The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-02-24
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THE OPEN FORUM


lature is little short of a calamity
Cheap power not only means wonders
in direct accomplishment, but it means
the releasing of vital energy for use
in other channels of needed activity.
Every voter should get busy with his
or her thinking apparatus to discern
the true animus Of such failure.
We are an agricultural state which
has shown progressive tendencies
which from the viewpoint of big bust
ness, as manifested in other direc-
tons, should be nipped in the bud,
If this is its fine Italian hand pur.
suing its usual policy of devil and
rule it might be worth while to find
it out.
The nations waterpower is the white
coal of the future. It's conservation
and development spells industry and
comfort as do the coal mines at this
time. Its monopoly would therefore
be a safe and paying investment for
the surplus millions profteered from
the people in recent years. That big
business has been keenly alive to this
from the first limitations of its pos
sibilities, is evidenced by the fight it
has made in congress to get a salts
factory bill through, and it is IN
~thinkable, entirely out of keeping with
its record, that it should not strive to
gain it's utmost advantage in that di-
rectiOn.
Owing to the general financial sit
uation it might be the part of wisdom
for the state to defer the development
Of its water power to a more propi-
tious time, but it seems that this was
not the reason of its failure.
One might suppose that expense Of
development and centrality of loca-
ton for power distribution should be
the determining factors in its loca-
ton and it would seem that there
would be enough representatives of
the people, not obessed by the lure
of local advantage to have come to
an agreement upon these basic fac
tors.
In view of past experiences it stands
the sovereign voter in hand to keep
a sharp eye upon the situation and
make public opinion manifest; if he
does not wish to be subjected to the
p~roiteering process which has char
acterized the distribution of coal.
Three or four cents per kilowat hour
as compared with ffteen , or more
should be sufficient to touch the
pocketbook nerve to sense and mo-
ton.
From the ethical standpoint water
power and coal are the heritage of
humanity and should not be governed
by and for the few. 1t Is a case of
developing the talent given us, or
having others which we have taken
away.
Anent the coming observance of
Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays,
John Swinton, a New York journalist
of the Greedy school, gives US an in
teresting historical sidelight of Lin
coin in a sketch written in 1895. He
compares two speakers heard by him
at Cooper Union, n in 1860 and n
in 1894. They were both from the
West and both represented western
ideals and ethics. Both we're apos-
ties Of human freedom. They were
similar in personality, in style Of ora
tory in spiritual power. Drawing
noary roro1ln1c onnrnniofiuo nf thn
greatness of both men, he added: AT
the time | have spoken Of, Lincoln
was regarded by millions Of people as
a cross between a crank and a mon
ster. In hundreds of papers and by
hundreds of speakers he was called
the illinois baboon.' Every epithet
that they could invent was applied
to him: every base purpose that ma
lice could conceive was imputed to
him. To the Satanic press" Of New
York, Lincoln was an object of loath-
ing and derision, a niger lover" a
clown and s~ubservitor of the con.
stitution and the law" and above all,
"a blatant fool who would destroy
llIlltSI uNIIpIN SNSItll VI " NHlCIl
had existed Of old, which was upheld
by the supreme court, the church, the
army, the press, the capitalist, as also
by congress-, both houses. Why the
Debs we have with us today is a harm
less citizen compared with the Lin
coin of 1850, as he had been described
before he came to New York
And the democrats of 1860 would
doubtless have been glad to put him
in a federal prison for expressing his
opinions as those of today have Debs.
But then our constitution was still re-
garded as a bulwark of human rights.
But time has indicated those opinions
and Lincoln has come into his own as
the foremost American Of history.
Albeit his road was an uphill one with
calvary at the top. Perhaps that is
the price of spiritual greatness.
We have a moving picture censor.