Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1920 — Americanism [ARTICLE]

Americanism

By LEONARD WOOD

Übarty ****** M Wabatert Speech May 10, IMT. TIE quoted words from Webster are but another way of saying that liberty does not mean license. The thought expressed in simple words should have a place In the Primer of freedom. Where there is no restraint there can be no liberty. Autocracy is an inevitable consequence of license among people. In the work of Americanisation the need of wholesome restraint to make proper liberty certain must be taught as a basis of all further teachings, for without an understanding of this commanding truth all further attempts at instruction are useless. Within the last few years there have been evidences that certain of this country’s native born, of long American descent, have failed both through ancestry and to person to understand properly the difference between that liberty which the Fathers Intended should be the lot of their countrymen, and that license which springs from an .unbridled desire to destroy. Men and women who have been interested in the Americanisation of the immigrants have said that some of the newcomers have a clearer knowledge of just what liberty is than have acme Of the native born to whom the real spirit of Americanism is supposed to be a birthright. It is true that Immigrants coming to these shores from countries where freedom in every way has been restricted, zara likely to regard. by comparison with former conditions, the liberty granted here as being above and beyond anything of which they had dreamed. Thousands of the aliens who take this view of things become valued additions to the body of the American people. There are other aliens, however, who come here only to take advantage of the liberty which is granted them to use it for purposes st deal* uctlon It newwingiy is Impossible to turn the alien Red from his intentions. His way has been marked out for him by destroying inclinations. He sees no good in any existing thing. He is simply a destructionlst He should be deported. It is fortunate for the United States that the native born who think liberty fa license and the immigrants who think the same thing, are In, so to put W l a “minimum minority.” Webster’s words “liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint” have been uttered or written a thousand times. The ancients understood their meanlug and tried to imbue the people with their spirit Today Webster’s thought is uppermost to the minds of the people.