The record-union., 1899-05-27
will have produced a civilization grand

/ II.
but thrill the hearts and enthuse the
minds of all true Americans and OF all
| lovers of their country with the great
ness of our possible future.
| What a glory to be citizen of the
nation which is to give civilization
| grander than any the world has
known! What a privilege to be per-,
mitted to share in such achievement
| and in all it's blessings. But let US
beware 'lest we forget that, before
that day is come, heroic work must yet
| be done in Strengthening our bulwarks
| of liberty. Let us not forget that
many and most serious problems are
yet to be solved before we can claim a
civilization grander than any the
world has known. Let us not under
estimate our national virtues, but let
us not forget our national vices, our
weaknesses and our failings.
| We hold that the principles upon
which our republic is founded are
truth and Righteousness, justice and
equity" So long, however, as injus-
tice and inequity, fraud and corrup-
| ton, are SO prevalent in our political
| life, We cannot say that the pure and
| lofty principles we so glibly preach
are the foundation stones upon which
We build The most optomistic be-
lever in this Government is oftimes
disheartened and discouraged when he
sees the open fraud and corruption
practiced throughout the land His
hope and his anchor sheet, however,
is his faith in the purity, the integrity
and the civic virtue of the common
people who time and again, have as
serted themselves, and, in their anger
and wrath, have driven forth the polit-
| ical parasites who feed on and bleed
our body polite.
| 1t has been said that the great secret
of the success of the American volun-
teer soldier lies in his individuality.
Every volunteer in action seems to feel
| that the entire responsibility of the
battle rests with him and with him
alone. It is this spirit which makes
| him invincfble. Every citizen in like
manner should feel that the RESPONSE
bility of our civic government and the
perpetuation of the republic rests with
him and with him alone.
! 1t is important that we shall sell
our iron and our cotton, our fruit and
our grain. 1t is important that we
shall make good plows and good shoes,
| good harness and good coats, but it
is more important that we shall have
| good government. Given good gov
ernment we may continue in peace
and in prosperity to make and to sell
our wares. Let our government be-
come permanently rotten and go into
decay, and our children and their chill
dren, Will grow up surrounded by con-
| ditionS where all their producing. all
their buying, and all their selling, will
give them neither peace nor prosperity,
neither freedom of thought nor liberty
of action. They will grow up to find
| themselves the creatures of tyrants Or
the slaves of cruel and corrupt politi-
cal despots, who will have ground the
liberties of this people under their iron
heels.
What can we do to prevent all this
How often have you and I heard men,
young and old, boast that they had
never attended a political caucus or
primary, and that they seldom wasted
| their time on election day to vote.
| What would we think of men who
would make it their boast that they
never paid their debts, that they
shirked their duties, and that they
felt no interest in the welfare of their
families?
| We are full copartners in this gov
ernment; we are members of the polit-
ical family of this nation; we share
in it's blessings, and we must be ready
to bear our fullest part of its burdens
and responsibilities. We must stand
ready to perform our civic duties
thoroughly, conscientiously. We must
not leave the choosing of officials and
the making of laws to the corrupt and
the vicious; we must feel it our sacred
duty to use the privilege of citizenship,
and to play our fullest part at eau
Gus, primary, and on election day. In
difference to those occasions should be
looked upon as political crimes, unfit
ting US for citizenship and making US
unworthy of its blessings and privi-
leges. We must have high political
ideals and lofty conceptions of govern
ment, and we must constantly preach
and practice these sentiments.
| The Jew must be the first to live in
the spirit of high ideals. His it was,
through Moses, to give to the world the
first republic. His it must be to help
keep pure and to perpetuate the might
lest, the noblest, the greatest republic
the world has seen. OF all Jews whose
duty it is to seek the safety and the
welfare of the republic, the young Jew
has the greatest responsibility. He has
fallen heir to blessings unknown and
undreamt of by his forefathers. He
enjoys civil liberty and political free
dom rarely permitted to his fathers
during the past eighteen hundred years.
His superior educational advantages
should fit him tn moro int +1,,
form his civic duties than did his father
or his grandfather, who stepped out of
the Ghetto where, for centuries. they
had been oppressed and depressed For
an American citizen to neglect his DO
| htical duties is a crime. For an Ameri-
can Jew to do SO is a double crime For
a young American Jew to do so is a
triple crime
by performing our political duties
| do not mean seeking political office. I
am of those who believe that the office
should seek the man, not the man the
ONCE. The Jew should doubly hesitate
to accept public office, even when ten
dered, knowing as he must that, since
Jew is held responsible for Jew. should
ne make mistakes, prove incompetent,
or suceumb to temptation, not only he,
out every other member of his race
will be made to suffer.
| Let this, then. be lesson we take from
Memorial Day. Let Memorial Day to
US mean dedication to the cultiva-
| ton of higher civic duties and loftier
polltlcal Ideals. Let us dedicate our
selves to the resolve that public affairs
snail De our concern, and that in this
we shall manifest a most ''fervid pa
fy;aticy,o