Evening star., 1944-08-08

90 by. Adding his down-East draw
to the States rights chorus, he Of
fered the following great thought:
I'VE have to bring the Govern
ment back to the village pump"
Now, to give the Governor credit
all he was trying to say was that
in his opinion, the Government ha:
got too far away from the people
All the Governors are saying that
he was merely trying to say 1t bet
ter. But the effect of his utterance
may be to make clear the absurdity
of the position he and some Others
are assuming.
It was another son Of Vernon,
who coined that famous epigram
"They hired the money, didn1
they?"-and lived to regret it, or al
least to realize that all his intelli-
gent friends regretted it. For II
summed up the intrinsic meanness
the small-mindedness, of the atti.
tude Coolidge was taking and wa.
seeking to have his country take
in the matter of the unpayable wal
debts.
They Don't Understand.
just so, the proposal to bring the
Government back to the village
pump sums up the attitude of those
who cannot understand or refuse
to understand the changed worlo
in which they live.
Others know that this Is ne
longer a country Of village pumps
that it Is a country in which few
citizens ever have seen a village
pump; that 1t Is a country of hot
and cold running water, modern
waterworks, even in the villages
a country, to use somewhat ia.
miliar phrase. with the highest liv-
ing standards in the world.
Others know that America is not
going back to the village pump fol
its thinking any more than 1t is
going back to that source for Its
water supply. To obtain broae
gauge solutions for our pressing ma
tional problems America will draw
upon every source, upon every COM
munity. large and small. There
may be some first-class thinking
around the village pump-though
doubtless much of it consists oi
wondering why in tarnation they
dob1 get themselves an up-to-date
water system like their neighborine
villaEs~but there is equally gooo
thinking. surely. in New York, st
Louis and Los Angeles. to say moth
ing Of the cities, towns and farms
that lie between.
And these cities, towns and farms
with problems of wartime popula-
ton. war plant conversion, peace
time production, peacetime employ
ment and care for their war cas-
ualties, will be unwilling to leave
those problems in hands fully occu-
pied with the village pump handle
They will want to contribute some
Of their own ideas.
We're Not Going Back.
We are not going back to the
village pump sny more than we're
going back to old dobbin and the
dog cart. We are not going back to
the thinking OF the village pump
period. The governors at st. Louis
recognized this in the resolutions
they adopted. They recognized that
the days of laissez faire are gone
Forgetting all the things they have
been saying about government in.
reference with private initiative
and freedom Of enterprise, they
produced this sensible suggestion:
Every care must be used to avoid
discrimination between different
sections Of the country and between
similar industries in the several
States and to encourage the con-
tinuation in private hands of newly
developed plants. In this evolution
from war to peacetime production
small business must be fully and
adequately encouraged and pro-
tected."
Every care must be used by whom?