The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-05
THE STATE MUST LIVE

proposed 10 heIp the needy or deserv-
ing, or to prevent real abuses, are the
very ones most likely to bring grief
upon the laborer and the producer, as
to their shoulders is soon shifted the
entire cost of such; and the fact that
a measure has some merit, or that
an abuse is apparent, is apt to out
obscured in the future.
There turks in such measures an
other danger, for experience clearly
teaches that they are thereafter to be
used as fulcrums upon which rest the
political levers of the advocates of
more laws of like classes If our gov
ernments help one worthy class which
appears in need of it, those classes
which thereafter come forward and
show themselves as worthy and as
needy, as those already favored, have
fully proved a claim which it might
seem only injustice could deny.
The fact that one business is regu-
lated to prevent an abuse makes the
path aeasy for those who may have
selfish interest to regulate some other
business in which equal abuses are
manifest. Thus powerful centrifugal
forces are at work to draw all under
the. wing of the government.
The logical result of such policies is
socialism, which some would now hail
with delight, but which none should
seek to hasten by fragrant injustice to
the common citizens of our time. Some
say that socialism is the necessary
| end, the elimination in all forms of
government; and after that no pro-
gress, for eternal political bliss will
prevail. | answer, that the progress
of time reflects changes in our physi-
| cal bodies, but should we hasten by
| bodily abuses the sure processes of
age, in order sooner to join the
angels in the land of perpetual spring.
If we gave aid or protection to the
more needy and the more worthy of
| our citizens before we gave it to
!
less worthy; and if we corrected all
| the grosser abuses before we did the
| lesser ones, the socialists would have
long to wait. If the common rules of
| justice are involved to delay socialism
it is the worse for socialism; and the
worse for US when all know that our
policies do not violate such rules.
When economic troubles arise their
causes may be hard to discern in the
melee which follows, while each class
of citizens heaps abuse upon some
other class, but when we know that
for every fifty persons over ten years
of age, who are engaged in useful pur,
suits, one person is now on the pay
roll of our state or national govern
ments, we are led to inquire if the
two classes of laws above mentioned
have contributed to this condition
These figures would indicate thai
probably each twenty of our male
| useful pursuits, are now supporting
one government employee, with law
yers and other parasites thrown in fo1
good measure.
l cannot within the limits of on,
article consider the merits of any O
our laws which come in the classe
mentioned, but they do account TO
thousands of government employee
who feed off of labor and production.
Before closing. the possible use o
bad precedents may be illustrated
, For very many years all democrat
were loud to condemn what is know
J as the dependent pension bill. Whe
: | was a boy the words "steal' an
Infamous" were freely used to char
j acterize it; not have | since met an
Y republican who in private did not cor
denim it's bounties. Under the stres
: of war the government paid very hig
: wages for labor in ship yards, whic
all agree was a blunder. But thes
= two bad precedents are made flu
5 crum on which rests, in part, tn
= pending bonus claim of our soldiers
t To weigh dollars against the valo
|. and patriotism of our boys in thi
h great crisis is an invidious task, an
if the wisest err in generosity to theI
: he will be forgiven But the abuse
J, of the past should not be used to tur
the scales when the public good is be
E ing weighed, when public credit way
ers, industry totters, and thousand
? of unemployed seek work to ear
bread.
For the state must live.
Sincerely yours,
Dec. 31st, 1921. William Hooker.