The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1949-09-29
The Deadly Virus
Reprinted from The Charlotte, N. G., Observer)

(Reprinted from The Charlotte. n. G, Observer)
The lesson that we find in President Truman's recent
Chicago speech Ito the shrine convention) lies deepers tnan
his exposition of our foreign policy.
All that he said on that subject is granted. America
has, as he said. exercised revolutionary influence on the
world: we are practically unanimous in our determination
to protect and defend what we know as democracy; we
keep the free peoples of the world free and to help defend
them against the totalitarians who would destroy them ana
There is no dispute on those points. Neither can one
disagree with his estimate of the new totaitarian tyrannies
that are no better than the old absolute tyrannies. But
the stark tragedy of his denunciation of the totalitarians
was his inability to see that his own purblind adminstra-
tion is leading this country down the same disastrous road.
If, as he said, America has exercised a revolutionary
influence on the world, how was it accomplished? Partly,
of course, it was done because of our unique form of gov
eminent, but mainly because that government-befor it
was corrupted-fostered an equally unique American char
acter-a character built on self-reliance.
We have been the innovators to the world, the adj
venturers, the explorers, the inventors, the enterprisers-
all because the average American had a boundless faith in
his individual self and a sublime confidence in a govern
ment that gave him a free rein and full opportunity for
Self-expression.
at a devastating speed ever since a horde of insidious propa-
gandists caught us in a moment of weakness when we had
just had a bad break and began preaching to us an alien doc
trine imported from the decadent countries of Europe.
The burden of their siren song was that American
free enterprise was finished. 1t was no longer equal to
Wnat tney called a new age, and now government must
take over and provide everybody with a living, take care Of
him from the cradel to the grave. Individual self confi-
dence was vlified as the worst of vices; he who presumed
TO stand on his own feet and make his own way was revIed
and called insulting names. Independence was to be rooted
put OF the American mind; the psychology of dependence
was to be cultivated in its place.
they succeeded all too well. We wonder sometimes
n0W we fell for it. But consider the Italians, an intelligent
and civilized people, how they were hoodwinked by a strut
ing little egoist in gaudy uniforms and fez and tassle, for
all the world like an organ grinders monkey, who led them
into the most inane imbecilities.
Consider the Germans, the most highly educated and
cultured people on the continent, beguiled by a ridiculous.
little p~sychopath who led them by the nose to their own
destruction.
Consider the British, the level-headed British, the
;uthors of most of the human freedoms, and how they have
submitted like dumb, driven cattle to a stateism that
they themselves three years. ago would not have believed
possible.
Finally, consider the Americans, and how our an
cient self-reliant character has been infected through six
teen years of government propaganda with the deadly virus
Of co~lectivism that is spreading a creeping paralysis over
. once hardy and venturesome people and making them
timorous DEFENDANTS.