Distributed by the Boise-based Idaho Savings and Loan Association, this pamphlet sought to demonstrate "some facts about two ways of life" in order to let them "stand or fall in plain view on their own merits." By "two ways of life," the pamphlet’s editor meant democracy and communism, as represented by the United States and the USSR and symbolized on the pamphlet’s cover by the Statue of Liberty a nd the Soviet hammer and sickle. In order to achieve this goal, The Trial of Freedom presented contrasting quotations from sources representing both countries: "The Communist Manifesto, the Soviet Constitution, the edicts of Communist leaders" on the one side, and "our Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the statements of patriotic Americans" on the other.
Divided according to subjects such as "equality," "justice," "religion," "education," "economics," and "government," the quotations presented in Trial of Freedom literally sought to compare the two societies "on those basic issues that affect everyday life." While the level balance on the pamphlet’s cover represented the pamphlet’s assertion that "many people in many nations are today actually making their choice between Democracy and Communism," the pamphlet’s actual text concluded at the end of each section that US democracy was clearly the superior "way of life."
