Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 260, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1918 — THE PEOPLE ARE SOVEREIGN [ARTICLE]

THE PEOPLE ARE SOVEREIGN

THIS IS A COUNTRY IN WHICH THE PEOPLE ARE SUPREME. Election day in. America is the opportunity which comes to the people of the nation to impress upon the government their ideals. It is the day on which the people sit in judgment of the political parties and the political leaders. From their verdiet there is no appeal. The people name those who are to be intrusted with the government and dictate to them the policies which must prevail. We may be assured that the majority have been consulted and in the multiplicity of council there is wisdom. The most intelligent body of men that ever went to the polls in this country voted today. The war has stirred men to a greater love for their country and to a greater interest in the administration of public affairs. The rank and file of the voters of this country are intelligent and patriotic and they enter the sacred, booth qualified in heart and head to reign supreme in a government of the people, for the people and by the people. It is well that we have political parties. Free people think and reason and based upon ideals developed by intelligent judgment we have the foundations for different political views and therefore different political parties.

Every voter should be a party man. He should base his political affiliation upon the fundamental principle underlying the great political body which appeals to ‘him for his support It is a great privilege to be permitted io select the political party with which one is to identify himself. Every opportunity is but a command to duty. It makes it imperative that every voter be well informed and that he must have the courage of his conviction. By party organization and through party activity the voter has a better opportunity to work for and support those ideals and principles which he feels to be essential and necessary in the administration of public affairs. A party plans a definite program, laving in view the enactment into aw in state and nation those principles which , will best meet the conditionfavorable to the happiness and prosperity of all the people. The school house and the public press, the fireside and the church, travel and social intercourse are the agencies which have produced in this country an intelligent and patriotic electorate. Present and immediate success may not be the final judgment of the people on the issues now before them. The party which wins in the election Nov. 5, 1918, win have to give a strict account back to the people from whom they have been chosen to serve. The faithfulness in the discharge of the trust imposed wiM be sassed upon at the election to be teld in two years. And while we should be party men we should above all be true Americans. That individual is truest to fiie country who is truest to himself, so is that party the best which is steadfast and true to the fundamental principles which he is sure is not only the foundation of his pohtieal faith but of the government of which he is a vital part. The responsibility of >eing an American citizen is a tremendous one and calls for all that » the best in each one of us. “To thine own seif be true and it must follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man.”