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Show THE FIRST VOTE. - There arc dales that stick out in the life of everyone; the Hrst day at school, the llrst trousers, the Hrst dress clothes, the first novel we read or George Eliot or Hardy. The list might be lengthened Indefinitely, but no date could be found comparable In Importance with that at which young men and women attain citizenship by casting their llrst vote. Like the state of marriage the stateof citizenship Is not to be entered Into carelessly or unadvisedly. We may be only tiny atoms in the mass, but tiny as we are we ate responsible for our political opinion and It Isourduty to form them wisely and well. The day Is long past when we inhcrltour political opinions Even one forms them for himself and to gain a political standard by which to judge public men there-Is nothing better than the reading of Rryce's American Commonwealth. A knowledge know-ledge of such book Nlndlspenslblnfora background In politics Even if one has not time to le.id the entire book, one can select here u u iheie especially especial-ly profitable chaptcis, such as the one on the history of our political parties, the one on the aualltlcattous necessary for the presidency and the one that explains why the best men do not go Into politics. These are chapters that all can assimilate, whether college men or simply eighth grade graduates. Of course there are numberless other books that one may read on clvjl government gov-ernment but there are none to compare com-pare with liryce for clearness, thoroughness thor-oughness and complete grasp of the subject. So much for the political foundation on which to base our opinions. The next thing Is to keep up to date and for this there is nothing better than the dally paper. Any good newspaper will give the events as they occur and their editorials will tell what to think of them. For perfectly unprejudiced opinions In this line there is nothing to equal the absolutely fearless, lode-pendent lode-pendent editorials of Colliers, die Nation Na-tion or even the Outlook. Some would perhaps except the Outlook on the ground of tlabblness of style and too much Lyman Abbott, but all admire and respect Collier's and the at Ion. Roth these periodicals lind Haws in the two parties and their candidates but It Is Interesting to see that they incline to favor Taft on the ground that the man is the main Issue and that Taft is every inch a man and has already done more than a man's work for the nation. |