When people have common purposes and are dependent upon one another in accomplishing them, there must be COOPERATION, which is another name for "teamwork." A team of horses that does not pull together can not haul a heavy load. A baseball team, though composed of good players, will seldom win games unless its teamwork is good. A few soldiers may easily disperse a large mob because they have teamwork, while a mob usually does not. This principle of "pulling together," "teamwork," or "cooperation," is of the greatest importance in community life. There can be no real community life without it.
In the early days there were "barn raisings," when neighbors came together to help one of their number to "raise" his barn; and all the men of a pioneer community contributed their labor in building the community church or schoolhouse. This was a simple form of cooperation. It may be seen now at threshing time, when neighboring farmers combine to thresh the grain of each, the same group of men and the same threshing machine doing the work for all. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that:
In a group of 14 farmers situated in a community in one of the best farming regions in the corn belt, … it was found that 5 men out of the 14 failed to get all their corn planted by the last week in May. They had worked as hard and as steadily at that operation as had their neighbors, but they were delayed by one cause or another, such as lack of labor or teams, or were handling a larger acreage than their equipment would allow them to handle satisfactorily. In this same community were 3 men who completed all their planting operations before the 20th of May, and 5 others who completed their work by the 25th of May. … If all these men had considered that corn planting was a national necessity and had pooled their efforts, all of the corn on all the farms could have been planted within the most favorable time. [Footnote: The Farm Labor Problem, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Circular No. 112, p. 5.]
Give other illustrations of this sort of cooperation from the farm or community life of your neighborhood.
Give illustrations of such teamwork among boys and girls.
Give illustrations of the failure of enterprises in which you have been interested because of a lack of teamwork.
Why is it an advantage for the farmers to use one threshing machine for all the threshing of the neighborhood instead of each farmer having his own machine?
As communities grow and the people become more dependent upon one another, and especially when it becomes hard to see how one thing that happens may affect others, as shown in Chapter II, cooperation becomes more difficult, but it becomes even more necessary. It needs to be ORGANIZED, and it needs LEADERSHIP. The experience of fruit growers in California affords a good illustration of this. When they acted independently of one another, they often had difficulty in disposing of their product to advantage. Sometimes it rotted on the ground. As individuals they did not have the means of learning where the best markets were. They had to make their own terms separately with the railroads for transportation and since they shipped in small quantities, they paid high freight rates. They had no adequate means of storing fruit while it was awaiting shipment. They were dependent upon commission merchants in the cities for such prices as they could get, which were often practically nothing at all.
These and other difficulties that made fruit growing unprofitable were overcome by the organization of fruit growers' associations, in which each grower may become a member by purchasing shares of stock. The members elect from their number a BOARD OF DIRECTORS, who in turn appoint a BUSINESS MANAGER who gives his entire attention to the association's business. The association has central offices and storage and packing houses.
The manager keeps in close touch with market conditions,—where the demand for fruit is greatest, the kinds of fruit wanted, the best prices paid. He contracts for the sale of fruit at fair prices. Shipping in large quantities, he gets the advantage of low rates on fast freight trains with refrigerator cars. Uniform methods of packing fruit are adopted, sometimes the fruit being packed at the central packing house. Information is distributed as to the best methods of growing fruit, the best varieties to grow, and so on. On the other hand, supplies and provisions are bought in large quantities, securing the best quality at the lowest prices.
In cities there are almost innumerable organizations by which groups of people cooperate for one purpose or another. Men in the same line of business or in the same profession organize to promote their common interests. There are boards of trade, chambers of commerce, merchants' and manufacturers' associations. Lawyers have their bar associations, physicians their medical associations. There are associations of teachers, and work men in the various trades have their unions. Besides such business and professional organizations, there are clubs and associations of all sorts for men, for women, and even for children, some of them educational, some social or recreational, some philanthropic, some religious. Where there are so many people interested in the same thing, where it is easy for them to meet together, and where competent leadership is forthcoming, it is quite the usual thing to organize for united action.
In agricultural communities cooperation has developed more slowly. Farmers have been too isolated from one another to make organization easy, they have not fully realized its advantages, and they have lacked leadership. This has been an obstacle to the fullest development of community life. The most backward communities are those where there is the least cooperation. In such communities "the farmer works single-handed, getting no strength from joint action or combined effort."
But all this is changing. Organizations like the fruit growers' associations are becoming common and are proving their value. The map on page 36 shows the distribution of organizations among farmers in the United States for cooperation in business enterprises of various kinds, though it shows only about half as many as actually exist. They include cooperative grain elevators and warehouses, creameries and cheese factories, cooperative stores, fruit and grain growers' associations, livestock associations, cotton and tobacco associations, and many others.
Study the map on page 36 and indicate the region or regions where you think cooperative grain elevators and warehouses would be most numerous; livestock associations; dairies and creameries; fruit growers' associations; cotton growers' associations; tobacco growers' associations.
Are there any organizations of farmers in your community similar to those in the list in the last paragraph above? Make a list of them. What are their purposes? What are their advantages? What obstacles have they encountered? Are all the farmers in the community members? If not, why? Describe their plans of organization—membership, officers, management, etc. (Discuss these questions at home and report results.)
Is there any organization of businessmen, or of workmen, in your town or neighboring town? If so, ascertain what advantages it seeks.
Show how an ordinary store, or a bank, or a grain elevator, is a means by which people cooperate.
Are there any boys' or girls' clubs in your community? Show how such clubs require and secure cooperation. How is leadership provided?
If there is a parents' association connected with your school, show how it brings about cooperation among its members in the interest of the school.
Make a list of all the organizations you can think of in your community (such as clubs, societies, associations). Opposite the name of each write the chief purposes for which it exists.
Write the six great wants across the top of a page, as suggested in the fifth topic on page 6, and arrange the list of organizations suggested in the last question above in the proper columns according to the wants they provide for.
Discuss the importance of leadership in school activities. What are the qualities that make a good leader?
Who are some of the leaders in your community, both men and women?
At the close of 1916 there were nearly three hundred "farm bureaus" in the northern and western states with a membership of nearly 100,000. A farm bureau is an organization to secure cooperation throughout an entire county for the promotion of agricultural interests. The members elect an executive committee to manage the affairs of the bureau. In each of the small communities of which the county is made up, there is a "community committee." The chairmen of the several community committees constitute a county agricultural council. The chairmen and members of the various committees are chosen because of their interest in special lines of work and their fitness to direct such work. Various other organizations in the county, such as the fair association, breeders' associations, the Grange, the schools, and others, are represented in the committees of the bureau, the purpose being to secure teamwork among them, as well as among the different communities of the county and among the individual farmers. The bureau also cooperates with the state and national governments in employing a COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT, who is the bureau's adviser, or leader. In short, the farm bureau represents the county working together in an organized way and under leadership for the improvement of community life.
In the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for the year1915, the story is told of Christian County, Kentucky. [Footnote:"How the Whole County Demonstrated," 1915 Year Book, U.S.Department of Agriculture, pp. 225-248.]
This county is almost wholly agricultural, but the county seat is a small city of 10,000. There had formerly been more or less jealousy between the city and county, as too frequently happens. But a businessmen's association was organized in the city, which interested itself in bettering the agricultural conditions of the county, because the business of the city was very dependent upon the neighboring agriculture. A "crop improvement association" was formed, including farmers in its membership. A county agricultural agent was employed, and local community clubs were organized in different parts of the county, which held meetings attended by the farmers and their families, and by businessmen from the city. A good roads association was organized, and a "good roads day" was held on which businessmen turned out with the farmers, stores of the city were closed, and on one of the principal roads at least 90 per cent of the workmen were city men. Stone was contributed by contractors, concrete firms furnished men gratis to repair bridges, one company supplied outfits for trimming trees, and a large amount of work was done by the county and town working side by side … Such results could only be accomplished through unity of purpose and cooperation of all the people.
Among other things accomplished in this county, a fair association has been formed; medical instruction has been introduced into the schools; a public library and hospital have been built; the school system of the county has cooperated in all educational work; both town and county merchants have offered prizes to members of the boys' clubs; also for cooking in the schools, and have put women's restrooms in the stores for the use of the public.
There is now an active girls' canning club in every community in the county, attended by the girls and also by their mothers. There are 12 social clubs which meet regularly; 15 parent-teachers' and mothers' clubs; and there is not a school in the county which does not have some form of community meeting. The schoolhouses are generally used for the meetings of the community clubs. In some instances farmers have given sufficient ground for amusement purposes at the schoolhouses. Here may be found the ball diamond, tennis court, and basketball courts.
It is said of this county that it "stands as a demonstration of the effect of education and organization under the proper leadership. THE TOWN AND THE COUNTY ARE ONE. The result is better agriculture, better business, and better living." Write a brief theme on one of the following topics:
(a) The importance of the telephone as a means of cooperation in my community.
(b) Instances in my community where bad roads have caused a lack of cooperation.
(c) Instances in my community where improvement of roads has led to better cooperation.
In what ways do you think there is need for better cooperation in your community? Discuss this with your parents, and report in class the result of your talk with them.
Is there any organized cooperation in your community or county as a whole for the general improvement of the community or county?
Investigate the organization and work of a farm bureau. (If there is none in your county, write to your State Agricultural College or to the States Relations Service, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., for information. See references at the end of this chapter.)
Cooperation is as necessary for the fullest satisfaction of our other wants as it is in the business of making a living. In one pioneer community there were few "books and papers and they were handed about from house to house." There may be comparatively few people in a community who can afford to buy a hundred books each year; but there may easily be a hundred persons who could buy one book each, and by some arrangement exchange with one another, so that each could in the course of a year have the use of a hundred books. Neighborhood clubs are often organized to subscribe for magazines on this plan. A public library provides an arrangement by which a great variety of good reading matter can be enjoyed by the entire community at trifling cost to each member. In fact, we may be able to draw books from such a library without any cost to ourselves; but the books which we thus enjoy do cost the community a large sum of money, and our free enjoyment of them is one of the advantages of community cooperation. Our part in the cooperation is in using the books carefully and in returning them promptly, so that as many people as possible may have the use of them.
The necessity for cooperation is by no means limited to our neighborhood or county or city. People with common purposes organize for cooperation on a state-wide or nation-wide scale. Following is a list of national organizations in the interest of agriculture. As our study proceeds, we shall have abundant illustration of the value of cooperation and of the disadvantages that follow from its absence.
American Cooperative Association (Cooperative League of America).
American Dairy Farmers' Association.
American Federation of Organized Farmers.
American National Live Stock Association.
American Pomological Society.
American Poultry Association.
American Society of Equity.
Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association,
Dairy Cattle Congress.
Farm Women's National Congress.
Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America (TheFarmers' Union).
Farmers' Equity Union.
Farmers' National Congress.
Farmers' Society of Equity.
Federation of Jewish Farmers of America.
Gleaners, The Ancient Order of.
Grange, National (Patrons of Husbandry).
National Agricultural Organization Society.
National Board of Farm Organizations.
National Council of Farmers' Cooperative Associations.
National Dairy Council.
National Dairy Union.
National Farmers' Associations.
National Farmers' Cooperative Grain and Live Stock Associations.
National Nut Growers' Association.
National Society of Record Associations.
National Swine Growers' Association.
National Wool Growers' Association.
National Women's Farm and Garden Association.
Southern Rice Growers' Association.
Cooperation is largely a matter of habit. Habits can be formed only by practice; and opportunity to practice cooperation is abundant if we are only on the lookout for it. We shall find that it not only secures better results in whatever we are doing, but that it also adds greatly to the enjoyment of life. Let us not forget that cooperation merely means "team work," working together for the common good.
"They who cannot or will not work together are always in a weak position when brought into competition with those who can and do." [Footnote: Carver, The Organization of a Rural Community, p. 5.]
If there is a public library in your community, what benefits do you get from it? About how many books do you draw from it in the course of a year? What would these books cost you if you bought them? What do they cost you when you draw them from the library?
Usually a fine is imposed for keeping a book from the library beyond a specified time. Show why this is proper.
Do you have the use of a "traveling library" in your school or community? If so, where do the books come from? Show how it secures cooperation.
Give examples of cooperation in your home, and show what is gained by it.
In what ways do you think that cooperation could be improved in your home? Work out a plan for it.
Give examples of cooperation in your school.
Suggest plans for more and better cooperation in your school.
In what ways have you cooperated with others during the last month for the good of the community in which you live?
Make a list in your notebook of ways in which you think you could cooperate with others to promote the welfare of your community, and add to the list from time to time as new opportunities for such cooperation occur to you.
Are any of the national organizations in the list on page 35 represented in your community? What are their purposes? (Consult parents and friends.)
Lessons in Community and National Life
Series A: Lesson 1, Some fundamental aspects of social organization.Lesson 3, The cooperation of specialists in modern society.Lesson 7, Organization.Lesson 8, The rise of machine industry.
Series B: Lesson 4, Feeding a city.Lesson 25, Concentration of production in the meat packingindustry.Lesson 26, Concentration in the marketing of citrus fruits
The publications of the United States Department of Agriculture have a wide range of material relating to practical cooperation. The following selected titles are illustrative.
The threshing ring in the corn belt, Year Book 1918, 247-268.
Boys' Pig Club Work, Year Book 1915, 173-188.
Poultry Club Work in the South, Year Book 1915, 193-200.
How the whole county demonstrated, Year Book 1915, 225-248.
Organization of rural interests, Year Book 1913, 239-258.
Organization of a rural community, Year Book 1914, 89-138.
Cooperative purchasing and marketing organizations, Department ofAgriculture Bulletin No. 547.
Cooperative grain companies, Department of Agriculture BulletinNo. 371.
Cooperative stores, Department of Agriculture Bulletin. No. 394.
County Organization, States Relations Service Document 65.
Farm Bureau Organization, States Relations Service Document 54.
See note on reference material in Introduction with regard to method of applying for this material. The assistance of the local county agent, the state agricultural college, or of the congressman, may be enlisted if necessary.
Cooperative enterprise in North Carolina, North Carolina Club YearBook, 1915-1916, pp. 47-49, University of North Carolina, ChapelHill, N. C.
Publications of the State Agricultural College and ExperimentStation of your own state, relating to cooperation.
Tufts, James H, The Real Business of Living, chaps ii, iii, viii, xv, xvi.
We are now in a better position to understand why we have government. It is a means by which to secure cooperation, or team work.
When a schoolhouse is built to-day, it is not done by combined manual labor, as in the pioneer community. As in all building, there is cooperation of a highly organized kind in the production and assembling of the materials and in the construction of the building by workmen of different kinds. But more than this, since the schoolhouse is a PUBLIC BUILDING, the community cooperates in paying for it. This is done by means of TAXES. The people pay taxes not only for the building, but also to meet the cost of operating the school, paying the teachers, buying equipment, and heating the building.
The community must know how much money is needed for the school, the taxes must be fairly apportioned and collected, and the school must be properly managed to perform the community's work of education. In small communities the people may meet together to vote the taxes and to decide on other matters relating to education, as in New England towns. But there must be leadership, and there must be an organization to perform the work which the community wants done. Every community therefore has its board of education, or school committee, a superintendent, and other officials. Such organization corresponds to the board of directors and business manager of the fruit growers' association, only it represents the entire community and attends to the community's business of education. It is part of the community's governing machinery.
Ascertain from your father how much school tax he pays each year.Who determines the amount of this tax? To whom does he pay it?
Could you employ a teacher at home for the amount your father pays as school tax? If you had a teacher at home, could you get as good an education as you can now get at school? Explain your answer.
In what ways do you cooperate with the community to make the school a success?
If there is a public library in your community, is it supported by taxation? Who manages the public library for the community?
When a building takes fire in the country the neighbors gather as quickly as possible to fight the flames by such means as may be at hand, but seldom very effectively. In a small city or town, there may be a volunteer fire company composed of men who, when a fire breaks out, leave their usual occupations to save the property. In large cities, fully equipped and costly fire departments are maintained, with paid firemen who are always on duty. The police usually keep the crowd away from the burning building, not only for their own safety, but because they would hinder rather than help the trained and organized firemen. In each case there is cooperation for fire protection; the greater the common danger, the more perfect the organization and the more complete the control by government.
It was once the usual practice, as it still is in some localities, for each farmer to give a certain number of days each year to work on the roads. Now, in the most progressive communities, the roads are better and more uniformly built and kept in better repair because they are placed by the community in charge of skilled roadmakers paid for by taxation. But whether the farmer contributes money or labor, or both, cooperation is planned and directed by the government. (See Chapter XVII.)
In Benjamin Franklin's time, each householder in Philadelphia swept the pavement in front of his home if he wanted it kept clean. Franklin, who was a splendid example of good citizenship in that he was always looking for opportunities to improve his community, tells what happened:
One day I found a poor industrious man, who was willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean by sweeping it twice a week, carrying off the dirt from before all the neighbors' doors, for the sum of sixpence per month to be paid by each house. I then wrote and printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neighborhood that might be obtained by this small expense. … I sent one of these papers to each house, and in a day or two went around to see who would subscribe an agreement to pay these sixpences; it was unanimously signed, and for a time well executed. This raised a general desire to have all the streets paved, and made the people more willing to submit to a tax for that purpose.
This was community cooperation under simple conditions. A hundred years later, the one and a half million people living in Philadelphia were just as truly cooperating to keep their city clean by means of more than 1200 miles of sewers for which they had paid nearly 35 millions of dollars, and by means of a department of highways and street-cleaning which employed a contractor to clean the streets and to remove all ashes and garbage at an annual cost of more than a million and a half dollars. This is all under the direction of the city government.
What is true of our local boards of education, road supervisors, fire and street-cleaning departments, and other departments of our local governments, is also true of state and national governments. We shall not stop for illustrations of this now, because they will be numerous in later chapters. (See, for example, Chapter XII.)
Is there a government in your home? If so, prove whether or not it is a means by which the members of the family cooperate.
Describe the government of your school and show how it secures cooperation.
If you can get a copy of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, find in it further instances in which he improved the cooperation of his community, as for fire protection and street lighting.
Show how street lights in town represent community cooperation.For what purpose is this form of cooperation?
Give additional illustrations to prove that government in your community is a means of cooperation.
In what ways can you cooperate with the school board or trustees of your community, and thus with the community itself, for better schools?
A number of boys whose lives were spent mostly in the city streets were once asked what the word "government" suggested to them. Some of them at once answered, "The policeman!" And when they were asked "Why?" they replied, "He arrests people," "He makes us keep off the grass in the parks," "He drives us off when we play ball in vacant lots." These answers represent a common idea about government, that it is something over us to restrict our freedom. Government does restrict the freedom of individuals at times; but one of the best illustrations of its real purpose is the traffic policeman in cities. He stands at the crossing of busy streets, regulating the movement of people and vehicles in such a way as to insure the safety of all and to keep the intersecting streams of traffic moving smoothly and with as little interruption as possible. Now and then he leaves his post to help a child or an aged person or a cripple across the street; or answers the inquiries of a stranger. If now and then he arrests a driver, it is because the latter disregards the rights or welfare of others.
In small or thinly settled communities there may be no traffic policeman; but there may be signs at the intersection of highways to guide travelers, or warnings such as "Dangerous Curve!" or "School: Drive Slowly!" Such signs are usually posted by state or local authorities in accordance with LAW. And even where there are no signs, the laws themselves are supposed to regulate traffic. Some one has compared the laws in our country to the signals given to a football team by the quarterback. These signals are agreed upon in advance by the team, and tell each player not only what he himself, but also what every other player, is to do, and thus team work is secured. And so our laws are said to be "signals of cooperation," just as much as the sign "Drive Slowly," or as when the traffic policeman holds up his hand or blows his whistle.
Laws, however, are more than "signals" of cooperation; they are also RULES by which cooperation is secured—"rules of the game." Wherever people are dependent upon one another and work together there must be rules of conduct. One kind of rules consists of what we call "etiquette" or "good manners." We have doubtless all observed how much better an athletic contest moves along, or even the ordinary sports of the playground, where good manners prevail. "Good manners" include more than the "party manners" that we put on and take off on special occasions, like "party clothes." They consist of the accepted rules of behavior toward those with whom we associate. In the home, in school, in business, in public places, there are "good manners" that are recognized by custom and that make the wheels move smoothly and without jar. We do not need a law or a policeman to require a man to give way to a woman, or even to another man, in passing through a doorway; good manners provide for this. Even on the public street much confusion is avoided by an observance of good manners, or CUSTOM. Thoughtful people instinctively turn to the right in passing others (in England and Canada the custom is to turn to the left) without thinking whether there is a law on the subject or not.
Now most of our laws that regulate the conduct of individuals are simply rules that experience has proved to be of the greatest advantage to the greatest number, and that are necessary because SOME people have not "good manners." Most people observe them, not because they are laws, but because they are reasonable and helpful in avoiding friction and in securing cooperation. If they are good laws, it is only the "ill-mannered" who are really conscious of their existence. Just laws restrict the freedom only of the "ill- mannered," while they GIVE freedom to those who have "good manners."
What street or highway signs are there in your community? Who placed them? Are they faithfully observed? If not, why?
What signals are there in your school? Discuss their usefulness.
What are some of the "rules" of your school? Are they good rules? Why? Are they an advantage or a disadvantage to yourself? If they did not exist, would your own conduct be different? Why?
What are some of the rules of good manners that are supposed to control conduct in your school? in your home? in the street? Discuss their reasonableness. Do they enlarge or restrict freedom?
Do the rules of football, or other games, increase or decrease the freedom of play?
What are some of the laws that control conduct in your community? Would most people observe the laws you mention even if they were not written laws, and if there were no penalty for failing to observe them? Why?
The following story illustrates the difference between law and custom, or "manners," and how the former may develop out of the latter. [Footnote: "Rudimentary Society among Boys," by John Johnson, in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, vol. ii (1884). The story as here given is reproduced from Lessons in Community and National Life, Series C, p. 145, U. S. Bureau of Education (Lesson C-18, "Cooperation through Law," by Arthur W. Dunn). ] There was once a boys' school located in an 800-acre tract of land, in the fields and woods of which the boys, when free from their studies, gathered nuts, trapped small animals, and otherwise lived much like primitive hunters.
Just after midnight some morning early in October, when the first frosts of the season loosened the grasp of the nuts upon the limbs, parties of two or three boys might be seen rushing at full speed over the wet fields. When the swiftest party reached a walnut tree, one of the number climbed up rapidly, shook off half a bushel of nuts and scrambled down again. Then off the boys went to the next tree, where the process was repeated unless the tree was occupied by other boys doing likewise. Nut hunters coming to the tree after the first party had been there, and wishing to shake the tree some more, were required by custom to pile up all the nuts that lay under the tree. Until this was done, the unwritten law did not permit their shaking any more nuts on the ground.
So far this was a CUSTOM accepted by the boys because of its reasonableness. But after a while, some members of this boy community thought to get ahead of the other members. One night before frost came they secretly went to the woods and took possession of most of the nut trees by shaking them according to custom. When this was discovered, some of the leaders of the community CALLED A MEETING of all the boys. After discussing the matter thoroughly, they provided against a repetition of the trick by MAKING A RULE (passing a law) that thereafter the harvesting of nuts should not begin before A FIXED DATE in October.
These boys acted very much as men have often acted under simple conditions of community life. The New England "town meeting," for example, is precisely the same thing as the boys' meeting.
We shall study the organization and methods of lawmaking in later chapters. At present we are merely noting WHY we have laws, and the fact that they are supposed to be made, directly or indirectly, by the people themselves. And right here we see the second thing necessary to make a DEMOCRACY. On page 9 we saw that in a democracy all people have certain equal and "unalienable" rights, and that that community is most democratic that affords its members most nearly equal opportunity to enjoy these rights. Now we see further that in a democracy the people make their own laws. Moreover, the laws of a democracy control, not only the conduct of the people, but also the government itself. The government of a democracy may do only those things, and use only those methods, for which the people give the authority. It is only when government exercises power without control by the people that it becomes autocratic.
The purpose of our government is clearly stated in two historic documents. One of these is the Declaration of Independence, which has already been quoted in Chapter I. The same quotation is given here with an additional sentence in italics:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONG MEN, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED…
The second great document is the Constitution of the UnitedStates, the preamble to which reads:
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
It is not to be supposed that our government and our laws are perfect. They cannot be perfect as long as they are made and operated by imperfect people. It is possible, for example, that the boys of the city had a just complaint against the government for not permitting them to play ball in vacant lots, UNLESS THE COMMUNITY AT THE SAME TIME PROVIDED THEM WITH ANOTHER SUITABLE PLACE FOR THE GAME—for every community should protect the right of its boys and girls to play. We are far from having attained complete democracy. It is a goal toward which men are struggling, and have been struggling for centuries—since long before our Revolutionary War, and in other countries as well as in our own. The great world war which began in 1914, and which the United States entered in 1917, was a war to establish more firmly in the world the principles of democratic government. Whether these principles shall be carried out in practice, and whether our governments—local, state, and national—shall fulfill the purposes so clearly stated in the preamble to the Constitution, depends upon the extent to which each citizen understands these purposes, and cooperates with his fellow-citizens and with his governments in support of them.
It is said that in one of the training camps during the war an officer addressed a squad of new recruits as follows:
Boys, I want you to get the right idea of the salute. I do not want you to think that you are being compelled to salute me as an individual. No! When you salute me, you are simply rendering respect to the power I represent; AND THE POWER I REPRESENT IS YOU. Now let me explain. You elect the President of the United States, and the President of the United States grants me a commission to represent his authority in this army. His only authority is the authority that you vest in him when you elect him President. Now, when you salute an officer, you salute not the man, but the representative of your own authority. The salute is going to be rigidly enforced in this army, and I want you boys to get the right idea of it. I want you to know what you salute and why.
It is very important that we should "get the right idea" of what our government is. It is very much the idea that the officer gave his soldiers about the salute. It is the idea contained in this chapter: that government is our own organization for team work in community life. All through this book we shall be engaged in discovering how far this is true.
Do you know of instances in which the national government has helped to secure cooperation among the farmers of your locality?
Discuss the parcel post as a means of cooperation.
During the war with Germany the United States government assumed control of all the railroads of the country. Show how this was to secure better cooperation.
Is the government of your school democratic? Explain your answer.Do you think it should be made more democratic? Why?
Compare the purposes stated in the preamble to the Constitution with the common purposes stated on page 6 of Chapter I.
Show how the pupil who does as he pleases in school may interfere with the rights and liberties of other pupils. Is it right that his liberty should then be restricted? Why? Is liberty the right to do as one pleases? If not, what is it?
Read together in class the preamble to the Constitution and carefully discuss the meaning of each phrase.
Lessons in Community and National Life:
Series B: Lesson 17, The development of a system of laws.
Series C: Lesson 17, Custom as a basis for law.Lesson 18, Cooperation through law.
In Long's American Patriotic Prose:
Lincoln, "Mob Law," pp. 173-177.
Lincoln, "Back to the Declaration," pp. 170-181.
McKinley, "Liberty is Responsibility, Not License," pp. 254-255.
The Declaration of Independence, pp. 67-71.
Beard, Chas. A., American Citizenship, chap, i ("The Nature ofModern Government").
Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography.
Before we go further, let us get a definite idea of what it means to be a citizen.
We have frequently referred to the fact that we are "members" of various communities. Our bodies have members, such as arms and hands. The tongue has been called an unruly member. "It is a little member and boasteth great things." [Footnote: James iii: 5.]
There are two important facts about members of the body. One is THAT THEY GET THEIR LIFE FROM THE BODY. If the hand is cut off, it quickly ceases to be a hand because it is severed from the source of life. If the body is seriously ill, its members are unable to perform their proper work.
The second important fact is THAT THE BODY IS DEPENDENT UPON ITS MEMBERS FOR ITS LIFE. If the hand is cut off, or an eye put out, the body does not necessarily die, but it is seriously handicapped. If a member is paralyzed or diseased it may be a positive hindrance to the body, and the disease may spread to other members. The body may suffer merely because its members are poorly trained.
That is what it means to be a member of the body; and membership in a family, or a school, or a club, or a community, is just the same. We have already seen, and we shall see more fully as we go on with our study, how completely we are dependent upon our communities for food, for the protection of life, for education, and for all else that makes up our life. The community that does not provide for its members in these things is like a sick body. On the other hand, as members of a community we are always contributing something to its life—either to its advantage or disadvantage. Of course, each of us is only one of a great many members in a large community, and we may seem to be very unimportant. But each performs his part, whether it be great or small, and whether he does it well or poorly.
Now we often speak of members of a community as CITIZENS of that community. CITIZENSHIP means practically the same thing as membership in the community. As a good community is one that provides well for its members, so the good citizen is the member who does well his part in the life of the community. A bad citizen is the member who hinders the progress of the community when he might be helping. A citizen has certain RIGHTS and certain DUTIES. His rights are what the community owes him; his duties are what he owes the community.
There are many members of communities who are like the diseased or paralyzed hand, or like the hand that is untrained. A member of an athletic team who does not "train" will probably be dropped from the team—he fails to become an athlete. A member of a community, or a citizen, who does not "train" still remains a member, but an inefficient one. He is a handicap to his community and interferes with community team work. The part that a member plays in community life may be more important than he realizes. Even in small things, "the falling short of one may mean disaster to many." Each member of a community, like each member of a body, must be not only in a healthy condition but also well trained.
Let us not make the mistake of thinking that we are not yet citizens because we are young. The Constitution of the United States says that "ALL PERSONS born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" (that is, subject to its laws) "are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." Even persons born in foreign countries and who have not yet been naturalized [Footnote: "Naturalization" is the legal process by which persons of foreign birth renounce their allegiance to the land of their birth and pledge their allegiance to our government.] enjoy almost all the rights of native-born Americans, and therefore have much of the responsibility of citizenship. Until they are naturalized they are still considered members of the country from which they came, and therefore as owing certain duties to that country which would be inconsistent with their duties as members of our nation. Therefore they are denied certain POLITICAL rights, such as voting and holding office. [Footnote: In a few states even unnaturalized persons are allowed to vote after they have declared their intention of becoming citizens.] These same political rights are denied to native-born citizens until they have reached maturity. But we must not confuse this right to vote with citizenship.
Explain how the idea of membership as described in the text applies to your membership in the family; to membership in a club; in a church; in a farmers' cooperative organization.
Can you be a member of your class or school without doing it either good or harm? Explain your answer.
Read Romans xii: 4-8 and James iii: 5-8.
Show how an injury or a benefit to one pupil in the school may be an injury or a benefit to the entire school. Give illustrations to prove this.
Show how a failure to save food, to buy savings stamps, or to perform other services that one is able to perform, weakened our nation and other nations who were her allies during the war with Germany.
Make a list of things you have done during the week for the benefit of your school; for the welfare of your neighborhood, town, or school district. Do you do as much for your family, school, or community as they do for you?
Turn to Amendment XIV of the Constitution of the United States (see Appendix), and read the entire first section containing the definition of a citizen. Discuss the meaning of the section.
At what age does the native-born citizen acquire the right to vote? Why is he not allowed to vote before that time?
What native-born citizens of the United States do not have the right to vote even after they are of voting age?
In Long's American Patriotic Prose:
Doane, "The Men to Make a State," pp. 236-238.
Lane, "Makers of the Flag," pp. 314-316.
Steiner, "On Becoming an American Citizen," pp. 317-320.
Wilson, "To Newly-Made Citizens," pp. 322-326.