San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-10-28

an especially definite point, perhaps,
by one particular amendment to the
Constitution, but held on several other
counts as well. We have no more
liberty. say these disaffected Ameri-
cans bitterly, than this other nation
under an Emperor, or that other one
under King, and it's all nonsense
to say that we have!
Butsthey are wrong. We~iaye lib
erty, If we would but use it We have
1t put away in our attics. locked into
safe deposit boxes, buried in the
ground-everywhere but out in the
open, where it is needed, American
women could remove every national
abuse, could alter all the conditions of
their lives. could rebuild the nation
nearer to the hearts desire, without
ever touching the law again. But
they are like the elephant whose own
er ties his great foot with a wisp of
soft grass, and tells him that he is a
prisoner. He is free-but he does not
know it.
In free America today there is per-
haps an undue proportion of prisoners,
insane and feeble-minded, and help
less and dependent men and women.
Any country so largely populated by
immigration from the lower classes of
other countries must expect that, and
that all these have not their precious
right of liberty" is perhaps as much
their own. and their forebears' fault,
as ours. 1t would be frankly suicidal,
we argue, to have lunatics and GRIM
inals free, and that is the conventional
argument, and viii hold for a long
time.
But for the rest of us? How far
does that clause in the Declaration
go toward helping us to be free? How
many are TO be free? How many are
not slaves to one or more of n score
Of evils which tryannize over us more
despotically than the craziest king
that ever ruled? Who would NOT
rather be q happy slave, under an
ordinarily kind master, than slave to
insensate, irresistible forces like Rent
and Groceries, slave to illness or fear?
The moment an advancing enlightment
in government takes away from us the
actual slavery-and no man shall say
that another may be sold here, or mar
ry there, or be whipped for this, or be
hilltN lOI tudA-lntIl CIVIL
ization steps in with new forms, and
infinitely worse forms, of bondage. No
governmental law Of any kind can
take away one wOman's fear of can
cer-another's bondage to jealousy,
or perhaps the catual bodily slavery
in a sweatshop of the third.
But the truth is that there is only
one kind of read freedom, and that is
freedom OF the spirit. 1t is based on
love; perfect love casteth out fear. "
1t is based on service "he that would
be first among you, let him be as
that serves" And it is based on the
mastery of self "for .sweeter than
anything sweet is the power to put
| it aside"
He that IS down need fear nc
fall, says the old rhyme, and if fear
is the greatest enemy that liberty OF
| spirit has-and we know that it is
then perhaps fear is the thing to fight
rather than actual shackle and walls
Rather be bodily a slave without fear
Rather be unfairly imprisoned-or. in
deed, even rucified-without fear
than the richest man alive, with one
eye always rowing anxiously about fol
assassins.
But how TO gain that mastery o.
self, and that freedom of the spirit
Life We have, but how liberty-rea
liberty-would help US all in the pur
suit of happiness To feel for al
hour as free as the small child in thu
fresh bingham. who is sitting idly OF
wayside bridge smiling alternatel!
at the stream. and at the passing
grown-ups, would be a wonderful ex
perience. To feel SO always woul'
mean that the Kingdom had reall!
come. Just to know that supper wOult
presently be ready. and then game
with the new kittens, and then coo
room and a fresh bed-what HEAVIER
that would be today TO many sO-calle'
fortunate and rich and famous mel
and women! Some of them. the ex
ceptional ones, get taste of it her