Norwich bulletin., 1909-06-12

Those are the main facts about the nostaI savings bank scheme. As said hefore. nearly every postmaster gem eraI for thirty-five years has urged 1t; hill after bill has been introduced ln- to congress-but we boastful Amerl- cans haven't a single postal savings hank, thus far. Yet such banks are today and have been for many years in orjeration-in successful and public iv ,iseful operation in Ceylon and Ja- nan. in Egypt and Sierra Leone, in New South Wales and the Bahama is- lands. in Finland and Dutch Guiana, fo sav nothing of such lands as Great Britain and France and Italy and Rus sia. and Austria and Belgium and Sweden and Holland. They have been fin successful and popular operation in England for forty eight years.
 Time enough one would think. for even an American congressman to get evidence concerning their practicality and valuel
 These two affiliations of .ur existing postal facilities are especially urgent for rural Americans. Then there is the question of compensating workmen for accidents which are, apparently, the necessary product of trades. we are still killing and fnaiming wDrlmen by the thousand and buryine the frag- ments in cemeteries or poorhouses, be- cause we still cling to the outworn and outrageous injustice known in law as the fellow servant" the assumption oF risk~ and the "contributory negli- gence' doctrines: doctrines which no less than sixteen European countries, including Great Britain. France. Aus tria. Italy, Germany and Sweden. have alrcady abrogated in whole or in great tbn and S0nfh Australia have workmen's compensa- tion laws, vastly bettsfthan ours. Yet neither congress nor any state legisla- ture has thus far done anything effec- lively righteous for the protection of the servants of industry. What feeble attempts towards justice have been made the courts have managed to nullify.
 Now, here are three things-parcels post postai savings banks, a just work men's compensation law-three things which nine men out of ten, taking time to think of them, will say are plainly desirable, manifestly just, proven to be practicable. They are three things in which the United States of America should have led the world. For this government is asserted to be one ''of the people, by the people and for the people" And yet in every one of the three we are behind every civilized country in Europe, and in some of them behind even the islands of the antipodes. Why? Manifestly this is not a government for the people" in these three matters. And yet 1t is government "by the people" Two of the three reforms are distinctly in the interests of the farmers: clearly for their benefit; the lack of them Is manifest denial of justice to us, as a class. Why.i then, don't we get up on our hind legs and compel our servants in the government to do that which we hire 'em to do and pay 'em for
 doing, but that which they don't and
 won't do?
 There we come back to the mystery of it; why many men. acting together
 are so much less wise and just and
 shrewd than the individuals of the
 bunch are, when each is acting sep arately. Behold, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed q
 But why? John Farmer Is fairly in telligent; George Jones is fairly inteih- gent: Bill Smith Is fairly intelligent
 Each one of them, acting by and for himself, acts with prudef re and fore- sight; why should the three. when called on to act together for mutual
 welfare. become doddering imbeoilesi There needs to be, in this country oi ours, a eoml,lete and radical change ir the way in which we all take our p.fJ- lie duties and choose our public ser vants And we farmers need the quick
 ening every bit as much. if not little more, than any other class. I'm mol talking politics" if you please.
 don't care whether you're a democrat
 or mugwump or a prohibitionist or 2 republican or "sit-on -the-fence: | there are good men in all the parties
 and double-d'd rascals in all. What. | party politics got to do with the mai
 mans bringing me a parcel? or tht | postmaster's taking my weekly saving! and giving me Uncle. Sam's receipt fol , it? or the governments seeing to i | that get some payment fC- having my | leg cut off by an unpreventable acei- | dent at the factory or mine? One O. us may believe in protection and ont | in free trade; another in prohibition and fourth in regulation. We cal differ on such matters but we all agre,
 that we want a parcels post and posta | savings banks and just compensation l for the accidents of honest labor. Whl l can't we get together at least once year and howl unitedly for the manl | things we agree on, instead of foreve
 standing apart, snarling about the fev i things we differ in?
 THE FARMER.