The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1912. A FALSE ISSUE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 98, 25 April 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLE R. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1912. A FALSE ISSUE.

Li the course of a speech delivered at New York a few weeks ago, President iaft gave an admirable exposition ol the basic fallacy of socialism. He remarked that it had been said, and was a common platform expression, that it was well to prefer the man above the dollar, as if the preservation of property rights had some other purpose than the assistance to and the uplifting of human rights. Private property was not established in order to gratify the love of some material wealth or capital. It was" established as an instrumentality in the progress of civilisation and the uplifting of man, and it was equality ol opportunity that private property promoted hy assuring to man the results of his own labour, thrift, and selfrestraint, When, therefore, the demagogue mounted the, platform and anion need that he preferred the man tbove the dollar, he ought to be interrogated as to what he means thereby —whether he is in favour of abolish,ng the right, of the institution of private property and of taking away from die poor man the opportunity to be:omc wealthy by the use of the abilities that Cod has given him, the cultivation of the virtues with which practice of self-restraint and tlie exercise of moral courage will fortify him. President Taft went on to say that he was far from asserting that the development of business, the discovery of lew and effective methods of using capital, had not produced problems which called for additional action by die Government to prevent the abuses if the concentration of wealth and the combination of capital. Moreover, in order to attempt investment America iiad d oubtless in times past permitted the State to pledge to individuals privileges more permanent and of wider scope than the public interest demanded, and they had permitted the establishment of corporations and the acquisition of power through the corrupting use of money in politics, so as at times to give to a few dangerous control in legislation and government. But during the last ten years much progress against such abuses had been made in this regard.