Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-03-01
Modern Good Citizenship
By Rev. N M. Hall, Springfield, Mass.
By Rev. N. M. Hall, Springfield, Mass.

~
are constantly giving out of their own
resources for the common good.
"Not only that, these men must de-
velop the sense of responsibility in
regard to the actual problems of the
city, the actual government of the
city. Let the men of great ability, the
men to whom much has been given
of wealth and learning and oportun.
ity, devote to the city the same ear
nestness, the same devotion, the same
trained intelligence which in business
has built up successful enterprises
and won vast fortunes, and the same
great results would be attained.
But men of this class have not
even deigned to vote, which is the
simplest form of-public service. There
are few cities in which more than go
percent of the electorate exercises the
franchise upon ordinary occasions. l
think an. safe in saying that every
great question which needed to be de-
cided in our American cities and has
been wrongly settled might have been
rightly settled at the ballot-box if
the privileged class of the commun-
ity had taken the pains to vote upon
it.
THE man who seeks his own con
venience and his own comfort, who
places his own business or his own
pleasure above his public duty, must
not be surprised nor indignant when
his property values are threatened,
his business injured and his very life
menaced by the corrupt government
of his city. He has only himself to
blame. The affairs OF the city will
not conduct themselves any more
than his own business will conduct
itself. Such affairs demand the expend-
iture Of energy and time and the sac
rifice of personal inclination. II the
prosperous citizen has not suf1cient
patriotism to attend to this himself
if he turns over the government Of
his city to the alien, the ignorant, the
corrupt-then he must expect to suf-
fef.
''The citizen OF this class must real
ize that more and more the forces of
evil, of corruption, of ignorance, of
unrighteousness are massing in the
city. He will have to fight to conquer
these evil forces. He will have to give
himself. He cannot buy good govern
ment; he cannot contract for civic
righteousness. These and other bless
ings come only as men give their own
illumined Municipalities that the light
of truth and honor may shine and the
city find it's redeemed life. There is
no other way.
"Pestilence, which stalks through
the city's streets, you are responsible
for it, oh, man of wealth and leisure,
because you have not made the breed
ing places of plague impossible! It
is because you have not considered
your brother; it Is because you have
given the old answer of Cain, Am I
my brothers keeper? to the demand
upon your time and your money, that
evil now is the conqueror in your COM
munity. You must give yourself.
This is the ideal citizen-he who,
| in self forgetfulness, is inspired only
by the desire to serve, in humble ways
possibly, but still to serve, and not
simply to be served. And it follows
then that the ideal citizen must be
the Christian citizen. The great prob
lens of city life never will be settled
until they are settled upon the Chris.
tian basis. 1t is the church and not
the municipal offices or the courts of
justice, that is the true center of the
city's life.
| You may make your .administra.
ton as business like as possible; you
may improve your public schools I'M
til every child in the community has
a complete education; you may beau.
tify your city until it dims the glory
OF Athens and Venice, but you will
not have the highest type of civic life
unless the citizens are filled with the
/ spirit of Jesus Christ.
I "Ye are the light of the world!
Let your light so shine that men may
see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven In the
light of this teaching we must re-
construct our American ideals. We
people of the church of Jesus Christ
have been too self centered. We have
not realized what the church should
mean in the city. The church is q
place from which the city should be
ruled by Christian men intent upon
seeing Christ enthroned in the market
place and the city hall; a place from
which power, dynamic energy issues
to control the tides of human life.
Keep out OF politics!' cry the poll