The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-10-06
BIBLE THOUGHT ~
LEHMAN RIGHTS VERSUS PROPERTY
RIGHTS .

klSHlS
Few newspapers or other commentators
nowadays have the courage toesay any
thing in defense of property rights. : 10
ddbso is to invite the inyective of radicals
and demagogues and to be listed as an
enemy of the common people, the workers,
tho poor folks, by these self-eonstltuted
guardians of the masses. Therefore, 1t IS
refreshing to find The Farm Journal
speaking out in this fashion on the subject
of%"human rights and property rights"
eIt gives us one of our occasional pains in the
neck to hear people speak of what they call hui
man rights versus property rights as if one were
naturally and inevitably opposed to the other.
HIt is not so; there is no such conflict. For
property rights are themselves one of the most
desired and valuable of human rights. That goes
foSs farmres, workmen, merchants, doctors, fnau-
ciers, and everybody else.
kAfter 158 years no one has improved on the
phrase of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote into our
greatest state paper that among the 'inalienable
rights of man are those to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness After 15S years it is still
true that all of these are favored BY, and often
depend upon, the right to acquire retain and en-
jOyproperty.
ITO say that no human right is violated when
property is no longer protected by government,
butmay be freely stolen by the robber, and seized
the government itself under one pretext or an
other, is to talk nonsense.
TThe property right is one of the supreme hu-
man rights. And it is Thomas Jefferson who goes
on TO say that when any government no longer
projects the people in their just rights it becomes
thesduty and right of the people to change the
geYrnment.' lI.tt ri .-..
Students of history, of course, are aware
of Che fact that the emergence of recogni-
tioa of property rights from the tyranny
and governmental absolutism of the. feu-
dak ages, and the advance of this funda-
mental principle to the position it holds in
this country today, is record of progress
WHICH has marked the forward movement
of civilization for the past several hundred
ye&s. In the history of the world there
was a time when the common man was
the slave of an absolute monarch or the
va&al of feudai lord, and in that period
allaproperty belonged to. the monarch OF
the feudal lord. With. the recognition of
hukan rights came the recognition of the
con mon mans right to exercise the fun
da@ental right of ownership of property
ana when the common, man became = g.
property owner he ceased to be slave
or Eassal. ,.~. 80. -. o !, r-
HE freedom of life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness which is guaranteed I'M
DEF the American Constitution is GUAR
anRe that the common man shall have the
opportunity to acquire and hold property
anS that is an absolute guarantee, SO long
as is effective, of the freedom of the IN
dHdual, as no pfoperty-owning people
haS ever been enslaved. Property-owning
peoples must first be-, deprived of their
property rights before they cam be de-
priced of their political freedom. Witness
the course of-events ii Russia, where the
people have been ,ensiayed by Bofsheyfss
didxators and where the only sefnblance
of freedom enjoyed by any class is that
remaining. to the land-owning farmers.
This freedom they are losing under Com
mltnist cornpulsion as government
seikes and communizes their lands. AS
they lose their property rights they be-
come the absolute slaves of the Communist
dicEators:
i property rights were not recognized
in Ae United States today there would be
no freedom for a large majority Of che
people. Property would belong to and