Evening star., 1940-10-23
Roosevelt Cites
Speech
On Liberty
Hopes People Will
Repudiote WoIfAs'
Definition as in SO
By JOHN c. HENRY,
Ste- Staff Correspondent.

WILMINGTON, Del, Oct. 23.-
The American people repudiated the
"wolf's dictionary" definition of lib
erty in 1886, President Roosevelt told
a train yard audience here this
afternoon. an action which he said
he hoped they would repeat this
year.
Resurrecting the bogey of the Lib
erty League, big money foe of the
New Deal in the last presidential
election, Mr. Roosevelt drew heavily
on quotations from speeches by
Abraham Lincoln in drawing a dis
tinction between what is considered
liberty by some-and by others.
1.-The shepherd drives the wolf
from the sleeps throat Mr.. Roose-
welt quoted the Civil War President,
for which the sheep thanks the
shepherd as his liberator. while the
wolf denounces him for the same act
as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly.
the sheep and the wolf are not
agreed upon a definition of the word
liberty; and precisely the same diff
ference prevails today among us hu-
man creatures-and all protesting
to love liberty.
Text of Speech.
The text of President Roosevelt S
speech follows:
Il remember very well my visit to
Wilmington during the election of
1886. Some of the political experts
of those days were somewhat
amused at my visit to Delaware in a
political campaign. They told me
that I certainly was optimistic if
thought that Delaware would 90
Democratic in that presidential
election.
They were surprised at the result
of that election.
-Four years ago Wilmington was
the home town of the famous Liber-
ty League. 1t was created for sew
eral purposes. but its major objec-
tive was to defeat the New Deal and
drive it from office.
In view of that fact. l thought
that Wilmington was a good place
to read from a speech made by
President Abraham Lincoln, the
definition which he gave of the word
liberty"
This year that definition is of
even greater significance. This is
what President Lincoln said:
The world has never had a good
definition of the word liberty and
the American people, just now, are
much in want of one We all de-
clare for liberty, but in using the
same word we do not all mean the
same thing. With some the word
liberty may mean for each man to
do as he pleases with himself and
the product of his labor. while with
others the same word may mean
for some men to do as they please
with other men and the product of
other mems labor. Here are two,
not only different but incompatible
things, called by the same name,
liberty. And it follows that each of
! the things is, by the respective par
ties, called by two different and in
compatible names-liberty and
/ tyranny.
And then Abraham Lincoln used
this example. He said:
"'The shepherd drives the wolf
from the sleeps throat. for which
the sheep thanks the shepherd as
his llberator, while the wolf de-
nounces him for the same act, as
the destroyer of liberty = = plainly
the sheep and the wolf are not
agreed upon a definition of the
word liberty; and precisely the same
difference prevails today among us
human creatures and all
processing to love liberty. Hence
we behold the process by which
thousands are daily passing from
under the yoke of bondage hailed by
some as the advance of liberty. and
bewailed by others as the destruc-
ton of all liberty And then Lincoln
said this:
Recently, as it seems. the peo-
pile have been doing some
thing to define liberty. and thanks
to them that, in what they have
done. the VOLTS dictionary has been
repudiated.
Definite Action in 1886.
I'm 1886 the people of the United
States took definite action to define
what they intended liberty to mean
in this country for the next -four
years. They repudiated the wolf s
dictionary.
II am sure that this year the peo-
pie not only of Delaware, but of the
United States are all taking re-
newed interest in that word "liber.
ty." There are not so many coun-
tries left where the word has any
real meaning.
Il hope that by their votes or
election day the people of the State
of Delaware will reaff1rm their owr
definition of 'liberty'-the SAME
definition they made four years ago.