The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-17
By THOMAS R. NlARsHAI.L

Primer Vice President of the United States | EEy HE mah seeking public office today who denies being q progressive stands no ~ more chance of being at ease in Zion than a man with cleft palate at an ice cream festival. The term ''prosressive'' has superseded Union, the flag, the Constitution, as m American shibboleth. I have no doubt that each man who proclaims himself ''pro- gressive' honestly believes himself to be one, fro, like Brtus and his assassins, all are hon. orable men, but 4s there is no definition in the political dictionary for the word pro gressive" any man has right to define the word for himself, and naturally enough every man is progressive according to his own defi- tion. But doubt if the word tprozreseiye'' means anything new to the public or the same thing to any two persons, and I question whether many who call themselves progress sive" are really proposing anything that has not hitherto been tried in government
 If the word "progressive'' means simply to change something that is into something else or to reapply principles of doubtful value or to readopt ideas that have been tried out be- fore 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 discovery of something new in the last dozen years, then the term progressive is not being accu- rately used by its protagonists.
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 Unless the railroads and the coal mines will make price reduction of 25 or 30 per cent.s then the only relief open to us, we are told, is government ownership and operation of the carriers and mines. But government ownership is not new thing nor progress sive thing in. economic history. We have gov- ernment ownership aplenty in Europe. I, have seen itNwGk there. I paid higher fares and got poorer service in Europe than anywhere in America. And was far more inconveni- |enced by a strike ona government-owned rail Foad than ever I was on privately owned carrier. The kind of progress that govern ment ownership represents does not promise anything new; it simply means an experiment to ascertain whether America can succeed where Europe has failed.
 < assume there is no thought of taking oyer the railroads and mines without paying for them, and I assume further that it would get nowhere 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 be remembered is that if the mines were taken over and paid for the interest on the bonds would require a fixed charge of g on every ton of coal consumed in America doubt whether the American people desire this kind of progressivism.
 Pr
 x Approaching the question from it's 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 2,000 years ago. The British Parliament for seven years after the black death fixed the max imum prices for labor. and in its efforts got nowhere. Fo fix the price of one thing in- wolves the necessity of fixing the prices of all things. Many of us would be pleased by a the price of coal. but we would not wish price-cutting to stop there. Why should we not serve notice on doctors and surgeons that if they don't knock off 25 per cent af their fees we shall take them over and control them? Why not notify bricklayers, carpen- ters, plasterers we are going to take them over5lf they do not reduce their scales? Why not give the bakers to understand that unless