Norwich bulletin., 1918-12-28
PROBLEMS WHICH LIE BEFORE US
By Henry A. Wise Wood

for cash. this right that cost. him blood!
 I say, "fancied advantage" because, having exchanged for it part of his economic freedom, he will have lost the one without gaining the other. Be- cause of the way nature of the laws of economics, and of human behavior when exhibited in sheltered surround ings. he will inevitably pay more un- der public ownership for the goods and services by consumers. The railways shrl1ld always have taught him as much.
 But the right of possession is not the only right that the individual loses when he yields to the sirens of social
 isnl. He surrenders still another right; but what is, of vaster import ance, he shakes the foundations of rep resentatfve government when he con- sents to the erection of the enormous bureaucracy which is part of the plan of public ownership: when he count chances an organized force enGenched in the seats of government, to whose interests it Is to maintain in power the sovereign head of the reigning po- litical house. Could one conceive a more political power, than would soon | become a bureaucracy sufficient in size to operate no more than those public utilities which are now tem- porarily in the hands of the govern ment? As for the operatives, themselves, of 1 these public utilities; they are being ! urged to make permanent their trans l fer from employer to master, to a master to whom they must surrender I whom already they have been com manded no longer to exercise their 1 civil rights by taking part in the po- 1 litical life Of their communities, of l the nation-a command which means, ! if interpreted after the political habit, ! of the times that they shall not o%- ] pose, but support, the party in potg- CT.
 And what shall these citizens receive 1 in exchange for their civil rights, for 1 their political independence, for their freedom of political iYtitiative? An 1 easier berth, sheltered life, an op- higher pay. They, like the consumer | of goods and services, arH' to sell their 1 liberties for cash; but in exchange for them the public servants are to l receive more money for less service, 1 whereas the consumer will expect to reoSive more service for less money. l Both cannot be paid their price. If l the consumer obtain his consideration the public servant will be 1efrauded; if the public servant receive his, the consumer will be defraU6ed. If jus tica between them be done, and fair | division be mad, then neither will be better off than under individual own 1 ership, while both will have lost for good traditional rights of enormous economic, moral and political worth and our government will have been sent on it's way to become an oligar- chy.
 What is this spirit, that would pull from beneath us the very founiEations of the individualistic democracy of the Anglo-Saxon? Protesting to be ideal istic, it invites us to part with our ideals of freedom, in exch ange for ma terial benefits, and insolently does SC in the very hour that has found us in- 1 vesting our every possession, our flesh and blood, in the preservation of the
 very liberties it now bids us sell for
 ready money. However it disguise it. self. this spirit is not idea1istic; il
 is sordid. It is not uplifting; it is de-
 basfng. It is not constructive; it is destructive. It is not native; it is alien. It is not friendly; 1t is hos tile 1t is not for the Anglo-Saxon; it is against him. Already its search
 ing and inquisitive fingers are touching
 his vitals; will be gripping them short ", and then will be tearing them out as it tore out the vitals of Russia. .t Beware. my country; look well tt
 those whom you are harbnring; to the
 vernlin of dissolution that have come
 upon you out of dying nations and art , diseasing your thought. SD that vol
 too, shall collapse and become carrion
 and they in turn may feed upon you
 as the Bolsheviki are feeding upo1
 the carcass Of what once was no less than q foremost world power.