The Father and the Mother State : Part 8

The Family and it's Members
by Anna Garlin Spencer

(Page 23 of 23)

I believe that graft, favoritism, waste or inefficiency in the conduct of my affairs is a crime against my fair name; and I demand of my people that they wage unceasing war against these municipal diseases, wherever they are found and whomsoever they happen to touch.

I believe that those of my people who, by virtue of their strength, cleverness or thrift, or by virtue of other circumstances, are enabled to lead cleaner lives, perform more agreeable work or think more beautiful thoughts than those less fortunate, should make recompense to me, in public service, for the advantages which I make it possible for them to enjoy.

I believe that my people should educate their children in the belief that the service of their city is an honorable calling and a civic duty, and that it offers just as many opportunities for the display of skill, the exercise of judgment or the development of initiative as do the counting houses and markets of the commercial world.

Finally, I believe in the Modern City as a place to live in, to work in, and to dream dreams in - as a giant workshop where is being fabricated the stuff of which the nation is made - as a glorious enterprise upon whose achievements rests, in large measure, the future of the race."

We may think that these utterances stress too much the city life and fail to visualize the wide stretches of rural communities and the small towns where a few people only make the atmosphere and administer the laws. The spirit, however, must be the same, whether one dwells with the crowd or on some lonely farm. The spirit of that genuine patriotism which is not satisfied to have one's country less noble and less unselfish than its own ideal of what a country should be.

The Children's Code of Morals. - It is in the spirit of such a patriotism that The Children's Code of Morals has been prepared by William J. Hutchins, and is sent broadcast by the "National Institute for Moral Instruction," In this code, boys and girls are enjoined and pledge themselves to be good Americans by obeying the following laws: "The Law of Health; The Law of Self-control; The Law of Self-reliance; The Law of Reliability; The Law of Clean Play; The Law of Duty; The Law of Good Workmanship; The Law of Friendly Coöperation in Good Team-work; The Law of Kindness; The Law of Loyalty."

Though children and youth may learn these laws by heart and understand and agree to the fine statements by which they are expounded and make through them a detailed promise to obey the laws of "right living" by which alone the citizenship of our country may serve its best interests - that in itself could not make all citizens what they should be. It is, however, a lesson of the past that youth needs some outward and visible sign of its "coming of age." Now, as in the past, youth needs some form of consecration to high ideals. It needs some ceremony that shall fix the lessons of patriotism, of social responsibility and of community service, and stir to noble purpose. The education that begins in the home is not finished by any college graduation or even by vocational training for a useful career. Its great "Commencement" is that which ushers the young man, and now also the young woman, into conscious and responsible relationship to the body politic. This Commencement should have its solemn and beautiful ritual and should be made the great event of all young life.

Questions On the Father and the Mother State

1. What changes in legislation and in law enforcement is the entrance of women into the electorate likely to effect?

2. Should the State be more and more charged with responsibility for care of the weak, the defective, the delinquent, dependent, and sick, the out-of-work, the aged, and those heavily burdened by parentage of young children, and if so, how can society escape a tendency to remove from individuals and from the family that sense of personal responsibility upon which the best things in our inherited social order have been built?

3. Should women voters particularly address themselves to increasing public welfare provisions or should they try to solve difficult problems of adjustment between public and private effort for the common good? If both, how can they adjust effort to party politics on the one side, and to independent use of the power of the vote on the other side?

4. When volunteer organizations of charity, correction, and education transfer their work to official boards and legal provisions, that work, experience shows, sometimes is lowered in standards and loses in efficiency. How can voting women prevent this? How can a new class of voters, hitherto specially interested in getting things desired done by others, best help others to do things through their own political action?

5. The army intelligence tests showed that our white drafted army contained 12 per cent. superior men, 66 per cent. average men, and 22 per cent. inferior men. This statement, made by Cornelia J. Cannon in The Atlantic Monthly of February, 1922, leads the author of the article to the conclusion that "our political experiments, such as representation, recall, direct election of senators, etc., are endangered by the presence of so many irresponsible and unintelligent voters." Is there a remedy for this, other than waiting for the slow process of education? If so, what is it?

6. The Neighborhood: A Study of Social Life in the City of Columbus, Ohio, by R.D. McKenzie, of the University of Washington, gives a good example of what such a study of one's own locality should be. Is it not the duty of those having the leisure and the ability to inaugurate such a study in the locality in which their political relation is most immediate? If so, how can a Women's Club, or a League of Women Voters, start such a study?

Copyright, 1923 by J.B. Lippincott Company

About the Author

Anna Garlin Spencer (1851-1931) was an American educator, feminist, and Unitarian minister. Born in Attleboro, MA, she married the Rev. William H. Spencer in 1878. She was a leader in the women's suffrage and peace movements. In 1891 she became the first woman ordained as a minister in the state of Rhode Island.