The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-13
CARL SCHURz'S VIEWS OF AMERICAN FREEDOM AS
 EXPRESSED so YEARS AGO

To the Editor of the New York Post:
 Sir: Shortly after settling in this country, some sixty years ago. Carl Schurz wrote a. letter on his impress sions of the New World and of democ-- racy as exempIifed here to his friend MaIwida von Meysenburg which is not without contemporary interest. Among other things it contains val uable criticism of those eager reform CTS who would cure every social i'll by the enactment of some new law and who have not yet learned that true progress lies along the gradual repres- sion of official government and the extension of the free and spontaneous activities of the people; and the pro motors of the thousand and one extra political and voluntary efforts at so- cial betterment of our time will surely read it with a feeling of encourage ment. The letter is preserved in FrauIein Meysenburg's delightful and inspiring book, "Memoiren einer Ideal istin'' (Bd. II, pp. 77-S2, secheste Auf- 1age3, and is here submitted in tran station.
 G. s.
 New York, May 3.
 I have not yet seen. but I have al- ready learned a. great deal in Ameri- ca- For the first time am living in 9 oer1o cratic country and seeing how people behave who are free. l con- fess without 3, blush that in this re- gard I had formerly entertained but faint notions. My political opinions have undergone a sort of inner revo-9 Iution since I have been reading in the book which alone contains the truth, the book of reality. When fancy the majority of those rash political revolutionists, as the emigration de- ve1ops them, or the majority of those in nd Ia nf vzod classes, with their sentim enta1 dem ocracy, placed amid the conditions of this country, and consider how the former would rage over the character of the bourgeoise and the intrigues of the clergy, the latter over the wild excesses of the people, and how they would arrive at the conclusion that there is nothing to this Eldorado, I become somewhat fearful concerning the future European republic which is to have it's support in these elements. It is indeed true. the first sight of this country fills one with mute astonish- ment- On the one hand, you see the principle Of individual liberty carried to It's extreme, contempt of the freely enacted law; on the other, the cras- siest religious fanaticism reveling in brutal acts. Here you see the great mass of the working people pursuing their emancipation in the fullest lib erty, and close by the speculative Spir- it of capital launching forth in un- heard-of enterprises. Here a party that calls itself Democratic and that is at the same time the main prop of the institution of slavery; there a, par ty that thunders against the heaven crying wrong of slavery, but bases all it's arguments on the authority of the Bible and exists in an incredible state of mental dependence. Here the ir- repressfbIe spirit of emancipation, there the active lust of oppression; all this in complete liberty, side by side in motley confusion. The democrat recently from Europe, who has hitn- erto lived in the world of ideas and has had no opportunity of seeing these ideas translated into and embodied in human nature, asks himself some what bewiIdered: els this free peo- pie? Is this a real democracy Is democracy a fact if 1t harbors all these contradictory principles within it's womb? Is this my ideal ?'' Thus he asks, doubting1y, and enters with uncertain step into this new, really new world. He observes and reflects, sloughs off gradually, one by one, the preJudices with which Europe had sa.ddIed him, and comes finally to the solution of the riddle: Indeed, so are the people when they are free. Liberty bursts the chains of development. All forces all weaknesses, all the good, all the DaQ"dll Ln6S0 dIeASO0n IA0 HE'LL of day and in full operation; the struggle of principles goes on apace; external liberty reveals the foes that must be conquered before inner Hber- ty is secured. Whoso desires liberty must not be surprised if men do not show themselves better than they are. Liberty is the only condition in which 1t is possible for men to know them in that under 1t they present themselves as they are. Thereby the ideal is not realized. to be sure, but it would be a foolish undertaking to force the ideal in spite of the people. In this country the Jesuits are accord ed free scope, they are neither killed nor expelled, for democracy postulates the liberty of every confession so long as it does not limit the civil liberty of others; they are not fought with the weapon of official power, but merely by public opinion. That is not only more democratic, but also sound CT for if the battle of public opinion against mental dependence. proceeds slowly it is a sign that people are not vet ripe This struggle has the ad-' vantage that it always keeps pace with the position of the masses. On this account its victories are slower, less brilliant but more enduring and thoroughgoing. Thus is it here with all things The European revolu- tio1lfst grows Impatient and would like to put in some hard Hcks; but the peo- DIe are so constituted as to refuse to be knocked into reason and it is in the nature of democracy that within it's confines public opinion rules not as it ought to be, but as 1t is. It is my firm conviction that the European will force the next rev oIution on the side of the reaction by their m ere lust of governing, by their mere desire to make things quickly and positively better. Every glance at the political life of America confirms my conviction that the task of the can be none other than the removal of obstacles in the path of the popular will, that is, the over throw of all authority organized in the institutions of the State and of all barriers to individual liberty so far as that is at all possible
 The popular will will then spend it. self, commit b1unders, etc., but that is its nature; if one were to forestaII it in any way and then leave it free, l