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Show "Our Vanishing Freedom" By MEKLE THORPE The ug'ly toad, it is written, sometimes wears a precious pre-cious gem in its forehead. Adversity has its sweet uses, Who knows but tiiiat perhaps this miserable depression, bringing- home to us the burden of taxation, may not also bring a realization of why so much is being ex pended for governmental activities, and thus an understanding un-derstanding of the fact that we are rushing to a despotism des-potism much worse than that which we threw off ir 1776. The cost of the depression in misery and money will have been well expended if it brings the average aver-age citizen to a serious contemplation of what government gov-ernment should do and what it should refrain from doing. What is government, anyway? It is a social compact com-pact or agreement between individuals whereby certain cer-tain rules in the interest of all shall be enforced. In this country such a compact was made primarily to protect the individual citizen against despotism, whether that despotism be a ruler, or a majority, or an organized minority. Our government should be, therefore, a simple thing, a clear and obvious medhan-ism, medhan-ism, devoted to simple and direct tasks. What has happened to make our once simple machinery ma-chinery a complex, heterogeneous, intricate affair, costing nearly one-third of the wages of all our labors, la-bors, the work and sweat of one day out of three, to pay for the right to. work and live? What 'has happened happen-ed to that simple machinery, that today it has dependent depend-ent upon it for their livelihood eighteen to twenty millions of our citizens? Before it is too late, we should consider why and how we have wandered into this predicament. Why should the cost of government mount continuously upward, up-ward, when the cost of nearly everything else is coming com-ing down? Why. when we are making 'labor more effective ef-fective and producing more wealth than ever before, should a growing proportion of our income be expended expend-ed for the management of public affairs? Industry is cutting costs and corners, as are individuals. Science and invention bridge gaps of both time and space. Our ingenuity affords more leisure, more education, more facilities for comfort and diversion. But a large part of this hard won leisure, comfort and diversion, and even the necessities of life, is more and more lost to the individual in-dividual because of its diversion to the cost of government. gov-ernment. Are we paying the just price of democracy or are we paying for something else? |