The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-05-13

He puts a brave face on the situation.
He makes light of his troubles. He
urges that things are not so bad as
they might be. He expects an i'm
provement shortly, and says in fact all
that he needs is little temporary as
sistance.
Happily, that critical period is past,
and we can now look at some of these
questions squarely, and without any
assimilation. Many people who are
Respondent over the situation will tell
you that there is a general spread of
socialistic ideas, and that it is this
which is causing the trouble. Person
ally am not alarmed on this score,
because have the utmost faith in the
sound common sense of the American
people; and while l realize that lit
! tie education is often dangerous
thing, and leads men to very ILL
judged and mischievous conclusions,
feel sure that as the public becomes
more familiar with these difficult
problems, they will become more and
more conservative and cautious.
Socialism is dreaded word with
many people; but, after all, it is a
word which is so difficult to define,
that scarcely two people understand
the same thing by it. To some mel
it Is synonymous with anarchy; to
n{h or 70 m
others again, communism; some men
picture it as kind of Utopia, the
ideal of all unselfishness, but admit
eddy well-nigh incompatible with hui
man nature as it exists about us
These isms do not discourage me, be-
cause l believe that human nature
while much the same the world over,
Is gradually changing for the better;
that our general education and our
freedom Of discussion are helping all
the time to bring about a better under
standing and better condition of af-
fairs.
Along the lines of discussion OF
these questions, government owner.
ship is sometimes suggested. Per
sonally, | would oppose government
ownership not for the effect it would
have on the railroads, but on account
| of the results to the government and
/ the community. have no fear thai
government ownership will be brought
about from below, but | have much
greater dread that it may be brought
about from above. In other words
there is much less danger that the gen
eral public will demand government
ownership of railroads and the tax
ing over of railroad property by the
federal government, than there is
that the representative and large
owners of railroad property will be
I come so tired of petty annoyances, in
/ reference, control of profits, etc
J that they will be the ones to seek t.
/ bring it about. But there Is no i'm
mediate danger of this; it will no
|, come within your lifetime or mine.
In this connection, one thing Otter
:, lost sight of is that when the gov
eminent undertakes control of an
.
pervision or control over that opera
| ton The government cannot success
fully supervise itself. theoretically
! the supervision is in the whole people
|, but the difficulty then is that 'wha
is everybody's business is nobody
:, business" On the other hand, unde
private ownership of public utilities
!, there can be public supervision, crit
4 icism, and finally control, degree o
{, control which is practically not pos
sible in the case of any governments
! department.
Note.-It is to be remarked in thi
:, connection that in no municipal stat
i or federal operation in this countr
( have we the degree of publicity in re
. ports of revenue, cost of service @
!. profits that are commonly given vo
: unfairly by corporations to their stool
!, holders or the public. Also that i
!. private undertakings there is nece.
I sarily a relation between income on
I outgo, whereas, in our country, in a
public finances we have as yet crea
ed nothing effective in this direction
: We go merrily on spending none
without knowing where the revenu
= is coming from, and when we &c
"hard up" we sell bonds or increas
taxes. This period of adolescent fiji
!. ance cannot continue indefinitely, blu
in the meantime, our people are fai
ing to learn the most important lie
son of political economy-a lesso
which, unless learned, must sooner {
\ later get us into serious trouble.
From the standpoint of the publ
q then. it seems to me that private ow,
ership and public supervision and CO