The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-18
CITIZENSHIP IN RETROSPECT
POWERFUL ADDRESS DELIVERED
 LAST EVENING

By s. P. Thrasher, Secretary of the stat'
 Law and Order League" "LoolsinI
 Bacxward"-A Highly Interesting Ad.
 dress Delivered in Republican Hal
 Before the First Church.
 Imagine yourselves living in the yeai
 2001, having just passed the threshold
 of the twenty-first century. Imagine
 yourselves gathered, as you are now, tc
 listen to an address. The theme of the
 speaker is citizenship in Retrospect,
 and deals with the conceptions and
 practice of citizenship by your ances-
 tors in the early part of the twentieth
 century. Assuming that you have all
 transported yourselves in thought to
 the point of time suggested, I will pro-
 ceed to deliver the address.
 My Christian Frends--I hold in my
 hand a newspaper of century ago,
 dated March 12, 1901, which furnishes a
 starting point for my address, for it
 suggests some singular contrasts be-
 tween the days of our ancestors and
 our own. l do not rafer to the quaint
 ness of the type and language employ
 ed in this old journal,S nor am think
 ing of the lack of those material con
 veniences of life which invention and
 science have supplied us I have in
 mind, rather, the contrast between the
 ordinary conception and practice of cit
 izenship at Che beginning of the tWen-
 tieth century and those of to-day. ~
 Nothing is more precious to the aver age American of our generation than
 his privilege of franchise. He is Warwick, king-maker, and guards his right jealously Strange as it seems, this was far from being the case cen tury ago. This paper mentions as matter, of course, that not one-fifth of the voters of New Haven attended the last caucuses, and that thousands re- mained away from the polls when an important presidential and gubernato- rial contest was to be decided. Nor was New Haven singular in this re- spect. It was the general condition ot affairs. To large extent professional politicians were allowed to dominate the primaries Cold blooded spoilsmen often succeeded in getting into office, for they hustled" to use a common expression of that day. Many business and pro fessional men did not take pains to leave their work long enough to dis charge their political duties. Some even boasted of their delinquency, de- claring that politics were too dirty for them, much as if a housekeeper said that the rooms were too dusty to sweep. You are aware of the change of senti- ment The standard of citizenship is now so high that the man who repeat edly neglected to vote would become the object of public scorn. Besides, he would be disenfranchised and made in capable of holding public office.
 This same paper reveals another as- pect of civic immaturity at the begin ming of the twentieth century. It re- lates that the people of a Connecticut city long suffered from the illiberality of a private corporation to which the city had granted the privilege of owning and operating street railways, that at length the company graciously granted certain privileges in relation to trans fers, and that the people were very grateful as to a sovereign. How odd that seems now! To give up a public utility, to grant the city streets, to yield the privilege of public transporta- tion into the hands of private corpor- ation for the profit of stockholders how very odd! Yet it is only a sample of host of oddities of which that age was only just beginning to see the ab surdity. Already Glasgow had a nu- nicipal corporation which managed the public utilities and there were other ] less developed instances of municipal | ownership abroad but America had l L. k- +, +1.o+ t1,,5 ness of civic rights and responsibilities which has now given gas works, water i works, etc., into municipal control, and | railroads, telephones, telegraphs, and so on, into governmental control Peo- pie thought that public servants could not manage these interests honestly and did not reflect that the old system of private control by its very nature filched from the public pocket. Yet they had long had the intricate postal service managed by the government so accurately that when a certain newly elected administration came in it found but one cent of apparent dedication in that department and subsequently, found the missing penny under a chair. At length civic righteousness began to rouse itself and inquire, "Is this really a republic? If so, and the people rule, why should the people forever pay tolls for the use of what should be their own They swore out writs of quo warranto, asking by what right pri- vate corporations reigned over them, and thereupon proceeded to manage public utilities for the public good Thus to-day as you well know, rail ,oads, motor-carriages air-ships, steam ships, electro-ships telephones, |" tele- grap aphs, water works, the heating and lighting facilities of cities, etc., are un- Ter municipal and governmental con- rol and are successfully administered with great gain to public economy and  The sanitary arrangements of modern titles are a feature of that community spirit arising from recognition of the z act that a city is an organism and must be administered as such Our | athers kept the streets of the rich l ,lean, and neglected the streets of the 2 ,oor. But out of the filth of the slums leath stalked into the masions of the I ch. The city fathers of our genera I ion are always seeking means to safe | ,uard the health of the community. It [ vas not so in the days of old, when q ome regarded one Shepard as cratic |