The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-13
THE CITIZENS DUTY.

He is not an ideal citizen who believes
his duty to the Government is confined
within the limits of paying his taxes and
obeying the laws. There are moral public
duties which no one can evade and still be
good citizen. The spirit of such q gov
eminent as ours has q code of unwritten
laws which imposes duties upon the citi-
zen that are just as imperative in their
demand for faithful performance as any
Legislative enactment is. He is not good
citizen who is remiss in the performance
OF any public duty because to perform it
would Inconvenience him. There are
duties of citizenship very much higher
than allegiance 10 party. The public good
is first to be considered, and the really
good citizen is loyal to his party only in so
far as it Is the party's purpose to admins
ter the government in ways that shall
strengthen society and commerce.
OF the great and small duties that de-
volye upon the citizen the duty to take an
interest in those things which lead up to
the ballot-box and finally casting his vote
is probably the most important The man
who does not take an interest in the public
concern of the community in which he
lives and cast ballot expressive of his
honest convictions as to what policy is
best says in effect that ne cares little
whether there be law and order or an
archy, virtue or vice, honesty or dishon-
esty IN public life. Under our system of
government the voter is required to regis.
ter at stated times for the purpose of estab-
fishing his eligibility, and the citizen who
does not register becomes an alien SO far
as the highest right of citizenship is con-
cerned. The man who does not register
puts himself upon level with the latest
arrival from China, and is in fact not a
whit better citizen in the eyes of the pub
lie good. The highest meaning of indi-
vidual sovereignty implies duty to vote
conscientiously upon all questions in
which the public has interest. To fail to
do that is to be unworthy of sovereignty.
The registration books are now open at
the City Hall and there are given num-
Der of days in which names may be reg
istered, and those who neglect to register
are, by their act, disfranchised. There are
more reasons this year why the good citi-
zen should make haste to register than for
some years past. There will be advocated
for adoption the most dangerous theories
of Government that have ever confronted
the people. The once great Democratic
party has fallen under the control of such
men as Altgeld, Bryan and Tillman and it
has been abandoned by its old leaders and
the thinking element of the rank and file.
1t will be before the country asking for
votes TO set aside all established govern
mental and commercial usages and adopt
in their stead theories that border close
upon the doctrine OF the anarchist. More
over, the new leaders of that party assert
in their platform that should they secure
the reins of Government they will build
up the central States at the expense of the
Atlantic and Pacific Coast countries by i'm
proving the Mississippi River so that they
may have direct communication with the
cheap labor countries of the world on a
free-trade basis of commercial operations.
But this is not all that is threatening the
public good, as every one will see by read
ing the Altgeld-Tillman-B Bryan declara-
tons. A knowledge of these threatening
dangers should, it would seem, be all
that is needed to convince every good citi-
zen that he owes it to himself, to his neigh
Dor and his country to speedily assume the
public responsibilities of citizenship by at
tending to his registration Immediately.