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Show ' k You Owe It to Your Country The following editorial from a current issue of Collier's, the National Weekly, is one that in our opinion should be read by every American, and the timely advice given therein followed : Are you going to vote next Tuesday? Too busy, are you? Don't think it. Voting, and intelligent voting at that, is the price of admission to citizenship in this country. If you won't vote you have no rights which anybody nted respect. Good men fought and died and good w omen sacrificed and suffered to give you the privilege of self-government. Don't scorn the heritage. Your country does not ask much during these times of peace and prosperity. You are not asked to give much or to do much. The one essential is to vote. That is an inescapable duty. Every man and woman owes some service to the country. Working for your own interest and playing in the interval are not enough to make a decent and happy existence. exist-ence. You must fulfill your public obligation. 1 The campaigns drawing to a close have been comparatively quiet and the issues, even in the congressional fights, are largely local. Because of this, you say, it does not matter much who is elected, i Don't be too sure about that. Government is a going concern. Who is to choose the lawmakers and officials if you neglect to indicate your preferences. The professional politician and all his followers will be out on election day. The man and woman who make their living out of politics; don't forget to vote. Are you willing to turn the government over to the profiteers of politics? Well hardly. It can't be done safely. This experiment of ours in democracy is not a complete demonstration. Our republic is not a perpetual-motion machine. We can't go off and leave it and expect it to move of itself. We have the chance to manage our own affairs because other generations struggled and won that right. j We can keep the privileges given us a 3 long as we are fit to exercise them. Political bosses will gladly take over the government whenever we lose interest in it. :; Bosses and even dictators are not accidents. The most corrupt boss and the most tyrannical dictator are earned by the apathy of the voters. "Boss Tweed, or Albert Al-bert B. Fall, or Harry M. Daugherty existed as political bosses only because good people were too busy or too careless to vote. Ours is a great country, a land of an unprecedented opportunity, a land of freedom, free-dom, social, political and economic. ,', Keep it free and full of promise. y. . . . Vote, but first inform yourself thoroughly concerning 'the candidates and the' , issues. Go to the polling place and mark your ballot in the Knowledge that in so doing you are paying the debt essential to the continued success of a democratic government. |