Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-01-30
Behind The
Scenes In
Politics
BY
Clayton
Rusch
Toledo
CIO

WI 10 "lllNll S4SilAAJ SOAASSPND
dear to the hearts of men.
History shows many sacrifices
have been made to protect
freedom. The struggle to
achieve security has gone
on for centuries. At the pre-
sent time we have all the re-
quisites necessary to attain
both freedom and security for
all people.
Before we can achieve these
things, it is necessary that we
clearly understand what the
terms mean. To begin with,
too many people are willing
to accept as valid the thesis
that you must sacrifice. free
dom to get security, or vice
versa.
We are asked to believe
that the citizens of Russia
are quite willing to sacrifice
civil liberties in exchange for
the Soviet scheme of economic
security. We are asked to be-
lieve that men would rather
starve or freeze as free men
than accept a good standard
of living under a despotic
rule.
Once again we are being
bombarded on all sides with
the argument that in order to
save our democratic form of
government, the civil liber-
ties of certain groups who cri-
ticize the program of that
government must be curtail-
ed. This argument would
seem to be its own refutatlon,
yet it crops up repeatedly.
OUR DOROTHY
The latest writer advocat-
ing the delegalizing of the
Communist Party is Dorothy
Thompson, who built up quite
a case for outlaWing the COM
mics last week.
That the program of the
Communist Party offers a
cure worse than the evils it
purports to correct is, of
course, obvious. Civil liberties
as we know them do not exist
in Russia.
1t does not follow, however,
that we can best oppose the
Russian political system by
copying its methods. A long
time ago John Milton who
stated that Truth needs no
safeguards in an open fight"
and Voltaire who said, Il do
not agree with what you say
but will defend your right to
say it" established the absolute
necessity of maintaining the
principle of free speech by
those who would avoid SlaV-
cry.
Today we have the opinion
of j. Edgar Hoover that the
outlawing of the Communist
Party would defeat its own
purpose.
If we mean to avoid the
possibility of a situation de-
veloping which can easily re-
suit in censorship of all
thought and speech we had
better not start the chain re-
action by gagging any group,
no matter how obnoxious
their proposals may be.
GAGGING
Besides legally gagging
group which criticizes will not
result in dissipating the re-
sentiment of the people about
the things which are criticiz-
ed. In other words, poverty,
slums, high prices, war, and
unemployment just naturally
breed discomfort. The solution
is to correct these social evils,
not to gag the governments
critics.
Where would we draw the
line on who is, and who is
not a connie. According to
the Chamber of Commerce
and the National Association
of Manufacturers, most peo-
pie who are active in the la
Dor and coop movements are
commieS. If we assume that
party membership makes a
connie the party would SIM
ply "disband" and reorganize
with a legal front.
1t ought to be clear by now
that the way TO prevent the
spread of totalitarian COM
munism is not to make mar
tyrs out of the commies by
restricting civil liberties, but
rather to offer something bet
ter than the communist bill
of goods.
If democracy is superior to
totalitarianism, then it should
accept the challenge and
prove it. This can be done by
extending democracy into the
economic as well as the poll
tical sphere, for political de-
mocracy assures freedom,