ue that in proportion to the number of
licences in a district is the death-rate among the babies; if in
districts crowded with public-houses there be a death-rate of something
like 160 to 180 per 1000 babies in the first year of life, while in
districts where public-houses are rare the death-rate is about 40 per
1000 babies in the first year of life; and if we are to vote No Change
and acquiesce in that in the name of liberty, how great that idol
Liberty must be! We must examine it and make sure that its feet be not
of clay.

II

What is freedom? Freedom is that condition of things which enables a
man to co-ordinate all his faculties for the development of what is
best in him. The best a man is capable of is the evolution of a
character whose uprightness and honesty will command respect. But no
sooner does a man set his face toward that goal than he finds that he
can only climb towards it by sacrificing the liberty of his lower
nature. The animal in man must be fettered that the spirit may grow.
Only so can nobility of character be produced. It is manifest then
that freedom to produce character is only achieved by sacrificing
liberty. The idol Liberty is not, after all, really so great.

The best in life is not, however, developed in isolation. For we are
bound up with our fellow-men in the complex organism of life. And we
have no right to exercise any liberty that will mean loss or injury to
our fellows. It may be beneficial to me that I should have the
stimulus of alcohol; it may add colour to my drab life, and make the
bores that harass me more tolerable; and I may find in it a sacramental
value, as it promotes the flow of easy fellowship; but if the provision
made to supply one with that stimulus means the ruin of others--the
perishing of babes and the destruction of homes--then I have no right
to that provision. The limit of my personal freedom is the beginning
of hurt or injury to my fellow-men. It is along this great line that
civilisation has evolved. Each step forward has been a restriction of
liberty. Every extension of the franchise has been a restriction of
the power of the classes that ruled previously; each new law a
restriction of the right to do what one liked. Every great social
advance has been a restriction of previous liberty. No man is free now
to leave his children uneducated; no employer is free to deal as he
pleases with his employed. No sooner is the child born than the law