of praise. Their leaders, elected persons, guides chosen by votes
and popular acclamation, have shown in a hundred ways that they
will not, dare not, trust the people. Our silly censorships, our
concealments of unpleasant truths, our suppression of criticism,
our galling infringements of personal liberty, witness to the fact
that authority distrusts the source from which it sprang; that the
leaders of our democracy reckon the common people unfit to know, to
think or to act. If we are defending democracy we are sacrificing
liberty. Will you, in America, do better in this respect than we
have done? you believed in the common people before England did.
You believe in them, if we may trust your words, more completely
than England does. Do you believe in them sufficiently to trust
them? Or do you think that democracy can be defended only after
it has been blindfolded, hand-cuffed and gagged? This is what you
have got to show the world. No one doubts that you can fight. No
one doubts that you will fight, with all your strength, as England
is fighting. What we wonder is whether your great principle of
government, by the people and for the people, will stand the test
of a war like this.

[signed]James O. Hannay





The New Comradeship