MAY 1925
THE UNITED AMERICAN
and operated competitive railways, howled and sang his
lamentations with a text accentuated with expletives
and strong invectives at the indifference, lack of con
cern for the public and individual welfare, and down
right discourtesy that promptly invaded our railway
system when the government took over the railroads
for the duration of the war. Such a change. It was the
same employees at the same stand. Yesterday smiling
and eager to wait upon you and furnish every infor
mation to make your journey pleasant and help you to
locate and speed up your freight. Today sullen, im
patient, cross and caustic, keeping you waiting and
waiting and no inward or outward evidence of interest
in your requirements.
Such was the immediate effect to a large extent
upon the personnel of the great public arteries of
America when they passed from private to public
control.
The spirit of public ownership service in Europe has
nothing on the spirit that invaded public ownership
service in America when that situation was forced
upon us through a war emergency.
What if it had become permanent?
Sure, it was to the liking of all the railroad em
ployees. Every fireman, brakeman, locomotive engi-
; neer and conductor was for it. It gave them greater
' authority and they did not have to give so much at-
i tention to the public. With them the spirit of our
democracy, so far as service goes, was evidently only
I skin deep. They actually became so calloused that they
in no time seemed to find enjoyment in individual dis
comfiture. They had higher pay and. worked less for
their money. Why should they worry that the opera
tion of the railroads cost the government millions over
and above earnings.
♦
♦
♦
If the spirit of our Democracy was more spiritual
and less material, it is possible to believe that public
ownership might work to advantage. But while human
nature in spite of training is inclined as we know it,
the present system of pitting private initiative against
private initiative in a competitive field, under strict
government control, is far preferable and serves the
public interest best.
In a recent debate H. H. Stallard, the chief for the
Non-Partisan League propaganda in Oregon, is quoted
as having declared:
The interests of the people would be served best when all
I industries which affect a large number of people were state-
| owned and controlled and the president of a state bank paid
I the same salary as the janitor of the institution.
Do you believe that?
If you do, you have not studied American history,
political and social economy in this and other countries
sufficiently to be regarded as serious in your belief.
When man shall be prevented from reaping the
fruits of his labor, from receiving a fair measure of
earnings from his investment, the incentive to take
chances and to struggle beyond the point of endurance
to achieve the objective shall have been removed, and
mankind will lose the benefits that accrue from indi
vidual endeavors. Then the people of America will
rapidly degenerate and in no time reach the common
Page Seven
level of the common people of the autocratic states of
Europe where individual initiative has no chance.
♦
*
*
The achievements of America constitute the marvel
of history of all ages. The transformation of this
continent in the last century is the best argument in
favor of a government designed only to regulate the
affairs of men and to permit individual ingenuity and
enterprise to have every legitimate opportunity for
expansion. Change that plan and the aspect of Amer
ica will be changed and individual ambition will have
lost its impetus.
HE DID NOT RESPECT HIS PARENTS
UTTE NEVER paid any respect to his parents,” was the'
•Tl comment of a teacher of Nathan Leopold, one of the
youthful Chicago criminals, sentenced for life to the peni
tentiary for the murder of a little lad. Here, perhaps, was
one of the explanations for the fiendish crime. The district
attorney stated that there are few criminals who come from
American homes of the normal type where the father insists
that the children love, respect and obey the mother, and the
mother insists that the children love, respect and obey their
father. “The only constituted authority of law that a child
knows is the authority of its father and mother,” he explained.
“If that child grows up without being taught to respect and
obey the commands and laws of its father and mother, it
will never quite sympathize or understand that the laws of
the social group and the constituted authority of government
are things to be respected! This lack of respect for parental and
school authority and the laws of the home and of society is
responsible for a great percentage of the crime in this country.
If the master of the house had known in what watch the
thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not
have suffered his house to be broken through. — Christ.
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