Community Civics and Rural Life Part 14

Woodrow Wilson, "Spirit of America," pp. 266-268.

Franklin K. Lane, "Why We Are Fighting Germany," pp. 282-283.

Carl Schurz, "The Rule of Honor for the Republic," pp. 342-343.

Woodrow Wilson, "War Message of April 2, 1917," pp. 351-361.

In Foerster and Pierson's AMERICAN IDEALS:

Was.h.i.+ngton, "Counsel on Alliances" (Farewell Address), pp. 185- 189.

"The Monroe Doctrine," pp. 190-193.

Henry Clay, "The Emanc.i.p.ation of South America," pp. 194-199.

Robert E. Lansing, "Pan-Americanism," pp. 200-296.

A. Lawrence Lowell, "A League to Enforce Peace," pp. 207-223.

George G. Wilson, "The Monroe Doctrine and the League to Enforce Peace," pp. 224-232.

Woodrow Wilson, "The Conditions of Peace," pp. 233-241.

Woodrow Wilson, "War for Democracy and Peace," pp. 242-256.

Various books and pamphlets have been written relating to the League of Nations and world relations following the war. Among these are:

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, edited by Henry E. Jackson (published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., 70 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1). "A doc.u.ment prepared to stimulate community discussion and promote organized public opinion." This book contains, at the end, a list of t.i.tles of books and pamphlets on the subject.

The Lodge-Lowell DEBATE ON THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (World Peace Foundation, Boston). President Lowell, of Harvard University, argued for, and Senator Lodge against, the Covenant as contained in the treaty of peace.

Taft, William Howard, WHY A LEAGUE OF NATIONS IS NECESSARY (League to Enforce Peace, New York).

Sherman, Stuart P., AMERICAN AND ALLIED IDEALS (World Peace Foundation, Boston).

The complete official record of the United States Senate debate on the treaty of peace is to be found in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, a file of which SHOULD be in your public library.

THE JUNIOR RED CROSS NEWS, American Red Cross, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

For the work of the Pan American Union and the Red Cross, consult your public library; and write to the Pan American Union and the American Red Cross, both in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., for descriptive publications.

For the Hague Conferences and the Hague Tribunal, consult any good modern encyclopedia, and your public library. Write for materials to the American School Citizens.h.i.+p League, 405 Marlboro St., Boston, and the World Peace Foundation, Boston.

CHAPTER IX

THE HOME

"NO NATION CAN BE DESTROYED WHILE IT POSSESSES A GOOD HOME LIFE."

The home is the smallest, the simplest, and the most familiar community of which we are members. In many respects it is also the most important. The quotation with which this chapter opens suggests this. It will appear at many points in our study.

What do you think that the quotation at the head of the chapter means? In what respects do you think it true?

Some cities take pride in the fact that they are "cities of homes." What does this mean? Why is it a cause for pride?

Is your community (neighborhood or town) a community of homes?

What is a "home"? When a person is "homesick" for what is he "sick"?

May a good home exist in a poor dwelling? A poor home in a fine dwelling?

Is a hotel a home? May a family living in a hotel have a home there?

Is an orphan asylum a home? Would you exchange life in your own home for life in an orphan asylum? Why? There are children who think an orphan asylum is a fine place to live; why is this?

The home is important (1) because of what it does for its own members, and (2) because of what it does for the larger community of which it is a part. We shall consider first what it does for its own members.

THE PIONEER FAMILY

Under the conditions of pioneer life the wants of the members of the family were provided for almost entirely by their own united efforts. They built their own dwelling from materials which they themselves procured from the forest. They made their living from the land which they occupied, with tools which were largely homemade. They provided their own defense against attack from without and against sickness within. Such education as the children obtained was of the most practical kind, and was obtained by actual experience in their daily work supplemented by such instruction as parents and older brothers and sisters could give.

There was little social life except within the family circle.

EFFECT OF COMMUNITY GROWTH

When other homes were built in the neighborhood a larger community life began. The neighboring homes came to depend upon one another and to cooperate in many ways. The store at the crossroads provided for many wants that each home had formerly provided for itself. The doctor who came to live in the community relieved the home of much anxiety in case of sickness. The education of the children was in part, at least, turned over to the community school. And so, as a community grows, the home s.h.i.+fts much of the responsibility for providing for the wants of its members upon community agencies.

DEPENDENCE OF THE CITY HOME

This s.h.i.+fting of responsibility for the welfare of citizens from the home to the larger community is carried furthest in cities.

Almost everything wanted in the home may be bought in the city shops, and work that is done in the home for the family, such as repair work, dressmaking, laundry work, and cooking, is likely to be done by people brought in from outside. Water is piped in from a public water supply and sewage is piped out through public sewers. Gas and electricity for lighting and heating are furnished by city plants. Since many city homes have not a spot of ground for a garden or for outdoor play, they depend upon public parks and playgrounds provided by the city. These are among the many so- called advantages of city life.

THE OBLIGATION OF THE HOME

When so much is done for the citizen by the larger community agencies, there is danger that the family may forget its own responsibility for the welfare of its members in connection with every want of life. For no matter how good the community's arrangements for health protection may be, the health of every citizen depends more upon the home than upon any other agency (see Chapter XX). No matter how good the schools, the home always has great responsibility for the education of the children, both within the home itself and through cooperation with the schools (Chapter XIX). No matter how many social organizations and places of amus.e.m.e.nt the community may afford, the social and recreational life of the home is the most important of all and the most far- reaching in its influence (Chapter XXI). No matter how excellent the form of government in a community may be, its results will be very imperfect unless the government in each home is good.

IMPORTANCE OF THE HOME IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

The home has especial importance in the rural community of to-day.

The rural home is no longer so isolated and self-dependent as the pioneer home, but the life of the rural citizen is much more dependent upon efforts within the home itself than the life of the city resident. The business of farming by which the family living is secured is carried on at home, and, as a rule, all the members of the family have some part in it. It is a cooperative family enterprise to a much greater extent than any other modern business.

In cities, in the great majority of cases, the work by which the family living is earned is done away from home, and very often no member of the family except the father has any direct part in it.

There are numerous cases, however, where the mother and even the children go out to work, and in such cases the home life may be seriously interfered with.

It would be hard to find a rural home in the United States to-day that is not near enough to a schoolhouse to enable the children to attend it, at least for an elementary education. Unfortunately, high schools are not yet easily accessible in all rural communities (see Chapter XIX). But whether the education afforded by the rural school is of the best or not, the boy or girl on the farm gets in addition a kind of education through the varied occupations of the farm life that the city boy or girl does not get, and for which the city schools have tried in vain to find an adequate subst.i.tute. It is remarkable how many of the successful men and women of our country were raised on farms; and they almost always bear witness to the value of the training received there.