The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-05-23
EVOLUTION OF LIBERTY
An Interesting and Concise Account Of the Different
Phases of Political and Industrial Freedom
Quarterly Meeting p H.

antecedentS over whom the war
clouds suddenly broke. This i'm
migrant settled in Missouri, or
Minnesota, or perhaps California;
he found himself at once in a great
land of plenty. The distances he
travelled within his own state were
for the most part greater than the
distance between the borders of
his entire European land. He be-
came a Missourian, Minnesotan,
or Californian, he was not much
interested in affairs outside of his
own state: his little local paper was
often his sole meaDs of communi-
cation with the country at large.
Then war was declared in the
name of America (Which he knew
of only in general way), that the
same liberty he was enjoying might
not be imperiled for centuries to
come; also that the masses of his
native land should be brought to
see the light of democracy in order
that they too might become politi-
cally independent. Gradually the
idea was brought home to him that
his particular state was but a small
part of America; that he was an
American frst-that the state in
which he lived was merely a po-
litical subdivision, created to give
him local government, and a great
er degree of liberty than he could
expect from a central government
located thousands of miles distant.
Then he began to realize that
America, through his state govern
ment, had given him the freedom
so lacking in his now forgotten
foreign land. He realized that
the Liberty he had left his Euro
pean home to find had been a
blessing to him and his for many
years. His enthusiasm was per-
haps not as spontaneous as it
might have been. but simply be-
cause he was not accustomed to
think in pational terms, but when
he grasped that he was a citizen of
America in it's entirety, he lost no
time in giving himself and his
wealth to the nation. Now, secure
in his armour of right he goes
forth, millions strong, to carry
Liberty to the teen1ing populations
of Europe who for decades have
been crying against their autocrat-
ic masters. He has come to un-
derstand that the privilege of Lib
erty includes the necessity for
fighting for its ideals; that this
struggle is continuous and always
will be; that to give up this strug-
gle means to sink back into the
slough of political barbarism that
eventually means national extinc-
tion.
The reason Liberty is not uni
versal in Central Europe is because
of unequal rights; one part of an
empire favored by climate, natural
wealth, and because of its CONNER
cial and social predominance, will
succeed in obtaining a goodly por-
ton of political liberty; another
part of the empire, not so favor
ably situated, will have all of it's
demands ignored. Often a small
minority party, born into power,
will have complete control over
government; the submerged ma
jority have no power to change ex-
isting laws because they are not
permitted to vote, or if they have
the franchise, it is too limited to
be of law-making value.
i Up to the present time political
freedom has been granted in cer-
tain empires only when the demand
became dangerously real and
threatened the safety of those who
were in control of the government;
it has not been granted as a funda-
mental right of the peoples but
merely because it was dangerous
to refuse their demands; this is