The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-12-13
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
STANDS FOR PATERNALISM
The Republican party for NatiOnalism
-PaternaIism Would Have With
ering Effect

ton, thru its president, Hon. Jonathan
Bourne, Jr., recently gave out the fol
lowing statement from its Washing
ten headquarters.
"The most deplorable feature of the
effort to increase paternalism IS the
lasting effect it has upon the lndi-
vidual mind. Day after day the bu-
rocrats at Washington say to the peo-
pie of the country, You can't do it,
leave it to u.s. Beaurocracy not only
tends to destroy self-confidence but it
discourages self help. "don't try to
do anything for your self; just pay
increased taxes to make up our sal
aries and expenses and we will do
everything for you. You are poor,
helpless, ignorant, without ambition,
and perhaps dishonest beings, without
hope of making success of anything.
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 everything
the socialistic government-ownership,
paternalistic bunch have been handing
out from Washington for the past five
years-with increased energy during
the past two years.
"If the people of this country be-
come confirmed pessimists it will be
due largely to President Wilson. he
has assumed that only government
official can run the railroads, the
banks and the finances of the govern
ment. He acts upon the assumption
that only a postmaster general can
run the telephones, telegraphs, cables,
and the postoffice department Mr..
Wilson endeavors to do the political
thinking for the country in either
peace or war. He is, in his own opln-
ion, the only man who never thinks
wrong, and when he changes his mind
il is time for the entire country to
change. Men who do not agree with
him are nervous and excited PolIt-
ical parties that do not agree with him
have not had new idea in thirty
years.
"Tf we were to accept beaurocracys
picture of this country, what dolefui
song we should sing. What detected
countenances we should carry to our
dailv tasks if we really believed the
assumption that the success of private
industry and public business depends
upon the wisdom concentrated in so
small a group of men. To what low
stage in civilization must we concede
we have fallen, if we acquiesce in bu-
reaucracy's view of our intellectual
and moral decadence.
"But there is no need to be despon-
dent. An optomistic spirit has pre-
vailed in this country since the days
when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth
Rock. Without that optimism a small
band of colonists would not have
thrown off the yoke of autocracy in
1776. Without that spirit of optimism
we should not have gridironed this
continent with rails of steel. With
cut that optimism we should not have
taken the risks involved in sinking oil
wells and mining shafts, telling for
ests and conquering wilderness.
Without that optimism we should not
have stretched wires over the land and
cables under the sea. Without that
optimism we should not have estab-
lished here a government of the peo-
pie, for the people, by the people.
"And it is not optimism alone that
has made this nation great. Back of
that spirit of hope and confidence
there has been intelligence, energy
and courage capacity to do, an
eagerness to do, and daring to do.
And in the whole, long, proud list of
accomplishments of the people of this
country, there is not one for which
bureaucracy can claim credit. what
a sorry spectacle made of itself, then,
when it tells the people of this country
that they are incompetent or dishon-
est and must be guided in all their
activities by men who never made
success of any productive enterprise.
And what sorry spectacle the people
of this country will make of them
selves if they stand for the insult"
Mr.. Bourne might also have added:
Under a healthy nationalism the men
who are fit to fill the high places in
civil life naturally gravitate into
them. The great captains of industry
ere the result of rugged national
ism and might never have developed
under a paternalistic government.
In private life neither Secreatry Bur-
Lesson nor Secretary Baker showed an