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Show CURSE OF ONE-MAN PO WER H THE most deplorable feature of the H effort to increase paternalism is H the lasting effect it has upon the indi- H vidual mind. Day after day the beau- H reaucrats at Washington say to the H people of the country, "You can't do it, k leave it to us." Beaureaucracy not only H tends to destroy self-confidence, but it H discourages self-help. "Don't try to do JM anything for yourself; just pay In- H creased taxes to make up our salaries H and expenses and we will do every- H thing for you. You are poor, helpless, H ignorant, ambitionless and perhaps H dishonest, being always without hope H o fmaking a success of anything. Give M up in despair and let us tell you what H to eat, what to drink, what to wear, H what to buy and what to sell, what H price to pay and what price to re- H ceive, how to do business and how not to do it." H Those are not the exact words of M beaureaucracy, but, boiled down, that M is the necessary meaning of every- M thing the socialistic government-own- M ership, paternalistic bunch have been M handing out from Washington for the M past five years with particular en- M ergy during the past two years. M If the people of this coutnry be- M come confirmed pessimisits it will be M due largely to President Wilson. He M has assumed that only a government M official can run the railroads, the jH banks, and the finances of the govern- M monk He acts upon the assumption H that only a postmaster general can M run the telephones, telegraphs, cables, M and the postoffice department. Mr. M Wilson endeavors to do the political M thinking for the country in either M peace or war. He is, in his own opin- H ion, the only man who never thinks H wrong, and when he changes his M mind it is time for the entire country M to change. Men who do not agree M with him are "nervous and excited." M Political parties that do not agree H with him "have not had a new idea H in thirty years." H If we were to accept beaureauc- H racy's picture of this country, what a H doleful song we should sing. What H dejected countenances we should H carry to our daily tasks if we really fl believed the assumption that the sue- H cess of private industry and public H business depends upon the wisdom H concentrated in so small a group of H men. To what a low stage In civill- H zatlon must wo concede we have H fallen if we acquiesce in beaureauc- H (Continued on Page 13.) H CURSE OF ONE-MAN POWER (Continued from Page 5.) racy's view of our intellectual and moral decadence. But there is no need to be despondent. despond-ent. An optimistic spirit has pre-valledIn pre-valledIn this coutnry since the days when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Ply-mouth (Rock. Without that optimism a small band of colonists would not. have thrown off the yoke of autocracy in 1776. Without that spirit qf optimism optim-ism we should not have gridironed this continent with rails of steel. Without that optimism we should not have taken the risks Involved in sinking sink-ing oil wells and mining shafts, felling fell-ing forests and conquering a wildv ness. Without that optimism v should not have established here a" government of the people, for the people, peo-ple, by the people. iAnd it is not optimism alone that has made this nation great. Back of that spirit of hope and confidence there has been intelligence, energy and courage a capacity to do, an eagerness eag-erness to do, and a daring to do. And in the whole, long list of accomplishments accomplish-ments of the people of this country, there is not one for which bureau-racy bureau-racy can claim credit. What a sorry spectacle bureaucracy makes of itself, then, when it tells the people of this country that they are incompetent or dishonest and must be guided in all their activities by men who never made a success of any productive enterprise. en-terprise. And what a sorry spectacle the people of this country will make of themselves If they Btand for the Insult. |