H. Write an explanation of the power and influence of the Constitution of the United States in guiding the people in framing the Constitutions of their States, and in what things the Constitution of the States follow the Constitution of the United States.
XXVIII. The Suffrage
The Significance Of The Nineteenth Amendment To The Constitution
This meeting was at night. Some of the parents who had attended the talks from time to time had requested that the last meeting be held at night so that some of the busy fathers and mothers might come. The assembly room was crowded, and although extra chairs had been placed in the aisles, there were a number of people standing. The principal said that it was the largest crowd that he had ever seen in the room.[107]
First everybody arose and sang “The Star Spangled Banner”, and when the meeting closed, the audience joined in singing “America”.[108] The judge was greeted with loud applause. He said:
I am happy to-night. This meeting is an inspiration. It is a real community meeting, a real American meeting. If meetings like this were held once each week or once every two weeks in every school building in the United States I should not fear socialism or bolshevism or anarchy. Such ideas cannot live in a community where the people really know each other. There are no class lines here to-night. You are too close together. I see a banker over there whom I have known for thirty years. He was brought up in this city, attended this school, and has spent his whole life here. His success in life came to him among old friends in the community where he was born. Near him I see a bricklayer. I have known him and respected him since boyhood. We played on the same baseball team when we were both younger and could run faster than we can now. He went to the Washington school. The children of these men are in this [pg 195] school now. In a few years they will be grown men and women doing the work that we shall have to give up soon.[109]
So with most of the people in this room to-night. They were born here, went to school here, and they have worked here all their lives. Some followed one occupation, some another. This was a matter of their own choice. Their children are now growing up, as they once grew up. Soon they will be selecting their life work. Soon they will be voting and performing other duties of citizenship. Soon you and I, fathers and mothers, will pass off the stage of life. Soon we shall be forgotten by all except the few who compose the family circle, who love us notwithstanding our faults.
For a few weeks I have been acting as teacher. I have been trying hard to bring into the minds and hearts of the pupils in this school something of the sacredness of human liberty, something of the cost of American liberty, the sacrifices, the struggles, the bloodshed, the heartaches, and heartbreaks which finally triumphed when our Constitution was adopted. I have endeavored to explain that the Constitution is not a mere skeleton or framework, defining the relation of the Nation and the States and providing for the election of officers to carry out the plans of the National government. I have repeatedly told the great truth that in America there is more freedom, justice, charity, and kindness than in any other Nation in the world. I have pointed out that in America we have in our Constitution written guaranties of life, liberty, and property rights such as no other Nation in the history of the world ever had. We have found that this is a government by the people, that the people rule, that the few cannot rule unless the many refuse to perform their duties as citizens of this great republic. Oh! if we can only put in the hearts of the American people a realization of the power and the duty of the people!