Community Civics and Rural Life Part 6

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.)

READINGS

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 packing industry.

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 t.i.tles are ill.u.s.trative.

The thres.h.i.+ng 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 of Agriculture Bulletin No. 547.

Cooperative grain companies, Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 371.

Cooperative stores, Department of Agriculture Bulletin. No. 394.

County Organization, States Relations Service Doc.u.ment 65.

Farm Bureau Organization, States Relations Service Doc.u.ment 54.

See note on reference material in Introduction with regard to method of applying for this material. The a.s.sistance 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 Year Book, 1915-1916, pp. 47-49, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.

Publications of the State Agricultural College and Experiment Station of your own state, relating to cooperation.

Tufts, James H, The Real Business of Living, chaps ii, iii, viii, xv, xvi.

CHAPTER IV

WHY WE HAVE GOVERNMENT

GOVERNMENT A MEANS TO SECURE COOPERATION

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.

IN EDUCATION

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 a.s.sembling 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 leaders.h.i.+p, 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' a.s.sociation, 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?

IN FIRE PROTECTION

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.

IN ROAD BUILDING

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 HEALTH PROTECTION

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 citizens.h.i.+p 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.

IN STATE AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS