The Mena weekly star., 1913-01-30
"5rrOite''

Service is the word, says Pfesl- dent-elect Wilson. And a good word it is-a word to which to bring men as to test. No one shall have anything, save as he serves the public. It is the subll- nation of the merit system. To this service test the next president pro poses bringing politics and business. No one shall have anything save what he deserves. If a man Will not work, neither shall he eat. The test of an applicant for office shall not be his appetite for a job, but his ability to render service; not to a man or to a party, but to the public.
 Capital shall have what it can legitimately earn in employment to meet the public needs. Labor shall have what it produces to the. ex- tent that government can guaran- tee such return. No one shall re- ceive anything through govern mental favor over and above the reward that comes from service rendered. Government shall en- deavor to get full pay for all mems service to each other and to all. So tariff will not arbitrarily give a man what he does not earn. So a trust will not be allowed to ap- propriate to itself more than 1t earns in it's service to the public.
 There could not be anything more closely approXimating ideal democracy than this. Each. shall have what he earns and no more. What the public earns shall belong to the public. All devices for di- verting that public earning into private pockets shall be, so far as possible, destroyed. With govern mental special favor wiped out fair competition will be restored. He shall profit most who best serves. Government will serve the public instead of deputizing particular interests to render the service at a special compensation.
 Protection shall be govern mental, not private function. The protection shall be of the public against private exploitation. All this is emboldened in President elect Wilson's one word: Ser vice." Some people do not like it. They are people who have profited by service-and something over. They have rendered service, but they have exacted pay for what was not service. They have collected pay, often, for service the public rendered itself. They have taken values the public created. They have used public properties in pri- vate service without paying the public. For such use they will have to pay in future. They have used the government instrumental ities to add to the prices they charged for goods. That addition was over and above what was due them for service.
 This is some of what President elect Wilson means. This is what Big Business men at banquets in New York and Chicago did not ap- plaud. They don't quite see how they are to get along if they are tC be cut off from using every means they can to add a little to what they may legitimately charge foI the service they render They don'I understand how, if president-elecI Wilson has his way, they can gel along if they are not to be per mitted to charge all the traffic will bear" They wonder what is to become of them if the govern ment is actually going to protect that hitherto most unprotected of all parties-the consumer-againsI the incidence of every charge that can be unloaded upon him by whatever egerdemain of law What Shall he not be made to pay all he will stand for? Shall he not be made to pay more for this or for that because someone has cornered the supply? That's just it. The supply is not to be cornered any more, for government favor, necessary to any corner, is to be abolished.
 But all this will stop the business game! Oh, not at all. It will only stop the playing of the business game with loaded dice in the hands of few. The game will go on, but there will be no governmental loaded dice in the hands of a few ! The business man will put on the boxing gloves and enter the ring as of old, but some few of them will not have horseshoes sewed in the gloves by special legislation, as of old.
 Business Is to be free. The re- turns of business will be dependent