Fitzgerald leader., 1921-04-02

gia legislature but would have
given all the people of the United
States the benefit of them.
You seem to be terrified at the
thought Of giving millions Of the
peoples money to "the control OF
political adventures to condemn
all those corporations "and oper-
ate them without regulation or
supervision by the state. Per
ish the thought Cold shivers run
up and down my spine, too, Mr..
Hall, at the very suggestion. But
Of course you and know that
this legislation would not result
in such a catastrophe SO let us be
frank with the poor, tax burdened
and much deceived public and tell
them SO. Our legislature, stepped
though it be in iniquity, would not
pass a bill creating such COM
mission to control the hydro-elec-
trio power of the state of Georgia.
mo officer of the league has
had any experience in operating
utilities" as you say, Mr.. Hall,
and don't let us permit the public
to lose sight of that important
fact. OF course, no officer of the
league has made any claim that
he knows how to operat e
utilities or has applied for
a job operating one, or would
have such job if it was
offered to him Their plan is to
have experts to operate these util-
tiles, the same general managers
and superintendent as now fur
nlsh the brains. But they plan
to have these superintendent
and general managers salaries
paid by the state, and have them
look for orders to a state COM
mission, instead of drawing their
money from private corporation
and taking their orders %from a
corporation president and boards
of directors whose sole business is
to bleed the consumer of hydro
electric power just a little whittier
than he has ever been bled before.
1t works on the same principle
as the vacuum pump. at Moore
College of the dear old u. of G..
Probably they are still using the
same vacuum pump you eNper-
imented with when you were
studying physics. Oh, Mr.. Hall,
believe me, you were wonder
FULLY efficient watch dog of the
treasury" But, to get back to the
vacuum pump, you can pump
your arm off, but you can never
pump all the air out. You divide
the air by half, and that by half,
and so ad infinitum, but you never
get ALL the air out of the cham
ber Many bitter tears have been
shed by the corporations who own
the public utilities because, pump
hard as they may, they can't pump
all the money out of their consum-
ers.
That, however, is merely Incl
dental and the public isn't inter
ested i'll it. They must have been
intensely interested in your state
ment in regard to government
ownership, and socialism, and the
late Gar and Lenine and Trotsky.
Come, come, Mr.. Hall, while we
are about this business of inform,
ing the public about the dastardly
objects of the Municipal League
of Georgia, let us tell them the
whole bitter truth. Grieve us
though it may, let us frankly ad-
NIT that Russia is not and has
never claimed to be Socialistic
and that Bolshevism has never
claimed itself to be Socialistic.
1t is communistic. OF course, Mr..
Hall, we of the inteligentsia know
that Communism and Socialism
are as dissimilar as Republicanism
and Anarchy. But perhaps the
public does not know this, so let
us explain it to them.
Russia aspires to be Commun-
istil The Communist SAYS that
Ill property, all capital, should
be owned by the township or
community and that the state
should be loose combination of
OF such communes, or. as the
Russians call them, Soviets. The
Socialist says that the central
government should own and
control all industry and give
equal opportunity to everyone
to succeed. The Republican be-
lieves that all industry should
be owned by private corpora
tons and these corporations
should give everyone equal op-
portunlty to succeed.
But all that theory makes lit
tie difference as far as Russia
today is concerned, as you and
Hknow, Mr. Hall, bur as the pub
lie may not know. Since we are
telling them SO many OF our
political secrets let us confide in
them with this one: Russia is
operating today under mill.