The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-26
PROTECT COURTS FROM MOB RULE, SAYS COOLIDGE
Philadelphia Addresss Deals Also With Fed
 eral Ownership
Leased Wire to Age.Heraldl

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 25.-Public ownership of railroads and electric utili- ties would soon lead @ standardization of all industry, President Coolidge de- clared in speech here Thursday night in connection with the observance of the 150th anniversary of the meeting of the First Continental Congress.
 He again warrA,d against breaking down the power of the courts, urging that the judicial safeguards evolved in this historic spot be preserved from all despotism, "wheth%' it emanate from a monarch, from parliament, or from a mob."
 "If the pople lose control of the ar- teries of trade and the natural sources of our mechanical power, the national ization of all industry could soon be ek- pected, the President said. Through the breaking down of the power Cf the courts lies afi easy way to the conf. . cation of the property and the destruc- tion of the liberty of the individual. With railways and electrical utilities under political control, the. domination of a group would be so firmly in- trenched in the whole directin of our government that the privilege of eiti- zenship for the rest of the people would consist largely in the payment of taxes"
 La Palette Not Mentioned
 As in his recent Baltimore speech attacking proposals to curb the powers of the courts, the President never men, toned La Toilette nor did he refer in- directly to the progressives, but his speech at the Academy of Music here w.s construed by his audience to be the administration answer to the pro- gressives' demand for government own ership of railroads.
 He cautioned against allowing the ic of naturalization of industry to gain a foothold through taking over of the railroads and said great bu reaucracy could easily be built up. The fiasco of the government shipping fleet, he thought, should be warning against further ventures into the field of gov ernment ownership. E
 "The real fact is that in a republic like ours the people are sthe government, and if they cannot secure perfection in thir own economic life it is altogether improbable that the government can se- cure it for them. The same human nature which presides over private en- terprise must be employed for public action.
 Ut is very difficult to reconcile the American ideal of a sovereign people capable of owning and managing their own government with an inability to own and manage their own business. No doubt there are certain municipal ities where some public utilities have been managed through public ownership with creditab.e success. Bat this is very different from proposal that the national government should take over railroads and other public utilities.
 At Governments Cost
 What a strain this would be to our economic system will be realized when itsis rememerbed that public commissions set the value of such utilities at about $35, ,OOO, 100000, and that they have about 2,750,000 employees. Cuch an undertaking would mean about $1, ,75O,-' 100000 annually in bond interest, and an operating budget estimated at about 5000, 100000. These utilities are no longer in the hands of few, directly or indirectly. They are owned by scores of millions of our inhabitants. It would mean a loss in public revenue estimated at 5000, 100000 a year, and while in industrial states it might not increase the tax on the farmer more than three or four per cent, in many agricultural counties it would run as high as 4O per cent. When we recall the appalling loss and the difficulty in the manage
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