Are You Helping or Hindering?

By Mrs. A. J. Wilder.

A "government of the people, for the people and by the people," can be no better nor greater than the people.

My friend had been telling me a tale of graft and injustice, in relatively high places and she concluded with, "And this is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people." If we could point to no such instances among those more or less in power, it would very plainly not be a government representative of the people, for there are good, bad and indifferent persons among the people and a few who mistakes now and then.

From town constable to the chief executive, we find good officers, bad officers and those who are negligible, for the people are the government and the government is the people. If we want the one perfect, we must reform the other for I will venture to say that if there were no dishonesty, or grafting or self-seeking among the rank and file of the people, there would be none in any department of government.

I knew of one person in the recent Red Cross drive who bought as cheaply as possible at a Red Cross auction and resold at a profit. There were only a few dollars involved but there was the soul of a profiteer in a person with small means who, tho at the bottom of the social structure financially, is just as obnoxious as the man who makes millions out of the suffering of the world.

Not far from this man lives another who served in the U. S. Army all thru the Spanish war and who has never been in good health since. He is entitled to a pension but never has applied for one because, in his own words, he  "could make a livin'." He told me the other day when we happened to meet, that just before the United States went into this war he had decided to ask for his pension but had not done so when war was declared. He said "Then I told my wife that the government would have lots of expenses without paying me a pension and we talked it over and decided that we would not ask for a pension until this mess was straightened out and government expenses were lighter. Then I'd be older if I was alive and I'd ask for a pension. If I was dead my wife could get one. 'Oh! I wish I could turn things back and be young enough, for I'd go and fight.'"

This man is just as much a self-sacrificing patriot as George Washington, tho just a humble wood cutter like the great Lincoln. Then between the two extremes of patriotism and slackerism are numbers of indifferently good patriots sacrificing a little, doing the greater part of their duty by their country.

I have heard people who had been inoculated with I.W.W. doctrine say "if this government don't do right, we will turn it over." If it were turned over, we would have on top what had before been the bottom and we would perhaps have in power both the man who made money from the Red Cross sale and the one who is going without his pension to help his country. Tho I'll wager the moneymaker would scheme himself into some place where the graft pickings were good.

We have no king in a republic "who can do no wrong", no kaiser whom we are bound to regard as infallible with the right to both our minds and our bodies, but from the lowest to the highest we are bound by the same standards; we are sworn to the same ideals and permeated alike with good and evil and all like we are liable to make mistakes.

When we are tempted to be impatient and too critical of our leaders, we might think as I heard a woman say, "few of us would have their jobs." Friendly, constructive criticism is one thing and unkind, nagging fault-finding is another quite different.

Imagine a man fighting, for his life and the lives of his friends, and while he is struggling to the limit of his strength his friends stand around and cry—

"Oh that was wrong! You shouldn't have hit him on the nose; you should have landed on his jaw!" "Why did you let him hit you? If you had been quicker you could have stopped him. You're too slow!" "You ought not to have taken that drink this morning! Stop now and tell us! Will you be a teetotaler after this?" "Hey! This fellow in the crowd is stepping on my toes! Make him quit!" "You never can lick him for you weren't trained. You should have been prepared for this!"

Wouldn't that man fight better if he were encouraged by cries of, "That's a good one! Hit him again! You've got him going now; keep after him!" and so forth? If the principle is good in a game of ball, why not use it in this bigger game? Let's root for our leaders now and then!

I would like to read, for instance, that congress had called Secretary Baker into its presence and said to him, "Well done, Secretary Baker! It is a remarkable achievement to transport so many troops safely to France in so short a time and we honor you for it."

Instead of so much wailing because we must eat cornbread, I would like to hear someone say, "What a wonderful man Mr. Hoover is to be able to regulate the food supply of the world; to handle the food of our country so that we may not come to hunger and perhaps famine and still are able to feed other nations!"

Let's talk to each other about the ideals of life and government that President Wilson is putting before the world! If we, the people hold fast to and live by these beautiful ideals, they are bound to be enacted by our government for, in a republic the ideas of the people reach upward to the top instead of being handed down from some one at the top to the people who must accept them whether they like them or not.

Mrs. A. J. Wilder. "Are You Helping or Hindering?" Missouri Ruralist,  (July 5, 1918): page number torn off.

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