The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1916-08-11
RUNNING UPSTREAM.

Like the poor, the reactionaries are
With us always. That is proven when-
ever progressive step is taken There
are always those who cling to the past
because it is the past. They serve a
good purpose, too These ultra-con-
eervatives are the balance wheels Of
our civil, our social and our business
structure. If it were not for them we
would, in our enthusiasm for progress,
get too far ahead of the procession and
the consequent reaction would prove
o positive detrimeHt.
Eleventh hour protestants against
the wise and progressive policy of pub
lie ownership of the highways over
which all must travel and over which
all commerce from farm to market
must pass, illustrate this tendency
upon the part of the population to
cling to the things of the past. Those
who voiced protest against public
ownership of the highways are living
I'm the light of the early part of the
nineteenth century; they are out of
harmony with the spirit which moves
the civilization Of the twentieth cen.
fury onward and upward. They are
out of harmony with the things of
today: they have not yet caught a
vision of that civilization which is to
bring mankind closer and ever closer
together, which Is to make govern
xnent more generally responsive to the
needs and demands of humanity They
think, not in the language of a pro-
gressive Christian civilization of this
time, but in that of darker day, when
1t was the unfortunate boast OF democ- |
.racy that that people were best gov
terned who we're least governed.
Governments are providing adequate
water systems, sanitation, education, |
better lights, requiring landlords to |
look better after the welfare of their
tenants, invading thousand realms |
that in the early and primitive days
OF the republic it did not venture upon.
And humanity has been and is the |
gamer by this wiser and more bene-
violent policy. Many people in the |
Bouth are opposed to the child labor |
law that Woodrow Wilson, because of |
his love of humanity and his sympathy
with the ideals of progressive demo |
cracy, is urging with all the power at |
his command upon an unwilling sem
ate, more because of the ideals Of |
the old century, than because Of any
real lack Of sympathy for the child |
hood Of the country. Surely with the
extension Of the activities Of govern
ment continued private ownership
and exploitation of the means of
communication between man and man
and market and market is not longer
20 be thought Of.
Whether the county court paid more
ahan the turnpikes would bring upon
the open market, put up to the high.
est bidder, The Herald does not know.
Whether or not the county could
build better roads than those pur-
chased for $1,000 mile this paper
cannot say. Some mistakes may
have been made upon these points,
but upon the question Of buying the
toll roads, of placing Maury county
In line with the civilization of the
awentieth century, there can be no
room for argument. Our dual system
Af nine-tenths public and one-tenth
private owned roads had to 60 and
Eone II has.
1t does strike The Herald that the
1rotestants are barred by their own
saches and negligence. They waited
FRntil after the county court had met