Article May 9, 1953 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Henry Townley Heald, Samuel Millar, Marshall Ketchum

An editorial in The Daily Colonist Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Freedom is not a private possession, something to be taken home and hoarded in a cupboard. Like sunshine, it can only be shared; but the more freely it is both given and taken in exchange the more there will be of it to go around. Some individuals while making insistent claims for themselves can in the same breath deny an equal right to others. That would not be freedom, but license. Take freedom of expression for instance. How many people have truly learned how to tolerate others holding different views from their own? Yet, that is the parliamentary system in operation; with the full parade of opposing views until some ultimate good has been reached. In the process of debate the "pros" and "cons" have a tendency to draw closer together, until a workable compromise is reached.

Some individuals who will concede the benefit of free discussion in a legislative assembly still will not apply it in their own lives. The first contrary view they hear they label as "wrong." ... If good sense did not prevail in the many a few individuals could soon bring all normal human relations to a standstill. ... That is the hurdle over which dictators stumble, and not all of them are at the head of misled nations by any means. It is only the locked mind, the bound intellect which cannot permit the true expression of freedom in others, while claiming it for itself.

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