THE CITIZEN SPIRIT

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1920, Page 1

THE CITIZEN SPIRIT

(Supplied). Each man . and woman has in his or her keeping the State of which he or she is a part; and the character of the State is the sum total of the characers of those who compare it. What we are going to make of the new age which is opening out before us, therefore depends upon what we are, and the attitude of mind we hear towards each other, and the contribution we'each ..of us bring to the reconstructive forces. It falls to each of us, then, to look to the foundations now. Great problems of every kind will call for early solution, if the world is to be made “safe for democracy,” and the solution in all these directions is entirely dependent on tli in which the problems are tackled.

The citizen spirit is the opposite of all personal and class selfishness; it is a. real love for the things ■which are not diminished by being shared, such as truth, and beauty and liberty. There we have the kernel of the whole matter; the best things of life, the only things worth striving for and dying for. The real things of life, so far from being diminished by being shared, are increased in the very process; holding them we lose them, and giving them; we retain them for ever. For it is an eternal immutable principle which finds application in every sphere of life, international, national, social, and personal, that of the best things, the more we give the more we have. And it is the spirit of giving in that sense which must animate all our efforts to bring about better conditions of life. OTAGO READING CIRCLE.