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OCR Page 1 of 5STATEMENT*
We speak often of rights given to us by our Government, of
rights guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of
the United States. We speak often, but we speak carelessly. Our rights
as Americans are not given to us by our Government, were not given to
us by any document. Our fathers in framing the Declaration of Independence
spoke of "unalienable rights" with which we were endowed by our Creator.
When it was framed the Constitution only put to record the rights which
all men should have by their character as part of mankind.
The freedoms which we enjoy are rich, full and satisfying. None
of us needs to fear, as he lays his head on his pillow tonight, that
before sunrise there may be a rude pounding on the door, an officer of
the state to hurry him off, without explanation, into some concentration
camp. You will rise from the bed tomorrow free to choose your own line
of work, free to find empolyment to your own liking and talent, without
the necessity of a pass or permit from some commissar. The door of no
church has been closed by Government edict; the clergymen enters his
pulpit free to speak according to the dictates of his conscience. Your
newspaper will not have felt the stricture of a state censorship which
in a totalitarian country would daily select, distort, or suppress the
news to shape the minds of the people to the purposes of a governing few.
* By Earl James McGrath, U.S. Commissioner of Education, Federal
Security Agency, Washington, D. C., for series of "Spokesmen for
Democracy" in promotion of the Voice of Democracy contest sponsored by
the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, NBC
Studio, Washington, D. C., August 21, 1952, 4:00 pm EDT.
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