Salt Lake Telegram | 1940-05-27 | Page 6 | "Hitler is a Pig'

i j t Hitler H. H It I er I Is s a P. P Pig 19 BECAUSE a salesman wrote on a typewriter S while demonstrating it to a customer th the words wards I cant can't bear Hitler He is isa a pig the leading bookstore in Bucharest Rumania has been closed by Rumanian police Imagine That casual insulting reference to Hitler didn't occur in Germany or in territory terri tern tory Story controlled by Germany but in Rumania an an independent nation which is far from being being being be be- ing sympathetic to the nazis And yet such is the terror of nazi Germany and its effect on the democratic right of free expression of opinion opinion ion that it is impossible for Rumanians to say Hitler is a pig if they want to That incident certainly exemplifies the vast gulf that separates totalitarianism and de de- Over in Europe a free nation not even even in fact a direct neighbor of Germany must bow to the nazi power to the extent of punishing a shopkeeper whose salesman merely merely merely mere mere- ly called Herr Hitler a pig pig and and he might have called him so many things worse than that Over here Mexicans can spout off about our our president or anybody else in the United States to their hearts heart's content content and and they doand do doand doand do- do and no one thinks anything about it Why in fact some Roosevelt calumniator could stand on Pennsylvania avenue in front of the White House and shout that the president president dent is a fool and a pig and probably get nothing more than an order to move on and stop disturbing the peace Freedom to criticise and deride the head of government or public officials may seem unImportant unimportant unimportant un un- important but it is really part of the fundamentals fundamentals funda funda- of democracy John Citizens Citizen's right to speak his mind freely is the right which makes it possible for him to protect all his other rights against subversion So long as we Americans are free to criticise our leaders or the leaders of other states we shall be free men If that right shall ever tie lie taken from us by internal or external force we can expect to be vassals either of our own or some foreign tyranny The one great hope for the future continuance continuance continuance ance of democracy in America is that Americans Amen Amerl- cans cherish their right to call Herr Hitler or any other political leader a pig and that they will fight to defend that privilege against t C any internal plot or external power that e threatens to destroy it