East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-07-04
WILSON WRITES
OF NEW FREEDOM
POSITIVE, NOT NEGATIVE
II Means more Than Being let
Alone" Declares the Presidential
man Interests and activities and
Energies, He Says.

In an article in the Worlds Work
for July, President Wilson has the
following to say regarding the new
freedom:
What is liberty?
81 have long had an image in my
mind of what constitutes liberty. Sup
pose that were building a great piece
of powerful machinery, and suppose
that / should so awkardly and unskil-
fully assemble the parts of it that
every time one part tried to move
it would be interfered with by the
others. and the whole thing would
buckle up and be checked. Liberty
for the several parts would consist in
the best possible assembling and ad-
justment of them all. would it not?
If you want the great piston of the
engine to run with absolute freedom.
give it absolutely perfect alignment
and adjustment with the other parts
of the machine so that it Is free, not
because it is let alone or isolated, but
because it has been associated most
skillfully and carefully with the 9TH
er parts of the great structure.
What is liberty? You say of the
locomotive that it runs free. What
do you mean? You mean that its
parts are so assembled and adjusted
that friction is reduced to minimum
and that it has perfect adjustment
We say of a boat skimming the water
with light foot, How free she runs"
when we mean. how perfectly she is
adjusted to the force of the wind, how
perfectly she obeys the great breath
out of the heavens that fills her sails.
Throw her head up into the wind and
see how she will halt and stagger. how
every sheet will sMiver and her whole
frame be shaken. how instantly she
is ''in irons" in the expressive phrase
of the sea- She is free only when you
have let her fall off again and have
recovered once more her nice adjust
ment to the forces she must obey and
cannot defy.
Human freedom consists in per-
feet adjustments of human interests
and human activities and human en-
ergies.
Now the adjustments necessary be-
tween individuals and the COM
plex institutions amidst which
! thev live. and between those
| institutions and the government,
are infinitely more intricate to-
day than ever before. No doubt this
| is tiresome and roundabout way of
| saying the thing. vet perhaps it is
worth while to get somewhat clearly
| in our mind what makes all the trout
BILE today Life has become complex;
there are many more elements, more
] parts. to it than ever before. And
therefore, it is harder to keep every
thing adjusted-and harder to find
out where the trouble lies when the
machine gets out of order.
'You know that one of the interest
ing things that Mr.. jefferson said In
those early days of simplicity which
marked the beginnings of our govern
ment was that the best government
consisted in as little governing as pos
sible. And there is still a sense In
! which that Is true. II Is still intoler-
1 able for the government to interfere
with our individual activities except
where 1t is necessary to interfere with
them In order to free them. But
feel confident that If Jefferson were
living in our day he would see what
we see: that the individual is caught
In a great confused nexus of all sorts
of complicated circumstances. and
! that to let him alone is to leave hin
helpless as against the obstacles with
which he has to contend: and that
therefore. law in our day must come
to the assistance to see that he get:
fair play: that is all, but that is much
Without the watchful Interference the
, resolute Interference, of the govern
: ment, there can be no fair play be
l tween individuals and such powerful
/ institutions as the trusts Freedom
today Is something more than beinl
: let alone The program Of govern
ment of freedom must in these day
! be positive. not negative merely