Thoughts for Election Day

From my one of my fifth grader's schoolbooks, originally published in 1909:

"We need faithful, unselfish public servants who really think of and work for what is best for the community, that is, for all of us.  Such men we shall honor and reward for their honesty and efficiency. In men who use their office simply to benefit themselves or their friends, we shall have no confidence.  If they consider what is good for any small group of men or for any corporation rather than for the people as a whole, they are not faithful servants of the public.  They are servants of the few--of men who possibly reward them with private gain, while we, the public, are ignored as of no importance.  We shall not trust men in office when we discover that their character is not that of honest public servants." 

--The Young Citizen's Reader by Paul Reinsch