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Show oo I GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP AT PANAMA Perhaps those Americans who have visited tho Isthmus of Panama and make complaint of extortions, incivilities incivili-ties and inefficiencies on tho part of everyone whom they met there do not know that they wero dealing all of the time with omnipotent government. govern-ment. Tho canal strip is the best object leBson the world has ever had or 1b likely to have of government ownership, owner-ship, government management and government trading, Government owns all of the land. Government omploys nearly all of the Inhabitants. Government owns and operates the stores, tho hotels, the baths, the resorts, re-sorts, the amusements, the hospitals. Government owns the railroad,. Government Gov-ernment appoints the police and the judges and government rules in most cases without reference to law recognized rec-ognized anywhere else on earth. If government were tho infallible agency that so many anti-Domocrats of the United States think It is tho canal zone should be tho most perfectly per-fectly regulated place on earth. It is nothing of the sort. It Ib a tyranny that reveals in the twentioth century practically all of tho characteristics I of tyrannies in tho first contury, such as favoritism, graft, Insolence, subserviency sub-serviency to power and contempt for the rights of men To dig tho canal expeditiously and to establish efficient Banitary measures meas-ures it was believed to bo necessary to create a despotism. Necessity is always the excuao for tyranny. Whether it exlated 'in this case or not need not bo discussed. The point of chief interest is the fact that the despotism has carried with It tho most comprehensive 3ystom of monopolistic governmental bossiuni that has been known to tho modern world. In the United States wo have winked wink-ed at'thone usurpations because wo have believed that as a result of them a groat military work could be most expeditiously completed. It was not thought that any dangerous precedents prece-dents wero bolng made, for the enterprise en-terprise was regarded as a war measure, meas-ure, and its execution seemed to require re-quire summary power. On the Isthmus Itself tho thousands who have been engaged upon the work have accepted tho absolutism as boncficiul to thomselves in various vari-ous vays. Tho despot was a good paymaster, and, llko many an ancient tyrant he provided amusements and othor 'diversions. For money or for I pleasure men have been known to part with their liberties not for a few years only, but forevor. Americans who visit the Isthmus 1 aro shocked by the conditions existing I there although perfectly conscious of 1 the energy with which tho work is being .prosecuted Thoy see govorn-! govorn-! ment at its best and government at its worst. Government is at Us best when it carries through a worthy enterprise that is too groat for private effort Government is at Its worst when fo. any reason or any excuse it opoiates tho thousand and one industries that properly belong to private enterprise. St J-ouls Republic, "I suppose you have an old ago , pensiop, Mr. Kelly?" "Ould age pension? Faith an' OI ! wuddn't touch wan, the bad luck thev brlngrr Lu at io. number of ould ago pcnslonors beS dyin Ivorv vear!" I ondon Opinion. |