What Is the Civic Conscience?
| Author | Charles P. Taft |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625228000119 |
| Published date | 01 March 1952 |
| Date | 01 March 1952 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
142
What
Is
the
Civic
Conscience?
By
CHARLES
P.
TAFT
HE
operation
of
the
civic
con-
sciences
depends
in
considerable
part
on
the
political
community
in
which
it
is
called
upon
to
set
a
stand-
ard
for
public
life.
There
are
many
kinds
and
sizes
of
communities,
and,
different
as
they
are,
each
sheds
light
on
the
ethical
problems
of
the
others.
Here
are
some
typical
situations.
They
are
of
course
colored
by
the
author’s
experience,
but
Ohio
is
a
fairly
typical
American
state.
IN
THE
COUNTIES
We
have
some
counties
near
the
large
metropolitan
areas,
well
within
close
automobile
range,
which,
if
not
rural
in
the
strict
sense
of
being
agricultural,
have
only
a
few
incorporated
villages,
none
over
a
few
thousand
people.
In
the
unincorporated
areas
professional
gamblers
sometimes
set
up
shop
with
a
glamorous
night
club
that
may
well
include
other
illicit
activities.
The
sheriff
and
prosecuting
attorney
of
the
county,
the
township
constable,
and
the
justice
of
the
peace
may
conven-
iently
look
the
other
way.
There
are
good
citizens
in
the
neighborhood,
but
none
of
them
wants
to
run
for
sheriff,
and
getting
evidence
and
convicting
be-
fore
a
jury
at
the
county
seat
is
a
slow
and
far
from
certain
process.
Besides,
these
gamblers
are
tough,
they
have
connections,
and
if
a
man
disturbed
them
there
is
no
telling
what
might
happen
to
his
business
in
town
or
even
to
his
children
in
the
country.
There
are
other
counties,
mainly
ag-
ricultural,
with
a
county
seat
town
of
ten
or
fifteen
thousand
people,
rather
self-contained,
with
a
fine
little
home-
owned
industrial
plant
or
two.
Some-
times
for
ten
years
or
so
the
county
is
dominated
by
a
courthouse
gang.
Its
members
get
the
jobs
and
the
contracts,
and
manage
a
few
&dquo;rackets&dquo;
besides.
The
minority
party
gets
enough
recog-
nition
to
discourage
any
vigorous
com-
petition.
The
officeholders
are
hand
picked
in
a
primary,
so
the
good
citi-
zen
has
little
choice.
Open
scandal
is
avoided.
Organizing
to
get
people
to
vote
in
a
primary
is
just
too
much
trouble,
and
&dquo;things
aren’t
so
bad,
any-
how.&dquo;
IN
THE
LARGE
CITY
The
large
city
is
different.
The
machine
of
the old
days (and
some-
times
today)
worked
like
this:
The
city
and
county
together
employ
say
six
thousand
people.
There
are
six
hun-
dred
election
precincts,
and,
curiously
enough,
the
six
thousand
employees
seem
to
reside
about
ten
in
each
pre-
cinct.
The
condition
of
holding
each
job
is
to
produce
the
jobholder’s
vote
and
four
or
five
more
in
a
primary.
Twenty-five
thousand
votes
in
the
pri-
mary
will
usually
control
it,
and
in
a
contest
a
little
more
work
will
double
that
controlled
vote.
The
&dquo;Committee&dquo;
or
perhaps
one
or
two
men
on
it,
who
keep
careful
track
of
what
goes
on,
have
the
say
about
the
jobs,
and
there-
fore
about
what
candidate
is
to
be
nominated.
There
are
always
a
cer-
tain
number
of
bipartisan
operations
and
a
few
more
jobs
or
favors
that
can
be
handed
to
the
minority
party
to
keep
it
in
line.
The
theoretically
democratic
process
in
these
cities
is
in
the
election
of
each
precinct
committeeman
by
his
own
constituents
in
the
precinct.
But
as
a
practical
matter,
the
democratic
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