SOURCE: Humes, D. Joy. “A Liberal's Concern for Individual Freedoms.” In Oswald Garrison Villard, Liberal of the 1920's, pp. 33-75. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1960.

In the following essay, Humes discusses Villard's commitment to freedom of speech and press in his life and career.

The core of liberalism, historically, has been liberty or freedom. It was in the hope of achieving freedom that political democracies were born. The objective was a form of government best suited to guarantee to the individual maximum freedom from arbitrary and unlimited authority. Self-government seemed to offer the best solution.

Long considered a basic condition of successful self-government has been freedom of thought and expression. Only through the free exchange of information, ideas, and opinions can intelligent and wise decisions be made by those who were intended to be the ultimate source of political power. So long has free speech, press, and assembly...