American Notes of the Week
(By Cable)
LIBERALISM.
A healthy growth of tolerance as well as public alertness for infringements of civil liberties is indicated by the report for 1928-29 of the American Civil Liberties Union. This body, the representative of active Liberalism in the United States, certainly lacks nothing in vigilance or the capacity,
where provocation arises, to denounce abuses. It finds, however, that in the twelve months under review the number of lynchings is fewer than in any similar period in fifty years, that intellectual freedom in schools and colleges has increased, and that deportations of aliens for political or economic views or activities have decreased. Only one case of mob violence " as against hundreds in the heyday of the Klan " is recorded, and in 1928 the last of the political prisoners in State prisons under " criminal syndicalism ". laws were released. Part of this happier condition may be accounted for by prosperity ; but as the New York World, -itself an outstanding organ of Liberal opinion, remarks, the evidence indicates that " tolerance stands on a surer footing and America is continuing to recover from its post-War case of nerves." The abandonment by the Ku Klux Klan of its Washington headquarters, discontinuance owing to lack of public support Of the publication formerly issued by the Key men of America; the utter failure of a journal which sought to revive the " Red Peril," and the widespread denunciation of such anomalies as the Boston Censorship, among other recent incidents, confirm this view.
Previous page
