The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-26
LIMIT OF ~PATERNALIsM.


There is no doubt that the world is just now
in '..the ringing grooves of change" The
war is forcing innovations on the nations, and
it is safe to predict that such of them as prove
their value and are held by the majority of the
voters to be steps in advance will be retained,
in this country, after peace returns. Many other
departures from the established order, neces-
.sary just now, will be abandoned when the need
for them is no longer felt to exist. But that is
the justification of war and its value as an
agency in evolution that it compels experiments
that would otherwise not have been made, and
that its innovations Of demonstrated worth be-
come a permanent possession of the race.
The British government is reported to have
resolved ON a radical and far-reaching expert
ment in the interest of the public health. The
plan as outlined is that the state shall employ
and salary doctors whose work will be to give
free medical attendance to the people on the
theory that they are as much entitled to have
their health protected as to have their lives and
homes protected against lawlessness and fire.
This is a somewhat startling extension OF pa
ternalism, but it seems hardly possible, as init
mated, that the government intends to take into
the service and put upon the payroll all the doc
tors in Great Britain. The more reasonable ar
arrangement would be to provide each district
with a public doctor to whom the inhabitants
may go if they will, but leaving them to seek
the aid of physicians in private practice if they
SO desire; and it is their right, if they wish to
exercise it, to throw physic to the Dogs and
depend upon the services of so-called "healers''
when their interiors are not in accord with
things as they should be.
But whatever the plan adopted in Great
Britain, other countries probably will wait to
see it's practicability and value proved before
taking it up.
Congress should not hesitate between the al
ternatives offered by the interstate commerce
commission for the b :nent of conditions in
the railroad world. 1rnment operation is
not to be thought of. The government has all
that it can do already. Or the other hand, the
managers of the railroads have demonstrated
their capacity to respond to the nations war
time needs. In consequence, they should be
left, as the commission suggests, to unity and
to run the railroads themselves. They should
be freed from the restrictions Of ancient
statutes, they should be granted loans or adj
vances as needed for improvements, and they
should be authorized to increase rates as neces-
sity may require. 1t is refreshing to find the
Interstate commission advocating all
these things, even alternatively. The commits
oiOh h"o . CS given tNldeHCe IIdI IL re-
garded itself clothed with a mandate to ''swat
the railroads" that it's present position is as
surprising as it is gratifying.
It is alleged that Pershing concurred with
General Crozier in the delay which took place
in the providing of rifles for the army. Even
50, this does not justify the loss of time. More
over, Pershing is a soldier; and it is a soldiers
business to get on with such equipment as his
superiors provide. His not to reason why"
Multiplication of republics" in Russia
would be a great thing for Germany if the cen
trail empires could win the war. It would per-
nit the kaiser to absorb them piecemeal at his
leisure. -
The weather continues to be bolsheviki.