The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-07-04
Our Natal Day:
Are We Free?


1t is pertinent on the anniversary
of the nations natal day to ask if
Americans are free in the way that
Washington. Sam Adams, Franklin,
Jefferson, Henry, dreamed of, hoped
for and wrought toward.
1t has been held by many that
"every man makes his own God" and
the phase of human nature exploited,
whether falsely or accurately, by this
philosophy finds its exemplification in
political history as we'll as in re-
agious thought. Every nation has
rs standard, established by custom
; Dr. arbitrarily fixed on some great oc-
casion, and Americans, in sweeping
away the old world rules of rank and
caste, created a new criterion-suc-
: cess in country whore all born are
"born equal" and endowed with GER
tain ''inalienable rights" The transit
ton from the abstract idea of success
to the concrete aspect of wealth, was
as rapid as it was easy, and mamOn
became the god of many and the
fetch of almost all, while achieve
ment became a practically general
justification for whatsoever means
led thereto.
1t is hardly in human nature to
eliminate the dominance of wealth in
public affairs, the government of a
people for the sake of property rights,
and therefore the government of the
mass in the interest of the pecuniari-
Jy fortunate. But open, fragrant, inso-
lent abuse of power by wealth and
by corporations, can be minimized,
and the United States is fortunate
that as a nation it's people have so
quickly come to a realization that
'Sockless" Simpson was not a mad
man, but John Baptist in the poll
teal wilderness into (which, as a peo-
pie. Americans had pleasantly and
profitably wandered
Realizing the wilderness, realizing
that American freedom in fact was
far less than the practicable theories
of the founders of the nation, the
force of American public opinion has
quickly wrought much reform.
But are we yet free? And who
shall free US to the extent seen in
d., the visions of Washington and Jeffer-
SOM
In the amply justified distrust of
great aggregations of capital, there is
almost as much danger as there is
potential reform. for in popular re-
sentiment against instruments of
abuse there is abundant opportunity
for the political charlatan and the
demagogue. Not every man who
harshly denounces capital is to be
trusted TO really lead the people,.
poor and rich alike, to political free
homeopathy before the law and har-
mony in their relations-nOr is every
man who has words of defense for
, modern business methods of concen-
tration and system, to be distrusted
as an enemy of the masses.
The remedy, If real remedy there
be. lies in individual freedom, in per-
sonal loftiness of citizenship, which
IS practicable, and with which this
nation, great and rich as 1t is, could
be as just as it is big and as harmoni-
nous as it is rich. The individual voter
must learn to be free of passion, free
of prejudices both for and against
candidates, able to calmly decide for
himself who is fit for office. and who.
of several candidates, it most fit. If
the majority of the individual voters
fail in this duty to themselves, our
present direct government, largely by
primary nominations, will be degrad-
ed by tricksters, by passion mongers
and by prejudice vultures into
form of government worse than ma
chine politics Direct primaries are
not panaceas. They are but quick
means to an end, and the result de
ponds entirely upon the degree to
which each individual voter is as free
OF his own passions and prejudices as
he is of star chamber bosses and
crowned kings.
1t is Hello. Bill" in Orlando now
Success TO the new herd.