The True Citizen: How to Become On e Part 26

Where the population is dense and houses are placed close together, so that within a small area there is a large body of inhabitants, thegovernment is generally under the form of a city.

Our republican government, which, after making all due allowances, seems to work remarkably well in rural districts, in the state, and in the nation, has certainly been far less successful as applied to cities.

Accordingly our cities have come to furnish topics for reflection to which writers and orators fond of boasting the unapproachable excellence of American inst.i.tutions do not like to allude.

Fifty years ago we were accustomed to speak of civil government in the United States as if it had dropped from heaven, or had been specially created by some kind of miracle upon American soil; and we were apt to think that in mere republican forms there was some kind of mystic virtue which made them a cure for all political evils. Our later experience with cities has rudely disturbed this too confident frame of mind. It has furnished facts which do not seem to fit our theory, so that now, our writers and speakers are inclined to regard our misgoverned cities with contempt.

It will best serve our purpose here, to outline the relation of the citizen to the towns.h.i.+p rather than to the city, because its management is less complex and, in most cases, is more complete and perfect.

Money is ordinarily raised by taxation for the following purposes, namely: the support of the public schools; making and repairing highways; the care of the poor; maintaining the fire department; paying the salaries of the town officers; paying for the detection and punishment of offenders against the law; maintaining burial grounds; planting shade trees; providing for disabled soldiers and sailors and their families; and, in general, for all other necessary expenses.

To carry on the work of a town, several officers are usually appointed.

A town clerk keeps accurate records of all business transacted; records all births, marriages and deaths; makes the necessary returns to the county and the state, and serves as the agent of the town in its relation to the country at large. Officers usually known as selectmen or supervisors, attend to the general business of the town. The town treasurer receives and pays out all moneys raised for the carrying on of the town's affairs. A school committee, or board of education, is also needed to superintend all matters relating to our public schools. A surveyor of highways must be provided, in order that the streets and highways belonging to the town may be kept in proper condition; and an a.s.sessor and collector of taxes, to attend to the raising of supplies. A board of overseers of the poor is also needed, their duties being to provide for the support of paupers and the relief of the needy poor.

We do not profess to have fully covered the ground in this brief statement; but only to show that life, even in the smallest communities, must necessarily make heavy drafts upon the time and attention of a large number of individual citizens. But we desire to emphasize the fact, that each of these several offices furnishes opportunity for the employment either of a competent or an incompetent official, according to the care with which the selection is made. It therefore becomes the duty of every citizen to give personal attention to such matters, for if these places are filled by corrupt or even careless men, the interests of the community will be seriously imperiled, while if they are filled by honest and patriotic men, the success of the town and its affairs is practically a.s.sured.

Our one supreme object should be to raise the tone of our citizens.h.i.+p.

The town or city will not become permanently better except as we who live in it become better. There are large sections in all our towns that yield to the guidance of corrupt and designing men for the reason that they are unreached by influences of a finer and more generous kind.

Plans must be formulated by which we can come into touch with these lower quarters, and raise them quickly and surely to a higher level.

We all need to become better acquainted with the machinery of our local governments and with certain principles and statutes by which the motion of that machinery requires to be regulated. We cannot properly regulate the doings of our public servants except as we are familiar with the laws to which they are subject.

This question of obedience to law, can only be efficiently controlled by the continued watchfulness of the law-abiding portion of the community; and the situation in this respect is far more grave than most people imagine.

A recent writer speaking of the lack of a proper enforcement of the law says: "I was in a considerable Western city, with a population of seventy thousand, some years ago, when the leading newspaper of the place, commenting on one of the train robberies that had been frequent in the state, observed that so long as the brigands had confined themselves to robbing the railway companies and the express companies of property for whose loss the companies must answer, no one had greatly cared, seeing that these companies themselves robbed the public; but now that private citizens seemed in danger of losing their personal baggage and money, the prosperity of the city might be compromised, and something ought to be done,"--a sentiment delivered with all gravity, as the rest of the article showed.

This makes plausible the story of the Texas judge who is said to have allowed murderers to escape on points of law, till he found the value of real estate declining; then he carefully saw to it that the next few offenders were hanged.

We must not take too narrow a view of public life. All civilized governments consider themselves bound to perform other duties of an entirely different character from those which pertain to peace and justice. When our fathers framed the const.i.tution of the United States, they gave in the preamble to that instrument an admirable definition of the province of government. This preamble reads as follows:

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this const.i.tution for the United States of America."

The motto of every good citizen should be, "the best means to promote the greatest good to the greatest number." The ends to be sought are the most healthy development, the highest and largest happiness to the whole people; for only in this manner can we accomplish our full duty.

x.x.xVIII.

THE CITIZEN AND THE NATION.

MEMORY GEMS.

Love your country and obey its laws.--Noah Porter

The sum of individual character makes national character.--E. C. Mann

The true defense of a nation lies in the moral qualities of its people.--Edwin C. Mason

Everything learned should be flavored with a genuine love of country.--E. Edwards

n.o.ble ideas of citizens.h.i.+p and its duties strengthen the will of all patriots.--Merrill E. Gates

We are accustomed to say that our American government is "a government of the people, by the people, for the people." It is largely in this, its broad, comprehensive, and democratic character, that we so often venture to hold it up to view as a model which might be copied by the surrounding nations to their very great advantage. And certainly no thinking person will deny that we have much to be justly proud of in this respect; for our nation has neither parallel nor equal upon the face of the green earth.

But in a land like this, where the government is formed by its citizens, it can only be maintained by its citizens. Offices thus created must be filled, and the s.h.i.+p of state must be manned, and manned with a careful, honest, and patriotic crew, or it will be in danger of total wreck. In our times of peril we have been quick to see and to acknowledge this; and, more than once or twice, the nation has been saved by the prompt and patriotic action of the people. But it is not so easy a matter to keep our patriotism up to its n.o.blest and its best when there is an absence of unusual or exciting causes to call it into play. We must therefore glance briefly at both these aspects of the case.

It is a requirement of long standing that, in case of war, every able-bodied citizen must go forth as a soldier, if the government shall so demand. He must, if really needful, help to save the state, even at the risk, or at the positive loss, of his own life. Such calls have been made by our government; and the manner in which our people have responded has been the glory of our nation and the wonder of the world.

The citizen must share the risks of his country, as well as its benefits. He must be willing to give protection to the rights and interests of his fellows, or he cannot rightly expect protection for his own. In this we are all so far agreed as to render anything like an argument entirely unnecessary; and we do not hesitate to brand all who fail us, under such circ.u.mstances, as unpatriotic and unworthy of the sympathy and esteem to which faithful citizens.h.i.+p ent.i.tles men.

Now look at the other aspect of the case. The public service is not only for times of war and tumult, but also for times of prosperity and peace; and the claims of the nation are no more to be slighted or s.h.i.+rked in the latter case than in the former. The s.h.i.+p of state must be manned, we say, and the public offices necessary to prosperity and progress must be filled. Many of these suffer unless filled by able and patriotic men; and the interests, for the preservation and forwarding of which these offices have been created, cannot be properly served.

The crying need of to-day is for men of public spirit; for men who will seek the highest welfare of their fellow-citizens in general; men of broad and generous views; men who look out upon life with an absence of that littleness and near-sightedness which cannot distinguish between public good and private interest.

Those men who will take no position in the service of their country, unless it is accompanied with a monetary compensation, are after all, very closely akin to the men who waited until bounties were offered before they would take service in connection with the Civil War; while, on the other hand, the men who are truly public-spirited, take pleasure in serving the public and are liberal beyond the requirement of the law.

It has been well said that "A public office is a sacred trust." Whoever engages in any duties of a public nature, is under the most solemn obligation to do those duties honestly and well. There are some public officials who, because they aid in the making of the laws, appear to think themselves higher than the law, and therefore at liberty to obey or to neglect its requirements, according as their personal inclinations shall direct. But this is not so; and it should be made clear to all such persons that they are in error.

The legislator is but a citizen, after all; and, as a citizen, he stands in precisely the same relation to the law as does his brother of the rank and file. Of all men, he should be obedient, and should labor to surround the law with every possible safeguard; for it is among the most precious and sacred of our earthly possessions. It is the charter of all true freedom. It is a power before whose awful majesty every man must bow, irrespective of outward position or personal influence. It must be reverenced, honored, and obeyed by all.

Now the facts show that there is a strange ignorance, or else a strange lack of conscience, in this matter, and that this is so wide-spread as to be almost universal. It seems to be a common opinion that there is no particular harm in cheating the government. If a politician secures a high government position, or a business man is fortunate enough to secure a large government contract, it seems to be expected that he will secure from these sources larger profits than would be possible anywhere else. In other words, it seems to be expected that the government will pay more for any service than can be obtained from an individual or from a private corporation, and that men will charge prices, and use deception and fraud when they work for the country, which if practiced upon private parties, would send them to prison and brand them with lifelong disgrace.

Respecting that purification and elevation of the ballot-box, for which so many of our thoughtful citizens are now pleading with more than usual earnestness, our own thought is that it can best be accomplished by the establishment and strict enforcement of an educational qualification for voters, and by a residence in the United States of at least ten years, before the voting privilege shall be bestowed. No man should be allowed to vote until he can read and write. No man should be allowed to put his hand upon the management of our public affairs until he can read and understand our Const.i.tution in the language in which it is written.

One of the most ominous signs of the times is, that good men stand aloof from politics. They do this either because they do not fully appreciate the importance of their influence, or from the false conviction that their votes will do no good, or, in many other instances, because they consider their private business to be of more importance than the matters of the state. But, in point of fact, the uplifting of the moral tone of our country is a service of the most importance; and, even if we consider ourselves alone, it is still true that we cannot afford to pa.s.s it lightly by.

As citizens of the United States we stand possessed of a most wondrous heritage; and what the civil authorities require of us, within their own proper sphere, should be considered in the light of a binding duty.

As Professor Dole has pointed out, "We have seen magnificent cities rising on the borders of the streams, and pleasant villages dotting the hills; a flouris.h.i.+ng commerce whitens the ripples of the lakes; the laugh of happy children comes up to us from the cornfields; and as the glow of the evening sun tinges the distant plains, a radiant and kindling vision floats upon its beams, of myriads of men escaped from the tyrannies of the Old World and gathered here in wors.h.i.+ping circles to pour out their grateful hearts to G.o.d for a redeemed and teeming earth."

Surely all that is worth preserving. Surely we will not allow so rich a heritage to run waste. Surely we will support a nation whose past is bright with glorious achievements, and whose future glows with the light of a promise so radiantly beautiful. We need only remind you, therefore, that the truest and most useful citizens of our country are those who invigorate and elevate their nation by doing their duty truthfully and manfully; who live honest, sober, and upright lives, making the best of the opportunities for improvement that our land affords; who cherish the memory and example of the fathers of our country, and strive to make and keep it just what they intended it to be.

x.x.xIX.

THE IDEAL CITIZEN.

MEMORY GEMS.

Voters are the uncrowned kings who rule the nation.--Morgan

A second-rate man can never make a first-rate citizen.--J. S. White

Every good man in politics wields a power for good.--M. C. Peters