Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-03-10
What We, as Women and Citizens,
Owe the Town


A town is defined as a territorial
division, established by law for poll
teal or municipal purposes. These
purposes necessarily for the good )f
TIE towns people or country at large.
A townsman is defined as a resident
of town or a fellow citizen.
The existence of a relationship
cerries with it mutually of obliga-
tiol A member of the most savage
tr be in the center of Africa owes
certain duties to it and to it's chief
and the same is true of the citizen Of
the most civilized nation in the world,
ard the higher the status of the
parties to this relationship, the more
far reaching are the obligations
which spring therefrom and the more
significant and important is the full
d. .scharge of those obligations. The
manner in which the citizen of a
savage tribe discharges his obliga-
tions to the tribe means less for the
general veal or woe than the way in
which citizen of the u S. discharg
es his obligations, and it is. because
in the one case the parties to the re-
latiorship are of more Importance
to the we'll being of the world than
those in the other. Judge Brewer,
in his Yale lectures div des the obi
cations of citizenship into four parts.
l. The maintenance of good char
acter
2. Service.
a. Obedience.
A. Striving to better the life Of
the community or nation.
.-oL o;4;zo,, o-rrae - 4bo tox,v,,
or community. the duty of maintain
ing in himself and developing in
those under his influence high, clean
moral character. HIS personal NOR
atty is a debt to his community and
the nation.
1t IS the ore duty wh ch underlies
all others. What is good character?
at is the righteousness in the soul.
1t makes the chasm between man and
brute. It is the link which binds him
to the divine" That which is true of
thn Individual unit is also true of the
whole.
There are those who claim that a
corporation "has neither body to be
k;oka1, nor soul to be damned The
oreanizat' on of individuals into a
corporate BODY does not create ma
chine like a steam engine but sim
ply puts into an organic whole the
comb ned corsc' 'ences, character and
morality of all the individual mem
hers. You would not call that an
honest town where any material
number of its citizens refused to pay
their debts, nor that a healthy place
where only the doctors did thriving
business.
1t may be said by some, that char
acter is a personal matter between
oneself and God. or simply duty %
family or friends but certainly, also
it is a duty to be numbered among
the responsibilities of ctizership.
It is plso continuous, like the heart
beat and stays with one through life.
And no one, however humble. can re-
1ieve himself from responsibility. He
may be but one in many but he is
one and contributes to make up the
general character. He pours his
breath into the social atmosphere,
and if that breath be poisonous he to
some extent communicates it.
The declaration of the scriptures
that righteousness exalteth ma
tion. but sin is a reproach to any
people" is certainly a sound maxim
for any city or nation to build upon.
We are not only a unit but col
lection Of units. And we are not
simply the numerical aggregation
of so many individuals. but the COM
binat on of all the mental and moral
characteristics of those individuals
The second respons bility, is that
Of service. The workings of our little
corporation are not mechanical nor
do thev move with mechanical preci-
sion. Rather. the forces which per-
meate an dmove our lives are in
tallect1aI and moral, and each one
who takes his part in any service to
the community should do so with all