the hunters and the
hunted, this sowing of dragons' teeth in the shape of lawlessness and
contempt for law, has not been the dictate of imperious necessity, but
the indulgence of the crude desire of a highly organized but one-idead
minority to impose its standards of conduct upon all of the American
people. To shake off this tyranny is one of the worthiest objects to
which good Americans can devote themselves. To shake it off would mean
not only to regain what has been lost by this particular enactment,
but to forefend the infliction of similar outrages in the future. If
it is allowed to stand, there is no telling in what quarter the next
invasion of liberty will be made by fanatics possessed with the itch
for perfection. I am not thinking of tobacco, or anything of the kind;
twenty years from now, or fifty years from now, it may be religion, or
some other domain of life which at the present moment seems free from
the danger of attack. The time to call a halt is now; and the way to
call a halt is to win back the ground that has already been lost. To
do that will be a splendid victory for all that we used to think of as
American--for liberty, for individuality, for the freedom of each man
to conduct his own life in his own way so long as he does not violate
the rights of others, for the responsibility of each man for the evils
he brings upon himself by the abuse of that freedom. May the day be
not far distant when we shall once more be a nation of sturdy
freemen--not kept from mischief to ourselves by a paternal law
copper-fastened in the Constitution, not watched like children by a
host of guardians and spies and informers, but upstanding Americans
loyally obedient to the Constitution, because living under a
Constitution which a people of manly freemen can wholeheartedly
respect and cherish.

THE END

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