On Free Speech
By Charles Lindbergh
October 3, 1941, Fort Wayne, Indiana

When I speak to you, here in Fort Wayne tonight, I realize that it may be my last address. How much longer free speech will be possible in the United States, I do not know. But I do know that an administration, which can throw this country into an undeclared naval war, against the will of our people and without asking the consent of congress, can by similar methods prevent freedom of speech among us. There are many signs that such actions may be taken in the near future with as little warning as accompanied the occupation of Iceland.
Those of us who oppose war do not know from one week to the next what censorship we will be subjected to. Pressure of every sort is brought to bear upon us. We find lecture halls closed to our speakers while the doors are wide open, even to foreigners who abdicate war. We find propaganda from Moscow in the banner headlines of most of our newspapers, while the facts and arguments against war are relegated to the back pages, if they are printed at all. Smear campaigns are organized against everyone who opposes intervention. When our arguments cannot be answered by logic, they are answered by bombasts.

If we have friends on the government payroll, we hesitate to be seen talking to them. Because we know, that as in the totalitarian countries, they may lose their jobs as a result. Even the news reels are cut to distort the true facts of the war and the true stand of those of us who oppose intervention.

Now, the cry is being raised that in order to protect freedom and democracy throughout the world freedom of speech must be withheld at home. And so tonight, while I hope it may not be the case I shall speak to you as though this were my last address and I shall discuss the conditions which confront us and the procedure I believe we should follow if free speech ends in America.

If free speech ends in this country, it means that we are no longer a free people. It means that we are about to enter dictatorship and probably a foreign war. It means that we will be forced to do this against the will of our people.