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

access to the means of uttering it
to newspapers, to the radio, the pub
lie forum. When power or capital
are concentrated, when the press is
too closely the property of narrow
interests, then freedom suffers. There
is no freedom, either, unless facts
are within reach, unless information
is made available. And final con-
dition of free speech is that there be
no penalties attached to the spread
of information and to the expression
of opinion, whether those penalties
be applied by the government or by
any private interests whatsoever.
The operation of free press and
the free expression of opinion are
far from absolute rights. The laws
of libel and SANDER set limits on
what men may say of other men.
The eXigency of war sets limits on
what information may be given out,
lest it give aid and comfort to the
enemy Good taste sets limits on all
speech.
Freedom of speech, Justice Holmes
has warned, does not grant the right
to shout fire in crowded theatre.
When ideas become overt acts against
peace and order, then the govern
ment presumes to interfere with free
speech. The burden of proof, how
ever, is upon those who would re-
strict speech-the danger must be
not some vague danger but real and
immediate
We are not so much concerned with
these inevitable limitations to free
speech as with the delight at the
principle in society and how greatly
it has strengthened mans spirit, how
steadily it has enlarged his culture
and his world. We in America know
what the privilege is because we have
lived with it for century and a
half. Talk founded the Union, nur-
tured it, and preserved it. The dis
senter, the disbeliever, the crack-pot,
the reformer, those who would pull
down as well as build up-all are
free to have their say.
Talk is our daily fare-the white
bosomed lecturer RECALLING the Tues
day Ladies Club, the prisoner at the
bar testifying in his own behalf, the
editorial writer complaining of civic
abuses, the actor declaiming behind
the footlights, the movie star speak,
ing on the screen, the librarian dis
pensing the accumulated talk of ages,
the professor holding forth to his
students, the debating society, the
meeting of the aldermen, the min
lister in the pulpit, the traveller in
the smoking car, the soap-box orator
with his flag and his bundle of cpl
grams, the opinions of the solemn
magistrate: and the opinions of the
animated mouse-words, ideas, in a
never-ending stream, from the endur-
ing wisdom of the great and the good
to the puniest thought troubling the
feeblest brain. All are listened to,
all add up to something and we call
it the rule of the people, the people
who are free to. say the words.
The United States fights to preserve
this heritage, which is the very es-
sence of the Four Freedoms. How,
unless there is freedom of speech,
can freedom of religion or freedom
from want or freedom from fear be
realized? The enemies of all liberty
flourish and grow strong in the dark
of enforced silence.
For the right to be articulate the
inarticulate airman climbs to his
fabulous battle-ground. For this fight
the grim-lipped soldier; the close
mouthed sailor; the marine.
(To be continued)