Training for Citizenship in Later Life.—Civic education is not completed when one graduates from school. A man’s whole life is a process of education, a process that is never finished until he dies. So the work of self-improvement should not be interrupted at any stage. If the pupil goes to college, it will be found that there the same qualities of obedience, industry, and respect for the rights of others will determine whether he stands high or low in the estimation of his equals. In the college as in the school, everyone starts upon the same plane with equal opportunities. The college also is an organization with officials in authority, with rules, and with a vigilant public opinion among its students. Compared with the school it rises a step nearer to the ways of the world, giving its students greater latitude but also placing more responsibility upon them. Its organized athletics develop the same qualities as are encouraged upon the school playground; its various other student activities help to make young men and women more versatile and broader in their interests. Colleges try to make scholars; they also endeavor to develop habits of industry in their students and to impress upon them the duty of service to their fellow-men. On the whole the colleges have succeeded in these things. It is significant that the great majority of the nation’s leaders, in every branch of life, are men and women who have had a college education.

Not all high school graduates, however, go to college. The majority go directly out into the world as wage earners or home makers. They enter the ranks of our great economic society and seek to move onward to the top. For the most part all must begin at the bottom, or very near it. A high school or college education does not relieve anyone from the necessity of starting on a low rung of the ladder in his chosen trade or profession. Neither the school nor the college can teach the actual process of earning a living. This must be learned by direct contact with the affairs of the world. But the school and the college can so prepare young citizens that they will climb faster by virtue of the mental training they have obtained and the habits of industry they have acquired.

Public service is a duty of the citizen.

Citizenship and Service.—To make one’s own way successfully in the world is a laudable ambition, but no one can be and remain a good citizen if he devotes his entire time and thought to his own self-advancement. It is well to be diligent in business and faithful to the immediate duty in hand, but no inspiring career has ever been built upon foundations of selfishness. If everyone is engrossed in his own affairs, there will be none to serve and aid the state. On the other hand a very small amount of public service freely and cheerfully given by every citizen, results in great benefits to the community which receives this service, and to the individuals who give it as well. In this sense, as in all others, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

How this service may be rendered.

The ways of service are manifold. Every community has its civic and welfare organizations whose aim is the general good. They draw their members and their active workers from among those citizens who are public spirited. Boards of trade and chambers of commerce devote themselves to advancing the economic interests of the community. Municipal improvement leagues, citizens’ associations, men’s clubs, and women’s societies are to be found in every large town or city; they have various aims but all are guided by the same general aspiration, which is to better the environment in which the people live. The opportunities for women have been greatly increased by giving them the same responsibilities as men in all public activities. There are organizations for the care of the poor, for visiting the sick, and for the prevention of cruelty in all its forms. All depend for the effectiveness of their work, and even for their very existence, upon the degree of interest given to them by public-spirited citizens. There is no one so poor or so busy that he can give no money, no time, and no sympathy to any public cause. The citizen who centers all his interest upon his own personal affairs is not only missing one of the durable satisfactions of life but is giving himself a schooling in selfishness. He is not a good citizen in the proper sense of the term.

The value of experience in public office.

Service in public office is the best training for good citizenship, although not all men and women can have this form of civic education. Yet everyone has a right to aspire to it, and ought to welcome the opportunity of such service if it comes. It does not usually come unearned. Like most other opportunities, this one knocks at the doors of those who have earned their right to it. Men and women who have displayed no evidence of public spirit are rarely called upon to let their names go on the ballot. The first step to honorable public office is taken when one joins a civic or welfare organization and shows ability to work with and for others. Thus a man’s acquaintance, or a woman’s acquaintance, gradually broadens; the confidence of others is gained; and in time the hand of the public beckons to those who have demonstrated their spirit of service.

Public office is a public trust. The proffer of its opportunities to any man or woman is a high compliment. Election to public office is the highest honor a democratic community can bestow. As a means of becoming well versed in public affairs and in the practical problems of government there is no training which surpasses it.

General References