It should be realized that the mistakes and delays in our shipping and airplane production during the first year of the war were probably not so much the fault of the government at Washington and the administration of affairs in these departments, as they were the inherent defects of the Government itself doing the work, and these effects were overcome only by the heroic efforts of Mr. Schwab, Mr. Ryan, and the other men whom President Wilson wisely chose to insure the success of these war measures as a patriotic necessity.

Our present postal service, the most necessary, next to the public schools, of all the means for the formation of community feeling and public opinion essential to a democracy, has been under the charge of deterioration and inadequate service for the past ten years.  Also it must be remembered that the government-controlled systems of telegraph and telephone in the various European countries are unspeakably bad, according to the standards of service to which we have become accustomed through long years of efficient private management.  Therefore, in the light of this experience the taking over of our systems by the government has its justification only as a war necessity.  As a matter of permanent policy, it would be an entirely different and very serious matter.  The marked deterioration that almost immediately appeared in the telegraph service, is sufficient proof of this fact.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 9:  Quoted from an editorial in the (daily) New York Evening Call, issue for August 29, 1918.]

[Footnote 10:  “The advantages which might be derived from a single united administration of all the railroads are doubtless somewhat analogous to those we derive from the post office, but in most other respects the analogy fails completely and fatally.  Railway traffic cannot be managed by pure routine like that of the mails.  It is fluctuating and uncertain, depending upon the seasons of the year, the demands of the locality, or events of an accidental character.  Incessant watchfulness, alacrity, and freedom from official routine are required on the part of a traffic manager, who shall always be ready to meet the public wants.”  W.S.  Jevons (reprinted in Selected Readings in Public Finance, by C.J.  Bullock, p. 103).]

V

THE TRUE ANTIDOTE FOUND IN CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT

There is one term, the use of which is anathema to the Socialist, and that term is “human nature.”  He never wishes to meet or discuss this in an argument, and with good reason, for it has been shown that it is only by ignoring human nature entirely, both in theory and in practice, that Socialism can make even the semblance of a reasonable showing.  But another term, which the Socialist especially likes, is “co-operation,” and that is one to which he has no manner of right.  Cooperation is a social movement, the impulse for which comes from within the human heart, while Socialism as already stated, is essentially a working together only as the result of outward direction and dictation.  The first is the act of a free man; the latter results from the obedience of a political and mental slave.