Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-12-19
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Released by WNU Features.
Throwing the Lifeline


A NUMBER of years ago Buff
"A falo acquaintance and his fam
lily went for an evenings short
cruise in their motor boat on the
Niagara river. In the center of the
deep and wide stream, where it
flows out of Lake Erie, the acquaint-
ance cut out the motor and permit
ted the boat to drift with the cur
rent, that the family might enjoy
the quiet of the summer evening.
None of them realized how far they
had .drifted until they noticed the
absence of all other craft. They had
passed the safety point. The increas-
ing roar of the falls was ominous.
Quickly they turned to the motor,
but it would not start. Then began a
frightened cry for help, with no
other boat near enough for the occu-
pants to hear. A man on the Ameri-
can shore heard the frantic appeal.
His motor boat was moored at the
edge of the stream. With it he went
to the rescue and passed the strick-
en- family a line. They were toWed
ashore, suffering nothing worse than
a"bad fright.
In November of 1886 I used
that incident in presenting to
one Of the nations leading in
dustrialists an idea of Neline
for the nation. l was convinced
then that we were drifting to-
ward the danger Of state social
= ism. Unless rescued we would
end with catastrophe; our eco
n0mic system wCuld be lost; we
would be a regimented people,
living under a bureaucracy adj
ministered by totalitarian gov
eminent.
LET SOMEONE ELSE DO IT.
That industrialist fully agreed
with my statement of the conditions
that then existed. He agreed with
what the end would be if we con-
tinued to drift. He agreed thai the
line was suggesting would pull the
threatened craft to a safe landing,
but he preferred that some one,
other than himself, raise the call for
assistance. He named others he
asked me 10 see.
/ saw each of those named, one
after another. Each agreed, as had
the first one, but none would under
take to organize and operate the
idea. Their reason was fear of re-
taliation should it be known to an in
fluentia1 minority in the government
at Washington that they had any
part in opposing the purposes of that
minority to supplant our free enter
prise system with a centrally con,
trolled state socialism.
The boat continued to drift I'M
til the rapids was just ahead.
Then those same men who
feared to do a rescue job when
it could have been done an easy
way came to the rescue of free
enterprise. 1t is harder job
now than it would have been
Ito 10 years ago, but l am hope
full they will get line to that
drifting craft, and pull it safely
to shore. believe they will sue
coed.
In a recent letter from one of
them he said: How easy and
simple the job might have been
could we have forgotten our fears
when you showed us way. But our
fears were real, and there were
very definite reasons for them"
Today we fear communism, but
another name for state socialism.
Those proposing it, some of them
the same people as those proposing
state socialism 10 years ago, work
as insidiously as did those who
frightened American business men,
and so prevented their attempting
patriotic service to the nation. And
that in the United States of Ameri-
cal