THE ROT AT THE ROOTS
The Rot at the Roots SENATORS Hiram Johnson, Borah, Norris, Nye and Frazier,with Gifford Pinchot and others, have caucused, at Washington, resolved to push the Boulder Dam project in the 70th...
...Self-government are involved, as never before in this country's career, the status and opportunity of factory, store, farm and home—through control of fuel, energy and water...
...Borah, Mr...
...The Power Trust has that spoke...
...It is in perpetual organization, responding to call at the pressing of a button...
...And its business is to kill what it cannot seize and control, every time...
...THERE NEVER BEFORE WAS A PERIOD IN WHICH THE VITAL PRINCIPLE OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT WAS IN GREATER JEOPARDY THAN NOW...
...It has shown its ability to defeat Boulder Dam or any other particular and similar enterprise, national or private, that threatens its monopoly...
...That's the great national issue, simple, definite, paramount, whether so recognized by the mass or not...
...The great national issue is as to Whether the people shall or shall not have and hold the limitless, undeveloped power resources of their country...
...But, why should the progressives, in Congress or out of it, specialize on Boulder Dam...
...The party who moves the spoke turns the whole wheel, at option.' The people of Imperial Valley may drown with their crops...
...There is no significance whatever in "issuing a challenge" to the Power Trust, in respect of any of its particular acts...
...God forbid...
...A short skirmish, with the scattered outposts of the great issue driven in...
...and, to select as leader some fellow who has never been known to stand for anything worth while, or who has habitually played safety-first, whenever anything worth while was the paramount issue...
...Beside it, Al Smith's religion, McAdoo's dryness, Jim Reed's skill in hunting down corruption in Congress, the yearning for a little more "kick" in beer, Coolidge's attitude toward corn-growers, Nicaragua, Mexico, etc., are of minor importance, comparatively inconsequential, as surely as that the power that runs the government will run all of its propositions...
...A mere sample...
...It will always be on the exact spot, on time, fully equipped...
...The spirits of Roosevelt, La Follette, Lincoln, Jefferson and all the other great ones who loved principle for principle's sake and were courageous, incorruptible and unswerving in their deeds for it, cry out against that indifference to fundamentals which means dry-rot in the roots of free government...
...The greatest of principles is the paramount issue...
...A fundamental principle asleep is easily smothered or perverted...
...It is well enough...
...Divided we fall...
...It is concentrated financial and political power, scientifically beating segregated community sentiment piecemeal...
...Yet, watch next year's conventions of the great parties attempt to lead the nation by its nose hither and thither...
...Very precious things and things worth "eternal vigilance," are they not...
...But, what shall be done to rescue a great fundamental principle of free govern-* ment from drowning...
...And the great old Democracy of Jefferson, Jackson, Cleveland and Wilson to bite and rend itself over the powerful New Yorker's Catholicism,, shed bitter tears because one of its legs is soaking in alcohol and the other as dry as a salted herring...
...Put your finger upon any great project for development of national resources and you will find there the Power Trust and its tools, already located and ready for business...
...One party to brag that it has, without any aid from the Almighty, fattened everybody with abnormal material prosperity, to glorify the self-evident proposition that law should be enforced as to personal liquor liberty and to select a leader bound not to conflict with "the interests," including such as the Power Trust...
...Meanwhile, the influences of the Power Trust, in solid phalanx, go marching down the straight and narrow path to looting of the country's fuel, power and water...
...The Rot at the Roots SENATORS Hiram Johnson, Borah, Norris, Nye and Frazier,with Gifford Pinchot and others, have caucused, at Washington, resolved to push the Boulder Dam project in the 70th Congress and "issued a challenge" to the Power Trust, which beat the Dam measure in the late session...
...Unless the magnitude of that issue is recognized and the patriotic, progressive sentiment of the nation united and led to battle for a vital principle of popular government, the Power Trust will certainly make the principle of government of, by and for the people something to laugh at—a sort of obsolete farce-comedy obsession, fought and sacrificed for by Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wilson and other mere visionaries...
...is true...
...In this case of Power Trust vs...
...Norris and all ye other progressives, Boulder Dam is but a spoke in the wheel...
...Solidified for just one purpose, backed by the strongest financial and political combinations, the Power Trust would take from the people self-government and use the people's most valuable possessions in the governing of them...
Vol. 19 • April 1927 • No. 4
