New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1911-07-19
Populism Triumphant.

POpulSm triumphant.
In Faneuil Hall, on July 4. DR.
Charles W. Eliot delivered notable
Grafton; notable not only because o
its native force dignity, but because
provides q marking place to register
the advance in economic though II
this nation in short time.
Not long ago the Populists preached
the public ownership of railroads, ane
the nation threw up its hands il
horror, says the Duluth Herald.
Later the Socialists preached the
public ownership of the means of pro-
duction, and the nation was Mortified
again.
Now nearly everybody except those
whose views have become fossilized is
leaning strongly toward both these
preachments, and more than most
people realize have come to believe in
them, at least future condition
toward which We are working.
DR.. Eliot is no wild.eyed redical.
His mental poise has always been
steady, and his judgments generally
have been ripened by wisdom and
long thought. It is significant, there
fore, that in Fourth of July speech
in Fanueil Hall he should have said
that new Declaration Of Indapen-
dence, made today, would say that all
the instruments of production, iDclu-
ding the land and all the means Of
distributing products, should belong,
not to individuals but to society as
whole.
That is not going step farther than
Populism went. 1t is going about as
far as Socialism goes at present. Yet
it harmonizes more closely with the
unmista kable trend Of public thought
than either Socialism or Populism,
under their own names, have done.
Free competition, by crowding the
weaker ones to the wall, gave birth to
monopoly. Though the attempt TO
kill monopoly and restore competition
is still being made feebly, realisation
Of its futility is spreading. Regula-
ton in the interests of the people
comes next and it will have full fair
trial. If it succeeds, it will be the
answer to the problem. If it fails,
there is only one other STEP and that
inevitable-ownership by the people.
The doctrine that "that government
is best which governs least was de-
vised in the interests of an extrava-
giant individualism which has finally
crushed real individualism by
destroying opportunity. The new
doctrine that it is the duty of govern
ment, as scciety's working tool, to
conserve the interests of the many and
to restrain the green Of the few, is re-
ceiving wider approval every day. II
will restore real individualism by re.
storing opportunity.
"a new Declaration of Indepen.
dence," said DR.. Eliot, 'would give
vigorous expression to the popular
conviction that the natural resources
OF the country, including the public
health, are not to be sacrificed tc
secure immediate profits to few indi
viduals or corporations today. L
would also recognize the direct func
tions of government in preventing
evils and in promoting human vel
fare"
The oil industry, the beef industry
the transportation industry, are no
created to provide profits but to pro
vide oil, beef and transportation fo
the people. Those who manage thes
industries are servants of the peopl
and as such they are entitled to pa,
for their services. It is not custo
mary, as a rule, for the servant tt
fix his rate of pay; but the man VIII
works with his hands has as great
right to DO it as those ether servant
who manage great corporations.
It is the duty Of the government t
see to it that these servants of societ
remain servants and do not usurp tn
mastery. The new Declaration OF Inde
pendence, not yet put in words bu
assuming definite shape in the mind
of the people, means just that.