| Show SOCIALISTIC TENDENCIES In framing constitutions and enactIng enact-ing laws great care should be exercised exer-cised to avoid pandering to the socialistic social-istic tendencies and demands of the times Governments are Instituted and laws should fbe enacted to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of those rights and privileges which belong to all who obey the law There is a growing disposition among certain classes of working people and labor organizations to depend upon the 0 > + > J < i 0 municipal county state or national government as the case may be to provide the means of subsistence for those who need it either by giving them employment or by appropriations from the public funds That this is erroneous in theory and improper in practice ought to be perceived per-ceived without the light of lengthy argument ar-gument It is not the province of government gov-ernment to support the people or any class of the people It is the duty of all classes of people in proportion to their ability to support the government When citizens who are out of employment em-ployment and are willing yet unable to obtain it are reduced to a condition of poverty it may appear very natural for them to appeal to the governmental governmen-tal authorities for aid The spirit and usages of monarchial governments lead to that idea and are responsible for much of the tendency in that direction among people in the United States who have come here from abroad But it is foreign to the genius of our institutions insti-tutions and should not be encouraged The protective and bounty system that has grown up under Republicanism Republican-ism also leads to the socialistic heresy to which we offer these objections It fosters the idea that one of the functions func-tions of government is to promote the development of a given class of Industries To devote funds derived from public taxation to private purposes pur-poses To benefit selected sections To protect capitalists in ventures that may afford high wages to operatives To prevent competition so that prices may be kept up for the enrichment of the protected class at the expense of the mass of consumers If governments govern-ments may do all this they may also furnish employment or pay out public money to indigent laborers The Coxeyism of 1894 was an expression expres-sion of the Idea that the government owes laboring people a living The same notion crops out in the demands made by working men upon the local authorities for employment And the danger of this lies in the leaning towards to-wards these demands by officeSeeking and officeholding politicians who look to what is called the labor vote for their support in their intrigues for place and power Public works of course should be carried on to the extent of the public ability and the public necessity Fair prices should be paid on them for labor performed Eight hours for a days work on public institutions is all right I The public interest will be subserved by the employment of men who can reasonably be put to the public service But the idea must not be acceded to for a moment that the government national or local is in duty bound either to furnish employment because hands are idle or donate money to private enterprises that labor may be sustained I Paternalism government Is the very antipodes of the democratic principle I prin-ciple on which this republic is founded If it is permitted to grow in the di j I rection which dt is taking it will result j I in the subversion of our republican institutions in-stitutions The thoughtful and consistent I con-sistent among the citizens of this I country should set their faces against It and stand fast toy the spirit of the constitution and the great axiom of one of Its most distinguished supporters Equal and exact justice to all special privileges to none |
