The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-02-10

cOrulng TO MS light.
Government can and does func-
ton admirably as the agency for
protection of rights that are i'm
portant rights of life, liberty and
pursuit of happiness. 1t can and
does prevent encroachment upon in
dividuals where such individuals
can not protect themselves. But in
matters of earning living, just
plain making money, government,
in my opinion, has no place. Labor
has organization where organization
is necessary. Such organization
does protect labor, generally speak
ing, because it has the right to
strike. And in all probability, fix
ing of wages will hurt more than
help labor.
While on the subject of expansion
Of government into every cranberry
patch, it is inter
6utttng esting to note that
Into Business some of the left
wing New Dealers
"Oo4O 44hC NC1y 1IlOOl1 W RuI bIlC
federal government into the bust
ness of making small industrial
loans. think probably it will be
some time yet before the nitwit
section gets anything tangible into
the open on the newest of their
schemes, but it is true that they are
now planning along those lines.
The thought of this group of So
called presidential advisers is that
the federal government should start
loaning money to small businesses
so that those businesses will be in
dependent of "the great banking
trust" In short, it is proposed that
the federal government should be
equipped to make a loan of ten
thousand or twenty thousand or fifty
thousand to a small manufacturer
so that he can expand his plant and
take on new workers, etc., etc. It is
suggested that perhaps there ought
to be new governmental agency
created to handle this work so that
it will be done "sympathetically"
and with an understanding.
1t all comes about apparently
from the fact that the present ad-
ministration has discovered, after
five years in office, that there are
great monopolies or trusts or some
thing else in the way of combina-
tons in existence. They have found
that these monopolies are in control
so far that the little fellow in bust
ness can not borrow money when
he needs it to carry on his business.
Something must be done for them,
or else they can not have the more
abundant life of plenty.
President Roosevelt has become
intensely interested in having bust
ness become ''home owned" or
something of the kind. He has
shown, for example, in his shots at
utility holding companies how much
he likes the type of operating COM
pany that serves its patrons and
doesn't mix up in the tangle of
corporations that operate in more
than one town or city. They are
good, according to the President,
and they ought to have considera-
ton. 1t might be that federal money
loaned to them would save them
from bankruptcy-or it might be
that if they can't make go of their
business, they will go bankrupt any,
way. If the federal government had
a loan and mortgage on their as
sets, they would become federal
owned after foreclosure. That sure
ly would be one way for the fed
eral government to enter the public
utility business. It is just a posi-
bility, I mean.
Every now and then some infor-
nation leaks out about emergency
action" that was
Emergency taken by govern
Action ment officials dur
ing the hectic
days of the Hoover depression as
distinguished from the Roosevelt de-
preston. (The depression that was
on when President Roosevelt took
office in 1888 was labeled the Hoo
yer depression in New Deal propa-
ganda.) One of these incidents came
out before the senate committee on
public lands the other day. The
committee was investigating the
nomination of E. K. Burlew to be
assistant secretary of the interior,
and that formed the basis of an in
quiry into general practices of the
Department of the Interior which
is headed by Secretary Ickes.
Mr.. Burlew was answering ques-
tions as to how the department
spent much of the three or four bill
lion dollars appropriated to it for
public works. Those were pump
printing appropriations, if you re-
member, although as far as I can
see the water has not started COM
ing out of the pump yet. Anyway,
Mr.. Burlew let the fact drop that
Secretary Ickes had bought two new
automobiles in 1888. He said the
purchases were due to the "emer-
gency" and, of course, money for
them came from the emergency ap-
preparations. Senator Stiewer of
Oregon asked what was meant by
the emergency"
swell, the secretary wanted the
cars, and that was the emergency"
Mr.. Burlew replied amid laughter
in the room.
G Western Newspaper Union.