The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1898-09-23
The Value of a Vote.
BY DEAN GEORGE hodges, D. D.

[. The value of a dollar is hundred
cents. You can take il into market and
buy with 1t something which costs hun
dred cents. 1t would be foolish to sell
dollar for fifty cents because it is worth
more than that.
The value of picture cannot be meas
ured by dollars and cents. 1t depends
on the pleasure which it will give US.
The Slstine Madonna, at Dresden, is not
a very large picture, but when somebody
tried to buy it the other day the price
was put at a million dollarsI That
meant that the picture was not for sale.
Every year it gives so much pleasure to
so many people that its value cannot be
expressed by any number of dollars.
The value of key depends on what
the key will do. If it is nothing but
key, without any lock, it may be sold
for old iron. But if it will put us in
pictures, or Of house of our own, then
there is no sum of money which will ex-
press its value; it is beyond that. No
body can tell just by looking at key
whether it is valuable or not. He must
first fad out what the key will open.
IL. The value of vote is not to be
measured by looking at it, nor by wait
ing to see what will happen when it is
put into box. It is not much to look
at, and when it has been marked and de
livered to the officer, and he puts it into
the box, nothing happens at all. We
seem to go out as we come in, neither
richer nor poorer. A five dollar bill has
value, hut vote seems to have no val
ue. Some men, when they have q
chance to exchange the one for the other,
and thus to get five dollars for their vote,
do it, and think that they have made a
good bargain.
But what is vote worth? What is
the value of a vote? That depends or
what vote will do for US. If man
sells vote for five dollars, when it is
really worth thousand dollars to him,
he makes a very foolish bargain.
Ill. The effect of vote is to put a
| &IhA LuhO OH pI1ACCs AhO NO1OI1 Oy bhO
mark which he makes upon his ballot,
says, II want such-and-such man to be
put into such and-such an office"
But men are put in Office in order that
they may do something for US. They
are there to serve US. There are SO
many things which need to be done in
order that life may go on we'll in place
where a considerable number of people
live that we ourselves cannot look after
them. We have too smuch else to do,
We, therefore, choose men to attend to
these thir g for US. 1t is like the choice
which Is made by the owner OF bust
ness when he appoints man to be
clerk, his agent and his cashier. In our
case, as in his, it is necessary to have
honest and able men; or else things are
sure to go wrong, and we shall be the
worse for it.
The things we commit to the men for
whom we vote are of very great impor
lance.
l. One OF them is the education Of
our children. We want to have gooC
schools. Every year we pay tax fo
the support of these schools. The vot'
which we cast determines who shall
, spend that money. The money is intend
, ed to provide proper school houses ant
enough of them, where our children may
, breathe pure air, and be safe, and b.
taught by good teachers. The happi
ness of our homes and the future Of on
! children depend greatly upon our cboic
, of men who kr ow enough TO provide goo