Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-06-23
Sure Government Operation
Would Be Colossal BIunder
Failure of Grouping, However, VIII En-
force This Costlier Experiment, Chief
Executive Yarns Nation.

evolution from the oxcart TO motor
age. The automobile and motor truck
have made greater inroads on railway
revenues than the electric lines with
their intimate appeal to the local
community. There will never be
backward step in motor transporta-
ton. But we shall do better If We
find plan to coordinate this service
with the railways, rather than en-
courage destructive competition. In
deed, the motor transport already
promises relief to our congested
terminals through better co-ordina-
ton. We have come TO the point
where we need all the statecraft IN
business to find the way Of making
transportation in it's varied forms
adequate to the requirements OF
transportation its due reward for
service, without taking from produc-
ton and trade a hindering eAaction.
Confiscation Not Solution.
I cannot too greatly stress the i'm
portance of this great problem 1t
cannot be solved by those who com
mend the policy Of conf1scation or
destruction. nor can 1t be solved by
those who make a prejudiced appeal
for political favor. We must frankly
recognize the exactionS imposed upon
the American farmer during the war
wage development, which will yield
no reduction in the principal item
of operating cost, and seek condl-
tions under which we may have the
requisite reductions in fixed charges
which will afford encouraging re-
lief If the system consultations,
with diminished overhead costs, with
terminal advantages largely improN-
ed and terminal charges greatly re
duced, will not afford the solution,
then our failure viii enforce
costlier experiment and the one great
commitment which / hope the United
States will forever escape.
We are dwelling now amid graft
lions. l do not share the feeling
that the recovery is mere tenn
porary one. with impending relapse.
The guaranty OF permanence lies in
tho equitable sharing of our good
fortune There can be no abiding
prosperity in Industrial centers. in
transportation or elsewhere, unless
agriculture. Government can make
no direct bestowal of good fortune.
but 1t is the duty of government to
maintain conditions under which
is the heritage of every American
everywhere.
Aspect of. Government Lost.
lHutT our representative demo-
cracy we find ourselves absorbed in
issues which more or less concern
US in our individual affairs, but we
lose the aspect of government as
whole and take it as a matter of
course. 1t is our accepted practice
rather than a deliberate intent.
Americans ought ever be asking
themselves about their concept of
the ideal republic. | take it to be
one of universal good fortune. where
freedom is as complete, under the
law, as pustice is unfailing within the
law as justice is unfailing within the
freedoms opportunity and the re-
ward of merit are held as sacred
inheritances and citizens are made
fit to embrace reckoning opportunity.
Above all else, since we are the
great exemplars of Representative
democracy, ours should be a land Of
unquestioned loyalty to the great
fundamentals on which we are build
ed, to which Americans are com
mitted by birth, or declare allegiance
when they are adopted. We have
achieved most notably in develop
ment; let us make sure Of the preser-
walton and hold ourselves equipped
for the continued triumphs of prog
ress at home and unafraid to play
a great peoples becoming part In
the affairs of the world.