Norwich bulletin., 1918-12-28

The social and economic problems which the war has bequeat21ed the United States are too vaes and wholly new to be solved synthetics fly by any body of men. however wese. They must, believe, be permitted to work themselves out in accordance with natural law. If the resulting struc- ture is to be healthy and enduring it must be the product of natural growth, not of artificial processes.
 To accept this truism, however, is not to deny the need of assisting na- ture by art Of making it easy for the laws of social and econosnic pro gross, which are recorded in knowledge born of expedience, to work themselves out benedcently.
 Once we bave accepted the truth that these laws will have their way in the end, that we are their creatures, and they not ours and we aSve plan ned accordingly. we shah Dc well along the road to economic prosperity and social conteutment.
 Russia lies in ruins because she has defied the natural laws of social and economic life; Great Britain holds in her hand the commerce of the world, | and enjoys in greatest measure the blessings of security and liberty, be- l cause she serupulously observed the | laws which insure freedom, wealth, l power, and happiness.
 The mo9e closely we fn our turn foi- l low the teachings of practical experi- ence, as expounded by practical men, 1 the fewer win be our disasters, the ] morA numerous our successes. We, like l Ulysses, are embarked upon perilous voyage. To come again safe into port we also must stop our ears against Ne songs of tho sirens of theory, Whether the voices come from the maelstrom of Petrograd, or the treacl.erous reefs of German turned docila. or the al- 1 turing waters of Intellectualia, bab- bling and shallow, our safety lies up- on one course only. that which expe- rienced mariners have, traversed in security. The air is far too full of sweet singe.s. who strive to lure off | their course the destinies of our one hundred and five millions of people, upon an experimental voyage in search l of a Utopia of painless existence. To consider the problems before us we must divide our epoch into three l periods, that of war, that of transi- ton, that of the new normal, which undoubtedly will supersede the old, | The questions before US. therefore, are broadly, two: How shall we pass from
 war to the new normal with the least jar, in the shortest time? In what respect should the new normal be shaped to differ from the old?
 Some contend that we should first envisage the new normal, and carve the measures of transition to suit its 4 uiremeuts. Others believe that we Eould cautiously feel our way through
 the period of transition. and arrive at l what the new normal shall he, by the
 road of experience. The first would at- 1 tempt reconstruction by synthetic pro-
 cess; the second would achieve it by l'natural grop1h. Who shall say that a
 new normal, artiicial1y compounded al
 this distance from the future, will
 work? Who shall say that & new
 normal, patiently sought through trial
 and error, will not work?
 So much for the opposing schools of thought which are intent upon shaping
 our passage from the state of auto
 cratic centr~slization, which was our
 shield in war, to that oe democratic
 decentralization in which, we have
 grown to believe, resides orr assurance
 of liberty in peace.
 There are those who vii! now come forward to challenge our distrust o1
 autocratic control in peaceful times.
 They offer us a. new theory of demo-
 cracy, in accordance with which men are to pass the machinery by which
 they subsist cut of their own hands as
 individuals. and thence into the hands
 of centrali: tl authority. Several o1
 the rights of the individual, including
 that of possession, which men wor
 from the sovereign anointed of ancient
 times free men are now being asked
 to return to the sovereign appointed O.
 modern times. Is there then so mucf
 difference between emperor and presi. dert that the one should be feared
 and the other trusted? Both are mSl
 vain and ravcneus for power. and a.
 such are, alike, to he suspected ant
 watched, The more extensive theil
 powers, the more reason for dread.
 A strange excursion, indeed, has de.
 nocracy made if men, having gained
 their liberties, every one at the cost O
 their bood, tGey now supinely consen
 to surrender these liberties into any mans hands. however spacious tht
 plea upon which their surrender b, sought. Are, then, the days of Kins
 John at Runnynede, and the days O Lennie to bound the gigantic experi
 rnent of the freemans enjoyment 0 ] his rights?
 Public ownershipi Tho railways ant
 express companies. the telegraphs, tel ephones, cables, and wireless, mine ; and oil wells, and water powers, tn basic industries, thence 10 the common machinery of life. Public ownership ) In Russia, t extends to wives-an ) children. What. let us ask, is tn
 great boon in exchange for which tn hard won light of possession is t ) be surrendered for all time by the in
 dividual? E it more precious righ that comes to him in return? A fires = hold upon liberty? A new moral con , quest? It is none of these; 1t is mere !, ly the fancied advantage of being abl 7 to buy the goods and services he con r surnes at a lower price. He is to se1 r