Read Ebook: Studies in Civics by McCleary J T James Thompson

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 1689 lines and 149506 words, and 34 pages

PREFACE, TO TEACHERS, TO STUDENTS,

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

GOVERNMENT: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT IS,

A.--FORMS, B.--TABLES, C.--HOW SOME THINGS ARE DONE, D.--SOME PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, E.--DOCUMENTS,

GENERAL INDEX,

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 classes to consider each of them. Especial attention should, however, be given to the organization 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 class 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 scrap-book or series of envelopes in which to file newspaper clippings illustrative 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.

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 assume 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.

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 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 "noble dissatisfaction" with vague half-knowledge. Try to see clearly. Government is so much a matter of common sense, that you can assuredly 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.

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:

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. They discover an island in the ocean, which seems never to have been occupied, and which appears "a goodly land." Here they resolve to settle.

They help each other in building the houses; each takes from the forest the wood that he needs for fuel; they graze the cattle in a common meadow; they till a common field and all share in the harvest. For a time all goes well. But mutterings begin to be heard. It is found that some are unwilling to do their share of the work. It becomes manifest to the thoughtful that community of property must be given up and private ownership be introduced, or else that the common work must be regulated. In the latter case, government is established by the very act of regulation; they are establishing justice. If they resolve to adopt private ownership, industry will diversify, they will begin to spread out over the island, and public improvements will be needed, such as those specified above. The conflict of interests will soon necessitate tribunals for the settlement of disputes. And thus government would, in either case, inevitably be established. A visit from savages inhabiting another island would show the utility of the organization for common defense.

Thus government seems a necessary consequence of man's nature.

In this country we have the general government and state governments, the latter acting chiefly through local organizations. For obvious reasons, the common defense is vested in the general government. For reasons that will appear, most of the work of public improvement and establishing justice is entrusted to the state and local governments.

These we shall now proceed to study, beginning at home.

GOVERNMENT WITHIN THE STATE.

THE TOWN: WHY AND HOW ORGANIZED; OFFICERS; TOWN BUSINESS.

Necessity.--Now instead of a company going to an island to found new homes, let us think of immigrants to a new part of a state.

Like the people on the island, they will need roads, bridges, and schools; and they will desire to preserve the local peace. Hence they, too, will need to organize as a political body.

Size.--Since these people are going to meet at stated periods to agree upon the amounts to be put into public improvements and to select officers to carry out their wishes, the territory covered by the organization should not be very large. It should be of such a size that every one entitled to do so can reach the place of meeting, take part in the work thereof, and return home the same day, even if he has no team.

Basis.--Will anything be found already done to facilitate matters? Yes. Those parts of the state open to settlement will be found surveyed into portions six miles square. These squares are called in the survey "townships," plainly indicating that they were meant by the general government to be convenient bases for the organization of "towns." And they have been so accepted.

Corporate Powers.--A town is in some respects like an individual. It can sue and be sued. It can borrow money. It can buy or rent property needed for public purposes. And it can sell property for which it has no further use. Because a town can do these things as an individual can it is called a corporation, and such powers are called corporate powers.

When we say that "the town" can do these things, we mean of course that the people of the town as a political body can do them, through the proper officers.

Officers Needed.--The town needs one or more persons to act for it in its corporate capacity and to have general charge of its interests.

Should there be one, or more than one? Why? How many are there?

Every business transaction should be recorded, and the town should have a recording officer or secretary.

What is the recording officer in this town called? What is his name? Which officer would naturally be the custodian of public papers?

It takes money to build bridges and to carry on other public works, and the town needs some one to take charge of the public funds.

What is the officer called? Who occupies that position in this town? How is he prevented from misappropriating the money belonging to the people?

What is such an officer called? What is the name of the one in this town? Is any property exempt from taxation? Why? Just how is the value of the real estate in the town ascertained for the purpose of taxation? The value of the personal property? Get a list and find out what questions this officer asks. Read the statement at the bottom of the list carefully, and then form an opinion of a person who would answer the questions untruthfully for the purpose of lowering his taxes.

The immediate care of the roads will demand the attention of one or more officers.

How many in this town? What are such officers called? Name them.

Differences about property of small value sometimes arise, and to go far from home to have them settled would involve too much expense of time and money; hence the necessity of local officers of justice. These officers are needed also because petty acts of lawlessness are liable to occur.

How many justices of the peace are there in each town? Why that number? What is the extent of their jurisdiction?

The arrest of criminals, the serving of legal papers, and the carrying out of the decisions of justices of the peace, make it necessary to have one or more other officers.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet