The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-10-13
WHAT OTHER PAPERS SAY.
DRIFTING TOWARDS SOCIALISM.

DRIFTING TOWARDS SOCIALISM.
American Photo Engraver: It is be-
coming more evident each day that in
War-mOdern War-it is necessary for
the government to either seize the
processes Of production and distribu-
ton or to declare partnership with
business and share control of the
basic industries with the proprietors.
All this is now being rapidly made
clear
Very few, however. have begun seri-
ously to consider that this partnership
between government and business will
not end with the war. Indeed, It
cannot, for the reason that at the
close of the war the government will
be Immediately confronted with the
problem Of funding, carrying and IL
quidating debt so large and so sud-
denly created that no fiscal experience
Of the past can have any coherent
relation to the problem. This will be
true all over the world.
In order to solve it's monetary prob
lens the government will have to keep
it's hands in business whether it wishes
to or not. 1t is only by assessing
heavy taxes on business that it will
be possible for the government to
pay it's debts.
How far the government will enter
business depends largely on the dura-
ton Of the war. No one, knowing
how greatly the war boards regula-
ton has benefited transportation, ex-
poets the government to permit the
railroads to sink back into their old
methods of operation. No one. who
realizes that the government will be
the largest owner of shipping in the
world at the end of the war, expects
the government to turn it's millions
of tons over to private concerns I'M
mediately the war ends.
This partnership of government and
business has been carried further in
Germany than anywhere else in the
world. Virtually all the great indus
tries Of Germany are government di-
rected if not government owned This
alliance served to give Germany a
great merchant marine and developed
markets for German products all over
the world. Under the stress Of war
other nations are compelled to adopt
the German method, violative as it is
to the desires of some and especially to
q republican government. It is, there
fore. one of the great anamOlies of the
war, that while Germany will be
crushed in it's system of militarisn,
the German system of business will
undoubtedly triumph.
MUZZLING THE LABOR PRESS.
The Omaha Unionist: If the pre-
datory interests could strangle the
press that they cannot control by the
purchasing Of advertising space, they
would not be advocating the censor
ing of the press. 1t is to get control
or put out of business those pesky
little fellows who tell the unvarnished
truth and hash it up in the style that
keeps nipping the heels of the big
interests and reminds them that the
watch dogs of the night are awake,
that bothers them most They can
not buy these sheets by paying two or
| three prices for advertising space, as
! they do in other cases. So they try
all the oppressive means that genius
can conceive. They have raised the
price of paper, tried to have postage
laws doctored, and divers other en-
tries on the slate. Now they think per-
haps by limiting the whole press is
suance, coupled with the other repres-
sions, the little fellow may finally be
suppressed. They will find out. how
ever, that the little fellow will ever
be with them, and at their BEDS and
with capacity to nip as Of old, and
keep these big fellows on a half
straight path at least.
The freedom of the press has ever
been, and let us hope it always will
be, one of the most cherished ideals
of the American people. for without it
we would retrograde to that from
which many Of us sought flight.
One of the pillars upon which our
democratic estate rests is the freedom
of the press-the right to criticize the
acts of our elected and appointed pub
lie officials. Mcny of them are bad
enough under our free-press system,
but what would all Of them be under
suppression rights? We are seeking
to plant democracy in other lands and
spill our own blood to compel the
issue, so let us pursue a Twentieth
century policy of consistency.
''BOOZE TAXI ON WATER.