The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-10-01

of thirty billions annually And more are being hired subsidized every day.
 Quitting all federal and state employees and the three and a half million in the armed services still leaves than twenty-five million who draw checks from the government
 With the exception of veterans ahd retired civil service workers not single group in the cate gory which includes twenty-five million recipients eligible in 1882 for government payments Its members did not collect dime from the federal government Before 1882 they got along for 40 years without money from the U S. Treasury. No one would deny aid to the blind, nor to the needy aged; but few who really understand big, central govern- ment would give it power the blind and aged.
 Something has happened to the independence and moral outlook of vast numbers of the people ot the United something which did not exist twenty years ago Most of remember the powerfully nov ing U. s. Army recruiting poster displayed at our postoffices during the last Christmas season. Give us it read the faith and of our forefathers You don't need detective legislative investigat- ing committee to offer proof of how Tar we have srayed from forefathers courage and faith Each days newspaper brings fresh evidence of shattered moral standards college athletes betraying their schoolmates' loyalty by selling out to crooked gam bers; alarming rise of narcotic addlcts among school children; city streets where no woman Is safe at night.
 Thse things are sensational and they shock us But the really shocking fact is that we are no longer moved by other and widely prevalent departures from the moral values of our forefathers Instead of security by faith and courage political rack eteers offer synthetic security without either when twenty-five million people, in addition to those in
 rybollx Or in dpneQOeQt upon government payments American characoer anu moral fiber have been weakened.
 This dependence upon the government nursing bottle has prevailed in Great Britain longer than u has here and of its effects upon the British neope have been incisively analysed by Sir Ernest Benn He reports that the traditional British respect for law and order has suffered "a serious deerlora- tion" In 1910 one in every 5000 Britons was con- vcted of an ndictable offense By 1858, It was one in every 165 By 1948, it was one ln every so. It IS difficult, perhaps impossible Sir Ernest says to reestablish by argument any direct connection be- tween the serious change of mind towards moral aXly and the silver spooning of Welfare State put lew will fail to feel that the two things nave oellhite relationship one to the other. The working oi lhe Welfare State is perhaps seen in it's most striking form when thorugh the machinery of the ChhoIehs Court the black sheep of the family can enjoy ln
 
 better than those available to his law-abdng oroteS and sisters It is almost true to say that there IS no need for personal character individual conscience in The Welfare State, but on the contrary Ill many respects honesty is positive handicap
 Looking at the picture whole this un- pleasant state of affairs is in the very nature Of things A big central pool containing nearly half ffhe atioral income is surrounded by 5eooo0o0 peo- ple striving to establish claims upon it and, at the same time searching for excuses not to contribute to it. To describe nation Of dole-drawers and tax-dodgers IS merely to face the horrid facts
 Looked at in this way The Welfare State is in a hopeless position it may be compared to bank with no willing depositors and every customer anxious for an overdraft. Nothing lower than nation of angels could make success of a society with such a constitution: perhaps the best that can be said of us is that we have become nation of escaplsts, and escapism does not make for morality or strength of character.
 So it is obvious everywhere that when central government grows big in responsibility and in power over the people, it grows corrupt, and its adnln- strators go mad So, too, when personal incentive and responsibility are removed frcm people, that people suffers a moral collapse