The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1917-08-07
THE FRANCHISE A SACRED DUTY.

THE FRANCHISE A sACRED DUTY.
About the biggest thing in the United States
today isithe government itself. And, readers, had
you ever thought that a little three-by-seven slip
of paper has made this government the mighty
world power it is? Fact-the ballot.
The franchise is the one thing of which
Americans should feel prouder than of any other
or all others of their possessions. 1t. is the solu-
ton of every question that can possibly arise, the
answer to every objection that can ever be raised.
It is the power that unlocks the door to opportun-
ity and spreads wide the gate to the field OF ach-
ievement.
A great statesman has made the assertion
that you can trust the people, when unhampered
and uninAuenced, to do the right thing. We
might safely go a step further and assert that
whatever the people do, when unhampered and in
fuenced, is right.
Is there a higher power on earth than the ma
iority of it's inhabitants? If rot, then there can
be no appeal from their expressed will. We do not
consider the old world theory of the divine right
of kings, because we shook ourselves free from
that superstition more than a century ago. Ot
course the question of the Divine Will is to be con-
sidered, but as we are each supposed to be fol-
lowing the dictates of his own conscience, that, to
US, is RIGHT.
But we must qualify and assert that the voice
of the people can not be unquestionably right un-
less it is the voice of ALL of the people. The
WHOLE can not err. Parties and factions can
and do.
And therein lies the source of all that is wrong,
all that is imperfect, all that is not RIGHT in
our body polite. We do not get a free expression
of the will of ALL of the people. Let us repeat:
Partial expression may be right or may be wrong
the expression of the whole A NOT be wrong,
because from it there is no appeal.
All of which is preliminary to the statement
that, besides being a privilege of which all should
feel proud, the franchise is a DUTY that rests
upon each one, and one from which no man may
escape and remain blameless.
Reader, have you ever thought that, when the
voice of the people is called for and your voice is
lacking, the answer is incomplete? Yet such is
the fact, and it may be that your voice would have
i changed the result.
How many times have you heard it said of the
result Of an election, lit was the stay-at-home vote
that did it." And in every such case, if a wrong
was perpetrated, it was the stay-at-homes wht
were responsible.
You hadn't thought of it in just that light, Ell
Well, perhaps not, but think of it hereafter.
Periodically there will be elections in this town
any your town has a right to expect YOUR vot
to be registered. It has the right to expect tina
your vote will express YOUR HONEST convic
lions. And it has the right to expect the sam
-lof EVERY voter within it's confines. And wher
or if, this result is achieved, the result is RIGHT
1t many not accord with your views or your wish
es, but it is RIGHT, because it is ULTIMATE.
The town that, as a whole, can be brought t
view this question Of the franchise in this its tru
light, has taken a long stride forward in civic we
d being, and will find as it puts into practice thes
j principles, that many Of it's vexing questions wi
answer themselves and its knotty problems will k
solved.