Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-06
SPEAKS ON AMERICA
FOR THE AMERICANS
BENJAMIN FAY MILLS TALKS
ON PATRIOTISM
Declares This Country Stands First
Among Nations for Principles of
Freedom, Law, Progress and
Brotherhood

Benjamin Fay Mills delivered
patriotic address. entitled America
for the Americans" at the Sunday
morning meeting of the Fellowship in
Blanchard hall. The hall was crowded
and the speaker listened to with the
closest attention.
Mr.. Mills began by giving his def1ni-
ton of Americanism, which, he said,
was not question of nativity but of
being true to American principles. He
stated that the early American settlers
came to- this country, drawn together
by political and economic conditions,
and by a growing love Of freedom, and
that as the result of their natural
development there had come to the
surface as the leading American prin-
ciples the love of liberty, law, progress
and brotherhood.
mo one would doubt" said the
speaker, that above all the other great
people of the world we stand for hu-
man freedom. The primal right that
we specified in our Declaration of indie
pendence was the right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
LITTLE by little, as we began to see
our Inconsistencies, we sloughed on
slavery; we are emancipating woman;
we are giving opportunity to the child;
we have insisted, even in a day of great
testing, that there shall be no restr'c-
lions placed upon the freedom of
speech"
Dwelling on the value of free speech
and propositions that have been made
to limit it when deeds of violence nave
been done, as at the time of the assas-
sination of President Mckinley, Mr..
c q series of
choices, If it Is the right kind of life.
Right action does not always consist
in choosing what would be perfect in
itself on this hand or that, but 1t Is
choosing always the better instead of
the good, and the best instead OF the
better; and between these two the
restriction of the freedom of speech
and of the press, or an occasional act
of violence, no sane American but would
say, I believe in liberty
Dealing with the second OF the four
great American principles, law, Mr..
Mills said that the object of American
law had always been to assist the de-
velopment of the race, and that the
motto Of America is Liberty through
law" A man who is traitorous to law
in America is a traitor to liberty. 1T
is right to protest against bad laws.
That is one reason why I said what l
did as regards freedom Of speech. We
may even, If we will, in this peaceable
nation Of America, protest against the
very idea of law, but to advocate vio-
lence is un-American and worse than
treason"
Mr.. Mills then stated that those who
debauched legislatures and the courts
of justice, who bought and sold votes
and who killed men without due trial
were all foreigners in our America.
On the third American principle, that
of progress, Mr.. Mills said that we
need to learn to hold every law, form
and system, whether political, economic
or social, in solution, good for today
but to be superseded in the better to-
morrow. He then declared that al
three principles were preliminary t.
the fourth and greatest of American
principles, that of brotherhood.
Under this head he enlarged on the
value of our system of public educa-
ton, the necessity of cultivating simple
habits of life and the demand for
equality of opportunity, and said:
1.-THE anarchists I would fear are
those on the one hand who add rail-
roads to railroads, coal fields to coal
fields. oil wells to oil wells, water sup
ply to water supply, from selfish pur-
poses and with disregard of the gem
eral welfare, and who, claiming even
the right to act dishonesty and treach-
erously for private gain, buy 1egisla-
lures, governors, judges, juries, mayors,
common councils and private citizens,
all of whom are anarchists In being
bought. The murderer-anarchist of the
president strikes from without, but
does not touch the American heart and
cannot kill the nation, but these men
are traitors from within the citadel and
open the doors to every enemy of
freedom"