292                                                                                        FREEDOM IS AS FREEDOM DOES

depression would result, as during the Presidency of FrankHn D.
Roosevelt, in more freedom for the American people.

Whatever the pertinency of these speculations, I beHeve that
the tide is turning in some degree towards the restoration of the
BiU of Rights. Yet we have lost so much ground in the past decade
that the tide must flow powerfuUy and for a long time if we are
to recover all the freedoms of which we have been deprived.
McCarthy the man is in eclipse, but McCarthyism remains stiongly
enttenched throughout the country.

For example, none of the repressive laws which Congress has
passed has been declared invalid by the U.S. Supreme Court;
and the Government is stfll bringing prosecutions under the Smith
Act, tile Internal Security Act, the Commimist Contiol Act, the
Immunity Act and the MeCarran-Walter Immigration Act. Fur¬
thermore, part of the seeming improvement is owing to the fact
that "loyalty screening and the pohcing of political activities and
associations by agencies of the Federal Government is so much
taken for granted nowadays that we fafl to note the loss or cur-
taflment of formerly wefl established rights and privileges." ^'^

It is too early to determine whether the present turn in the tide;
represents merely a temporary setback to the forces of reaction
or whether it vriU prove to be a signffieant tiend of considerable
duration. Be that as it may, there wdfl never come a time, in my
opinion, when the American people can afford to look upon their
liberty as permanently estabhshed and automatically functioiung.
Eternal vigilance is the price of tiansforming an ideal—in this
case the BiU of Rights—into a continuing reality.

Whatever advances-or retiogressions—take place in our eco¬
nomic, political and social system, inteUigent and democratic-
minded Americans wfll always rank freedom of expression and
association as a supreme value. The extent to which the United
States maintains that value will be a sure measure of the quality
of its civilization.