The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-11-05
IN OTHER
WORDS
By JOHN STAHLBERG

| H. L. Mencken used to say thai
i American do not really care to be
free; merely to be safe and to avoid
exertion and responsibility. Mencken
of course was always wicked, boist-
erous fellow who called spade hell
bent shovel and probably played
hooky from Sunday school. Thank
God we are not as that publican!
Yet it is fact that any messiah OF
suppression, if he has wits enough to
think up a screwball slogan and lung
power enough to keep shouting 1T,
can in short time get following.
Look at Walter Winchell, to whom we
listen raptly every Sunday night. Look
at Dorothy Thompson, who from
staunch conservative republicanism
switched overnight to such awed, If
not at all hushed, alteration of Roose-
welt that she is now admittedly willing
to suspend the Bill of Rights to pro-
tect him from criticism or opposition.
Propaganda for suppression of opin-
ion has even appeared in the schools.
Our children are told by the persons
whom we hire to teach them the fun
damentals of citizenship that, while of
course we believe in free speech and
all that, we should not permit fellows
like Wheeler and Lindbergh to oppose
the government
Winchells argument against the
right of free speech is that some peo-
pie abuse the right. There indeed is
a new high in something or other!
Dorothy Thompson adds that such
abuse should be prohibited by law.
Dorothy hates the German govern
ment, but has taken its favorite word,
'verboten," straight to her ample bo-
som. The trouble is, who is to decide
where use ends and abuse begins?
Dorothy? Walter? You? 1? Most peo-
pie would call their own remarks use;
the other fellows remarks, abuse. And
If Dorothy decides that Walter has
abused the right of speech and Wal
ter decides that Dorothy is the guilty
wretch, which one shall we deport?
suggest both
Stripped of Winchell confusion and
Thompson profundity, and reduced to
plain, hard, workaday English, these
peoples notion of freedom means sim
ply your freedom to agree with them
and their freedom to lock you up If
you don't. 1t is not a new or I'M
familiar idea. For an illustration of
the way 1t works you can go to nazi
Germany. Hitler does not gag his
their speech is as free as
ours 1t is only those who differ with
him-those who "abuse" the right to
speak-who are sent to the concentra-
ton camp or the executioner.
In nation at war Gas every realist
ton on which all citizens agree: We
must win and keep on winning until
a peace is possible which, Allah will
ing, does not outrage international de-
cency. But while we are winning the
war, let us not lose everything pre-
viously won for us by the struggles
and hopes, the labor and love of many
generations of our predecessors. We
need not burn all the books to prove
that we don't like "Mein Kampf" We
need not sink the ship to convince
that no rats are aboard.
The suppressionists are the real
traitors, the real enemy. They are as
as the Gestapo, and more |
dangerous to this country and its
traditions than any foreign despot |
Hitler, as General Robert E. Wood has
pointed out, will die some day; Eur
ope will return to something resem-
bling sanity; but If we once allow |
forces and reasonable interests with
In our own borders to defraud us, on |
any pretext-repeat that slowly and |
please: on any pretext-
Of our rights as American citizens and !
free men,, the damage to our civiliza-
ton and to all human progress may
take many lifetimes to repair We |
must not permit this to happen. We |
must keep and increase our freedom.
That Is the vital issue, the long-range
issue. In relation to it the problem
Of Hitler is only an incident. |