Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-17

| TheSe f1gnJS were no SuQQeQ OlS-
covery. no overnight inspiration. They
we're established by centuries Of
struggle In which men died fighting
bitterly for their recognition. Their
beginnings lie in the Magma Charta
at Runnymede $40 years before the
Constitution was written. Down
through the centuries the habeas
corpus, the petition of rights" the
declaration Of rights" the growth Of
the fundamental maxims of the COM
mon law, marked their expansion and
security.
Our forefathers migrated to America
that they, might attain them more
fully. When they wrote the Declara-
ton Of independence they boldly ex-
tended these rights. Before the Con-
stitution could be ratified patriotic
men who feared return to tyranny,
whose chains had been thrown off
only after years of toll and bloody war,
insisted that these hard-won rights
should be incorporated in black and
white within the Constitution-and
so came the American bill OF rights.
See Freedom Sacrificed for
False Pledges of Security.
In the hurricane of revolutions
which have swept the world since the
great war, men, struggling with the
wreckage and poverty of that great
catastrophe and the complications Of
the machine age, are in despair, sur
rendering their freedom for false prom
ises of economic security. Whether it
/ be Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Com
munist Russia, or their lesser followers.
| the result is the same.
Every day they repudiate every
principle of the bill of rights. Free
dom of worship is denied. Freedom
Of speech is suppressed. The press
is censored and distorted with propa-
! ganda. The right of criticism is de-
MED Men go to Jail or the gallows
for honest opinion. They may not
assemble for discussion. They speak
of public affairs only in whispers.
They are subject to search and seizure
by spies and inquisitorS who haunt
the land. The safeguards of justice
| in trial or imprisonment are set aside.
There is no right in ones savings or
ones own home which the Govern
ment need respect.
Here is a form Of servitude, OF
slavery-a slipping back toward the
middle ages. Whatever these govern
mentS are, they have one common
denominator-the citizen has no as
sured rights. He is submerged into
mental clash known to mankind
| that is, free men and women, CO.
operating under orderly liberty, as
contrasted with human beings MADE
pawns of dictatorial government; men
who are slaves of despotism, as
against free men who are the masters
| Of the state.
Even in America, where liberty
blazed brightest and by its glow shed
| light on all the others, it is besieged
from without and challenged from
within. Many, in honest belief, hold
that We cannot longer accommodate
the growth of science, technology and
mechanical power to the bill of rights
and our form Of Government. With
that I do not agree. Mems inventions
| cannot be of more value than men
| themselves. But it would be better
that we sacrifice something of eco
nomic efficiency than to surrender
these primary liberties. In them lies
spiritual right of men. Behind them
| is the conception which is the highest
development of the Christian faith
i the conception of individual freedom
with brotherhood. From them is The
fullest Towering Of individual human
| personality.
Conflict Of Liberty and
Machine Age Held Imaginary.
Those who proclaim that by the ma
chine age there is created an irrecon-
cilable conflict in which liberty must
be sacrificed should not forget the
battles for these rights over the CEN
turtles, for let it be remembered that
in the end these are undying prin-
ciples which spring from the souls Of
men. We imagine conflict not because
the principles of liberty are unwork-
able in machine age, but because We
have not worked them conScientiously
or have forgotten their true meaning.
Nor do I admit that sacrifice of
these rights would add to economic
efficiency or would gain in economic
security, or would find a single job
or would give single assurance in old
age. The dynamic forces which Sus-
tain economic security and progress in
human comfort lie deep below the sur
face. They reach to those human i'm
pulses which are watered alone by
freedom. The initiative of men, their
enterprise, the inspiration of thought,
flower in full only in the security OF
these rights.
And by practical experience under
the American system we have tested
this truth. And here I may repeat
what I have said elsewhere. Down
through a century and a half this
American concept of human freedom
has enriched the whole world. From
the release of the spirit, the initiative.
the cooperation, and the courage of
men, which alone comes of these
freedoms, has been builded this very
machine age with all its additions of
comfort, its reductions Of sweat. Wher-
ever in the world the system Of in
dividual liberty has been sustained.
mankind has been better clothed, bet
ter fed. better housed, has had more
leisure.
Curtailment Of Liberty
Held Production Handicap.
Above ALL men and women have had
more self-respect. They have been
more generous and of finer spirit.
Those who scott that liberty is of no
consequence to the underprivileged and
the unemployed are grossly ignorant of
the primary fact that 1t is through the
creative and the productive impulses
Of free men that the redemption of
those sufferers and their economic Sc
curity must come. Any system which
ci1rtails these freedoms and StimulantS