Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-09
THE STUDY OF CIvICs.
Its Need Never More Apparent Than at
Present.

| Present.
From the New York Observer.
We are gratifed 10 learn that an effort IL
about TO be made to enlarge and extend the
work and influence of that excellent iastitu-
ton known Is the American Institute Of Civics
Its chief aim is to promote the study Of the
most essential facts relating to affairs Of
government and citizenship. Never was the
need of such study more apparent than IL is at
the present time. The greater part of all the
political ills concerning which such an outcry
Is now being made, the corruption Of the
ballot, legislative trickery and scandal, the
gross abuse OF partisan power, may be traced
to an inadequate and defective knowledge Of
| the rights and duties Of free CITIZENSHIP
These evils have befallen us not so much on
account OF defects in our systems OF admins
tration and OF government, not on account of
| the presence OF vicious and corruptible ele-
ment In our voting population, as on account
| OF the ignorance and indifference which pre-
vail among all classes of people with regard
to the fundamental principles OF what has been
called
TIE SCIENCE OF CITIZENSHIP.
The civic virtues of patriotism and loyalty
are, perhaps, as strong among us as among any
other people in the world, but with too many
| OF us they are passive virtues, mere abstrac-
tons, empty names. They are virtues the eX-
ercise OF which is connected in the common
mind chiefly with the idea of war and carnage.
Inc very word patriotism In the ordinary ac-
ceptation, has the smell of battle lingering
around it. II is mainly suggestive Of brave
and heroic deeds performed in defence of ones
country. The words 'patroit" and soldier
have been SO often linked together in history,
song and story, that they have come to be re-
garded as meaning almost one and the same
thing. Our ideas of these things need recon-
struction. Bravery and heroism are indeed es-
sentlal elements of true patriotism but il is not
In time of war only that we need brave and
| heroic men. III peace is to have her victories
| as well as war, We must have the men who
are strong and valorous and patriotic enough
TO lead Us on to victorious achievements. The
| only enemies that threaten our national life.
that assall our rights and liberties, are not
| those who come with shotted cannon and
cleaning bayonets. In the language OF the
| hymnal "a thousand foes beset us round" who
are even more to be feared and dreaded than
hostile armies and iron ships of war. Among
these foes are they who are poisoning the
minds OF the people with seditious and revolu-
| tonary doctrine; they who are fomenting social
| discomfort and hatred Of law and government
among the ignorant and unthinking classes;
| they who are undermining the faith and conf
| dence of the people in free institutions by the
debauchery Of the ballot and the perversion Of
! governmental power to selfish and partisan
| ends. These are among the enemies which all
truly loyal, country-loving citizens Of our day
are called upon to
MEET AND OVERCOME.
And they can only be met and overcome when
all such patriotic and country-loyin citizens
rise to full and competent knowledge of their
rights and duties as members Of the state and
having risen, put their knowledge into prac-
tice. To be patriotic, it must be understood
means something more in these DAYS than car
rylng gun In time of war; something more
than a willingness to die, if need be, on the
| field OF battle. 1t means also the fearless, in
tellgent, discriminating performance of the
duties of citizenship, and the disposition to
bear with cheerfulness all the responsibilities
which citizenship involves. The qualities of
| bravery and heroism surely need not pass into
desuetude in the face of all the bitter opposi-
| tons, the powerful antagonists, the unsparing
hatreds and mahgnities which every reform
movement in the political world of to-day has
| to encounter. Brave and heroic men are needed
TO fight the battles that must be fought before
the country is cleared of the enemies which
threaten Its peace and the perpetuity of its free
lnstltutlons-the gross abuses, the monstrous
evils which are eating the life out of the body
polite. And the weapons of this warfare must
be ballots and not bayonets; the artillery of
fearless tongues and dauntless pens; the resist
less force Of the honest, conscientious, united
action of
HONEST MEN FOR HONEST ENDS.
anu tuat ali tuls may De Drought ABOUT Is
why we make our plea for the study Of civics-
the study of the science Of citizenship; of the
ethical principles which lie as the basis Of a
popular form of government, Of economics, Of
civil polity, of the simpler legal forms and
usages, Of political history, of the machinery
of government of all those things which every
citizen must know who would perform his
civic duties intelligently and conscientiously.
| These studies should begin with the simplest
principles in the primary schools, and be fol-
| lowed up from them to the highest educational
institutions. Everywhere there should be an
insistence upon those lines of thought and re-
search which lead to the building up of a
strong, yirtuous and intelligent citizenship
1t should never be under a government like
ours" Of the people, for the people, by the
people"-that anyone should arrive at man.
hoods estate without a clear and thorough
| understanding of at least the cardinal prin-
ciples OF the science Of government. That
many who are accounted intelligent do go
through life without a knowledge of these
principles surely argues some radical defect
in our systems Of education. And this defect
we must remedy if we are ever to rise to a
higher plane of national life if We are ever to
enjoy the best and noblest results of demo-
cratic scheme of government.