CIVIC EXAMPLES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1922, Page 6

CIVIC EXAMPLES

No government is much better or much worse than the majority of the people governed. If we seek to improve the standard of civic rule we must first improve our standard of citizenship. Professor Mackenzie stated this truism in homely words when he said at the Town Hall last night: "If we are going to have clean streets and a' clean city we must have clean homes and clean backyards. If we are going to have a sane and, healthy-minded community, we must, individually, live on -a high moral plane." Unfortunately, all people do not guide their conduct in accordance with this principle. Some believe it much better to send deputations to the City Council ; others wait till the Council sends inspectors to them. Both courses of action tend, in greater oi' less degree, to undermine individual responsibility. It is not only in the control of civic affairs-that this applies. In making a, plea, for high ideals' in the business world, Professor Mackenzie stated that the {"deals of employers inevitably determined the moral tone and atmo-spb-sve H their employees, if-, aot,

indeed, of the whole community. It does not follow, of course, that the dishonest employee has always a dishonest employer; but where honesty and faithful service are the guiding ideals of the leaders they will also determine the course of the majority who follow that leadership.