Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 256, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1920 — Americanism [ARTICLE]

Americanism

By LEONARD WOOD

The people’* government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. — Daniel Webstert Speech January 26, 1830. THEBE probably will be Instant recognition of the similarity between these words of WebStqr and those used by Lincoln in his immortal Gettysburg address. Lincoln improved upon something which for a long time stood as being hardly susceptible of improvement, so strong yet simple was its definition of a real government by the people. There can be no real people’s government unless every man and woman takes an Interest.in the government, not an Intermittent or passing Interest but a constant and active one. There is no Spectacle more contemptible than that presented by the man who continually Is finding fault with the government and yet is so indifferent to his duties as a citizen that he falls to take part in upbuilding effort and goes so far at times as to neglect to cast his vote. Such persons have no rights as critics.

Our government was made for the people and it Is the duty of all Americans to keep it what it was Intended to be, a people’s government The. fact that the government is answerable to the people makes it the kind of government that it is. There is no monarch, but there is a master, the people. American government therefore, means self-government and this means liberty under the laws which the people make for their own rule. There are native born. Americans who need Americanization. Too frequently the thought is that Americanization means work only among the foreigners who come to our shores. Some of these hitherto alien people are better Americans after a year’s residence in this country, than are some of our citizens whose ancestors came here when the tide of colonization first set westward. Webster knew what Americanization ineant when he made the speech from which the extract is taken. Americanization means that every native and foreign born citizen must be given a full understanding of what a people’s'government is, how it must be maintained, and the necessity for watchfulness lest license supplant liberty or autocracy supplant democracy.

Now that Mexico’s new President has been sworn in, it’s up to the family to go -ahead with the funeral arrangements.—Topeka Capital.