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Show tofcwrt Phillips By LUTHER H. HODGES U.S. Secretary of Commerce 4 . . One of our most exciting American freedoms is one we seldom discuss: Freedom of Choice. In a new kind of Fourth of July message , the Secretary of Commerce talks about its meanings for you WASHINGTON When i was a boy in North Carolina, the Fourth of July was the most exciting holiday of (he year. The whole town turned out for the races in the sack races, d races and the morning wild race to capture a greased pig. Then we ate picnic lunches, bought lemonade at the refreshment stands and settled down for the speeches. Thundering oratory was much admired in that War I time. We listened, entranced, to World pre the rolling phrases celebrating the glorious declaration of liberation from tyranny and despotism which took place on July 4, 1776. ' The inspiring words still echoed in our minds hours later when brilliant fireworks exploded in the night three-legge- sky. The years passed and the Fourth of July emphasis gradually shifted from the independence as a nation, won for us by our forefathers, to the precious individual freedoms that we ourselves must guard constantly against attack and erosion. The Four Freedoms of Franklin D. Roosefreedom of speech, freedom of worship, freevelt dom from want and freedom from fjar became the focus of our celebration. This year I'd like to bring up a Fifth Freedom a freedom ue enjoy every minute of every day of Freedom of our live, s, yet one we rarely mention - Choice. What does this Fifth Freedom mean? Simply that in our personal, our business and our community lives, we Americans have a range of free choices unmatched and almost undreamed of in many other parts of the world. For example: Freedom of Choice: WHERE WE UVE i Americans are free to live wherever they please. One family moves from the city to a suburb. Another goes from a rented apartment to a house of its own. Still another heads west or north to in pursuit of a new job, a beta different state ter school, fresher air, or merely a change of scene. People in many countries today do not have this freedom. When I visited the Soviet Union in 1959 as one of nine State Governors, a man working in a factory told me, through an interpreter,' that he came from a very beautiful, distant part of Russia where there were many vineyards. "Would you like to work in the vineyards? I asked. "Oh yes, his face lit up. "Then why don't you? I inquired. He shook his head. Later someone explained to me that in order to buy a railroad ticket to that distant place, the man would be required to show proof that he had a job there': But to obtain a job, he would have to be there. So the idea was hopeless, because he had no choice as to his location or his job. Last fall in Berlin I noticed a dozen West Berliners standing on a mound near the some dividing line waving their handkerchiefs I asked woman tears. a occasionally wiping away to whom she was waving. "To my daughter 'and her baby and my elderly mother, she told me. I looked and saw another group of people 500 feet away in East Berlin imprisoned behind the wall barbed wire and broken seven-fotopped by glass. The divided members of this family had written to each other making a date to wave at East-We- ot last year brougfit a torrent of letters from readers st that particular time on that' Sunday morning. By contrast, our freedom to move about and live wherever we please is illustrated by a delightful letter received recently at the Department of Commerce Census field office in Kansas City. A young woman, licensed to teach school anywhere in the state of Nebraska, asked the census people a simple and sensible question before accepting a job offer: "What city in Nebraska has the highest proportion of unmarried men between 30 and 40? THIS WEEK Mf 1. If 62 1 |