Your vote and how to use it

by Gertrude Foster Brown

It is the business of government to assure justice and equality of treatment to all citizens.

This becomes more difficult as population increases and life grows more complicated. Nearly every human being to-day is dependent on the work of other people for most of the necessities, as well as the comforts and conveniences, of life. The food that we eat, the cotton and wool in the garments we wear, the coal that heats our houses, we owe to the toil of other people who in return may be dependent on us for something that they use. It is a matter that concerns every one of us that in producing these things that we use human life shall be safeguarded, that living wages shall be paid, and that standards of civilization shall be maintained and advanced.

As individuals we cannot control conditions even for ourselves, as individuals we cannot control them for other people; but all of us working together in government can secure these fundamental necessities for every one of us.

Since government in a democracy is made by the people themselves, it is a responsibility that every one should share to help secure these common needs.

It is also a function of modern government to raise the standard of health, education, and living.

Plato said, “Only that state is healthy and can thrive which unceasingly endeavors to improve the individuals who constitute it.”

Society must be protected from vicious and destructive influence; the intelligence and knowledge of all the people are needed for the common good.

As human beings have become dependent on one another, the well-being or the degradation of one individual or family does not stop there. It strongly influences the welfare of other individuals and families. For their own protection people have not only the right, but the obligation to make a government that shall foster and advance the common welfare.

The basis of good government is the golden rule. To help secure for others the protection that you demand for yourself is part of the obligation of good citizenship. The honesty and efficiency of government in a republic like the United States depend on the voters; on their sense of responsibility, and on the intelligence with which they use their power. The feeling of responsibility of each individual, for the public welfare, cannot be too highly developed.

Democracy can only be a success in the degree that the people who make that democracy are determined that it shall deal with justice, and that it shall offer opportunity to every one within its borders. They must also be vigilant to see that it shall deal wisely with their common problems as they develop.