Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-02-14
A GOVERNMENT MENACE.

A GOVERNMENT MENACE.
John Sharp Williams. member OF the
United States senate from Mississippi,
ia recognized as one of the bralnlest
men in congress. He is the type OF
statesman who has studied public
questions and who can arise IN the
senate and discuss them intelligently
without having to read them from q
typewriter copy which ne mas care
fully edited several times to make
sure that it will not cost MIN any
votes. During the recent discussion
Of the Alaska railroad bill In the SEN
ate. there were q number OF these HI
promptu speeches and among them:
that Of Williams, opposing as 1t ala
the democratic propaganda, STANDS gu.
as the utterance Of we'll informed
statesman and orator. In part the
senator said:
To give $14,00 900 to one territory OF
the United States for the exploitation
of it's resources, even II the entlre
scheme is to be a brilliant success, and
even II $50 or 1000 miles OF railway
can be built for the purpose, 1t strikes
me as something unusual and unpre-
cedented, and something not alto
gether justified by our duties toward
that territory. If l were going TO
spend $4OO00,000 upon railroad
which the government was to own and
use as q regulator of freight rates.
think I would rather run it from the
great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico
than run it in an outlying territory
like Alaska. But I do not want to 90
either. I am an old-fashioned Je1er-
sonian democrat in many respects yet.
When people ask me If I am pro-
eressiye or a conservative l answer
either and neither and both; it de-
pends upon what you are talking about
as to whether am radical or a pro-
eressive or a conservative upon that
particular point. But am something
Of conservative upon the question OF
the governments taking up new ave-
nues Of public employment subtracted
from the field Of private employment.
I do not know where the government
construction of railways is going to
stop II It starts. The fact of its start
Ing is the thing. The locality OF Its
starting cuts no figure In the matter
at all, I would rather go a long way
in bearing present ills than jump into
a sea of apprehended evils the depth
of which can not fathom.
OF course, as far as the const1tu-
tional question is concerned, as the
senator from Oregon (Mr. Chamber
lain) said yesterday, there is no con-
stitutional question. We have the
power Of a local county board OF super
yisors In conenction with the terri
tory Of Alaska as we have in connec-
ton with the District of Columbia. We
can build dirt roads, we can build
railroads. we can establish ferries, we
can issue whisky licenses, We can DO
ANYTHING which a state or county can
do in a state or county. The OLD
mooted question as to how far the fed
eral authority went in territory was
settled as were the other things set
tied by the issue of the war between
the states. I would not take that up
again. would not spend one moment
upon the constitutional question. l
think there is nothing in It; but DO
think there is great deal In this, tnat
you want to add just as little to the
flnctioning Of government as you can.
The less functioning you give govern
ment the more functioning you leave
to men, and the less freedom you give
the government to operate the more
freedom there is left to the citizen.
So far as know, there has
been no government in this world
that ever began, continued, and
fell that did not fall by top-heavi-
ness. by gradually assuming to
itself every Interest and every
Industry Of the people, until the
number Of these in the direct en-
ploy Of the government became a
resIstIess power, naval, military,
and civil.
In France am informed that today
every fifth man is in the employ of the
government in some more or less
lucrative position. We are beginning
to feel It already here. There is not
one of YOU who can resist or who dare
attempt to resist the united voice OF
the civilservice employees of the
United States today You are already
coming close up to the point where
YOU have got to have civil-service
pension list, or where you will think
you must have it, and within IL years
after you inaugurate it it will cost the
people more than the entire pension
list Of the United States does today.
Top-heaviness, overwhelming, over
functioning are the things that cause
the destruction Of governments.
For my own part do not want to
go into the business of road construc-
ton by the government of the United
States until or unless we are absolute
ly forced to it by military or naval
necessity do not think that condi-
ton exists in Alaska. I have no idea
Of any foreign power ever being fool
enough to invade Alaska. In the
United States it would find more in
viting fields to invade than in Alaska.
1t would not send its troops up there
to hold nothing and freeze to death in
the wintertime, and it would cost their
government. God knows how much, to
feed them h the summer time. !