The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-11-29
FRIDAY, NOV. 29, 1913.
WHITTIER ARE WE DRIFTING?

ADSOluClSHl, LIE INC" loih AiiiASo'
in it's Mondays issue sounds a note
of warning against the proposed gov
ernment ownership of railroads and
other public carriers, and the ills
and dangers which lurk behind the
movement. We had as well realize
that we, are approaching crisis in
the affairs of this Republic. If we
are to have a republican form of
government with the privileges and
opportunities sought by the fathers
ofrthe country when the constitution
was written, the time has arrived
for thoughtful men to call halt of
the draft towards, government own
efship, r. .l'.''".. ." v."...
+ erThe President of the United States
and those in authority in Washing
ton. should stop long enough to con-
slider when the greatest Democratic
paper in the country. refuses to fol-
low them. Unless-.we are to turn
the, government of the country over
to, the socialists some heed should
be given to its warning. This is
what that paper has to say:
& "Vnder the complex of cardinel
national interests, agricultural, min
eral, Industrial, commercial, financi-
al4 ,inextricably and vitality depend
ent upon sound, efficient railroad
management and development, in an
interest greater than all of them, for
ALL must be endangered when it. fails
that of responsible, representative
self-government.
.,,If the Government is to continue
to control the railroads, and with
them the express, telephone, and
telegraph companies, mighty Fed
erl political machine will be the in
evitahle result. Two millions of Fed
eral employees will be sure of an as
sured support, an indulgent supevis-
ion, long wages, and short hours. The
taxpayers will be bled for the benefit
of this, army of officeholders, whose
duty it will. be to keep in power the
Administration that lis good to them,
and to their faults more than little
blind The ms can be-. overturned
only by the larger promises of the
Outs. " .." ...:..
We shall have a gigantic central
lied Government at Washington,
able to bring irresistible political
pressure by meaps Of its mastery of
communications. Trade, industry,
agriculture, labor, looking to it for
punishments or rewards, must be po-
litically subservient or take the con-
sequences. The worst evils of the
old unreformed rebating railroads
were the Golden Age to those sure
to come from the politico-economic
absolutism which permanent Gov
ernment control of the great agen-
cies of communication must bring;
and if firm resistance is not made to
the beginnings, all the other indus
tries will be scooped in, one by. one,
and monstrous, swollen autocratic
Federal State will have swallowed
local and individual initiative and
energy.
Government is what it is, not what
it looks. Within the terms of the
Constitution there is a strong effort
to change our Government into a
centralized Socialistic State, with
multitudes of placemen. That effort
must be beaten. The Executive Com
mittee of the National Association
of Owners of Railroad Securities is
doing a service to the whole public
by its laLors Ior the return of the
railroads to private control"
We may be mistaken, but we pre-
dict that the break in the solid
South will come whenever the Demo.
cratic party Incorporates into its
platform a plank favoring govern
ment ownership. And while there
are powerful influences behind the
movement, and while it will have the
support of powerful organizations