Show DEFINITION OF LIBERTY Liberty may perhaps be defined as the right of every person to act as he pleases please so long as his conduct is not prejudicial to others or to speak politically to the common weal This may maybe maybe maybe be regarded as the ideal with which it h hag always been found im- im impossible impossible im impossible possible tender the selfish passions and interests of men and their honest opinions always exceedingly variable For instance the titled and the rich have with rare exceptions always inclined towards centralized forms of gov- gov government government gov government in which they might par par- participate participate par participate and their property be better I protected while the poor have ac- ac according according ac according cording to their intelli intelligence ence desired a greater amount of freedom with the double desire of ameliorating their condition and participating in inthe inthe inthe the administration of affairs The origInal government was that of the strongest The patriarchal patriarchal patriarchal chal system of rule of the head of the family or clan was never general or orif if so only for a brief period and prevailed only in parts parte of the world where the population was sparse and nomadic The strong held the weak in a state of slavery Slavery passed into serfdom in th the Middle Ages and from this modified form devel devel- developed developed developed into the varied systems of gov gov- government government government that we have today No distinction is made here between slavery as usually understood and the absolute rule of monarchs of na- na nations nations na nations and chiefs of tribes They were in reality the same A king like Jike likeN N the builder of the Pyramids who sacrificed hundreds hundred of thousands of his subjects in that colossal work had that complete control over the liberty and life Ufe of his subjects possessed in those times by the owner of a score of bondmen It is only natural that every thinking person should ask himself not whether slavery is right in this enlightened epoch but whether it was ever right If we accept the dictum that whatever is is right right- right which no one does precisely the answer would be emphatically y in inthe inthe inthe the affirmative Slavery doubtless takes its natural place in the evolution evolution evolution tion of liberty The blind man whose sight is restored can only gradually bear the light De Degraded beings like the primitive savages who peopled the world being des des- destitute destitute destitute of the mora moral sense could not Dot understand liberty nor the manner in which its blessings could be enjoyed Left to themselves they would have devoured one an- an another another an another other This mutual destruction a chief in his own interest needing warriors would endeavor to pre pre- prevent prevent pre prevent vent and the decimation under his guidance would probably be less than if the individuals were left to themselves So also when a mon mon- monarch monarch monarch arch united under his sway sev- sev several several sev several eral tribes who if left to them them- themselves themselves themselves selves would have annihilated i one another The cause of hu- hu humanity hu manity manity was thereby better served The mortality was diminished and though a tribes tribe's tribe s liberties were abridged its individual privileges were often otten increased The The same principle may be regarded as applicable during the Middle Ages when the nobles having grown R cruel and arrogant under the system dukes and barone barons were compelled to submit to the rule of kings as in f France and England In making a t united France Louis XI whose character was in many respects detestable may be regarded as a J sort of public benefactor Liberty then may be regarded k as a relative term shifting and adapting its meaning according to circum circumstances Many men are like children who in their innocence cannot understand why they should should not be permitted to make themselves into erable to everyone every one by their noise or to tread on the toes of the inthe whole world Students believe in the right to invade the liberties of others by violence especially on the t class below them Yet Y tot there is a certaIn generosity in the student character which which has has often enabled j them to serve the cau cause e of liberty sometimes usefully at other tim times 1 to te the detriment of some noble cause There are thousands of grown men who do not know when they are free They are at liberty to do all sorts of reasonable things but it is the useless and trivial act c the law forbids that they desire especially to commit It is with liberty as with curiosity that feels I always an irresistible impulse to explore the guarded secret Liberty J course nobler motives but this simple tendency of man to do a athing athing thing simply because some person or some authority has told him he 4 could not do it explains many manyi L I Yrs I things things in of human pro pro- progress pro pro-gresa grass gress otherwise incomprehensible HAving lived an 1 I prospered un un- under under under der a republican form of govern govern- government government government ment for over a hundred years i Americans naturally think it the k best For an intelligent re reasonable abiding l abiding law p people ople without compro compro- compromising compromising precedents without re- re religious re religious 1 prejudices that is probably the case But what would the peo- peo people peo people i pie of Russia tenths nine-tenths of whom serfs only twenty were years ago agodo do with our system Noon No one pre pre- pretends pretends pretends tends to say that for the moment they are not better off as 8 they areTo are To give ive a more forcible illustration What What would would- be the political r Z condition of the Persians of Af Afghans hans if every man had the right of suffrage Intelligent I Americans believe in the right of ev every ry country to choose its own i form of government There suc e not r wanting Americans who believe W that universal suffrage is a mistake r rIt It certainly has its d disadvantages vantages notably in large cities where it is r sometimes in the power of the idle idler r and vicious classes who are ever ready for two or three francs or from mere love of anarchy o or or ois- ois disorder dis disorder order to cast their votes for any ad- ad adventurer adr ad adventurer r like Bins Ji Boulanger I In n England suffrage e is not uni uni- universal universal versal but nearly so 80 The exception exception tion makes it possible to exclude r from political influence e the greater part of the dangerous T eo- eo ele- ele elements ele elements i ments menta of London and the thes s large provincial cities The rhe Cabinet in Spain has been f endeavoring for the last year to ren- ren render render ren render der suffrage universal without even being able to hear the question dis dis- discussed discussed e cussed in the Cortes owing to the disorderly opposition of the conser conser- conservatives conservatives The Tho common people of that t country are by education and tem tem- temperament temperament temperament the least fitted titled of all aU the important continental populations of Europe to be endowed i with so important a political r In the right Germany peasant classes care little for liberty in the abstract so long as they th y are permit permit- permitted permitted J ted to drink their la lager er beer in iii w- w peace They are by hy instinct peace peace- peaceable peaceable t able and law abiding In the cities it is different There the working Masses are more intelligent more active and more Impatient under r restraint They are socialists or an anarchists an- an anarchists anarchists with ideas for the most host part subversive ve of all 11 government and ready if jf they had lad ad the power to annihilate w authority and get rid qt of th ir rulers ru rs no matter by what means meaDS This subjection tion or blotting out of the they moral sentiment iSs Is- the most significant fact tact in the history of nihilism and the different forms of socialism that are seen In all the countries of Europe It is the belief I that the right exists exist to achieve lib lib- liberty liberty lib liberty erty no matter by what means The principle involves the right to take human life by dynamite if necessary necessary necessary sary and by wholesale if a crowd of innocent persons stand aland in the Way opinions opinions Fortunately principles and ions such as these are entertained l by only a n small minority in any country There are in Russia per per- per perhaps haps hags perhaps or nihilists in a o j In p Ger x many a few hundred thousand in a population of entertain these extravagant ideas In France the proportion is alY about ut the same This is what makes the growth of socialism and the gospel of dynamite so eo extra extra- extraordinary extraordinary ordinary for it is the denial of the first principle of democratic govern govern- government the ment-the ment the right of the majority to toI I rule or Socialism Socialism or anarchism as asit asit asit it should be called in some r cases cases claims the right not only of a min min- minority minority minority but of a perceptible minority to dictate the laws and policy of the nation of which the clique forms a part That is the apostles of liberty the believers inthe in inthe inthe the greatest possible measure of it deny to their countrymen their most obvious rights while y lle at the same time they strike lit fit the very roots of legitimate authority and ano ordinary morality The moral world in which one extreme is followed in invariably variably by another haa bas a remedy for these evils and in this case not the one that true lovers of Ji liberty berty desire Property and established interests menaced with destruction unite for self-defense self Monarchs whose lives Jives or whose authority is threatened combine against the com coin common common mon enemy There is everywhere in Euro Europe today today-in today in in Russia in Austria in m Italy in a Germany Germany reaction against the abuse of the theory of liberty There is a general tendency toward absolutism which manifests itself not only toward the working classes but aggravates the political situation and renders a general war more probable As the crimes of the French Revolution set the whole world against France so SL those of the socialism of today result result- resulting resulting resulting ing from vicious theories of liberty threaten the very existence of the fr freedom dom the common people have with such sueh difficulty obtained DR DB ED I ISAACSON AMERICAN FORK Foxx N Nov ov 26 1889 |