Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1915-12-18
Our Public Property
Literally Our DUN

Those who have the local schools
heart, as well as the children who
use them, also those who have 4
pride in their borough's equipment
and it's upkeep, will no doubt find
much to interest them in the follow
ing short article by Charles F. Dole,
appearing a few years ago in "The
Young Citizen"
A great many things in our town
belong to all people. The school
houses with their desks and charts
and blackboards, for instance, belong
to the people. The fathers and
mothers and older brothers of the
children, and often men and women
who have no children of their own,
have paid their money to build the
schoolhouses and to furnish them
They have sometimes made the school
houses a good deal better than their
own homes. They have wished to
make the children happy in their
schools.
No one can say of the schoolhouse.
cit belongs to me-" or, at is mine"
The richest man in the town cannot
say this any more than the poor man.
But the poor man as we'll as the rich
man may say, "This is ours: we own
it together" The children also can
say, "These schoolhouses and all that
is in them is ours"
"The schoolhouses are not the only
things that all of US own in common.
Perhaps there are other buildings
which belong to the people. In a
large town there may be many such
IL, Lo Yon1inn CT atiOnc
the houses for the fire-engines, the
stables for the horses that draw the
city carts, hospitals for the sick,
homes for orphan boys and girls, and
a city hall full of offices. Perhaps
some can think of other buildings
which belong to the people. The
buildings and houses owned by all of
us in common are called public. This
means that no one can ever say,
mThey are mine," but all can say.
"They are ours" Whatever is pub
lie is for every one.
To whom do the streets belong?
To whom do the sidewalks and curb
stones and the street-lamps belong =?
The street does not belong only to
the man who lives on it; the lamp
post does not belong only to the man
whose door is lighted by the lamp.
The transfers, the errand-boys, the
boys and girls who ride their BIZ
cycles to their playground, the people
who live on the other side of the town.
own the street as much as the men
who live on it. Everyone who walks
out in the evening has share in all
the street-lamps.
Perhaps there is Common, Park
or a Public Garden in town; it may be
that the land in it is worth fortune;
it may cost the city thousands OF
dollars every year to keep it in order
But no man is so rich as to say, at
is NINE" Every child can say, at is
ours"
There may be a rule that no one
shall pick the flowers in the Public
Garden, or trample the grass. But
this rule is not to keep US from oul
rights in the grass and flowers. The
rule is made in order to give us oul
rights. 1t is intended to secure the
greatest pleasure for the greatest
number of people. Is it not better
and fairer to give all of us an equa
chance to see the flowers, than tt
let few pick them and carry then
away? The person who takes the
flowers from the Public Garden seems
to say. "The flowers are mine" Which
is not the truth.
No one has right to carry ava!
without permission and much less tt