Evening star., 1924-08-17
BY THOMAS n. MARSHALL,
Former Vice President Of the United
states.

Former Vice PFeAideat OF the United
States.
The man seeking public Office today
who denies being a progressive stands
no more chance of being at ease in Zion
than a man with cleft palate at an
ice cream festival The term '.progres-
sive" has superseded Union. the flag.
the Constitution, as an American shib-
boleth. / have no doubt that each man
who proclaims himself progressive
honestly believes himself to be one, for,
like Brutus and his assassns, all are
honorable men, but as there is no defini-
tion in the political dictionary for the
word progressive" any man has a right
to define the word for himself, and natu-
rally enough every man is progressive
according to his own definition. But !
doubt II the word "progresstve'' means
anything new to the public or the same
thing to any two persons, and 1 ques-
tion whether many who call themselves
''progressives" are really proposing any
thing that has not hitherto been tried In
government.
II the word progressive" means SIM
something else or to reapply principles
Of doubtful value or to readopt ideas
that have been tried out before in the
hope that that which once has failed
may yet prove a success, that Is some
thing in itself But If it means the dis
covery Of something new in the last
dozen years, then the term progress
sive" Is not being accurately used by its
protagonists.
&
Unless the railroads and the coal
Of Is or 80 per cent. then the only
relief open to us, we are told, is
Government ownership and opera
tion Of the carriers and mines. But
Government ownership is not a new
thing nor a progressive thing in
economic history. We have govern
ment ownership aplenty in Europe.
I have seen it work there. l paid
higher fares and got poorer service
in Europe than anywhere in America.
And l was far more inconvenienced
railroad than ever / was on pri-
vately owned carrier. The kind of
progress that government ownership
represents does not promise anything
new; 1t simply means an experiment
to ascertain whether America can
succeed where Europe has failed.
/ assume there is no thought of
taking over the railroads and mines
without paying for them, and l as
sumo further that it would get no.
where to take over the mines without
taking over all coal deposits as we'll
This would be expensive We would
have to issue bonds for the purchase
price. One thing to he remembe ed
is that If the mines were taken over
and paid for the interest on the bonds
would require a fixed charge of 50
on every ton of coal consumed in
America. 1 doubt whether the Amer
lean people desire this kind of pro-
Srsssivism.
Approaching the question from its
other side. we are not. going to
progress" this way If the railroads
and mines will reduce charges to the
public. But that is not new, either
A Roman emperor fixed prices nearly
1000 years ago. The British Parlia-
ment for seven years after the black
death fixed the maximum prices for
labor. and in its efforts got nowhere
To fix the price Of one thing involves
the necessity of fixing the prices Of
all things. Many of US would be
pleased by a 25 or 80 per cent cut
in railroad rates and the price of
coal, but we would not wish price,
cutting to stop there. Why should
surgeons that IL they don't knock off
25 per cent of their fees We shall
take them over and control them?
Why not notify bricklayers, carpen-