Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1943-02-04
Freedom OF Speech

Below is the second article of
series of five on the Four Free
doms. The articles are from a
pamphlet published by the Office
of War Information.
To live free a man must speak
openly: gag him and he becomes
either servile or full of cankers. Free
government is then the most realistic
kind of government for it not only
assumes that man has something
on his mind, but comedies his right
to say it. 1t permits him to talk
not without fear of contradiction, but
without fear of punishment.
There can be no peoples rule un-
less there is talk. Men, it turns out,
breathe through their minds as we'll
as through their lungs, and there
must be circulation of ideas as well
as of air Since nothing is likely to
be more distasteful to a man than
the opinion of someone who disagreeS
with him, it does the race credit that
it has so stubbornly defended the
principle of free speech. But if a
man knows anything at all, he knows
self-government, the whole purpose
of which is to reflect and affirm the
will of the people.
In America, free speech and free
press were the first things the minds
of the people turned to after the
fashioning of the Constitution. Far
sighted men, in those early days,
readily understood that some sort of
protection was necessary. Thus when
the first amendment to the Constitu-
ton was drawn (part of what the
world now knows as the Bill of
Rights, it prohibited the Congress
from making any law which might
abridge the freedom of speech or of
the press, or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble and to petition
the government for redress of their
grievances.
In the Nazi state, freedom of
speech and expression have been dis
carded-not for temporary military
expediency, but as principle of life.
Being contemptuous of the individual,
and secretly suspicious of him, the
German leader has deprived him of
his voice. Ideas are what tyrants
most fear. To set up despotic state,
the first step is to get rid of the talk
erS-the takers in schools, the talk
erS in forums, the takers in political
rallies and in trade union meetings,
the takers on the radio and in the
newsreels, and in the barber shops
and village garages. Talk does not
fit the Nazi and the Fascist scheme,
where all ideas are, by the very ma
ture of the political structure, the
property of one man.
Talk is death to tyranny, for it can
easily clarity a political position
which the ruler may prefer to be-
cloud, and it can expose injustices
which he may choose to obscure.
Our Bill of Rights specifically men
toned the press. Today the press is
one of many forms of utterance.
Talk and ideas flow in ever-increas-
ing torrents, trough books, magazines,
schools, the radio, the motion pic
ture. The camera has created a whole
new language of it's own.
All these new forms are safe
guarded with the ancient guarantees,
but the essential danger of not being
allowed to speak freely remains
Today the privilege is challenged
more gravely than ever before; in
the countries dominated by the Axis
books are burned, universities are
shut down, men are put to death for
listening to a radio broadcast. Hit
ler's New Order seeks to prove that
unity and efficiency are achieved
most readily among people who are
prevented from reading, thinking,
talking, debating. This new anes-
thesia is a subtle drug. Under its
quick influence men sleep strange
sleep.
The right to speak, the right to
hear, the right of access to informa-
ton carry with them certain respon-
sibilities. Certain favorable condi-
tions are necessary before freedom
of speech acquires validity.
The first condition is that the in
dividual have something to say
Literacy is a prerequisite of free
speech, and gives it point. Denied
education, denied information, sup
pressed or enslaved, people grow
sluggish; their opinions are hardly
worth the high privilege of release
Similarly, those who live in terror
or in restitution, even though no spe-
cific control is placed upon their
speech, are as good as gagged.
Another condition necessary fol-
free speech is that the people have