CHAPTER VII.
Our Paramount Interest.
The Supreme Court has long since declared that Liberty is the greatest of all rights, and it has become so firmly established that in relation to property rights it constitutes the cornerstone of all constitutional protection.
The questions constantly asked: "Why Anglo-Saxon civilization has flourished so much longer than many of its predecessors, and whether it may be hoped that it will avoid the deadly fossilization or death of so many of its predecessors," may find their complete answer in maintaining the safeguards established for the preservation of individual rights under its forms of government. The determination of these present questions by the Supreme Court involves the greater issue whether the tendencies to decay are to be further averted or to be given full swing, with all their deadening effects.
Liberty, and Liberty alone, is the safeguard—the Liberty preserved through all these centuries. Well did the House of Lords say in the Nordenfelt Case:[1] "The public have an interest in every person carrying on his trade freely; so has the individual. All interference with individual liberty of action, in trading, and all restraints of trade of themselves, if there is nothing more, are contrary to public policy." As widely as Chief Justice Fuller and Mr. Justice Harlan differed,
- ↑ Nordenfelt vs. Maxim, 1894 A. C. 559. 1894.
(149)
