The Essay and the Two Young Men
Freedom of Speech series part 2 of 4 -
On February 20th, 1943, The front cover of the Saturday Evening Post featured “Freedom of Speech,” one of Norman Rockwell's most famous paintings. In honor of the 78th anniversary of this important moment in history, this is my second article of a four part series dedicated to the freedom of speech.
To review, as I mentioned yesterday, Rockwell’s painting was the first in a four part series dedicated to taking the concepts mentioned in FDR’s 1941 State of the Union, better known as his “four freedoms speech” and putting them to canvas.
To accompany Rockwell’s amazing artwork, the magazine also asked Pulitzer Prize winner Booth Tarkington to craft an essay to accompany the freedom of speech painting. At the time when the mass production of colorful magazine covers was the dominant form of media of the day, both the painting and the essay had a profound impact on our nation.
Tarkington’s essay recounted a chance encounter between two ambitious young men that had taken place in a small mountain chalet in the Alps in 1912. One of the men was described as a writer, perhaps a journalist, and the other as an artist. Throughout their dialog they shared their ideas and their common disdain for the freedom of speech. They also talked about what they would do should they come to power in their respective countries. This is an excerpt from their dialog:
“Yes, my friend. Like everything else, it is simple. In America or England, so long as governments actually exist by means of freedom of speech, you and I could not even get started; and when we shall have become masters of our own countries, we shall not be able to last a day unless we destroy freedom of speech. The answer is this: We do destroy it.”
Not until the end of the article is the reader made aware that the meeting was between two future dictators, Hitler and Mussolini. At the time, right in the middle of World War ll, we were fighting these two leaders and their horrendous ideas throughout the battlefields of Europe.
Although the essay was fictional, it presented to the reader one of the most important reasons we were fighting, in contrast with how that value was trampled on and despised by dictators.
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/.../booth.../...
If you have never done so before, take time today to read the essay. I have included a link to it above. Please also take a moment to pray that the freedom of speech remains as important to our nation today as it was in 1943. Join me tomorrow for part three, and ponder the closing of the famous essay and the clever way in which the identity of the two men is revealed:
The painter spoke to the landlord: “That fellow seems to be some sort of shady character, rather a weak one. Do you know him?”
“Yes and no,” the landlord replied. “He’s in and out, mainly after dark. One meets all sorts of people in the Brenner Pass. You might run across him here again, yourself, someday. I don’t know his whole name, but I have heard him called ‘Benito,’ my dear young Herr Hitler.”