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Show oo LEWIS FORECASTS HOLD RELEA WASHINGTON, Feb, 21. Senator Lewis of Illinois, speaking in tho senate sen-ate today, declared the administration railroad bill is a forerunner of government govern-ment control over various public utilities util-ities and predicted that tho question would be the great domestic issue in the next presidential campaign. "Let us not deceive ourselves as to tho meaning of this measure," Senator Sen-ator Lewis declared. "This is tho bo-ginning bo-ginning of the government taking the railroads as a government agency. The roads will never be permitted to return to the former state of personal control for private benofiL At the same time this country takes over the railroads it will take the telegraph and telephone privileges and then the products for fuel, particularly the lands of coal and oil and put these under government direction. All Utilities to Be Protected. "All agencies of this nature in this republic, necessary to the public welfare wel-fare of man, will be taken by the government gov-ernment as a necessary protection of the republic." The railroads, Senator Lewis declared, de-clared, confessed their inability to meet the situation and by surrendering surrender-ing to the government admitted that the one power capaWe to carry on the work under the existing conditions was the government itself. "The government now conducts the roads and directs thorn as the proof of its power and ability to do so,' he asserted. "Private ownership of rail-raods rail-raods failed us for the purpose of sending supplies to ships, or for transport trans-port of soldiers for foreign service. What would be the calamity under private ownership if enemies were at our gates and in possession of our country? "Let us announce that the United States is a government and shall assume as-sume governmental responsibilities in protecting all government agencies of human welfare from being a monopoly of private pillage." If this is done, Senator Lewis declared, de-clared, any Bolsheviki uprising in the United States will be avoided. |