Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-12-09
THE GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
FALLACY

Sneakinq before the Illinois Bar Asso-
ciation recently, B. w. Hooper, Chairman
of the United States Railroad Labor
Board. said that many railway union
leaders are waging warfare against the
roads for the purpose of destroying IN
dustrv and promoting a political cam
naiqn for government ownership.
If the purpose of the agitators whose
chief occupation it is to foment dlscord
among the workers were nothing more
than this, the question of government
ownership could be determined upon It's
merits. The country has had sufficient
dose of government control of public
utilities to enable it to pass intelllgently
upon the question and there can be no
doubt that an almost unanimous opinion
would defeat such a project. What lends
so sinister an aspect to these activities Is
not their avowed but their hidden pur-
pose, and that is to destroy industry. IL
is not the end but the method which is
obnoxious to right thinking people. Force
and sabotage are substituted for reason.
And the deplorable part of it all is that
there is no general discomfort or unrest
among the rank and file of the workers.
But there is a systematic attempt to UNI
dermine the relations between capital and
labor, between employer and employee,
by the professional agitators who thrive
on the discord which they create.
Nor do we hear any dissatisfaction on
the part of the public, which is an inter
ested party to the controversy, that the
service which the railroads are rendering
is not efficient or indeed not nearly all
that it should be. And the public usually
complains when it has cause to.
r, I'll, l,r aaf 10 iyn in
the present tendency clear purpose on
the part of group of malcontents to sub
stitute for the orderly processes of law
and order form of government under
which they may enforce their own de-
structive rule. The plan is simply in
keeping with confiscatory tendency
which has been taking place for years.
1t ignores every fundamental economic
law by demanding an equal, though not
equitable, distribution of wealth among
employees. 1t ignores the fact that with
out capital and its genius for organiza-
ton and management labor would be
without a market. 1t does not take into
account that one capitalist creates en-
ployment for thousands of laborers thus
giving the laborer a market for his
manual skill and labor.
Under the gradual development of our
industrial system hundred times as
many people are today actively interested
in the management of industries as
there were twenty-five years ago. This is
the result of the incentive offered by pri-
vate capital and private enterprise. Ex-
perience has shown that under govern
ment ownership both incentive and enter
prise are destroyed.
While there has been an endless chain
of propaganda on the part of those who
would tear down the present system, there
is a noticeable lack of education al.ng
constructive economic lines on the other
hand; and if workers who are now mis-
guided by the false doctrine which is be-
ing disseminated among them could be
made to understand that their best in
terests lie in the direction Of cooperation
with their employers both labor and cap
ital would be restored to their proper
planes.