The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1948-01-22
The Road Ahead
From The Heights Star, Chicago, Illinois

From The Heights star, chicago, ILLINOIS,
This is the age of confusion.
But that does not mean it need be an age of cynical resig,
principles that took two thousand years OF almost continuous
No one can minimize the problems that now confront the
nations, ranging from the terrible ?et speeter Of u hosasae = ma'
terias. The very extent and number of these problems have add
ed to the confusion. They have, as the old French prcyerb says,
o o5scu &c tn the fact tn that t there is really only one basic problem, and
that al! T fns r prab1 hsms IS u essly It p ,n on Sooner ~ay o. or i iater, the peoples of
the world, including the United States. will have to make a a ON pm
There is a danger in using such words as freedom" and
liberty" these days. Dictators and tyrants have attempted to
pervert them out of any semblance to their true meanings. Hitler,
for world ensIavement with freedom and liberty" as his rally
ing call. Even so. the real free man can be described. He is free
majority or with the government in power. He is free to worship
e as e IS p'fsaes' subject u &c to the 3 a Sties abis ss iaVns Of Il libel g and public
decency.. He is free to work or not to work, and to change Jobs Il
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
favors none. He is free to determine his own destiny, and he is
not the tool Of the state or any other interest
of them is dependent on the others. When one freedom is lost, all
all at once. A right is abrogated here, another there; the state
ssiIes business sns ns.t then at takes ths T eysr the ds Ia su unions IN 1ew ss. .imterpre-
so it goes, step after step, until the job of despotism is completed.
mum of material security to the tragcaly confused people they
for the surrender of their freedoms, obtain more goods, a higher
standard of living, a greater measure of protection from adver-
The question answers itself. The greatest material advance
ment in the history of the world has been in the nation where
there has been the greatest amount of freedom for the individual
United States. 1t is not accident that the pay Of the average
American worker. measured in terms of purchasing power. is ten
or a dozen times that of the average Russian worker. A still bet
ter comparison is found with p~resent-day England, the country
uage, inheritance and tradition. Socialism which can be the
vanguard OF dlctatorship--has aggravated every English econo-
mic problem. 1t has produced less goods for export, not more
goods for export; less coal, not more coal; less agricultural pro-
duction, not more agricultural production. Worst of all, it has
Slapped 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 government does all the think
ing.
The super-state is not only spiritually barren but material
Iy inefficient. When we attempt to trade freedom for security
W. lose both This thought was perfectly expressed by Somerset
Vaughan, the most distinguished living British novelist, when he
SAID: II a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose
its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money
that it values more, it will lose that too" That saws It all in = SEN.
tence.