Milford chronicle., 1948-01-09

remains to be seen. The fact that so many
Democratic members of Congress voted for
it certainly presents him with a problem.
Most people think that he will attempt to
make the labor issue definitely secondary to
other issues, such as his program for Euro
pean aid.
THIS is THE AGE of confusion
But that does not mean it need be an age
of cynical resignation to failure-and of the
gradual abandonment of rights and principles
that took two thousand years of almost con-
tinuOus conflict for mankind to secure. No
one can minimize the problems that now con-
front the nations, ranging from the terrible
specter Of unleashed atomic energy down to
such temporary difficulties as shortages of
materials. The very extent and number of
these problems have added to the confusion.
They have, as the old French prOverb says,
made it hard to see the forest because of the
trees. They have Obscured the fact that there
is really only one basic problem, and that all
the rest hinge upon it in one way or another
That problem is easily put: Sooner or later,
the peoples of the world, including the United
StateS will have to make a complete and final
choice between the chimera of security" and
the reality of freedom. There is a danger in
using such words as freedom and "liberty'
these days. DiCtatOrs and tyrants have at
tempted to pervert them out of any SEM
blance to their true meanings. Hitler, after
all, established his slave state and fought his
disastrous war for world enslavement with
freedom" and '1iberty" as his rallying CALL
Even so, the real free man can be described.
He is free to express his opinion, whether or
not it is in agreement with the majority or
with the government in power He is free to
worship as he pleaSeS. He is free to print
what he thinks in a newspaper, or elsewhere,
subject to the Old-estabEshed laws of libel
and public decency. He is free to work or not
to work, and to change jobs of his own vOli-
tiOn without dictatiOn from employer, labor
leader, or politician. He is free to run for
public Office on any platform he devises, or to
vote for the candidate of his choice He is
free to engage in business under cOmpeti-
tive system which penalties and favOrs none
He is free to determine his own destiny, and
he is not the tool of the state or any other in
terest. These are not separate, unrelated en-
titles. Every last one of them is dependent
on the others. When one freedom is lost, all
the rest are endangered. No dictatorship has
ever been established all at once. A right is
abrOgated here, another there; the state
SEXES business, then takes over the labor
unions; new Interpretations" are placed on
the rights OF free speech and assembly-sO it
goes, step after step, until the Job of despot-
ism is completed. DictatOrs trade on fear
fear of want, fear of hunger, fear of cold. all
the natural, material fears. They promise a
maximum Of material security to the trag-
lcally confused people they entice And this
poses another question: Can people, in re-
turn for the surrender of their freedoms. OBJ
tain more goods, higher standard of living,
a greater measure Of protection from ad-
versity?
The question answers itself The great
est material advancement in the history of
the world has been in the nation where there
has been the greatest amount of freedom for
the individual-the United States. Tt is not
accident that the pay Of the average Ameri-
can worker, measured in terms of purchasing
power, IS ten or a dozen times that of the
average Russian worker. A still better COM
parisOn is found with present-day England.
the country to which we are bound the
closest by the ties of common language, in
herltance and tradition. Socialism which
can be the vanguard of dictatorship has
aggravated every English economic problem.
1t has produced less goods for export. not
more goods Tor export; less coal, not more
coal; less agricultural production, not more
agricultural production. Worst of all, it has
sapped the energies and ambitions of the
people. There can never be progress in a
state where individual opportunity, initiative
and enterprise are discouraged, and the gov
eminent does all the thinking. The super
state IS not only spiritually barren but ma
terially inefficient When we attempt to trade
freedom for security, we lose both. This
thought was perfectly expressed by Somerset
Vaughan, the most distinguished living
British novelist when he said: eff nation
values anything more than freedom, it will
lose It's freedom; and the irony of it is that
II It IS comfort or money that it values more.
1t will lose that too" That says it all in a
sentence; The hope of this nation is that
our people Will profit by example. The hope
OF the world is that it will be able to break
the shackles Of oppression. The hope of man
kind lies in a reafirmation of the rights and
dignity of the Individual.
5000
in THE BEGINNING the United States
was dragged into the second World War
Ano fro Al