I
POLITICS AND WOMAN’S INTERESTS
The average woman has never thought of politics as having an intimate relation to her daily life. She has not realized that government has a direct effect on the comfort and happiness of the family in the home, on the successful upbringing of children, and on the health and safety of men and women workers.
She has known vaguely that government controls the fundamental question of war or peace; that it has to do with taxation; that it handles the mail, but that it also plays a large part in domestic and social life is a fact that she has only recently been learning.
With the rapid extension of the vote to women, especially the recent granting of suffrage to the women of New York State, there is a new and wide-spread interest in how government works, and a realization of the importance of good government and the dire peril of bad government. Women are conscientious; they are accepting their new responsibilities with much seriousness. They are eager to learn how to be good citizens. The war also has made everybody think. It has made government seem a more personal affair.
WHAT IS GOVERNMENT?
Government is the management of those common affairs of a people which can be handled in a more effective and more economical way by a community acting together than by each individual acting for himself.
In a sparsely settled community government is less apparent than in a city. Its functions are simple. Sometimes it does not seem very important. But as people congregate closer together it becomes more complicated and comes in closer and closer touch with the individual and family life.
For example, a man living in the country may rely on himself to protect his home and property; but in the city life and property are better protected by a police force than if each individual citizen had to provide his own protection. A woman in a pioneer country may bring up her child as she pleases. She may teach him when and how she chooses. But as population increases and government is established, a large part of the child’s training is dictated by it. He must go to school at a certain age; he must stay there so many hours a day; he must study certain things in a certain way. He cannot be put to work until he has reached a certain age. If he contracts a contagious disease the city takes control of the case.
Directly and indirectly the government in a city affects a woman’s life and interests in innumerable ways.
She is dependent on it for the light and sunshine that comes into her home. Laws concerning housing and building and tenement departments of government are very important to the health, comfort, and even decency of the family. She is dependent on government for the safety of the milk she has to feed her baby. The health of the family depends as much on the city department of health as on the mother’s care. It is of the utmost importance to the city mother that the streets be kept clean, because they are usually the only place that her children have in which to play. The street cleaning department, therefore, touches her closely. It is of vital moment to her that the streets be kept free of criminal influence, therefore the management of the police department is of great importance to her. If the town is run “wide open” it may mean that her husband’s wages may be dissipated. The way in which the excise law and the laws against gambling are enforced is a matter which deeply concerns her.
If she lives in the country the relation of government to her life is not so varied, but she is still dependent on it for the education of her child, for the socializing influences of the community, and for much of the business prosperity of the farm. Are telephone connections cheap, are the roads passable at all seasons, are good market facilities provided? These are all questions that greatly affect her welfare, and they depend largely on the government.
It is the business of government to maintain peace and to provide for the common defense.
This is a function of government so fundamental as to need little comment. It is the first essential to the safe existence of the home.
It is the business of government to assure justice and equality of treatment to all citizens.
This becomes more difficult as population increases and life grows more complicated. Nearly every human being to-day is dependent on the work of other people for most of the necessities, as well as the comforts and conveniences, of life. The food that we eat, the cotton and wool in the garments we wear, the coal that heats our houses, we owe to the toil of other people who in return may be dependent on us for something that they use. It is a matter that concerns every one of us that in producing these things that we use human life shall be safeguarded, that living wages shall be paid, and that standards of civilization shall be maintained and advanced.
As individuals we cannot control conditions even for ourselves, as individuals we cannot control them for other people; but all of us working together in government can secure these fundamental necessities for every one of us.
Since government in a democracy is made by the people themselves, it is a responsibility that every one should share to help secure these common needs.
It is also a function of modern government to raise the standard of health, education, and living.
Plato said, “Only that state is healthy and can thrive which unceasingly endeavors to improve the individuals who constitute it.”
Society must be protected from vicious and destructive influence; the intelligence and knowledge of all the people are needed for the common good.
As human beings have become dependent on one another, the well-being or the degradation of one individual or family does not stop there. It strongly influences the welfare of other individuals and families. For their own protection people have not only the right, but the obligation to make a government that shall foster and advance the common welfare.
The basis of good government is the golden rule. To help secure for others the protection that you demand for yourself is part of the obligation of good citizenship. The honesty and efficiency of government in a republic like the United States depend on the voters; on their sense of responsibility, and on the intelligence with which they use their power. The feeling of responsibility of each individual, for the public welfare, cannot be too highly developed.
Democracy can only be a success in the degree that the people who make that democracy are determined that it shall deal with justice, and that it shall offer opportunity to every one within its borders. They must also be vigilant to see that it shall deal wisely with their common problems as they develop.
To be a citizen of such a democracy and to have the power to help it grow along these lines, to be able to serve one’s country loyally in the full efficiency of citizenship, are great privileges.