The Connecticut labor news., 1921-07-22
LIBERTY'S FOES ARE WITHIN, SAYS BORAH
 IN HOUSING SPEECH
Senator Declares People Endangered By Alleged Champions and
 Warns Against Them.

Washington, July 22-The peoples liberties are endangered, and a free press is the greatest protector of lib erty, declared Senator Borah i'll d newspaper statement on the Signifi- canoe ot July Fourth.
 1t may seem incredible 10 many, but to me the most vital problem in American politics at the present time IS the preservation of the great guar antees of civil liberties found in our constitution and so long supposed to be secure and indispensable" said the law maker.
 Tt may seem still more incredible when the opinion is confidently ven tured that these principles, the safe guards of our liberty, are not so much in danger of those who openly pro- fcSSing to believe i'll them, are willing to ignore them when found inconven- tent to their purposes.
 'Ihc former we can deal with, but the latter, protesting loyalty, either by precept or example, undermine the very first principles of our govern ment, and are by far the more danger ous. 1t Is said that Augustus Caesar finally robbed the Roman people of all their rights and privileges at the very time when he was leading them to believe he was their most Jealous defender.
 "Onc of the most common traits of the political pharisee-the man VotlOn to the constitution and always betraying it or disregarding it-is that of constantly expressing the fear that the people may have their minds poisoned by false doctrines; hence, the necessity of censoring the press and circumscribing public meetings and arbitrarily punishing men for expressing dangerous views.
 As a matter of fact, there is no one more difficult to lead astray and no one in whose keeping the true principles of free government are so safe as the average citizen. There is no tribunal before which the advo- cates of false, foolish, or disloyal theories may be tried with such i'm plicit 'conhdenCe of favorable results for orders and law and free govern ment as the tribunal of the American people as a whole. A small per cent may be moved or misled, but let the worth of any proposition and the and the public will be safer and the people will be more self-conhdent and more fit for self-government from the experience.
 In the days when a band of noble Englishmen were fighting for a free press, free speech, for protection against arbitrary arrest, and for the right of peaceable assemblance, one of England's most eloquent men said, Give me but the liberty of the press and 1 will give the minister a venal house of peers; 1 will give him corrupt and servile house of com mons; 1 will give him full swing of the patronage of office: 1 will give him the whole host of ministerial in Huence; l vii g i've him all the power that place can confer upon him to purchase submission and overaWe re- sistance; and yet, armed with the lib erty of the press, 1 will go forth to meet him undismayed 1 will attack the mightier fabric he has reared with that mighty engine; 1 will shake down from its height corruption and lay it beneath the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter.'
 Tt was this fine insight and great faith which moved the framers of the constitution to build in the integrity of their conviction"