Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-04-19

As the 1ofy without the spirit is but bit of useless clay, so a party organ ization which has ou;lived its purpose or has discarded or ignored the ideas and principles which crystallized it into existence is worthless and cum berso&ne thing to which it is the su- premsst folly to cling. Partyism and patriotism are too often confounded by the minimizing and careless, and it is not unusual to find fairly intelligent men who have no clearly defined ideas as to what constitutes either.
 The constitution of the United States and the declaration of independence should be part of the education of every child who gets its tuition at the expense of the public-school fund. The fact that it is so taught places is under obligation to the educating power, which obligation should be cancelled only by perfect understanding of those most interesting and important documents.
 As the case now stands the young people and children are allowed to learn that this is a free country, that the liberty of speech and of the press must not be abridged that they have rights which everybody is bound to re spect, and that a self-assertive spirit is most becoming in an American citizen.
 But what they do not learn, and what would be the most useful for them to know, not only for their own prosperity and growth but for the good of the nation which is quite likely some day to require their services, is their personal obligations to the nation the state and their fellow-citizens.
 The rights of the individual are but a small part of the patriotic education of child. As member of society and a citizen, he is entitled to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness (so long as that pursuit does not interfere with the rights of others), the right to labor unmolested, to earn a livelihood whenever and wherever he chooses and at the wages he may find it con yenient or expedient to accept and to dc all this without the interference or question of the other members of the community. Those who are not all lowed to do this are not living up to their privileges, and those who pre- vent this freedom or obstrnct its exer- else in any way are acting in direct de- fiance of law and order an the princi- ples and teachings of the constitution. Personal liberty is a very compre- hensive term, but does not by any meaus include personal license. Liberty is by many construed as the absence of law, when it is, in fact, the presence of it. Personal safety and personal liberty are almost unknown in com munities where there is no law. Good laws, strictly enforced, guarantee the well-being of society, and the highest degree of patriotism is found where such laws are enacted and respected.
 One of the first lessons in life should be that the rights of every living being must be respected, but that there is no such thing as license ewithoutendanger- ing not only the safety of the indi- vidual as we'll as that of the state. The best way to secure peace and pros perity in the community is to impress upon the minds of children and youth the need of respectful submission to existing authority, and so to impress upon their minds the principles of the constitution and the declaration of in dependence that it shall become a part of their daily habit of life to insist upon their own rights without inter fering with the rights of others. Y l T,adOer