CHAPTER VII

THE DUTIES OF AN AMERICAN

Our Five Duties.—America gives her citizens more than any country in the world, and she expects more from them. That is a general rule of life. You cannot get something for nothing in this world, either in government or anything else.

The five great things that every American must do for his country are these:

1. Vote.

2. Pay taxes.

3. Do jury duty. 4. Fight.

5. Obey the laws.

1. The Vote. The first duty of every American over twenty-one is to vote. The actual voting takes only a few minutes on Election Day, which comes the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But the duty is much more than that. You must vote wisely, and that means you must read the newspapers and keep track of what is going on, you must discuss it all with your friends and neighbors, you must attend political meetings and hear the candidates (that is, the men running for office) tell what they intend to do. It takes a keen, wide-awake mind, that can read and talk English, to vote intelligently.

Moreover, voting is more than just the few minutes'

If

work once a year. In order to vote you must first register, which means going on a certain day and putting your name down on the voting list. (This is to prevent fraud at the election.) Also you ought to vote at the primaries, the party elections, held some time before Election Day, at which the candidates of the parties are chosen. Also there are other elections than the main one in November at which you ought to vote. you live in a city there is a city election. If you live in a village there is a village election. There is also in many cases an annual school meeting which elects the school board. All these elections will be described in more detail later. The point now to remember is that a good American citizen takes a constant interest in his government, follows all the elections carefully, and votes honestly and as wisely as he knows how at each election. No democracy can be a success unless its voters help in this fashion by conscientious, wise voting.

2. Taxes. A tax is exactly like a collection or offering in church-or the sum you pay when every member of your team chips in to buy a new ball or bat. Government costs much. Your President, your judges, your legislators, your firemen, your policemen, must be paid salaries. Your army and navy must be paid for. Your streets must be paved, your street-lamps lit, your public schools run. And so on. All this runs up to a tremendous sum, as you can imagine. But it is divided among everybody, and nobody has to pay a very large sum except the very rich.

Taxes are not easy or pleasant to pay. In war time, when there is a great army to feed and equip and a great navy to build and supply, taxes are a heavy bur

den. But every loyal American pays his share fairly and gladly, for he knows that without an army and navy we should be conquered and lose all the blessings America gives us. The man who tries to dodge his tax does not deserve to be an American.

3. Jury Duty. We saw that trial by jury was one of the great blessings of American liberty. Now you cannot have juries without men to serve on them. Therefore every American must take his turn when the court summons him to act as a juror. It means the loss of some time from a man's business or job, but that is part of the price we gladly pay for the benefit of safe, fair, and humane trials.

4. Fighting. The duty of every American to fight for his country when she is in peril is as old as the nation. Our country, with all its wonderful liberties, was born of heroic fighting. Without the glorious courage of the Revolution, the years of hard, bitter fighting against heavy odds, there would be no America to-day. In 1812 and again in 1861 the nation was preserved from destruction by the sword. In 1917 we entered the Great War "to make the world safe for democracy," as President Wilson declared. Our ships had been torpedoed at sea and our citizens drowned. The German threat of conquest was aimed not only against Belgium, France, Italy, Russia, England, but against the United States and every other free people. Once more we had to fight for our liberties-and this time, as well, for the liberties of the world. Conscription, the call of every fighting man to the colors, was a magnificent success in America because this duty of the citizen was universally felt. There was practically no opposition, no

holding back. All America went to war gladly to defend those liberties which are more precious than life itself.

5. Obey the Laws.-Boys and girls with the right idea of sport and fair play do not try to cheat their opponents. Whether the umpire is looking or not they play fair. They feel that it is dishonorable to win by cheating. As a matter of fact, a game played by cheats is about as unpleasant as a game can be. No umpire can keep order or prevent the rules from being broken. It is not really a game at all, but a free-for-all stealing match.

Just so, a nation of lawbreakers is no nation at all. It is a free-for-all fight, with the strongest getting away with everything worth having. It is only because America is a nation of law-observers with only a very few lawbreakers that our government is a success. Try to imagine what your street would be like if everybody along it was a burglar and a murderer. Life would not be worth living and no number of policemen could make life safe.

Therefore every American is in honor bound to obey the law. Arrest and punishment may or may not be around the corner if he breaks the law. The good American obeys the law because that is his duty. Obeying the law is part of the price that he gladly pays for living in a free and happy land.

All the precious liberties which we have studied demand self-control and respect for other people's rights on the part of each of us. Religious liberty, for instance. It can amount to nothing unless every one respects his neighbor's right to worship as he wills. Lib

erties mean equal duties, as we have seen. It is the old idea of fair play again. We can have our chance only because others let us have it; and, turn about, we must respect their chance when it comes.

There is a special and added reason for obeying the law in a democracy which every boy and girl should understand. It is our laws that we are obeying, laws that we made through our legislators whom we choose with our votes. So, too, it is our property that we destroy when we injure a park tree or destroy a public sign. A park is a piece of property that we all own together. Every child owns a share in it. Therefore every child with sense respects it and treats it with care, so that it will be preserved for his use and enjoyment. To destroy a park tree is just about as sensible as to throw your baseball into the river.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What are the five chief duties of every American?

2. What does the duty of voting require besides casting a ballot, and how can that duty be met?

3. Why are taxes needed?

4. Why must every American serve as a juror when called?

5. What has fighting done for America?

6. Why should we obey the laws?

7. What sort of life would we lead if no one obeyed the laws? 8. By whom are American laws made?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Why are boys and girls not allowed to vote?

2. How many of the class had relatives in the World War?

3. How many laws do you know?

4. What public property is there in your city or village?

5. How many parks are there?

6. What rights of others can you think of that you must respect?