LETTER: TLS to Leach.
To Henry Goddard Leach
Editor of The Forum
Oemler, Marie Conway. Typed letter signed, “Marie Conway Oemler” to Henry Goddard Leach (addressed “Dear Sir”), February 9, 1928; one leaf, recto only; with signature and one correction in black ink; creased; light edgewear; minor pencil notations by recipient.
Oemler writes to Henry Goddard Leach, editor of The Forum, in apology for taking so long to reply, and offering her opinion on political matters; namely, republican versus democratic forms of government. In part:
It is difficult to arrive at a just conclusion in such momentous questions. Both sides tell the truth – and neither is willing to tell it at all. It is highly important that politicians keep inept and soiled hands off new machinery requiring expert technical management; but it is just as important – maybe more important – that the natural heritage of a whole people shall not be given up to priate greed.
I do not think that citing government control of the Shipping Board and railroads during wartime is a fair example: no one would cite the acts of a person temporarily insane as fair example of the conduct of that same person while in full control of his normal faculties…
One might as well insist that children shouldn’t be sent to school, because they can’t 12read and write, as to insist that a people shouldn’t try out any new machinery of government that might make for better things. The only way to discover whether any new idea or process is right, is to try it out. I cannot believe that the government of the United States – which began as a new experiment in democracy – cannot handle, successfully, the electrical powers of the States just as it can handle the Post Office and the Federal Reserve Banks.
On the whole, I agree with Mr. Norman Hapgood. Government control of our electrical power may mean costly mistakes, at first – but it will learn by those very mistakes. Private control, which means undermining of republican ideals, may be more efficient, at first; but I think I may cite Germany before the war as a perfect example of efficiency without faith and with no other ideal than itself.
Marie Conway Oemler (1875-1932) was a prolific American novelist and poet. Her most successful book, Slippy McGee (1917), sometimes known as Butterfly Man, was made into a movie in 1923, becoming one of the first films in which future film star Colleen Moore appeared. In 1948 Slippy McGee was again the inspiration for a movie (starring Donald Barry).
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