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10 TESTS OF A FREE SOCIETY Continued From Editorial Pace this la a responsibility not of the schools but of society. We must not expect, as most of us do, too much of our schools All this means, among other things, that we must abandon that easy and shabby pose of anti-lntellectuallsm so popular in our own time. It is unbecom ing In a people who have made a religion of education, who TAX SERVICE Federal and State Taxes Business ? Individual 11 Years Experience in Federal Tax Work ROBERT E. WORKMAN Phone 388 Franklin, N. O. have been more successful In mass education than any other, whose whole political system rests upon the assumption of an enlightened electorate, whose greatest leaders were educa tional statesmen ? it Is unbe coming In such a people to In dulge in sneers at intellectuals or to make the term "Intellec tual" a term of reproach. Ours is the only country where it IS a term of reproach. And it is the last country where it should be! It is nothing less than absurd to embrace- the notion, now achieving some popularity, that universities are not primarily a place for the cultivation of the mind, but for other things ? social graces, perhaps, or foot ball! Whatever may be the vir tue of athletics, or of the social graces, whatever may be the virtues of adaptation and ac commodation, gregarlousness, and fitting groups, and fitting patterns ? and I think all of these virtues are exaggerated ? whatever they may be, they says act now.. .be from work ancLworry at 55 Why' jutf dram of baying youneif ? WW and hi ?pgr retire meat? Now yon can do k, juet ?* Ihmmndi at othen are doinal Jeflenon Standard** "Mr. ?%" rixxn 70a bun wilt bis Op Retirement Plan. To, too can take jrour place 00 Security Street at age JJ or to ? any ana between 90 aad 70 ? with regular monthly incomo guaranteed. Aa income tailor-made to your ne*di . . . assuring yon and your wife nwtoe comfort and independence in yoar "golden yeata." Stmt today ? by calUng Mr. 4% for dctoM can and should be cultivated elsewhere than In the univer sities or the laboratories. Keep In mind that there are hun dreds of forces and pressures and agencies all making lor the cultivation of social graces, all mating for conformity, for adaptation ? almost all the pressures to which the young are exposed. We have conserva tives enough. We have adapters enough. What we need Is not more agencies to fit the Indivi duals to groups, but some agen cy to fit the group to the in dividual, and fit the society to the individual. There is, then, another test of a free society; a free so ciety cherishes non-conform ity. It knows that from the non-conformist, from the ec centric, from the dissenter have come many of the great ideas of freedom. ... A free society must fertilize the soli In which non conformity and dissent and in dividualism can grow. It must not only refrain from penaliz ing the non-conformist, wheth er by the penalty of the law, or by the penalty of dismissal from jobs, by the terrible pen alty of social ostracism; it must provide premiums and re wards for the non-conformist and individualist. These are the men and women who give us our music, our art, our political ideas, our social ideas, and our religious ideas. Let us give aid and comfort to the dreamer and the come-outer, the eccentric and the lame duck, confident that from this group comes in comparably more than its nor mal share of the geniuses of the world. A free society is a society which encourages experimen tation and innovation . . . Those who welcome experimentation in the realm of engineering, but fear It in society are guilty of a profound inconsistency. I am not saying it is possible to tinker with society as you can tinker with an automobile en gine, heaven help us! That at titude is a doctrinaire one and a dangerous one. I am saying that it is possible1 to experi ment with social institutions, with political institutions. Cer tainly this is the meaning of our federal system; this is the meaning of the fact that we have always had denomination alism in America and not a state church. Any other atti tude is a vote of no confidence in tne present and In the fu ture. It was Jefferson who de cried the notion that all wis dom was in the past, that the preceding generation held the earth more freely than we and 1 had a right to Impose laws up on us and declare that the eprth belongs to the dead and ' not the living. An essential part of experi mentation Is, of course, diver sity. Who can doubt that di versity is a distinguishing fea ture of a free society? Go, as X went last summer, from West Germany to East Germany ? and West Germany hasn't had a long time of being a free so ciety ? and you are struck at once in the East with the same ness, the monotony, the drab ness of life, with the drabness, the dullness, and monotony of thought. Free societies present a scene of endless activity and diversity, of endless and de lightful play ? play in the sense of the play of the mind, the play of the spirit. Free societies present a diversity in religious organization and a diversity in political organization. Not one political party, but two or more. Not one church, but as many as we choose to have. They present endless diversity in the realms of literature, art, and music, no official art, no official music, or official history. But each competing for our ap proval as each commercial prod uct competes for our approval. A free society is one that refrains not only from the ostentations methods and de vices of censorship or of sup pression of opinion, but from visiting social and economic penalties on those guilty of dangerous or unpopular views. It refrains from depriving them of their jobs, of exclud ing them from clubs; it re frains from 'using a sort of social Bill of Attainder. . . . We are witnessing today a revival of obsolutism In many fields. Now I think it Is true that those societies with the longest experience with free dom are societies that resolute ly repudiate absolutes. For they know that absolutism is the mortal foe of compromise, of evolution, of experimentation, and of tolerance. Freedom, it self, may be called an abso lute; but even here there are common sense limits, the kind of limits that Justice Holmes had in mind In his famous ob servation that there was no freedom to shout fire in a crowded theatre, the kind of limits that civil libertarians recognize when they refuse to champion the purveyors of ob scenities in comic books for children on the specious grounds that it is an infringe ment of liberty of the press. Absolutism has ever been the enemy of freedom and the par ent of fanaticism, as It to to day. It is a test of ? free so ciety that it never imposes or permits any group to impose its notions upon others by intimidation. It does not per mit this because there is al ways a chance that those who are so sure of them selves may be wrong. It does not do this because it knows that ideas, even true ideas, imposed by force, lose much of their value. It does not do this because it will not sacri fice the tremendous educa tional value of free discus sion, and the independent discovery of truth by all con cerned. It does not do this because it knows that socie ties that do it never achieve a genuine unity or agreement, but seethe with hidden dis unities and are torn apart by internecine wars. It does not do this because it knows that all genuine unity, like gen uine loyalty, genuine faith, grow from within and cannot be imposed from without. Another test of a free society is a free and responsible press. . . . What is not always obvi ous, though it should be, is that a press must not only be free; it must be responsible. What is not always obvious is that free dom carries with it obligations. Freedom of the press is not a negative concept; it is not merely a happy device to avoid censorship or government con trol. As our freedom generally has been positive and creative, so freedom of the press must be positive and creative. It in volves not only the right to tell the truth but the obligation to tell the truth and the whole truth, in so far as that Is pos sible. It is something that con ditions ? the whole press, not just the editorial columns. It conditions the cartoons, news reports, the book reviews, the advertisements. . . . The obliga tions of freedom and responsi bility are as implacable for magazines and books as they are for the newspapers. Who can delude himself that in America these obligations are fulfilled? A free society ? and this is one of the important tests ? a free society depends not on re straint, but on self-restraint. We must learn not only to re spect the legal and constitu tional restraints which we have placed upon ourselves; we must learn self-restraint, moral re I straint, if you will. ... A free ' society respects its courts and its judges so much that it does THE FASHION SHOPS = Store Wide Reductions For = Brand New Fall and Winter DRESSES $2.00 Off Regular Price of Every New Dress On Our Racks ALL SALES FINAL AND FOR CASH DRESSES One Group FALL AND WINTER All Sizes Reg. $8.95 ? Now $5.95 Reg. $10.95 Now $6.95 Reg. $12.95 Now $7.95 Reg. $14.95 Now $8.95 Reg. $16.95 Now $9.95 Reg. $17.95 ? Now $10.95 Reg. $19.95 // Now $11.95 Reg. $22.95 Now $12.95 BRAS One Group of ? EXQUISITE FORM ? FORM FIT, and ? MAIDEN FORM Bras. ONE PRICE Only $1.00 Assorted Sizes HATS! HATS! One Dozen, going to first 12 who come for Only $1.00 ONE GROUP BAGS Only $1.00 Assorted colors and styles, but everyone a good bag. ? 3 KNIT SUITS SUITS w??' UVJl 1 U Sizes 12 and 14 Were $32.95 Now $22.95 13 ALL WOOL and WOOL and RAYON SUITS Assorted Sixes and Colors Now V2 Price <. SPECIAL PURCHASE ALL WOOL SKIRTS $6.95 Value Now $4.95 Beautiful fall colors to choose from. 1 GROUP SKIRTS Values to $10.95 Now $3.00 Only a few sizes, so come early. SWEATERS ONE GROUP, ALL WOOL Values to $8.95 Now $4.95 We have about 15 at this price, so hurry! not seek to Intimidate them, but it places ultimate reliance not so much on courts and judges, but on the Intelligence and virtue of the people. . . . There is another test of freedom, namely, public serv ice and public activity. By this test where do we stand? A smaller percentage of our citizens take the trouble to vote than in any other demo cratic state. This apathy to wards voting is, however aitd fortunately, counter-balanced by a practice whioh is of ut most importance ? participa tion in the affairs of the commonwealth not through politics but through private voluntary organizations. . . . One crucial test of freedom in our society is the extent to which freedom is permit ted these voluntary organiza tions, the extent to which they do flourish. We judge a free society by the kind of men and women that it produces. Does the society pro duce men and women of inde pendent minds and spirits? Does it produce men of integrity, men of courage, and men of virtue, to use an old-fashioned word ? who value their Intel lectual and spiritual Integrity above all other things? Does it produce men and women with | a sense of loyalty not only to the state but also to the law? Not merely to the law but to the higher law, to the cause of truth itself, to loyalty itself? Does it produce not only states men, soldiers, and merchants but also artists, poets, and dreamers? What we are saying is this: A free society cherishes the dignity of man and exalts it. It provides men with the oppor tunity to go on as far as their native talents will carry them. It erects no barriers of an arti ficial character. ... It does not try to subordinate man to the State, but keeps ever in mind that the State is made for man, and not man for the State. If it requires the serv ices of men, as it does in time of war, it does so on terms compatible with individual in tegrity and dignity. It does not humiliate its citizens. It does not expose them to obloquy. It | does not intimidate them or permit officials, clothed with temporary authority, to humili ate them. But it keeps ever in mind that in a free nation the citizen is master and the of ficial is servant. In short, a free society is a 51 just society. This, more than any other single thing, dis tinguishes the free society from the slave society: A free society is one that never yields to the seductive but perilous doctrine that the end justifies the means, that pri vate judgment may be substi tuted for legal proof. A society which disregards due process is in the process of disregarding justice itself. A society which permits and does not repudiate injustice to in dividuals, even to the weakest of them, is a society that has already lost a sense for the meaning of freedom and will soon lose freedom itself. CHURCH DINNER SLATED Members of the congregation and the Sunday School of the Franklin Methodist Church will hold a picnic dinner In the church basement Sunday morning. Im mediately following the morning service. i Flowering bulbs offer many pos sibilities for use In home gardens, says North Carolina State Col lege Extension specialists. PLUMBING And * HEATING For A-l Work at Reasonable Rates CALL W. G. HALL Phone 397 For . . . ? PAINT ? SHEETROCK ? TILEBOARD ? INSULATION ? DOORS and WINDOWS ? BUILDING BOARD ? PLYWOOD ? PLUMBING ? CEMENT ? BRICK ? BUILDERS HARDWARE ROOFING: Check Our Prices Before You Buy Prompt Delivery See . . . REEVES HARDWARE CO. Phone 113 Franklin, N. C. YOVKNBW WHAT t s mow- , >v To ffcoto good homomakart who porhap? havo novar triad JFO Special . . . yoo who take pndo in tho food quality Mrvad your family. Wa awggost you try thfe ?pociol blond for a changa. Only ffcwi will you know, m thousands of othori ' know, tha tuporb flavor of th? Coffoof in JfG Spo<iaL V /A
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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Sept. 27, 1956, edition 1
7
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