The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., May 01, 1925, Image 5

THE
UNITED
rican
A MAGAZINE OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP
Devoted to the Cause of
Americanization, Assimilation and Group Elimination; Pointing the way to a Constitutional
Americanism, to Equality in Citizenship, and a better understanding
between Native born and Foreign born.
Vol. 3
21
Number 8
May, 1925
THE GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP FOLLY
SOME EUROPEAN IDEAS WE HAVE DONE WELL WITHOUT
THERE IS ONE feature connected with public owner­
ship of privately owned and operated public utili­
ties that is rarely brought out, and never by the ex­
ponents of the public ownership idea, and that is that
the government does not tax its own property, and if
the great tax-paying utilities’ corporations ceased to
exist and that if their enormous enterprises fell under
national control, the millions of revenue which is now
collected from these sources would have to be obtained
through other channels.
An illustration of how enormous are the taxes, the
railroads are paying into the treasuries of community,
state and nation is given in an item in “The Earth”
where the editor in giving the startling figures inci­
dentally reflects on what would happen if our govern­
ment should lose this source of tax earning by saddling
the railroad on the back of the people and forcing this
enormous private capital out of its present field of in­
vestment :
The Santa Fe Railway pays on an average of $56,000 a
day for taxes. Get that — a day. The operating expenses
of the road are $475,000 a day, not counting taxes. Of this
$475,000, employes get $280,000 a day. Fuel to keep the road
going costs $59,000 a day. Materials and supplies cost $95,000
a day. The money to take care of these enormous costs
comes from the transportation of freight and passenger
traffic mainly. A small part of it comes from the transporta­
tion of United States mail. The prices which the company
charges for transportation is fixed by government commis­
sions of the public’s selection, federal and state.
Regarding Santa Fe railroad taxes, which go to the com­
munities along the line—$56,000 a day, of some $20,000,000
a year: If the Federal Government ever takes the rail­
roads for operation, payment of these taxes will cease, as
Uncle Sam pays no taxes on his own property. We are speaking
here only of the Santa Fe’s taxes. All the railroads of the
country pay a total of $1,000,000 taxes a day, or $365,000,000
a year. Tax payers would find that staggering amount added
to their present tax charge, under government ownership.
The agitator who is for government ownership does
not discuss this phase of the situation when he rails
against every form of privately conducted industry and
privately owned and operated public utility. He does
not deal in facts. Facts would defeat his cause. De­
ception is his main stock in trade.
People from the old world should not be led into be­
lieving in public ownership in America as easily as
native Americans, because they know from first hand
the inefficiency that follows in the wake of government
proprietorship. They know that it is a rank pork-barrel
system, to use an apt American phrase. They know that
it is a spineless snail-like and cumbersome agency of
public service in every field, void of that snap, courtesy
and eagerness to meet the public and individual demand
to which we are accustomed to in America. They know
that it hardly ever keeps abreast of progress and is
never known to venture into new and virgin fields to
wait a long time for a margin on the investment,
which necessarily depends on industrial and agri­
cultural developments and private initiative. With­
out these, there can be no drawing power for popular
settlement, rural or urban.
*
*
♦
Did you ever stop to consider the contrast, for in­
stance, between the service given on the old world
railways, government owned and operated, as compared
with the service given on the competitive railway lines
in America, privately owned and privately operated,
under strict government control and regulation?
Well, if you never did, let us take a little excursion
together, into the past, as we know it, those of us who
are candid enough to reason fairly and allow our
conscience to be the guide. All things being equal, let
us measure the past by the present and, as there is no
measuring rod that’s better than that to gain the
intelligence that is necessary for our future course of
reasoning, we should be able to ascertain, beyond a
reasonable doubt, that the American system of oper­
ating public utilities is far superior to anything that