The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-11-14
The Dangers of Paternalism in
Government

Address by Otto H. Kahn, {
Kuhn, Loeb & Co., before America
Bankers association, as condense
and published by Engineering an
Mining JournaD.
The qualities, conduct and achieve
ments of our army are the Just ad
miration of our comrades in arms. a
they are the just pride of Americs
wherever Americn taroops hay
fought thus far, they have either he'll
the line or advanced, but never gon
back. Our young army has been test
ed in many a battle, and wherever
has fought it has proved itself wor
thy custodian of American honor an,
a Jealous artisan of American glory
Now, gentlemen, what is the under
lying cause for the phenomenon tha
our boys taken from the most diver.
sfed walks of life, brought up In
surroundings and in a spirit which
are the very negation of martial dis
position, became in an incredibly
short space of time soldiers of first
rate efficiency that our business men
farmers, mechanics, college boys are
making competent, indeed excellent
officers; that our West Pointers taxi
en- from, small army posts or office DO
stions in Washington, We're found
qualified generally not only to COM
mand large bodies of troops. but that
among them were discovered men
fitted, when the emergency arose, to
plan and execute the business under
takings of wary stupendous scale
with high degree of organizing and
administrative ability (even though
these men would be the last to dis
pute that considerable share of the
credit for the results accomplished is
due to those who, at the very start of
the war, eagerly volunteered from
civil life)?
l have heard this debated a good
many times lately both in England
and France and the consensus Of re-
plies is this: you in America have
always been nation of private en-
terprise and individual initiative. You
have had no caste or fixed class, eth
er aristocratic or bureaucratic. You
have given almost unlimited, perhaps
too unlimited, scope to ambition abil-
ity, force, imagination, hard work
You had healthy skepticism of gov
ernmental capacity to do things we'll. |
Under the stimulus of these con-
ditions, you have produced race
daring, keen, quick witted, adaptable, |
The American of today, |
as we see him in the officers and men
of your forces and in the business
men we have met, is the product of
of sturdy individualism."
The Frenchman would point out
that France has had experience of
governmental centrali-
lation and paternalism for several
That system had famed
atrophied commercial dar-
ng, retarded the development of the
In Russia, bureaucracy and pater-
lalism, plus weak, corrupt and inef-
lcient autocracy, had led to revolu-
ion, chaos and anarchy.
In Germany, bureaucracy and pa +:
plus militarism and junk
rism, had resulted in bringing I'M
old misery upon the world at large
nd inevitable disaster in the end to
he German people. /,
In short my French interlocutors I
yer and however the system Of gov
omnipotence had been /
ried, it had failed in a greater or I
asser degree; that France had given {
sufficiently long test to be weary
{ it. and that after the war the ten
ency of the French people would be I
0 turn more toward individual effort Y
nd to stimulate personal initiative. II
On the other hand, 1t can not be *
ainsaid that there are good many l
ersons in France. as in Great Brit e
in and America, who firmly believe r
hat the era of individualism, or, as a
hey prefer to call it, capitalism, has
ONE to an end, and that an entirely a
ew kind of social structure will be
cared after the war. They are very r
ctive, jealous and eager these mill r
ant preachers of a new day. They
ossess the fervor of the prophet al a
ed often to the plausibility and cum b
Ing of the demagogue. They pour v
ne Walls of scorn and contempt upon t
hose benighted ones who still tie t
heir boat to the old mornings of the 0
eachings of history and Of common t
ense appraisal of human nature. And r
eng vociferous and plausible, they v
re unquestionably making converts. o
hey are offering the vista of a catch v
lg program to the popularity seek
ng politician. They are perturbing e
ne minds of a good many who hon.
stiy seek-as every right-minded