Evening star., 1938-07-13


humanitarian and liberty loving party
and are accusing their opponents of
being against social welfare" legisla-
ton, when the truth is the liberals"
of 1898 have adopted the tactics OF
"Tories" and have employed coercion
rather than persuasion, compulsion
rather than voluntary cooperation as
their basic maneuver.
Back in 1884 Herbert Spencer, the
famous English philosopher, wrote an
essay calling attention to the ten
dency of the so-called liberal of
that time to forget true liberalism
and indulge in the tactics associated
previously with the weapons of the
Tories. His essay might have been
written in 1898, for it expresses the
rival concepts which exist today be-
tween the pseudoliberals who call
themselves New Dealers, but who are
In reality New Tories" and the oppo-
nents Of the New Deal, some of whom
are really reactionary, and some OF
whom are much more entitled to be
known as liberals" than are the
members of the Roosevelt regime.
Distinction in Coercive Power.
Wrote Mr.. Spencer 81 years ago:
Most Of those who now pass as
Liberals are Tories Of new type.
Dating back to an earlier period than
their names, the two political parties
at first stood respectively for two
opposed types Of social organization.
." In the one party there was
desire to resist and decrease the CO.
ercive power of the rule over the
subject and in the other party to
maintain or increase his coercive
power"
Having thus defined the early Lib
erals and the early Tories, MIR. Spencer
pointed out that coercive tactics were
being used by Liberals, who were losing
sight Of the traditional methods OF
their party. He enumerates the So
called Liberal legislation Of the Dos in
England and says:
Every one of these involves further
coercion restricts still more the
freedom of the citizen :. Thus,
either directly or indirectly, and in
most stages both at once. the citizen
Is at each further stage in the growth
of this compulsory legislation deprived
Of some liberty which he previously
had. Such then are the doings OF
the party which claims the name OF
liberal; and which calls itself liberal
IS being the advocate of extended
freedom"
Liberals Had An Answer.
Mr.. Spencer went on to quote the
usual answer made by the self-styled
liberals:
"You forget the fundamental diff
ference between the power which, IN
the past, established those restraints
which liberalism abolished, and the
power which, in the present, estab-
lishes the restraints which you call
anti-liberal. You forget that one
was an irresponsible power while the
other is a responsible power. You
forget that if by recent legislation of
liberals, people are variously regu-
lated, the body which regulates them
Is Of their own creating; and has
their warrant for its acts"
Passages similar to the foregoing
will be found in many speeches of
the New Dealers of today. Thus,
President Roosevelt in one of his
messages to Congress admitted the
extension of governmental power but
said that in the hands of a peoples
government" there was nothing to
fear. though to be sure in some other
administration he conceded these
statutes would be shackles on the
freedom Of the country.
What Spencer argues is that coer-
cion Is not any less attractive because
men consent to it. He adds, for
instance:
If men use their liberty in such
q way as to surrender their liberty,
are they thereafter any the less
slaves? If people by plebiscite, elect
q man despot over them, do they
remain free because the despotism
was of their own making? Are the
coercive edicts issued by him to be
regarded as legitimate because they
are the ultimate outcome of their own
votes?"
Finally Spencer concludes that the
test Is not the supposed public ben