Community Civics and Rural Life

by Arthur William Dunn

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 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?

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 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.

IN STATE AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS

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?

GOVERNMENT TO HELP AND NOT TO REPRESS

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.

LAWS AS SIGNALS OF COOPERATION

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 AS RULES OF THE GAME

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.

LAW GIVES FREEDOM

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 ORIGIN OF LAW

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.

THE SECOND ELEMENT IN DEMOCRACY: CONTROL BY THE PEOPLE

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.

TWO HISTORIC DOCUMENTS

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 United
States, 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.

DEMOCRACY A GOAL STILL TO BE REACHED

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.

THE "RIGHT IDEA OF IT"

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.

READINGS

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 of
Modern Government").

Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography.