Our Moral Traditions Developed Concurrently With Our

I Use Throughout The Term 'liberal' In The Original, Nineteenth-century Sense In Which It Is Still Current In Britain. In Current American Usage It Often Means Very Nearly The Opposite Of This. It Has Been Part Of The Camouflage Of Leftish Movements In This Country, Helped By Muddleheadedness Of Many Who Really Believe In Liberty, That 'liberal' Has Come To Mean The Advocacy Of Almost Every Kind Of Government Control.

What Our Generation Has Forgotten Is That The System Of Private Property Is The Most Important Guarantee Of Freedom, Not Only For Those Who Own Property, But Scarcely Less For Those Who Do Not. It Is Only Because The Control Of The Means Of Production Is Divided Among Many People Acting Independently That Nobody Has Complete Power Over Us, That We As Individuals Can Decide What To Do With Ourselves.

If We Wish To Preserve A Free Society, It Is Essential That We Recognize That The Desirability Of A Particular Object Is Not Sufficient Justification For The Use Of Coercion.

The Moral Consequences Of Totalitarian Propaganda...are Destructive Of All Morals Because They Undermind One Of The Foundations Of All Morals: The Sense Of And Respect For Truth.

In The United States, Where It Has Become Almost Impossible To Use "liberal" In The Sense In Which I Have Used It, The Term "libertarian" Has Been Used Instead. It May Be The Answer; But For My Part I Find It Singularly Unattractive. For My Taste It Carries Too Much The Flavor Of A Manufactured Term And Of A Substitute. What I Should Want Is A Word Which Describes The Party Of Life, The Party That Favors Free Growth And Spontaneous Evolution. But I Have Racked My Brain Unsuccessfully To Find A Descriptive Term Which Commends Itself.