Evening star., 1937-10-27

the government or personal power as
opposed to the government being the
servant of the people. That is a
complicated idea but it Is the age-long
fight of human liberty. We certainly
do not mean collective bargaining or
cooperative marketing. They begin
and end amorg the people and are
democratic processes.
I have used the term 'true
liberalism" I would prefer to use the
more direct term of "Americanism." :"
The term liberal" has now become
the fashionable clothing of all collec-
twists, whether they be New Dealers,
with creeping collectivism, or frank and
open Socialists, or the unconSc. is
Fascists. Its folds can apparently even
be entered through the Ku Klux Klan.
Our Republicans should not use this
term without distinction between true
and pseudo. Gradually the public is
learning that liberal spelled with a
capital L means New Deal collectiv-
ism.
Definition of Liberalism.
True liberalism is liberty organized
under law. 1t everlastingly reacts TO
one test: Does this or that act make
for the freedom of mind and spirit OF
men? Does it make for the dignity
of all men? And let no man tell you
that intellectual and spiritual liberty
are not the sole anchor of American
civilization.
1t is the most difficult of all phi
losophies to realize in government,
because the very freedom which ferti-
Lies the soil of progress sprouts also
the weeds of selfishness and sordid
ambition. 1t can only be realized
through prohibitions and projections
which prevent invasion of the Freedom
of others. And it rests greatly upon
responsibility and self-restraint by the
individual.
True liberalism does not start as an
economic system. An economic sys-
tenn flows from it. The only economic
system which will not destroy intel
lectual and spiritual freedom is pri-
vate enterprise, regulated to prevent
special privilege, or coercion.
Every new scientific discovery, every
new invention introduces new possi-
bilities of privilege, as we'll as progress.
Reform must be ever in motion. We
agree with the New Deal objectives in
removal of abuses. Many abuses were
cured, and these obiectives we're ad-
vocated by Republicans long before
the New Deal was born. But the cure
is not by their method Of Government
by men in the place of Government by
law. Moreover. they seek to make us
believe that abuse cannot be cured
without that creeping collectivism
called planned economy.
That gradual collectivism" is creep
ing upon us should be evident by this
time to any understanding American.
The Government manipulation of
money and credit. Government re-
striction of production. Government
control of hours and wages, the entry
of the Government into competitive
business on a large scale, Govern
ment coercion of upright citizens
these are but part of it. The conflict
of the two systems creates at once at
tack on constitutional government.
Undermining the independence OF
Congress, packing the Supreme Court,
the weakening of local and State gov
ernments. the new proposals to in
wade judicial authority under the guise
of administrative reorganization are
but part of the centralization of gov
eminent and the increase in personal
government.
A Frankenstein.
Once economic life is started in this