The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-02-17
THE OLD ORDER vs.. THE NEW DISORDER

Not long ago | found it necessary
to draft a statement of belief in this
democracy in this time of social I'M
rest. One afternoon | wrote that
statement. | didn't try to put these
briefs down in logical order. | just
iotted them down as they came to
my head. When | finished, | found
my credo had reached the unlucky
state of IA points!
| am not going to present those Ia
points of freedom but l wish, in a
hasty, headline fashion, to state the
outstanding ones.
First, l believe that since we
crushed Germany primarily because
Germany didn't have individual lib
erty, that consistency and fidelity
demand that we safeguard and pro-
mote liberty in our own borders now.
In this time when we are annoyed
by attacks on the existing order and
all that, in this period of unsettle-
ment we seem to want to meet this
situation with big sticks and censor
ship. Some day we will wake up to
the fact that in the process of defeat
ing Prussianism in Germany we sue
ceeded in Prussianizing ourselves.
That we do not want to do.
Free Society a Safety Valve.
Second, l believe that some radical
ideas are less dangerous when ex-
pressed than when repressed. Or, as
Mr.. Justice Holmes once put it:
with radical ideas, as with the not
yet forgotten champagne, the best
way to let them get flat is to leave
them exposed to the air."
But, if | may further scramble my
figures of speech, free speech is a
social safety valve, if nothing else, a
device to let people blow off steam.
If you attempt to prevent that steam
it will cause destruction and wreck
age more extensive than the original.
Third, | believe a man can defend
the rights of the minority although
he despises the views of the minority.
Further, l believe the safety of this
people demands that every man of
US do that thing.
think the finest definition Of that
sort of tolerance | ever read occurs
in a letter Of Voltaire to Helvetius
in which he says, Il wholly disap-
prove of what YOU say and will de-
fend to death your right to say it. d"
John Adams, you will remember, de-
Tended the British soldiers in the
British massacre. General Grant de-
manded the prompt release of Jeffer-
son Davis. Of course, it is a little
discouraging to have to go so far
back in American history for these
examples
Safeguarding the Rights of Heresy
Fourth, | believe that the safety,
to say nothing of the progress of this
democracy depends more on the safe
guarding Of the rights of heresy
than it does by the protection of or
thodoXy by force. | believe that for
a plain. simple very old reason.
Every really forward step, from the
dawn of history has, in the begin
ming and in thenature of the case
been an attack upon what was, at
the moment the existing order Of
thought or action. Why, suppose
that since the dawn of liberty, effect
i've means for preserving the status
you had been possible This morn
ing instead of sitting here, we would
be chasing each other through the
forest, cracking each others heads,
anu dI lllhiIlS BAbbhs WiillC LliE Itdu VI
some Patrick Henry would furnish a
delicious dish for some embryo attor-
ney general. Through the centuries,
the Messiahs of politics and religion
have been crucified by their own gem
Grafton. And, that. therefore, we
can never tell when we are erecting
these imposing battalions Of force,
as means Of protecting orthodoxy
mad defeating heresy, but what you
may be crucifying some political, So