
years there will be hardly mile of
privately owned railroad in all Europe
except possibly Spain.
These things will not come to us in a
day. But the world moves. The good
of the many cannot always be subordi-
mated or sacrificed to the good or gain
of the few. And the experiment of
Great Britain, Europe, Japan, Aus
tralia and New Zealand in the State
Ownership of pub blic utilities sufficient
" dissipates the argument sit can't be
done"