The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-07-04
The Principle of '76 in 1881


We ferventy celebrate the Fourth Of July from
Maine to California, from the Rio Grande to the
Kennebec. Patriotic speakers risk high blood pres
in invoking and praising the spirit of the fathers
who won our independence. Cannons boom, rockets
glare and frecrackers sputter hundred are blinded
for life, scores die from lockjaw and hundreds are
manned in ostensbly doing honor to Tom Paine,
Thomas jefferson and the liberty bell
Suppose, however we put away for a moment the
hum of motor and motor boats, oratory, noise
and buster and get down to the real principles of TO-
How much do we know about them and how much
do we really honor them? Are they as dead as the
painting on the walls of prehistoric in south
ern France?
The great representative thinkers of 1776 were Tom
Paine and Jefferson. Paines Common Sense" was
the chief revolutionary tract Jeffersons Declaration
OF Independence was the great political manifesto.
The patriots Of 1776 were small group of desperately
harried men who adopted the Declaration of indie
pendence to help the campaign for French aid and
to prevent the success Of the British plan Of con-
cilating the colonsts.
The principles Of '76 are conveniently assembled
in Jeffersons famous paragraph from the Declara-
ton:
1--WE hold these truths to be self-evdent: That
all men created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain naenable rights that
among these life liberty and the pursuit Of hap
piness; that to these rights, governments
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed that whenever any form
of government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the right of the people to alter abolish It, and
TO institute new government
In short the fathers stood for revolution human
equality before opportunity and the law the aboi-
ton of special privilege natural rights the dominion
of the people; and the reduction OF the powers Of
government to the lowest point compatible with
social well being.
How does 1776 fare in 1881? Paine is either for
gotten or held in disrepute by respectable persons
Even that great tribune of the people, Roosevelt,
called him dirty little atheist. He would be black
listed seven times by the D A. r. if alive to-
day. Jefferson has come through a little better
as the mythical founder Of still extant political
party But many person is in prison in this coun-
try today for mounting Jefferson's doctrines, and
thousands are being deported for holding similar
views. Imagine Jeffersons welcome before a ma
tional organization-the .. A. Rs-which insisted on
nuzzling Hamilton Fish. Within the last few months
In the very shadow Of Independence Hall and the
liberty bell two little girls sentenced to ten
years in prison for handing pacifst pamphlets to
ex-service men.
What about equality before the law and equality
Of opportunity On the hand we have the due
process clause OF the fourteenth amendmenC the
greatest jurstic bulwark of special privilege ever
constructed by human ingenuity. On the other we
find Injunction and contempt proceedings against
labor in which prejudiced judge may act as judge
investigator prosecutor and jury, rolled into one
passing on the validity of his acts. These are
only examples and overlook entirely the disparity in
ordinary Justice between the man who can hire Max
Steuer or Clarence Darrow and the poor defendant
who must accept green reluctant lawyer appoint
ed by the court. Equality of opportunity is hollow
sham In a country where on one end we find 900
men with annual incomes averaging $2,500,0O0 and
ON the other some 100000 out of work alto
rether with more millions of hungry and il-clad de-
pendents.
Revolution is outlawed. No less than thirty-two
states make its advocacy a felony. Even liberal
federal Judge has upheld the barring OF reputable
magazine from the mails because 1t uses revolutionary
phrases The D. A. R. blacklisted Americas most
popular clergyman because he used the word revo-
luton in an address.
Special privilege is rampant in tariffs utilities, tax
favors inunctions, due process decisions, and the
like Popular sovereignty is mere form when small
cIioues of men nominate rulers and engineer the
passage of oppressive amendments and laws. Life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness mean little when
a man can not get job buy glass OF beer or speak
out fearlessly in the language of the men who once
made this country free land.
1t is the privilege of any one to prefer the spirit
of 1881 to the spirit of ITO But let him not imagine
that they are one and the same thing or that we
have preserved the heritage of the fathers. the
price of liberty is eternal vigilance have slept at
the post of duty.