Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 243, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1913 — ON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS [ARTICLE]

ON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Battle for Liberty of Thought?' Is Fought in Book by John Milton That is Never Read. Ji New York.—Milton’s “Areopagitlca” was given to the world 269 years ago. August 28, 1644. Not one in a thousand of the readers of this newspaper or of any other newspaper* has read the "Areopagltica” or even seen it —any more than he has seen the force of gravity or the electrical energy that is working such miracles in this age of ours. But. like the invisible powers of nature, the book of the great Latin secretary of the old protector has been serving the purpose for which it was written. The parliament of 1643, under the dominance of the champions of tyranny, had passed an ordinance against the liberty of printing, and with a sublime fearlessness Milton challenged them to battle. His challenge was this same “Areopagitlca,” which madethem sit up and think, and wfai ch convlnced them that there was at least one man in England who loved intellectual liberty and understood perfectly well how to defend it. In sentences that are like the blasts

of a trumpet Milton protested against the infamous attempt to throttle the freedom of the press. He would have no oppression of the printers, no gag put upon their desire to spread abroad among men the thoughts of the mind. Foreseeing the future and exulting in its happy deliverance from every form of mental tyranny—the era in which every one should be perfectly free to think, and perfectly free, also, to put his thoughts into print—Milton did what he could to help the good time along. Likening truth unto the eagle, which in its royal might scatters the "timorous birds that love the twilight,” he excoriated the unrighteous attempt at shackling the press and predicted the time when a free and enlightened press would be the salvation and glory of humanity. All England was forced to listen to his glorious plea for free printing, and fpr two and one-half centuries the echoes of his noble appeal have sounded and resounded in British ears and In the ears of all men. Wherever floats the British flag today, there, under its protecting folds, is to be found the mental hospitality—the large freedom of thought and expression—which dates back to Milton’s great plea that was given to the world on that 28th of August, 1644.