He was stopping with his mother in a country town, when the tailor of the place, in speaking of the day"s voting, remarked: "I don"t gen"ally vote, but I did to-day, because they sent a carriage up from the Center for me. It takes time to vote and "tain"t much use. What does one vote amount to anyway? But when one of the bosses is anxious enough to come an" git me, why, then I"ll vote, or if they"ll give me my fare on the cars."
"Why," said the boy quickly, "isn"t that bribery?"
"Lord, no!" said the man, shuffling about uneasily. "That jest pays me for my time an" trouble. I don"t git nothin" for my _vote_."
Sophistries like this should be immediately made clear to the child. It would probably be impossible to show them to that tailor.
"Our Revolutionary fathers," said Horace Mann again, "abandoned their homes, sacrificed their property, encountered disease, bore hunger and cold, and stood on the fatal edge of battle, to gain that liberty which their descendants will not even go to the polls to protect. Our Pilgrim Fathers expatriated themselves, crossed the Atlantic,--then a greater enterprise than now to circ.u.mnavigate the globe,--and braved a savage foe, that they might worship G.o.d unmolested,--while many of us throw our votes in wantonness, or for a bribe, or to gratify revenge."
This is a terrible indictment. It is not as true now as it was in the time of Horace Mann. Still, the lesson contained in it should be impressed upon our children.
CHAPTER III
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. Ill.u.s.trate 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 n.o.ble 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. f.a.gin 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 pa.s.ses into that vague ma.s.s, "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 pa.s.sed 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 gra.s.s grow, how sharp soe"er thou be; Yet that the gra.s.s 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 cra.s.s 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 att.i.tude 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 pa.s.sed.
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 pa.s.sion 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?"