The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., December 01, 1925, Page 11, Image 11

¡DECEMBER 1925
THE UNITED AMERICAN
Fage Eleven
Becoming an American
By A. C. STRANGE, Oregon State Director of Americanization Schools.
IX.
TN THIS, my last letter in this series I shall write
upon the significance of American citizenship.
■Surely everyone who is a citizen or plans to become a
■citizen is deeply interested in knowing what his citizen­
ship means,—that is, the duties and responsibilities
such position demands of him. It is this meaning that
I shall try to give you.
There was a time, many years ago, when an active
citizenship was expected from only a few people of
each country. These people belonged to what was
called nobility,—that is, they belonged to a class of
people who were set aside from other people because
of title and wealth, The offices of the government
were filled with men from this small group. They
voted the taxes, they made the laws, they administered
the government. Without doubt some of them took
their duties seriously and earnestly desired to render
to their country helpful service. Others, however,
prostituted their positions and exploited those over
whom they were placed, for their personal advancement.
Among these nobles, the phrase “Noblesse oblige,”
the obligation of nobility, was often used. This meant
that their position as nobles required from them noble
conduct,-—that is, an active, loyal, devoted citizenship
in their country.
In America, we have no nobility, no selected few
who rule.' The citizens are the rulers. Citizen is our
highest title. Hence those who are citizens belong to
the nobility of America and when the judge confers
eitizenship upon an alien he is making that person a
member of the governing nobility of our country.
Moreover he is conferring on the newly made citizen
a noblesse oblige, the obligation of nobility.
And what are these obligations which constitute
American citizenship?
In the first plhce, the citizen is expected to vote.
By means of the franchise he takes his part in the
government. He thus rules; hence he should consider
the right a sacred one, never to be neglected, always
to be held as a proud privilege.
We hear now and then of men and women who
boast that they never go to the polls; they say that
they are lowering themselves by such action. Such
persons are not only foolish, they are disloyal in that
ihey often thus contribute to the election to office
of weak, bad men and to the enactment of harmful
laws, and surely anyone who, directly or indirectly,
helps to put into office bad men and to put into effect
lad laws, is helping to tear down his government just
as is he who acts the traitor in time of war. The first
Ibligation, then, we place upon our citizens is that they
hold the vote as a sacred, never-to-be-neglected duty.
I In the second place, citizens must serve their
country when service is needed. In times of peace, jury
service may be asked. Law enforcement being abso­
lutely necessary for the protection of our country, the
citizen has here his finest opportunity to help preserve
and strengthen his country. The unwillingness of
many business men to do jury service has long been
a point of weakness in our country. How often weak,
incompetent men must be used as jurors and conse­
quently law is unenforced and brought into disrepute.
And who is responsible? Certainly the competent,
busy man who is unwilling to give to his country the
time for this slight service.
Another service is that of holding public office when
needed. There are man who seek office and to some
of these men office is not a public trust but, instead,
no more than a job. How much better it would be if
our most successful and capable men would now and
then take such offices as a means of paying their debt
to our country! During the Great War, many of our
most capable men gave their time and labor freely to
their country out of love for it. One of America’s
greatest needs is more of such service given in time
of peace. By this statement, I do not mean that
office seekers, as a class, are incomptent. Many of
them render the finest service. I mean merely to
emphasize the fact that office is a public trust to be
entered into with the motive of serving the country
rather than of earning money.
In the third place, the citizen should know some­
thing of the history of his country. He should know
how the wilderness was conquered and settled, how
independence was gained, how the early settlers labored
long and arduously to build a government, and how the
country slowly developed into one of the world’s great­
est nations. He should know of America’s eminent
men and women and of their accomplishments. He
should know of the trials of the pioneer and should
learn to appreciate fully the courage, the faith, the
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The Foundation
In many an American city today tall structures
stand on foundations that were planned by their
architects to support the weight of extra stories if
the future’s needs should call for such additions.
Their very existence is proof of the vision of men
who provided for that which they could not definitely
foresee.
Similarly capable of meeting the future’s needs
was the foundation upon which the Bell System has
been reared. At a time when a few miles was the
greatest distance over which man’s wire-borne voice
might travel, the telephone pioneers could not, of
course, foresee in detail the problems of invention,
manufacture, construction and operation which
future expansion might involve.
They could, however, and did catch the vision of
a national growth which would necessitate a service
continent-wide in scope. They could and did provide
the foundation for a structure capable of growing
with the nation. The proof of their vision lies in the
fact that America today has a nation-wide, universal
telephone service.
Pacific Telephone
and Telegraph
Company
BELL SYSTEM
One Policy, One System, Universal Service
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