Self-Evident Truths of Freedom

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

The Los Angeles Times leading editorial of July 4th, uses the above for its text, and preaches a thought-provoking sermon of Americanism and patriotism.

When the above paragraph was written into the Declaration of Independence, democracy so-cal1.ed, was not new.

It had been discovered and discarded long before, and countless republics had been born and died beJore our government was born.

It was the statement of the Declaration that the Creator endows all his creatures with certain rights, noted above, not to be taken from them by any power less less than Deity, that was and is entirely new in our basic Declaration. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," was thus declared for the first time in human history to belong to all men by direct gift of the Creator.

lnspect New Drv Kiln

Members of the Southern California Lumber Seasoiring Association and guests met on June 7 at the plant of Seasonite Ltd., Downey, to inspect their new dry kiln. The Seasonite method of drying lumber is done by a chemical process. Alfred Lima is the inventor. The kiln is on the property of the S & S Lumber Co.

The kiln has a capacity of 10 to 15 M board feet of lurnber depending on the thickness of the lumber. Mr. Lima srates that the time of each drying operation is 8 hours, and three charges of lumber can be dried in a 24-hour day.

The Seasoning Association held a short business session when Mr. Lima talked to the group and answered a number of questions on the drying of lumber by the chemical process.

Seasonite Ltd. and Dri-Rite Kiln Corp. were hosts to the gathering for refreshments.

The following attended:

Geo. B. Beckman, Precision Kiln Drying Co., Los Angeles.

Paul Penberthy, Jr., Penberthy Lumber Co., Los Angeles

Harvey. H. Smith, California Forest Experiment Station, Berkeley

Fred A. Schiel, Dri-Rite Kiln Corp., Downey

Herb Geisenheyner, Coast Kiln Co., Vernon

Cort Mason, Precision Kiln Drying Co., Los Angeles

Kile Weeks, Precision Kiln Drying Co., Long Beach

Harry Robinson, Patten-Blinn Lumber Co., Los Angeles

Earl Simon, llammond Lumber Co., Los Angeles

Armand Scheiffele, Western Hardwood Lumber Co., Los Angeles

John A. Kurzhals, Sun Lumber Co., Van Nuys

Robert Inglis, Associated Molding Co., Los Angeles

Bill Meyer, Associated Molding Co., Los Angeles

Bud Roberts, Associated Molding Co., Los Angeles

M. McClean, Seasonite Ltd., Downey

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These were assumptions made by Jefferson and his companions, and no effort was made by them to justify them. Most of the people of the world do not even yet admit their truth. But they are the basis of our American birthright, and without them there would be no America.

Says the Times: "When these truths cease to be selfevident, freedom will be lost, though its outward relics may linger like the crumbling aqueducts and amphitheatres of imperial Rome For unless the rights of free men are generally conceded to be the endowment of a power superior to any human agency, they are by no means unalienablethey are not even rights Let saint and skeptic argue as they will; for 176 years none has suggested a firmer foundation for the government of free men than the "selfevident" truths embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, there is no other guarantee of human freedom than this dynamic faith. It is the eternal glory of Americans to have proclaimed and defended it; it shall be our eternal shame if we forget it after having proved it true."