A Message for Young Citizens

by Washington Gladden

A Message for Young Citizens

There are many persons who would admit that the law of love governs the relation of each individual to every other individual; but it is not so clearly understood as it ought to be that it is the law which governs the relation of every individual to the commonwealth. But it must be evident when we think about it that between the individual and the community there can be no other right law than the Golden Rule. I do not want the community by its laws or its officers to injure me, to rob me, to disregard my welfare, to seek to gain at my expense. I want it to protect me, to care for me, to give me an equal opportunity with every other man to secure the good of life. As I wish the community to do to me, so must I also do to it. I must not try to thrive at the expense of the community; I must be ready to render the service which is due from me to the community; I must take good care that I take out of the commonwealth no more than I put into it; I must do to the collective neighbor of mine as I would have him do to me. This is the law which is always' in force, in every community, no matter which party is in power.

The vast majority of us are probably unaware of the fact that any such law is in force. We suppose that we determine for ourselves what kind of laws shall rule in our states and cities; that what we say—what the majority of us say—goes. Is not this what we are always proclaiming: that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed? Is it not implied that there can be no law which does not rest on the will of the majority—there can be no power above us which can enforce laws upon us without our consent? If such were the case, then, of course, it could not be true that the law which bids us love our neighbor as ourselves is the law of any of our states or our cities, for we have not enacted any such law. But it is well for us to recognize the fact that there are quite a number of laws in full force in every city which were not enacted and are not enforced by the city. There is a law which decrees that water shall become solid at thirty-two degrees, Fahrenheit; none of our lawmakers made it, but it is enforced in every American city, and is never successfully evaded. There is a law which declares that four fours shall be sixteen, and seven nines, sixty-three, and eight sevens, fifty-six; and goes on quite at length to set forth the relation and the combination of numbers; we are not the authors of this law, but we are bound to respect it; there never has been a moment in the history of any one of our cities when it was not in force. There is a law which provides that what we sow we shall reap; that if we sow cockle we shall not reap wheat, and that if we plant thistle we shall not gather figs; that law, also, is on none of our statute books, but it is always obeyed; no community and no individual ever successfully defied it.

It is true that the people of our cities often disregard these laws, but if they do, they always find that they are in force, for they suffer the penalties. They sometimes leave water in fragile vases in rooms where the temperature is below thirty-two degrees, but the water freezes and expands, and the vases are shattered. They sometimes try to solve arithmetical problems by disputing the facts of the multiplication table but that work has to be done over.

The same thing is true of the social law which we are considering. It is the simple statement of the right way for human beings to live together. Experiment will prove it true. Take a number of human beings, larger or smaller, and let them live together in society and you will find that when they live by this law they are peaceful and happy and prosperous; and when they disobey the law they are turbulent and discontented and miserable. Of course, there has never been anything like perfect obedience of the law in any society on earth; but observation will make it clear that the nearer any society comes to the obedience of this law the greater is the measure of the common welfare; and the farther it departs in its social life from obedience to this law the farther it is from universal well-being. This is what I mean when I say that the law rules in all our states and cities. I mean that so far as we obey it we are rewarded with the good of life, and so far as we disobey it we are punished; that the reward and the penalty never fail; and so far as we have social peace and prosperity and happiness they are due to our endeavors to live by the law, and so far as we have bad government and bad social conditions they are due to the disobedience of the law.

For we must never forget that bad government and bad social conditions are penalties—penalties of the disobedience of the people. They are the natural and inevitable consequences of neglect or wrong-doing. Whenever the penalties of a law are strictly and invariably inflicted, then the law is in force. The law of cleanliness is mercilessly enforced in every plague-ridden city. It is disobeyed, of course, and the people are suffering the consequences of disobedience. Just so the law which bids us love our neighbor—our collective neighbor—as ourselves, is enforced in every city where the government is bad. We disobey it and we get the consequences of our disobedience in heavy taxes, in bad water, poor drainage, in rampant vice, in corrupt officials, and corrupting corporations. The law is always in force no matter what the mayor or the police may say or do.—The Wellspring.