The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-06-01

with which We must begin. The year
lis 1915; the battlefield Is Runnymede,
the land is England, the king is John.
Down the valley of the Thames, hard
by the spot where Grey afterwards
wrote his "Elegy" are encamped
half million of yoemen, making the
first fight for liberty that is to have
! its climax in 1.-THE Argonne." londer
on the heights stands Windsor castle
with its wall and towers and battle
ments. When high noon comes the
sound of trlmpets is heard, and a
Thousand soldiers march forth follow
ed by FIVE thousand knights riding
their horses, covered with steel ar
mour. King John follows hard after
| them, the cruelest of his age, and
called the handsomest man that ever
stepped across the threshold of Wind
sar castle. his face as yet undimmed
| by sensuality. He has been imposing
taxes which really robbed the people
of the possibility of life itself and
when an hour later, King John, with
| twenty thousand men has set forth
on the one side of the battle, and ten
thousand harons with their princes
and followers and fifty thousand voc
men have issued forth on the other
side, Stephen Langton filings down
4 piece of parchment. King Johns
cheek becomes as pale as marble
They ask him to sign the treble pledge
that he will never again" defle ne
sanctity of the home, that he will
never again violate the principles that
makes mans home to be his castle,
I that never again shall mans person
be open to arrest without due process
of law And thus it came about that
the first liberty is won, and 1t is as
one says, as If a new planet had sud
IDENTIFY arisen on the worlds horizon,
and a new world swung solemnly into
sight
I Liberty Is First
! And that is the very foundation OF
our republic. Now we understand the
first of the battles won by our fore
fathers for liberty. Then four hun
bred years pass over the earth
Shakespeare's language has been spok-
en- and Shakespeare plays have been
written, and twelveS years before
Anne Hathaway had wept bitterly
over the dead poets body. The year
is 1s2S. The place is Westminster
Hall, the city is London, the king Is
Charles the First, standing on his doc
trine of divine right. The king awakes
one morning to find one hundred and
seventy-fve thousand of England's
cities crowding the streets between
Whithall and Westminster Abbey
John Pym is there, the old man elo-
ouent" and for once Charles the First
is trembling. John Hampden is there.
! Yonder is Sir Harry Vane, soon to
come to the city of Boston. Sir John
Elliot is there, soon to die in the Lon
don tower-to die for liberty, as sure
'ly as though he had fallen on the bait
tlefield Nearby stands a humble
farmer named Oliver Cromwell. Cook
and Lyttleton stand beside him, and
there, too. is John Milton with his
plea for liberty of printing press, and
those great orators and dIv1nes after
ward spoken of as the springs of Eng
flish literature, with their marvellous
musical speech. Charles people have
turned against him. They are demand
ing the second liberty which we now
know as the basin Of adj that makes
existence worth living. They called
it their Petition Of Right, but it is far
more than that: it is statement
casting out the divine right of kings
and bringing into existence right Of
representative overnment. 1t Is the
hour of Judgment for Charles. All
about him are these Puritans, stern as
angels, with swords of wrath. From
the streets without. rises the roar OF
the multitude that has become mob.
Necessity is upon Charles. Lifting
the pen. he gives England his pledge,
conceding the right. of. representative
government, and he declared that never
- n =
parliament Henceforth parliament
fixes the taxes. Man has become his
own ruler and it is, to use the ex-
preston as if some new planet had
suddenly risen on the worlds horizon.
Fourteen years pass by. The street
is Luggate, the City is London, the
man is a scholar, an orator, preach
err, one of the greatest that his gener-
alton had produced His name is DR..
Prynne. The other man in connection
with this scene is an executioner
They have built high their scaffold
and dragged the old scholar and ora
tor to have his ears split and his nos
trils burned. They have exiled three
hundred Of the Methodist preachers
of England, and then one day Oliver
Cromwell, lord protector and soldier,
filings down his sword, and sends word
to all England, Il have fought long
for liberty, through representative
government From this hour | call
ENGLAND to arms in favor Of liberty
of religion l plead for federation and
charity" He remembered Fox, who,
from his dungeon sent words of flame
to the men of England. He remember
ed men like Bunion in Bedford Jail,
and fifty thousands rotlng in Eng
lands jails. He utters his great plea
for religious liberty. Cromwell looks
out on world full of religious intol-
erance. They are burning men alive
in Spain because they are Professionals
In north Italy, Bohemia, and the land
of the Huss. Cromwell brought George
Fox out of prison. and in England and
in Scotland, and in all the colonies of
the republic, from that hour in 1913.
there is one other liberty that has