Page Sixteen
THE UNITED AMERICAN
Building a Better Citizenship
By D. A. SKEEN, in the Lions Club Magazine
humanize these problems to gain an in­
THIS TIME of growing complexity
of society and, as is often claimed, telligent solution. It must have a balanced
I N over-organization
and scattering of re­ viewpoint by taking counsel from all..
sponsibility, every civil or social organi­
zation must by its work show a justifica­
tion for its existence.
It is my thought, and I will endeavor
briefly to emphasize this, that the chief
concern of a citizen should be “Always to
bear in mind my obligations as a citizen
to my nation, my state and my communi­
ty, and to give to them my unswerved
loyalty, in word, act and deed. To give
them freely of my time, labor and
means.
The status of every nation, state and
community is fixed and maintained by
the quality of its citizenship. Citizenship
is the foundation of our civic and social
structure. As we improve our citizen­
ship we develop and improve our civic
and social life. With the growth and ad­
vancement of civilization, and the conges­
tion of population, the civic and social
problems increase and the standard of
citizenship must be raised to meet this
increased obligation of the citizen to
society.
In the growth and development of our
great nation three distinct periods in
history may be seen from this light:
First, the individual sacrifice and hard­
ship undertaken and endured for an ideal,
as shown in the life of the Pilgrims in
their first venture for liberty and free­
dom from restraint, and as repeated in
the life of our western pioneers, with
property and worldly possessions a
secondary consideration.
Second, the individual sacrifice and
hardship in the material and property
conquest, as shown in the movement to the
West for land possessions and the great
gold rush to California, where personal
liberties as gained through organization
were a secondary consideration, and the
fights of the individual in the com­
munity, understood as an incident to
worldly gain, were enforced through the
vigilance committee.
Third, in the modern realization of the
value, and indeed the necessity, of real,
genuine citizenship as the very founda­
tion and keystone to the structure of
society; be it in the nucleus of the sum­
mer camp or temporary community, or
the permanent town, state or national
unit. Every such unit of society has its
problems to be solved, and their solution
comes from the citizen—cooperative
effort—and the effectiveness of solution
depends upon the standard of citizenship.
To improve community life, then, both
civic and social, we must build up and
maintain a high standard of citizenship.
Good citizenship means loyalty to
nation, community and home. Good citi­
zenship means to build up and not de­
stroy. Good citizenship means cooperative
effort toward the great idea of service to
society. Good citizenship means interest
and intelligent activity on the part of
every individual of every community.
Every community problem is the problem
of the citizen. The community must
This means cooperation of the different
classes, professions and callings in every
community—not in theory, but in practice.
The problem effecting one class may not
be properly solved by another class or
profession. Our own national exposure of
the conduct of unscrupulous officials de­
monstrates that we may not entrust the
administration of our government and
the solution of our national problems to
the politicians alone.
Had there been a right appreciation of
the obligations of citizenship by our
national would-be leaders I venture to
say the humiliating and disgraceful
scandals at Washington, regardless of
who may be responsible for it, would
never have occurred. My neglect of the
obligations of citizenship, upon me should
preclude me from criticizing the Unf:t
public official, who became such by my
default. The exercise of individual rights
as a citizen will bring about an apprecia­
tion and a recognition by every public
official of the fact that right of suffrage
as well as a public office or responsibility,
whether great or small, is a public trust.
The constant occupation of the pro­
fessional man or business man, in what­
ever line, must necessarily narrow his
viewpoint. The shbe dealers’ association
may protect the shoe dealer. The grocers’
association may protect the grocery man.
Likewise the doctors and lawyers in their
own organizations may protect their own
interests; but what about thè interests of
the public or the business not so organ­
ized?
Recently, in one state, a movement was
undertaken to secure legislation, and the
consent of the board of corrections as
the governing body to create, by ap-
propriatè means, a factory or source of
state employment for our prisoners—
and in this time of enforcement of many
laws, we must shamefully admit that we
have too many prisoners—which move­
ment was in recognition of the obligation
of society to its citizens. As the move­
ment took definite from, and. at the re­
quest of thè merchants and manu-
facturers of the state, a meeting was
called, at which they were ably repre-
sented in their claims that to permit
prisoners to work and produce and to
place the product of thèir effort on the
market, would destroy the legitimate
business of the merchants and manu­
facturers.
In this they saw only their own condi­
tion, and refused to recognize the public
and society as a whole, which was and is
carrying the burden of the support of the
families of these prisoners left upon
society without provision, and the sup­
port of the prisoner in idleness when
work, properly provided and supervised,
would produce a product, which, properly
handled, would provide his own support
and assist in the support and education
of his dependents or the victim of his
wrong-doing and, by occupying his time,
OCTOBER 1925
bring him back to a realization of his
rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
For every major crime the law pro­
vides a prison sentence. We cannot dis­
pose of all prisoners by execution. We
must either provide permanent confine­
ment or provide a means for the prisoner
to overcome his weakness, recover from
his fall, and come back into society with
proper restrictions in the enjoyment of
his citizenship. “An idle brain is the
devil’s workshop.”
The average prisoner, unless given an
opportunity to improve himself and over­
come his weakness and provide for the
future, resents his confinement, devotes
his energy and intelligence to planning
further crime, and when under our
present system, turned onto the street
with the stigma of his confinement pre­
venting his gaining ready employment,
too often sees but one course, and that
to repeat his criminal acts as the only
way he knows to come back into society
and meet the necessities of life.
This is not an exaggerated condition
in any community, because every com­
munity in our nation is experiencing a
similar problem, which is a check on its
social and civic growth, and the proper
solution of this problem means social and
civic development. The solution of this
problem alone will make for better citi­
zenship.
Instances are many where the criminal,
when given an opportunity to work and
reform, is restored to society as a useful
citizen; and in building citizenship it is
just as important to recover one tempo­
rarily lost and who, unless recovered, may
be a menace to society, as to build citizen­
ship in the first instance. Society regrets
the fall of a citizen, but may not close its
eyes to the fact—and it is a fact, not a
theory—that every day, for an infraction
of our laws, citizens are falling through
human weakness and must be restored
and helped back or they will be a menace
to society. This is one of the duties of
society to the individual.
Another and a very important test of
the functioning of any civic or social
club is its activity. No citizen should feel
content to see and acquiesce in existing
conditions, but ever be organizing social
and civic problems and then to press
vigorously toward their solution. As we
have read the poem, at first hearing it we
were all impressed by the lines of the
writer, who said: “Let me live in a house
by the side of the road, and be a friend
to man.” This is expressing the negative
sentiment. I believe that the contrary
to this is fundamental, not only in theory,
but should be so in practice. And may
I express in the language of one far more
able to express it than I, the following
sentiment, contrasted with the lines on
the house by the side of the road:
’Tis only a half truth the poet has sung,
Of the house by the side of the way;
Our Master had neither a house nor a
home,
But he walked with the crowd, day by
day.
And I think, when I read of the poet’s
desire,
That the house by the road would be good,