The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-05-10
FIRST PRIZE PAPER.

THE TRIBUNE copy of Capturing Locomo-
tive" will appear at another time.
FIRST PRIZE PAPER.
Human liberty is free thought and free speech
| and free ballot. 1t matters not whether the
man is born in a giIded palace or in low
matched cottage, he should have the same priv
| ileges so long as he obeys the laws of his coun-
try, without any miserable distinctions of an
cestry estate.
The great principle that all are created equal
is the broad and only foundation of human lib
erty. The first great demand of mans nature
is 10 be free. and to have an opportunity 10 bet
| ter his conditions.
One may seek it in one direction and another
in another, but the end sought is the same.
| With liberty and opportunity men are alone
able TO work ont their own destiny.
Human liberty establishes among men an
equality of natural rights the gift of COM
| mon Father, and by its operations whatever
! gifts of external nature have been provided for
! the use of men descend like the rain and sum
| shine upon all alike. The struggle for exist
ence is going Oh like terrific battle every day,
with its thousands of killed and wounded and
missing, and with its dreadful choice between
/ hunger and crime, between virtue and vice.
| As long as conditions are allowed to exist which
| force tho wage earnerS, who form the great
mass of our people, down to the lowest possible
standard of life, we can never expect to have q
| free people.
Poverty" says Carlyle. is the hell of which
we all are afraid" There are grim hunger and
shame, and with them pestilence holds sway.
| The poverty in all our great cities, we'll as
throughout our landlord and mortgaged from
tiers, is year by year growing more general and
| terrible by the combination of capital to crush
| labor.
To crafty this lust for gain the faces of the
! poor ground. the widow and the orphan
robbed, the moral and spiritual nature is
Il Cd osyili &c al srtn AnlI
pretense, patriotism into sham and religion
| into hypocrisy.
| At every corner Of our cities stands the
| saloon with its stream of the water of death
| flowing to destroy the people. 1t alike turns
| the crank of state and feeds crime.
| The indifference of society makes the case
| almost hopeless. What satire upon our
civilization that this Republic, upon whose
altar our fathers surrendered their fondest
hopes and sacrificed their lives for its glorifca-
tion and its freedom should fall prey to greed
| and selfishness.
| Tho foundations of society and State are
quivering with pent-up forces that glow under
meath.
Compare the conditions of our Southern
slaves before the war with that dim-eyed pale
| checked, gant-formed army of sweaters who
| live, penned up like animals, within the walls
of our city tenement houses, and then say what
| is the measure of human liberty. Freedom is
not name, but a condition.
Who should enjoy 1t? All OF Gods creatures
who love freedom. justice. wisdom, and honor
and revere the old flag. In the beginning, we
are told by Holy Writ, the all-bountiful
Creator gave to man dominion over all the
earth and over the fish Of the sea and the fowls
of the air and over everything that moveth
upon the earth. The earth was intended for the
use of all. and every child born on it has right
| to the use of it. fyou have right to existence
you have right to the use Of that which all
must use in order to live.
How can it be best preserved and perpetnated
| to the coming generations OF mankind? By
silently lessening, as has been well said the
| inequalities of property, to exempt all from
taxation below certain point, aud to tax the
higher portions of property in geometrical pro-
| gression as they rise.
In speaking of the accumulation of wealth
and special legislation, Daniel Webster said ;
The freest Government cannot long endure
where the tendency of the law is to create a
rapid accumulation OF property in the hands of
the few, and to render the masses of the people
poor and dependent"
Carrie Halowell. Kidder, Mo.
SECOND PRIZE PAPER.
]. What is human liberty?
| 9. Who are entitled to it?
3. How shall it be best preserved and per-
petuated to the coming generations of man
kind7
ANSWERS:
/. Human liberty is natural liberty within
the limits of right.
q All persons who obey Gods commandment Is
are entitled to human liberty.
| j. To exercise our liberty is to preserve IT,
and if it is to be perpetuated to the coming
generations of mankind, it must be done
| through education. 1t cannot be left as an heir
loom.
Mae L. Bicknel, Somerset, Ne.