The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-08-27
The Cause of Paternalism.

To the Editor, The Washington Herald:
The class OF legislation that has
received the name Of ''paternalism''
is condemned. Paternalism has its
friends, as well as its enemies. And
lit is a remarkable fact that they
are not few, nor confined to the
group that is asking. and receiving
benefits by way Of Congressional
Legislation.
1t may surprise. even shock you,
when l tell you that the thing
which you and / call paternalism is
inherent in a certain form Of gov
eminent. and that it results there
from just as naturally and as sure
ly as water flows down hill.
For the first sixty years OF the his
tory of our government there seems
to have been no doubt about the
kind of government we had. or
course, there were a few. as there
always will be. who differed from
the majority, but they were so few.
that for sixty years they did not
elect a single President.
Then a change of opinion was
ushered in about the kind Of gov
eminent we should have Was It
about slavery? Oh no, slavery ante
dated the government. OF course. 1t
was assumed. and perhaps II was
true. that a majority of the people
of the United States were opposed
to slavery. but they had no ma
chinery except public sentiment by
which they could make their oppose
ton effective.
The government, whose charter
was a Constitution formed by the
thirteen original States. was power
less to go into any State and change
the character Of property in that
State against its will.
Then a party was brought into ex-
fstence whose basic principle was
that Congress could say to one man:
You can take your horses. asses
and oxen and go upon the public
domain andfound a home for your
self and family" and to another
man. who had horses and asses. but
instead oxen had slaves, it said:
You cannot 60"
Clearly that was an assumption
OF power for the Congress, that no
one believed. not even the party it,
self. resided in the Congress under
The party was defeated.
Four years later the party went
before the people with the same
obnoxious doctrine. emphasized by
four years of strenuous work, and
elected man who stood squarely
on their platform. On memoir
able occasion with burning words
before a super-heated audience, he
made the announcement that this
was "a government of the people.
for the people. by the people" We
with one voice. said solemn
Amen" But it was a solemn re-
QUEEN over the last remains of a
government that was once loved
we'll
Alexander Stephens said it was a
government of States. by States. fof
States. And just here let me. u
Union soldier for more than four
years. say of him that frail in body
though he was. no man of his gen.
Grafton had a keener insight into
the science Sf civil government than
he.
Now. since that memorable day in
1858 when Abraham Lincoln an
nounced the doctrine. which sounds
we'll as it comes froms the mouth
of the great, that ours is "a govern
ment of the people, for the people,
by the people," we have had a gov
eminent into which has come the
vicious weed, paternalism.
Under such a system, what the
people want the people will have.
And II must be remembered that
you cannot deal with 100000 en-
masse. They will group themselves.
It Is universal law Of nature.
Since 1t is no longer possible to
group legally as States, they group
themselves illegally according to &C.
eupation or other combining interest.
Even our much-vaunted representa-
tive government has degenerated
into a mere deputy government. In
the science OF civil government the
word representative has a techni-
cal meaning peculiarly its own. that
has been allowed to become OBJ
secured by the popular meaning of
the word.
A representative In political