Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-01-13

Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty.
1t is the common fate of the indolent
! to see their rights become a prey to
the active. The condition upon which
God hath given liberty to man is
eternal vigilance; which condition if
he break, servitude is at once the
consequence of his crime and the
punishment of his guilt.
There is one safeguard known gen
orally to the wise, which is an ad-
vantage and security to all, but es-
pecially to democracies as against
despots. That is distrust.
| 1t is the opinion of the writer that
unless the American people become
more vigilant and less inclined to
trust the destiny Of our nation in
hands of both foreign and American
| fagots, called diplomats and states
men, servitude will be The consequence
Nations, like individuals, have their
periods of youth, of manhood and de-
cay. Our America is no more exempt
from the snares of the future than
others have been.
When India was supreme Brahma
sat upon the worlds throne. When
the scepter passed to Egypt Iris and
Oscris received the homage of man
kind. Greece, with her fierce valor,
swept to empire, and Zeus put on the
purple Of authority. The earth once
trembled with the tread of Rome's
intrepid sons. All of these one time
irresistible powers now lay desolate.
All the great nations of the past
were built upon the same principle as
our own America, and all have fallen
because of lack of vigilance on the
part of the majority, while selfish
minority strove for power and glory.
1t was that courageous and un-
daunted pillar of American democ-
racy, Patrick Henry, who when the
destiny Of cur nation hung trembling
in the balance in 1865 said
II have but one lamp by which my
feet are guided, and that is the lamp
CT experience. l know no way of
Judging Of the future but by the past"
/ The time is opportUne that the Amer
ican people take cognizance of this
bit of philosophy. Our government
was founded upon the principles of
democracy.
Democracy is that form of govern
ment in which the sovereign power
resides in and is exercised by the
whole body of free citizens. Equality
of rights for all the people, and
equality of opportunity for all, is the
cardinal principle of democracy. An
aristocracy is a government by few
persons who form privileged class.
An autocracy may be one or both
wealth or culture.
| John c. Calhoun, one Of the ablest
statesmen of his time, said in 1889:
"a power has risen up in the govern
ment greater than the people them
selves, consisting Of many and various
ana powerful interests, combined into
one mass and held together by the
cohesive power of the vast surplus in
the banks" The one thought which
the American people should concen-
trate upon is:
Whencesoever are we drifting?
Is our Constitution to be trampled
Under foot, the Bill of Rights torn in
shreds and thrown to the winds,
justice prostituted and liberty and
freedom made a mockery?
Is it possible that we free Ameri-
cans are to be bound up with treaty
| tnat VIII cCmpel us TO answer the peck
and call of a foreign despotical ar
bitraly?
Though the foreign delegates to the
Armament Conference came to our
shcres as humanity's agents, they rep
resent the inventors and users of
thumb screws, and iron boots and
iron racks, the burners aid tearers of
human flesh, the stealers, whippers
and enslavers of men, the buyers and
beaters of babes and mothers, the
founders of inqulsitlons, the makers
of chains, the builders of dungeons,
the slanGerers of the living and the
calumniators of the dead. Awaken, oh
yea indolent Americans, be vigilant
in the light of the lamp of experience,
Judge of the future by the past; the
destiny of our nation depends upon