nd is it not greater still that the people are able
to reduce a President to the ranks as well as to lift him up? When they
elevate him he is just common clay, but when they take him down from his
high place they separate him from those instrumentalities of government
which despots have employed for the enslavement of their people.

And why is it that we live under a government resting upon the consent
of the governed, and in a land in which the people rule? Because
throughout the centuries millions of the best and the bravest have given
their lives that we might be free. Every right of which we boast is a
blood-bought right, and bought by the blood of others, not our own.
Would you not think that people who inherit such a government as this
would be grateful for the priceless gift and live up to every obligation
of citizenship? It would seem so, and yet those acquainted with politics
know that the difficult task is to get the vote out. Even in a hotly
contested presidential election we never get the full vote out. If
ninety per cent of the vote is polled we are happy; if eighty-five per
cent, is polled we are satisfied. If it is an intermediate election the
vote may be less than eighty per cent., or even seventy-five. In a
primary, which is often more important than an election, the vote
sometimes falls below fifty, or even forty per cent.

And what excuses do men give? Often the most trivial. One man says that
he had some work to do and could not spare the time--as if any work
could be more important than voting in a Republic. Another was visiting
his wife's relatives and a family dinner made it inconvenient for him
to return in time to vote. A few years ago I met a man on the train who
told me that he had not voted for ten years. When I asked him why, he
explained that he had voted for a neighbour for a state office--he
declared that the neighbour could not have been elected without his
help--and yet when the election was over the successful candidate failed
to invite him to a dinner given to celebrate the victory. "And," he
added, "I just made up my mind that if I could be so deceived by a man
who lived next door to me I did not have sense enough to vote, and I
have not voted since."

We are all liable to make mistakes, but a mistake at one election is no
justification for failure to vote at other elections. We must do the
best we can; and we must not be discouraged if the men elected do not do
all that we expect