, 1908-01-14
LITTLE SOCIALISM AND SOME
HYPOCRISY.
lenning?

A few weeks ago the editor of the
Grand Encampment Herald, who writes
upon all kinds of subjects in a very
entertaining manner, published an ar
ticle on the Hell of Competition" He
argued strongly that Il entire social
fabric was built up on wrong princi'
pies and that we were little better
than cannibals %devouring each other.
The article had nothing whatever to
do with political conditions as they
now exist, but it was taken up by the
Cheyenne Leader and other democrat.
ic papers and the entire fault found by
Mr.. McCandless was charged to the
republican party. Now The editor OF
the Herald, who is eminently qualified
to AXE care of himself in any contro-
versy, says:
Some time ago there appeared an
article in the Herald entitled The
He'll of Competition 1t was written
solely with the view of rousing inter
est and opposition to the competitive
system which is so fast ~debauching
the race and is responsible for the the.
DRY and practice of doing your neigh.
Dor before he does you. The writer
had no thought of holding any part?
responsible for this system which sets
man against man and brushes out all
that is noble and good. He does not
believe that any political party can
fairly be held responsible. But there
are in this state certain newspapers
so besotted, so ignorant, so full of par
ty prejudice, so blind to the truth and
so Indifferent to its demands that they
would wrest the very word of omni'
potence from its proper setting and
twist it into a defamation of the man
or the party they hate. The Cheyenne
Daily Leader and the Wyoming OBJ
server each printed a paragraph from
the Herald article referred to and each
made 1t appear as a reflection upon the
republican party. The hyena and the
jackal these, of the Wyoming press.
The one has some brains, a little tai
ent, somewhat of experience, all used
to tear down and destroy in the most
cowardly way. The other gorges itself
with the offal of its large contempt.
rary and runs to cover at h first ap-
proach of danger. One word about the
real responsibility for our competitive
system. To our mind, it was born in
the selfish heart of the man who first
devised government and fostered care
fully by him and his governing sue,
cessors that the masses might be kept
in subsection. The theory was that
if the people expended their energies
lighting each other for a chance 10
earn bread, they would have neither
time nor intelligence with which Ia
study economic questions nor wealth
with which to fight their battles. So
thoroughly has the system become In
grained that it is an integral part IF
human thought-that he must content
with his neighbor for a chance to work
or carry on his business.
However, If We are to lay tho
blame in this country AND under the
government of this United States at
any particular door, let us clamor at
the threshold of those who wrote our
constitution. Whom do we see? The
one dominant personality that rises
above all the others, the n whose
name has been the rallying cry of de.
mocracy all the years since, the one
before whose shrine that party has
continually burned incense until we
wonder sometimes If there was ever
another great democrat, that one is
Thomas jefferson. And it is the proud
boast of every loyal democrat that
Thomas jefferson wrote the constitu.
ton. If so-and who can doubt what
the Leader and the Observer so fire.
vently allege-if so, then Thomas JEFF.
ferson must be primarily responsible
for our competitive system because
it is rooted in, founded upon and guar.
anteed by that great document. Gen.
tIemen Bartlett and Sabin, how do you
ike it,"
=.