The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-07-29
Responsibility.

blllty walks manu- Ill IdHu Will S"P"NA~J
and power. Little is expected OF the IN"
capable. The very mention of duty, task,
responsibility weighs like burden upon the
minds of weak men and women. Every
one must have met men of good parts who
will sedulously dodge anything like re-
sponsibility. They shun anything like re-
sponsbility though high rewards may be
offered. The mere thought of being held
to strict accountability dismays them, and
no remuneration and no honor are great
enough to tempt them to leave the pleasant
ways of peace to undertake course which
involves contention or strife, or even serl"
Gus prolonged attention.
Among modern peoples their complaint
is described as neurasthenia, or nervous
ness, or feebleness of purpose or lack OF
stamina, or by name or term which inn
plies some arrangement of the nervous
system or some physical or mental inhar-
mony or debility or moral defect. These
people are to be pitied rather than blamed.
Their incapacity is often the result of wrong
living or hard conditions or inheritance.
Little is expected of them they can scarcely
''draw their own weight" but of every
man and citizen something is expected,
and from each according to his power,
means and opportunity.
Each and every human being who has
achieved success, who is healthy and
strong, who is happily placed in life has
resting upon him heavy responsibility to
his fellow men and to his country. Those
who recognize the responsibility and who
attempt to perform the duties attaching to
their condition are good citizens and vir-
tuous men; those who fail to recognize
their duties and shun them when they see
them are incomplete men and bad citizens,
even though a mere reckless and good
natured selfishness and not malicious
heart may be the cause of their indiffer-
ence. This is true of every sort of country
under all forms Of government, but applies
with peculiar force to republic where the
people who must be instructed and guided
rule. Burke puts the case powerfully:
Men are qualified for civil liberty in
exact proportion to their disposition to put
chains on their own appetites; in proper
ton as their soundness and sobriety of
understanding is above their vanity and
presumption; in proportion as they are
more disposed to listen to the counsels of
the wise and good, in preference to the
flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist
unless controlling power upon the will
and the appetite is placed somewhere; and
the less of it there is within, the more there
most be without. 1t is ordained in the
eternal constitution of things that men of
Incorporate habits cannot be free. Their
passions forge their fetters.''
Burke's and the universal judgment is
that men of wild and unregulated passions,
OF slight power of self-control, who have
no sense of personal responsibility, are
dangerous citizens by reason of the fact
they set a vicious and facilitating example,
and fail also to do their part in sustaining
the institutions of the land
The character of society or of a gov
eminent is dependent upon the character
and intelligence of it's units, especially in
free country, and in the long run the
tone, spirit and aims of the people at large
tend to approximate to the character and
aims of the most highly placed and most
conspicuous men and women in the
country. All men in this country who are
fortunate, whether through inheritance or
the happy issue of their own endeavors.
owe mighty debt to this land of the free.
If they earned or gained their fortunes
through their own endeavors, they must
thank the beneficent form of government.
the free opportunity and the extraordinary
conditions of life generally in the richest
country in the world. These conditions
and this form of government are due to-day
to the arduous labors, the mighty and long,
continued struggles, the terrible hardships
and the heroisms of those who preceded the
present generation. If they inherited their
fortunate position or their wealth from their
ancestors, they are also in debt to the
country and to society because their an
cestors were likewise the sharers in the
fruits of the labors of others. The later
the age in which man lives the heavier
the debt he owes to the past. He is the
heir Of the ages
There is something of the barbaric in the
attitude of the citizen who imagines that
he discharges his duty to his country and