Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-23

mand for service. Rates have been re-
duced by Is per cent and net earnings
increased from less than l per cent on
their valuation to about 5 per cent
Wages of employees have improved by Is
per cent. The wages of railway en-
ployes are today 121 per cent above pre-
war, while the wages, of Government
employees are today only SIS per cent
above pre-war. That should be stiff
cient commentary upon the efficiency
Of Government operation.
Let us now examine this question
from the point Of view of the person
who may get a Government job and is
admitted into the new bureaucracy.
Upon that subject let me quote from a
speech OF that great leader OF labor,
Samuel 0omperS. delivered in Montreal
in 1920. few years before his death
He said:
"'I believe there is no man to whom
I would take second position in my 10y
atty to the Republic of the United
States, and yet would not give 1t more
power over the individual citizenship of
our country.
1T is q question of whether 1t shall
be Government ownership or private
ownership under control. If
I were In the minority Of one In this
convention, I would want to cast, my
vote so that the men of labor shall not
willingly enslave themselves to Gov
ernment authority in their industrial
eYOrt for freedom.
LET the future tell the story of who
is right or who Is wrong who has stood
for freedom and who has bsen willing
TO submit their fate industrially to the
Government
Would Amplify Statement.
II would amplify Mr.. Gompers' state
mert. The great body of Government
| employees which would be created by
| the proposals Of our opponents would
either comprise a political machine al
the disposal of the party In power, or
alternatiyely. to prevent this, the Gov
eminent by stringent Civil Service
rules must debar its employees from
their full political rights as free men
1t must limit them In the liberty ia
bargain for their own wages, for nc
| Government employe can strike against
his Government and thus against the
whole people. II makes a legislative
body, with all its political currents
their final employer and master. Their
bargaining does not rest upon economic
need or economic strength but on polit-
ical potence.
But what Of those who are outside
the bureaucracy? What Is the effect
upon their lives?
1.-THE area Of enterprise and oppor-
tunity for them to strive and rise Is at
once limited.
THE Government in commercial
business does not tolerate among its
customers the freedom of competitive
reprtsals to which private business Is
subject. Bureaucracy does not tolerate
the spirit of independence; It spreads
the spirit Of submission into our daily
life and pefletfates the temper of our
people not with the habit of powerful
resistance to wrong, but with the habit
Of timid acceptance of irresistible might
Secs Bureaucratic Peril. I'll
Bureaucracy is ever desirous OF
! spreading its influence and its power
You cannot extend the mastery OF the
Government over the daily working life
| Of a people without at the same time
making it the master of the peoples
souls and thoughts. Every expansion OF
Government In business means that
Government, In order TO protect itself
from the political consequences OF Its
errors and wrongs, Is driven irresistib1y
without peace to greater and greater
control oil. the Nations press and plat.
form. Free speech does not live many
hours after free industry and free com
merce die.
1T Is false liberalism that inter-
prets itself into the Government opera
ton of commercial business. Every
step of bureaucratizing OF the business
of our country poisons the very roots OF
liberalism; that is. political equality
free speech, free assembly, free press
and equality of opportunity 1t Is the
road not to more liberty but to less
liberty.
Liberalism should be found not striv-
Ing TO spread bureaucracy but striving
to set Bounds to it, True liberalism
seeks all legitimate freedom first Ia the
confident belief that without such free
dom the pursuit OF all other blessings
and benefits is vain. That belief is the
foundation OF all American progress
kpciitieal As we'll as economic.
! Liberalism is force truly Of the