Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1949-08-18
Nation Of Mendicants

THOSE OF EUROPE who first
! sought liberty and opportunity
and settled on the eastern seaboard
Of America were hardy, ener-
getic, capable and self-sufficient
class of sons and daughters from
many nations and of several races.
Their descendants, American
born, possessing the virtues of their
parents, were the pioneers who
pushed westward through the east
ern mountains, across the great
central valley, over the western
mountains to the Pacific. They
turned the sod and felled the forests
to create the American farms; they
built towns and cities in which
millions could live and prosper;
they erected schools and churches
that they, and their descendants,
might enjoy a culture they had not
known; they built factories in
which to utilize n urces of the
land they had conquered.
They did those things on their
own. They did not ask for, or
expect, help from any source.
They achieved by their own
energy and their own capabili-
ties.
From the dangers and hardships
they endured without complaint
those pioneer ancestors of ours
carved for themselves and built a
nation, the mightiest and most pros
porous on earth to-day, in which
their progeny enjoy the worlds
highest standard of living of this
or any previous time.
From those pioneer ancestors
from whom we have inherited so
much in wealth, in comfort, in cul-
ture and comfortable living, it
could naturally be presumed we
should have inherited some of their
virtues-their energy. ability, and
self sufficiency. But have we?
They asked for no help in ac-
cOmplishing their tasks. To-day
more and again more of us,
their descendants, are not will
ing to carry on when doing SO
means work, effort and thrift.
Millions of the descendants Of
the hardy, capable, self-suffi-
cient, thrifty pioneers are de-
manding a hand-Out from gov
eminent. They hope for, and
are being promised, govern
mental care from the cradle to
the grave, with no help on their
part needed.
Those descendants of a race of
hardy, capable, self sufficient,
thrifty, pioneers want comfort, yes,
but they do not want to work for
that comfort; they want culture,
but they expect it to be handed to
them without effort on their part;
they want the pleasures and the
good things of life, but they want
these provided for them by govern
ment, while they bask in the sun
shine of park benches.
The only compensation the ever
increasing number of gimme"
mendicants offer for the luxuries
they ask for is votes, but for those
promised votes our elected public
officials seem willing to sacrifice
the wealth, the liberties, the op-
portunities that were built for us
by our pioneer ancestors.
To pay for votes they would tear
down the structure we have inheri-
ted. 1t is only by continued exertion,
by an ever-watchful scrutiny of
events happening from day to day
in Washington, coupled with prompt
protests when called for, that we
can maintain the liberties, the adj
vantages, the opportunities we have
inherited.
1t is not alone the impoverished
or the improvident who are asking
government handouts, but the mil
lions include the "haves" as well as
the "have nots," the young as well
as those of mature years. Many,
all too many, government checks
are going to the well-to-do and the
wealthy, and to those young enough
to work for what they want.
The people Of each state
awards a hero's crown TO their
representatives in Washington
who succeed in bringing home
a slab of that presumably
notwithstanding" bacon,
a chunk Of coin from the federal
treasury.
The people glory in supposedly
looting that nations strong box. AS
an example: California has sue
ceeded in securing many millions
from Washington for irrigation and
flood control projects of value only
to California. II all represented, as
the people believed, something
for-nothing." The fact is the people
of the state pay for 1t all and more. |
For each 81. the national govern
ment spends on those California
projects, it collects from the people
of the state $l.28. There must be a
rake off for the bureaucrats.
England needs American food
and rau NJ a tortoI, a.. ...lt-I !