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Show THE SEARCHLIGHT Deseret News (Continued from preceding page) froth in their perusal of ancient history. Were they to make even a cursory study they would discover that it was the unceasing concentration of vast wealth into the hands of a ruling clique, coupled with the complete impoverishment of the common people** that destroyed the moral fiber of Rome and made the empire an easy prey for barbarians surging at its borders. The free News bread quartet was merely would also learn an emergency that measure —a palliative—tossed to the bewildered Roman citizenry to save them from immediate slavery arising from debt and a_ breakdown of the Roman economy. It also staved off rebellion by citizens of Rome, who wondered what worse could befall them at the hands of barbarian conquerors than was _ inflicted on them by their own countrymen. The ‘‘cireus”’ of the Roman Caesars, who participated in the dire exploitation of the commoners, was only the ancient equivalent of distracting propavanda such as is published by daily newspapers to befuddle the public in 1945. The merciless concentration of wealth in an- cient Rome went to such terrible extremes that whole provinces became the property of one man. Roman currency was contracted and manipulated until the circulation of money was reduced toa fraction of to 60%*. the The people’s commoners to Rome. flocked instead bread economy. needs. Usury were rates went They moneyless. The Caesars gave them “free” of restitution and an _ equitable The movement for ‘‘cradle-to-grave’’ social security in the United States is not com*The sharks identical in its own rate establishment News until the Searchlight practice two years ago. kT] Where fares the wealth land, broke to hastening accumulates, and loan favored permitted by up the the Deseret vicious ill a prey, men decay. Princes and lords may flourish or may fade— A breath has made them, as a breath may make. But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride— When once destroyed can never be supplied.” Editorials parable at all. Unlike the ‘‘free bread and circus’’ diversion of Roman Caesars, modern social security is not a subterfuge. Rather, it 1s a frank and open recognition that private enterprise in America, by itself is totally incapable of providing a floor of decent living for every citizen below which no American will be obliged to go. Indeed, the stabilizing influence of social security under the expanded program contemplated by the Wagner-Murray bill, may yet turn out to be the savior of capitalism and private enterprise. Social security may be the key to the preservation of private enterprise by providing adequate living and protective standards. Social though benefit security provides for an _ arbitrary limited re-distribution of wealth for the of all the people. It attempts a partial de-concentration of the accumulations of exploitthat, if left to itself, would—indeed ive enterprise already has—reached dangerous proportions. Social security, therefore, is an effort launched by far-sighted Americans to escape the fate of Rome by a timely correction of the manifest evils of private enterprise—evils that multiply into of wealth concentration from the undue relatively few hands. Other attempts of the Deseret News to belittle and deride the fine humanitarian program, and the political stability resulting from expanded social security, are equally devoid of They come as the last merit and good sense. resort of a shallow twister of trick words who, in the absence of valid argument and human feelings, resorts to deliberate misrepresentations and cheap wisecracks. His editorials attacking the Wagner-Murray bill are captioned: ‘‘In Case Your Dreams Are About Security’’; ‘‘Riding a One-Way Ticket to Statism’’; ‘‘Welfarism Buys You With Your Own Money’’; and ‘‘Three Billion Dollars Worth of Pills’’. The third item is an epic of misrepresenta- tion and misinformation, put out as calculated The fourth editorial caption, scare publicity. ‘Three Billion Dollars Worth of Pills’’, is a (Continued on following page) |