PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN POLITICS
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that
faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we
understand it.--ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
DURING the last few years the magazines have published many helpful
series upon politics and a number of these deserve especial credit for
their work in this line. In one of these articles the writer reminds us
that though the sins of our time are the same old sins which were
denounced by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they are likely now to be enameled
with fine new exteriors and called by new names. "Especially, the
current methods of annexing the property of others are characterized by
an indirectness and refinement very grateful to the natural feelings."
This is terribly true, and the child should be made aware of it. A
dazzling outside may cover a black heart. Illustrate this fact to him by
the story of those beautiful flowers whose sweet odor is laden with
death. Tell him of William M. Tweed, whose gigantic thefts almost
bankrupted a great city, yet who read a chapter in his Bible every day,
and who possessed many kind and even noble qualities. Many other public
men of ancient and modern times will afford equally striking examples of
inconsistency.
A certain excellent country gentleman, who did not realize the possible
deceitfulness of the outside, went down to the capital of his state to
see about some bills which vitally affected his business. He had written
to the Senator from his section that he was coming and had asked for an
appointment to meet him. He had never met this man, but the papers had
criticized him severely, and our friend was prepared to encounter a mean
and churlish creature.
"Instead," he reported upon his return to his home, "I found him a
perfect gentleman. He met me at the train and took me to my hotel in his
own automobile, and invited me to dine with him the next day. He lives
in a beautiful home. I was surprised to see what kind of a man he really
is. You would think by the way the papers go on about him that he had
horns and hoofs, but," he repeated, "he was a perfect gentleman."
Yet this man was one of the most dangerous "practical politicians" in
the state--one of those who believe that the Ten Commandments have no
place in politics, and who scrupled at nothing which could benefit
himself and his friends. He simply could not understand a man who could
"swear to his own hurt and change not."
"Unlike the old-time villain," says Mr. E. A. Reed, "the latter-day
malefactor does not wear a slouch-hat and a comforter, and breathe forth
curses and an odor of gin. Fagin and Bill Sykes and Simon Legree are
vanishing types. Good, kindly men let the wheels of commerce and
industry redden rather than pare their dividends, and our railroads
yearly injure one employee in twenty-six, while we look in vain for that
promised day of the Lord, which shall make 'a man more precious than
fine gold.'"
And, again, "The tropical belt of sin into which we are now sweeping is
largely impersonal. The hurt passes into that vague mass, 'the public,'
and is there lost to view. Hence it does not take a Borgia to knead
'chalk and alum and plaster' into the loaf, seeing that one cannot know
just who will eat that loaf. The purveyor of spurious life-preservers
need not be a Cain. The owner of rotten tenements, whose 'pull' enables
him to ignore the orders of the Health Department, fore-dooms babies, it
is true, but for all that, he is no Herod.
"Often there are no victims. If the crazy hulk sent out for 'just one
more trip' meets with fair weather, all is well. Briber and grafter are
now 'good men,' and would have passed for virtuous in the American
community of seventy years ago. Therefore, people do not always see that
boodling is treason; that blackmail is piracy, that tax-dodging is
larceny. The cloven hoof hides in patent leather, and to-day, as in
Hosea's time, the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
Let us see to it that our children are not so destroyed.
In the old abolition days, Mr. Emerson wrote: "What an education in the
public spirit of Massachusetts have been the speeches and reading of our
public schools! Every district school has been an anti-slavery
convention for these two or three years last past."
Special policies cannot often be taught like this in the modern public
school, but the broad principles of pure politics can and should be.
For instance, a lesson in Civil Service management may be given without
once uttering those words, simply by teaching the sentiment well uttered
by Ruskin: "The first necessity of social life is the clearness of the
national conscience in enforcing the law,--_that he should keep who has
justly earned_."
Children can be taught the dangers, not only to their principles, but
their worldly fortunes, of office-seeking and of making a profession of
politics. The child of wealth should be especially instructed in his
duty to look after the affairs of his own town, county, state and
nation. The man whose powers are strained to the utmost in order to
support and educate his family, can of necessity give little time to the
searching out of civic wrongs and their remedies. The well-to-do citizen
must give all the more to make up for the limitations of his poorer
neighbor.
Children can be taught, too, something of the protean forms of bribery,
the schemes for trading votes; the duty of every voter to vote and do
jury-work; the need of looking at every question from both sides; of
avoiding blind partisanship; and much of the rest of the elementary
ethics of politics.
And, again, it is upon the mother that this patriotic duty must chiefly
devolve. As with all of her training, she may often feel that the work
is slow and uncertain, but she may well take to heart the encouraging
words of the poet:
"Thou canst not see grass grow, how sharp soe'er thou be;
Yet that the grass has grown, thou presently shall see.
So, though thou canst not see thy work now prospering, know
The fruit of every work-time without fail shall show."
Jacob Riis used often to say that the apparent corruption of our
politics was largely due to crass ignorance. There are, too, many human
beings who are born moral idiots, who cannot be made to understand
ethics, any more than intellectual "subnormals" can be made to
understand proportion and international law. But we know that up to the
ability of every being he should be taught. We know that the appalling
illiteracy of Mexico, Russia and China renders a stable republic in any
one of them almost impossible. Education is a slow business. Generations
of it will be required to make those countries what they ought to be;
but it is the desideratum to successful republicanism. Therefore it is
vital that we guard our public schools.
But again it must be emphasized that though school discipline should be
of the best, yet the real education of your child depends more upon his
home than upon his school.
What newspapers are lying around there? What magazines? Do you patronize
salacious plays? Do you exalt in your conversation the prize-fight and
the automobile-race? What sort of people visit your home?
What sort of conversation goes on at your table? Is wine or beer served
there? Is the air in your parlor or study often thick with
tobacco-smoke?
The father who wishes his children to become pure-minded and unselfish
patriots, must ask himself many questions like these. Remember that the
boy is influenced by your words only to a certain degree. Our seer of
Concord never uttered a more impressive truth than when he pictured a
youth as demanding of his father, "How can I hear what you _say_, when
what you _are_ is thundering so loud in my ears?"
You can bring very near to your boy and your girl, the responsibility of
us all for good home government, by mentioning often to them the burning
issues in their home town. In many of our towns and villages, one part
of the city or township is jealous of another part, will not vote for
improvements there and is generally suspicious and contrary.
Explain to your children how contemptible such an attitude is. Weigh
for them the arguments on both sides, and make them help you to decide
justly how you ought to vote. Make the girl, especially, form an
opinion. On her may devolve the future political training of influential
citizens. In fact, she may herself be a Member of Congress or a United
States Senator!
Are the roads bad in your town? Are the taxes improperly collected? Are
the schools inferior or managed by politicians? Is the town poorly
policed? Are the back yards unsanitary? Are the town officers
inefficient?
Explain to your children how the taxes are laid,--how a town has to
spend a good deal to keep itself up, so to speak; and how important it
is that its tax-money should be carefully spent.
Particularly should we impress it upon our children that if a town is a
slipshod, ugly or unhealthy place, it is not the fault of a vague,
formless thing, called "the town" or "the city," or "the state," but of
each and every one of us; and especially of every separate voter who
fails to be on hand at the town-meetings or caucuses, and to try his
best to get good men elected and good measures passed.
An American was riding in a cab through the streets of Vienna, some
years before the war, reading his mail. As he finished with certain
letters, he tore them up and threw the fragments out of the cab-window.
The driver soon began to notice what was going on, left his box and
picked up the torn papers. Then he put his head in at the window, and
cried, with a passion which seemed to the careless and untidy American
quite uncalled-for, "What do you mean by littering up our beautiful
streets in this way? Where do you come from? Have your people no pride
in their country? Do they wish it to look all over like a slum?"
He actually reported the matter to the police. The man was thereupon
haled to court and had to pay a considerable fine.
Although some of our cities, as well as foreign ones, carry civic pride
to an almost ridiculous extent, it is a good fault. Children should
early be taught to regard the neatness and beauty of their town.
If they complain that these matters are hard to remember and to do, give
them to understand that patriotism is not easy. Few virtues are easy to
practice, and perhaps unselfish patriotism is the hardest of all.
A young man graduated from that great American university where it is
said that citizenship is most strenuously taught, and where he had
certainly imbibed a lofty desire to do his duty by his country. He lived
in a great city and presented himself in due time after his graduation
at the door of his ward political organization. There he met with an
experience something like this:
A gentleman, plethoric and red-faced, welcomed him, asked his name and
address, and gave him "the glad hand." At the same time, he showed a
spice of suspicion.
"Are you a Republican?" he asked.
"Yes."
"I suppose you have always voted the straight ticket?"
"Well,--I have been voting only a year or two. I think I have voted the
straight ticket so far."
"And I suppose you intend to vote the straight ticket right along?"
"I may or I may not," said the youth, with some spirit. "I reserve for
myself the right to vote for the best candidate, especially in local
affairs."
"Then,--ahem--perhaps you haven't got into just the right place. This is
a straight organization, you know. Maybe you can find an 'independent'"
(pronounced with scorn) "organization somewhere in the ward. I rather
think that is where you belong. We have found these 'independents' a
sort of obstruction to the transaction of business,--a kind of kickers,
you know, though of course, you might not turn out so. Still,"--with
decision,--"you really don't belong here."
"I was mad clear through," said the youth, in relating the story later.
"I was disgusted with the looks of the man and with those who were in
there with him. I just turned on my heel and left, and I haven't
darkened that door again."
Was that patriotic? Was not that boy deliberately turning over the
government of his city to "boodlers" and "grafters"?
"But," you may say, "should he have stayed on where he was not wanted?"
Certainly he should. He had a right there, as any citizen had. He
should have taken time to find other voters like himself, which he could
no doubt have done, and together they could have maintained themselves.
He saw that this man and his companions were not proper persons to have
control of an organization of his party, and he should have done his
best, even at the sacrifice of considerable time, to oust them and get
better men in. He was no patriot.