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Show THE AMERICAN WAY I MOT frfX , X MUSCLE J IN THE ARM ''yJ1' ' mm By Geor Pr-,-i, U i The experience I am about to tell, I recounted several years ago in this column. For repeating it I am making no apology, because be-cause it should be told over and over again. It is especially timely time-ly as we draw near to the National Na-tional Elections. And here is the story: Several years ago I was passing pass-ing across Columbus Circle in New York City. That is the spot where soap-box orators each night hold forth expounding a hundred and one isms, each of which according to the speaker is the sure cure for what ails America, This particular evening my attention was attracted by one of these gentry who had gathered quite an audience around him. As I approached, he reached over with his right hand and clutched the muscle of his upper left arm. "You see that muscle," he said, "Nobody gave it to me. Do you know how I got it? I got it by cxercisng. Nobody did that exercising exer-cising for me; I had to do it by myself. And if I want to get more I muscle into this arm, I am the I guy who will have to exercise to Dut it there. "Now, a lot of people down at Washington are trying to tell us that they can put muscle into our arms, that we don't have to do a single thing. Don't let them kid you. It can't be done. Don't let politicians fool you into believing believ-ing they can do things for you that only you can do for yourselves." your-selves." That homely, down-to-earth illustration il-lustration of that fellow up on that soap-box in Columbus Circle (almost the last'place where one can expect to hear such sane philosophy expounded) expressed most aptly what has been going on in these United States the past sixteen years. The government govern-ment has fooled all too many of our citizens into believing that it can put muscle into their arms by .taking muscle away from those who have exercised well, and who, in its omnipotent judgment, judg-ment, it considers have accumulated accumu-lated more than their just share of muscle. You and I know that this just can't be done. Between now and next November Novem-ber 2 Decision Day we are going to listen to a barrage of campaign oratory, both from the public platform and over the radio. Some of us will even see and hear it by television. Great promises will be made and perhaps per-haps some of the candidates will sincerely believe that those promises prom-ises can be fulfilled. The thing for you and me to do is to weigh those promises carefully. Can they be carried out without bankrupting the nation? na-tion? Respectfully, we should inquire, in-quire, "Where is the money coming com-ing from to give all these marvelous marve-lous things to the people?" We must bear in mind this one important, inescapable fact no government is able to give anything any-thing to its people which it first does not take away from its people. And if government takes away from the thrifty and in- dustrious to give to the wasteful and indolent, what happens? Inia-tiative Inia-tiative is stifled or completely destroyed, with abject poverty the end result for all. Whether the candidate be running run-ning for President or Sheriff, my vote is going to the man or woman wo-man who promises economy in government and who unequivocally unequivo-cally states he or she does not believe that government owes its people a living. Yes sir," my vote is going to candidates, who, like my unknown un-known sage philosopher of Columbus Co-lumbus Circle, profess their, belief be-lief and knowledge that to get muscle into my arm, I, myself, have got to exercise that no government,' be it federal, state or local, can do that job for me. |