The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-12
WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY u, 1895.
LIBERTY-A CONTINUED STORY

TOO often the guaranty Of freedom of the
press" is interpreted running merely to the
business of publishing too frequently it is forgotten
that of speech" and "of the press" are twins.
Whenever speech or the press is restrained by
those who govern, then democracy ends. And the
right of the citizen in the drug store or the
barber shop to express himself by word of mouth,
or the right Of the smallest pamphleteer is just as
vital the right of the editor of the biggest news
paper to print his opinion.
1t chances that Louisiana, under Huey Long,
gave the nation a current demonstration Of how
quickly dictatorship goes about the business of
supervising opinion The punitive tax against news
papers thrown out by the Supreme Court, just
phase.
Those familiar with conditions during the hey
dey of Longs power know that speech in Louisiana
stilled with fear, that only the boldest voices
were heard, and that those voices were growing
fewer and fewer.
To attain the full measure of the power to which
he aspired the siencing of opposition opinion was
not merely desirable it was absolutely necessary.
Nothing unusual about that. 1t is the universal
quirement of dictatorship. The expedition against
the hostile newspapers essential to Longs am
bition.
The force we saw working in Louisiana we have
the globe, since the war to save democracy; seen
one democracy after another go down the gag
free speech and free press has been applied Ger
many today is merely the ultimate of what would
: have happened had the thing which Long symbol
lied in Louisiana spread throughout nation
How ever-present in history is this effort toward
suppression is strikingly described in the Supreme
Courts unanimous opinion in the Louisiana case:
For more than century before the adoption of
the amendment history discloseS a persistent
effort the part of the British government to pre-
vent abridge the free expression of opinion which
seemed to criticse exhibit in unfavorable light
however truly, the agencies and operation of the
government
TOHN MILLIONS fight against censorship; Queen
Anne's use of repressive taxation; the Amer
colonial revots against stamp duties designed
for the end that Huey Long later sought
those are markers on the road to the guaranty of
freedom of expression in America, established in
the belief as the court says that Informed public
opinion is the most potent of all restraints upon
p misgovernment"
The Huey Long episode was merely history re-
peatng.
But let not rest ourselves in the false security
that the story ends with Huey Long. Forces of sup
preston at work in every nation and in every
era. Today in various guises they appear, fire.
quenty in less crude than the Louisiana tax
subtle and therefore perhaps more dangerous.
The bill, for example, that has already passed
the United States Senate which would make a feon
of any one who criticised the Army or Navy; the
rash of hystera about teachers oaths such measures
as the Kramer anti-sedition BILL forays into the
colleges against those who would instruct students
about what is going in the world; advocacy of
the vigilante or Ku-Klux method of handling COM
munity problems-all those are off the same bolt
OF cloth.
The urge to Fascism is in the air. And never.
more than right now, was it of greater Importance
to remember the truth of the old saying that eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty.