Evening star., 1937-04-05

ment. For per- n,r;ay.vr.nc.
sons with riches
are always few in number, and those
without riches are numbered in the
tens of millions.
But now the drive has come into
clearer outline, not merely as an at
tack on the few who really have
riches, but on system that permits
savings to be accumulated, even IN
modest quantity and put in the form
OF property.
Every single issue Of Importance to-
day involves the pro and con OF prop
ertv rights. Shall persons be per-
mitted to keep their property or shall
the Government divide it up AS 1t
thinks best and as it thinks the votes
Of the communities want it divided?
Who Shall Get IT.
The attack on the Supreme Court
and in some respects on provisions IN
the Constitution itself, is an attack
on property. When the Supreme Court
interprets the Constitution as de-
Tending the retention OF property
against confscation by the State or
spoliation by the politicians, 1t Is
called "reactionary" When Congress
adopts laws which, followed to their
logical conclusion, mean taking prop
ertv from one group and passing IT
on to another. this is called liberal"
But the controversy is basically over
property, who shall retain it, who
shall be given the proceeds Of higher
and higher exactions made by Gov
ernment in the form OF taxes.
The "sit down" strike is a property
Issue. Workers are being told by their
leaders that they have property
right in the plants where they work.
Government officials, from the Presl-
dent down, are telling the workers
thai they may form a monopoly, and
at will extort from employers and
owners OF property what they deem
to be adequate.
Because this form of increasing the
cost of living is officially encour-
aged. unorganized workers and small
salaried persons and vast class OF
white collar workers who have fixed
incomes, have the purchasing power
of the amounts in their pay envelopes
gradually reduced against their will.
Their interest payments on property
they own may then be IN default.
Their properties are sold at public
auction and the equity Of years Of
savings is wiped out. The properties
then are bought in by spectators, who
win, as they always do, by observing
the weaknesses Of political govern
ment.
The movement to redistribute prop
erty Is as old as civilization itself.
Demagogues have risen to political
power ever since history can remember
by championing the cause Of the
"down- -trodden" even though it meant
the disintegration Of the state. Caesar
himself rose to political power by that
method. The pages OF time record
many an example Of the same thing.
Too often it Is wrongly assumed that
human nature has changed throughout
the centuries and that the desire OF
the rich to grow richer and the desire
of the politicians to redistribute prop
erty Is merely a modern phenomenon.
One hundred years before Caesar
lived, Polybius, Greek statesman and
historian, wrote concerning the "lib-
erals" of his time:
80 when they begin to lust for
power and cannot attain 1t through
themselves or their own good qualities,
they ruin their estates, tempting and
corrupting the people in every possible
way. And hence when by their foolish
thirst for reputation they have created
among the masses an appetite for gifts
and the habit OF receiving them, de-
mocracy in turn is abolished and
changed into rule of force and
violence.
For the people having grown ac-
customed to feed at the expense of
others, as soon as they find leader
who is enterprising but who is ex-
cluded from the honors Of Office by
his penury, institute the rule of vio-
lence And now uniting their forces
massacre, Danish and plunder until
they degenerate again into perfect
savages and find once more a master
and monarch.
Mob Rule Generated.
"And for this change for the worse
the pOpulace will be responsible when,
on the one hand. they have shown
themselves grasping. and when, on
the other hand, they are puffed up by
the f1attery of others who aspire to
office For now, stirred to fury and
passion in all their counsels, they
will no longer consent to obey, or even
be equals of the ruling caste, but will
demand the lions share for themselves
when this happens the state will
change its name to the finest sounding
of all, freedom and democracy, but will
change its nature to the worst of all,
mob rule"
The drive against property in
America Is in its incipient stages only.
Taxation is rising, but it is mild in
Its penalties compared to what it is
going to be if the present administra-
ton continues the doctrine that 1t
must spend more than it takes in, a
philosophy Of spendthrift individuals
who have retorted to anxious parents
that they can always make more than
they spend.
Today the Federal budget is almost
hopelessly unbalanced. Expenses are
running higher than last year and
at higher rate than they were IN
preceding years. The New Deal Is
committed to the notion that it can
keep on spending because taxes will
be adequate to cover. But the truth
Is beginning to dawn on many OBJ
servers, especially country bankers,
that tax receipts are not increasing as
rapidly as estimated, and that the
Federal Government faces a fiscal
crisis unless expenses are reduced.
The administration, having started
system Of bounties and paid work
called "relief," is being urged by May
ors and Governors not to cut down
Federal outlays. So borrowing con-
tinues, expenses rise and taxes grad