Studies in Civics Part 1

Studies in Civics.

by James T. McCleary.

PREFACE.

The thought constantly in mind in the preparation of this book has been to furnish useful material in usable form.

Attention is invited to the scope of the work. The Const.i.tution of the United States, not a mere abstract of it but a careful study of the text, is properly given much s.p.a.ce but is not allowed a monopoly of it. Each of our governmental inst.i.tutions deserves and receives a share of consideration. The order of presentation--beginning with the town, where the student can observe the operations of government, and proceeding gradually to the consideration of government in general--is based upon conclusions reached during eighteen years of experience in teaching this subject.

Matter to be used chiefly for reference is placed in the appendix.

Attention is asked to the amount of information which, by means of tabulations and other modes of condensation, is therein contained.

Doc.u.ments easily obtainable, such as the Declaration of Independence, are omitted to make room for typical and other interesting doc.u.ments not usually accessible.

Is this book intended to be an office-holders' manual? No; but it _is_ intended to help students to get an insight into the way in which public business is carried on.

Is it designed as an elementary treatise on law? No; but the hope is indulged that the young people who study it will catch something of the _spirit_ of law, which to know is to respect.

TO TEACHERS.

Highly competent teachers are the very ones who receive most kindly suggestions meant to be helpful. For such these words are intended.

The local organizations are so related that it is advisable for all cla.s.ses to consider each of them. Especial attention should, however, be given to the organization (town, village or city) in which the school is.

Here considerable time can be profitably spent, and the matter in the book may be much amplified. Here must be laid the basis of future study.

Certain typical instruments deserve careful study. For a student to have made out understandingly an official bond, for instance, is for him to have gained greatly in intelligence.

It will be of great advantage to the cla.s.s for the teacher to have a complete set of the papers whose forms are given in Appendix A. These may be obtained at almost any newspaper office, at a cost of about 50 cents.

A sc.r.a.p-book or series of envelopes in which to file newspaper clippings ill.u.s.trative of the every-day workings of government, may be made very useful. Pupils should be permitted and encouraged to contribute.

One good way to review is for the teacher to give out, say once in two weeks, a set of twenty-five or more questions, each of which may be answered in a few words; have the pupils write their answers; and the correct answers being given by teacher or pupils, each may mark his own paper. Each pupil may thus discover where he is strong and where weak.

The questions given for debate may be discussed by the literary society.

Or for morning exercises, one student may on a certain day present one side of the argument, and on the following day the negative may be brought out by another student.

A student should not be required to submit his good name to the chances of answering a certain set of questions, however excellent, at the examination, when from anxiety or other causes he may fall far short of doing himself justice. One good plan is to allow each student to make up 50 percent of his record during the progress of the work, by bringing in, say, five carefully prepared papers. One of these may be a _resume_ of matter pertaining to his local organization; another may be an account of a trial observed, or other governmental work which the student may have seen performed; a third may be a synopsis of the president's message; the fourth, a general tabulation of the const.i.tution; the fifth, a review of some book on government, or a paper on a subject of the student's own choice.

Among reference books, every school should have at least the Revised Statutes of the state and of the United States, the Legislative Manual of the state, a good political almanac for the current year, the Congressional Directory, and Alton's Among the Lawmakers.

A Teachers' Manual, giving answers to the pertinent questions contained herein, and many useful hints as to the details of teaching Civics, is published in connection with this book.

TO STUDENTS.

You will notice in chapter one that at the close of nearly every paragraph questions are thrown in. They are inserted to help you cultivate in yourself the very valuable habit of rigid self-examination. We are all liable to a.s.sume too soon that we have the thought. Not to mar the look of the page, the questions are thenceforward placed only at the close of the chapters.

You will soon discover that these questions are so framed as to require you to read not only on the lines and _between_ them, but also right down _into_ them. Even then you will not be able to answer all of the questions. The information may not be in the book at all. You may have to look around a long time for the answer.

If you occasionally come to a question which you can neither answer nor dismiss from your mind, be thankful for the question and that you are bright enough to be affected in this way. You have doubtless discovered that some of your best intellectual work, your most fruitful study, has been done on just such questions.

After studying a provision of the const.i.tution of the United States, you should be able to answer these four questions: 1. What does it _say?_ 2.

What does it _mean?_ 3. _Why_ was the provision inserted? 4. How is it carried into practical effect? Some of the provisions should be so thoroughly committed to memory that at any time they may be accurately quoted. The ability to quote exactly is an accomplishment well worth acquiring.

After you have got through with a line of investigation it is a good thing to make a synopsis of the conclusions reached. Hints are given at appropriate places as to how this may be done. But the doing of it is left to you, that you may have the pleasure and profit resulting therefrom.

Finally, without fretting yourself unnecessarily, be possessed of a "n.o.ble dissatisfaction" with vague half-knowledge. Try to see clearly. Government is so much a matter of common sense, that you can a.s.suredly understand much of it if you determine so to do.

STUDIES IN CIVICS.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

GOVERNMENT: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT IS.

At the very beginning of our study, two questions naturally present themselves: First. What is government? Second. Why do we have such a thing?

These questions are much easier to ask than to answer. The wisest men of the ages have pondered upon them, and their answers have varied widely.

Yet we need not despair. Even boys and girls can work out moderately good answers, if they will approach the questions seriously and with a determination to get as near the root of the matter as possible.

Beginning without attempting an exact definition of government, because we all have a notion of what it is, we notice that only certain animals are government-forming. Among these may be mentioned the ant, the bee, and man. The fox, the bear, and the lion represent the other cla.s.s. If we should make two lists, including in one all the animals of the first cla.s.s and in the other all those of the second cla.s.s, we should make this discovery, that government-forming animals are those which by nature live together in companies, while the other cla.s.s as a rule live apart. The generalization reached is, that _only gregarious animals form governments_. We would discover upon further investigation that the greater the interdependence of the individuals, the more complex the government.

Confining our attention now to man, whose government is the most complex, we may put our generalization into this form: Man establishes government because _by nature he is a social being_. This may be taken as the fundamental reason. Let us now proceed to trace the relation between cause and effect.

In order that people may go from place to place to meet others for pleasure or business, roads are needed. Some of these roads may cross streams too deep for fording, so bridges must be provided. These things are for the good of all; they are public needs, and should be provided by the public. But "what is every body's business is n.o.body's business." It follows that the public must appoint certain persons to look after such things. By the act of appointing these persons, society becomes to that extent organized. We see, then, that society organizes in order to provide certain public improvements, _to carry on certain public works_.

For his own preservation, man is endowed with another quality, namely, selfishness. Sometimes this is so strong in a person as to cause him to disregard the rights of others. By experience man has learned that _every_ person is interested in seeing that conflicting claims are settled on a better basis than that of the relative strength of the contestants. In other words, all are interested in the prevalence of peace and the rightful settlement of disputes. That this work may surely be done, it is obvious that society must appoint certain persons to attend to it; that is, society organizes _to establish justice._

Communities take their character from that of the individuals composing them, therefore communities are selfish. A third reason appears, then, for the organization of society, namely, _the common defense._

But this organization of society is the very thing that we call government. We may, therefore, answer the two questions proposed at the beginning in this way:

_Government is the organization of society to carry on public works, to establish justice, and to provide for the common defense._

The term _government_ is also applied to the body of persons into whose hands is committed the management of public affairs.

To show that government is a necessity to man, let us imagine a company of several hundred men, women, and children, who have left their former home on account of the tyranny of the government. So harshly have they been treated, that they have ascribed all their misery to the thing called government, and they resolve that they will have none in their new home.