Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-01-24
POLITICAL PRACTICE OF
"LETTINC GEORGE DO IT"
Men and Communities Who Can't Man.
age Their own Affairs Appeal to
the GoXernment for Help

| TT Is characteristic of youth to assume that
| L it knows more than age and to ignore the
| teachings of experience. The wisdom of the
race concentrated in its proverbs means moth
| ing to it. So far aS it is concerned the
| world began yesterday.
Half Of the social. industrial and political
| remedies offered to the people of the United
| States at the present time ignore the truth
| in the homely old saying that every tub must
| stand on it's own bottom. The tottering
| tubs are told TO lean on something else and
| make that support them.
Governor Miller. of New York the re-
tirng president of the bar association Of
that state. called attention in his farewell
! address to some Of the complications which
| have come from the refusal of tubs to de-
| pend on themselves.
The things against which he protested are
| not new, save in the form which they take.
! They are the sons and grandsons and great
| Grandsons of older follics Mature men have
not forgotten the wave Of pOpulsm which
spread over the country thirty years ago. 1t
started with the farmers who had failed in
! their business They demanded that the
| government do for them what they had been
! unable to do for themselves. rs though the
! government were an 0mnipOtcnt power with
| unlimited resources. They said Let GeOrg"
! do it, meaning tn" George whose other name
! is Washington. u. c.. and they thought that
! II they could get him 10 do it all their trou-
| heS would be ended.
They forgot that the government is only
! themselves acting together; that its wealth
| i only the combined wealth Of all of us. and
| that il has no financial resources save as it
! puts its hand in our pockets and takes our
| savings for its Use.
The old iadividualism which animated the
| men who founded the nation and which in
! hpi descendants NNb hpwp1
! way through the Wilderness to the western
| plains was forgottcn The demands were
| confession that far as they were con
! cornod individualiSn had failed and that the
! time had come when it was no longer posi-.
bic for their tub to stand by itself.
Governor Miller protested agan~, the
: adoption Of this confession of weakness by
: tn" cities and tho states and against the
! surrender to the national government of the
powers which the states and the local com
munitiCS ought TO exercise for themselves.
! lie recognized the tendency as it has been
! recognized by every intelligent observer of
! events. Tho tendency was discussed in this
/ n"wspapcr few weeks ago and tn" goal
| toward which it is headed was pointed out.
| If il continues lit is perfectly obvious
| said the governor. that tho states as
! have known them will exist in form only.
/ Hr said further that If the state under
| takes to put crutch"N under the arms Of its
| citizens il will have n population Of Grip
! plcs. and if it undertakes to lhac" a nursing
! bottle at the mouth of our propr will
| hHv" a race of children.'
II" warned against tho danger Of the "X-
! tension by other federal bureaus Of the
powers which thc Interstate Coulucrro Com
mission is exercising over the activities Of
commerce.. This is especially pertinent. for
| tho state of New York is lighting tho rffOrtS