Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-12-13
Autocracy in America?

The Republican Publicity Associa-
zion, through its president. Hon.
Jonathan Bourne, Jr., has given out
the following statement from its
Washington headquarters:
The most deplorable feature of the
effort to increase paternalism is the
lasting effect it has upon the in
d.vidual mind. Day after day the
bureaucrats at Washington say to the
people of the country, You can't do
il. leave it to u.s. Bureaucracy not
only tends to destroy self confidence
hut it discoura ges sclf-helps Don't
try to do anything for yourself: just
pay increased taxes to make up our
salaries and expenses and we will do
everything for you. You are poor,
helpless, ignorant. ambitionless and
perhaps dishonest beings without
hope OF making a success OF any
Thing. Give up in despair and let us
tell you what to eat, what to drink,
what to wear, what to buy and what
to sell, what price to pay and what
price to receive, how to do business
and how not to do it
Those are not the exact words of
Bureaucracy, but, boiled down, that
| is the necessary meaning Of every
thing the socialistic government -own-
ership paternalistic bunch have been
landing out from Washington for
the past five years--with particular
energy curing the past two years.
IF we were to accept bureaucracy 8
picture of this country. what a dole
full song we should sing. What de-
iected countenances we should carry
to our daily tasks if we really be-
lieved the assumption that the sue
cess of private industry and public
business depends upon the wisdom
concentrated in so small group of
men. To what a low stage in civili-
zation must we concede we have
fallen. if we acquiesce in bureau
cracy's view of our intellectual and
moral decadence.
But there is no need to be
respondent. An optimistic spirit has
prevailed in This country since the
days when the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth Rock. Without that opti-
mism small band Of colonists
would not have thrown off the yoke
Ct autocracy in 1916. Without that
spirit of optimism we should not have
gridironed this continent with rails of
steel. without that optimism we
should not have taken the risks in
VOWED in sinking oil wells and min
ing shafts. telling forests and con-
qucring wilderness. Without tina.
optimism we should not have
stretched wires over the land and
cables under t. @ sea. Withcut tho I
optimism we srJuld not have estnb-
lIshed hero government OF the i,co-
pie. for the people. by the people.
''fI.d II is not - .iInism alone that
has c.ade this na:;-il great. Back Of
that spirit Of hope and confidence
her, has been irt N;rence. energy
anI oou-aEe-a capa lily 10 DC, a:
CaSerresS % do. and daring to do.
And in the whole. long. proud list oi
acc ON piishments of the people Of this
country. there is not one for which
bureaucracy can claim credit. What a
sorry spectacle bureaucracy makes OF
itself, then, when it tells the people of
thi; country that they arc incompe-
tent or dishonest and must be guided
in oil their activities by men who
never made n success of any prcduc
tive enterprise. And what sorry
spectacle the people of this country
will make of themselves if they stand
for the insult"