Community Civics and Rural Life

by Arthur William Dunn

CONTENTS

I. Our Common Purposes in Community Life
II. How We Depend Upon One Another in Community Life
III. The Need for Cooperation in Community Life
IV. Why We Have Government
V. What is Citizenship?
VI. What is Our Community?
VII. Our National Community
VIII. A World Community
IX. The Home
X. Why Government Helps in Home Making
XI. Earning a Living
XII. Government as a Means of Cooperation in Agriculture
XIII. Thrift
XIV. The Relation Between the People and the Land
XV. Conserving Our Natural Resources
XVI. Protection of Property and Property Rights
XVII. Roads and Transportation
XVIII. Communication
XIX. Education
XX. The Community's Health
XXI. Social, Aesthetic, and Spiritual Wants
XXII. Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Members of the Community
XXIII. Teamwork in Taxation
XXIV. How We Govern Ourselves
XXV. Our Local Governments
XXVI. Our State Governments
XXVII. Our National Government
Appendix—The Constitution of the United States

COMMUNITY CIVICS

CHAPTER I

OUR COMMON PURPOSES IN COMMUNITY LIFE

TEAM WORK AND COMMON PURPOSES

The most important element of success in community life, as in a ball game, a family, or a school, is TEAM WORK; and team work depends, first of all, upon a COMMON PURPOSE. Our nation gave an example of team work during the recent war such as is seldom seen; and this was be cause every member of the nation was keenly intent on WINNING. We may see the same thing in our school when Christmas entertainment is being planned, when an athletic tournament is approaching, or when some other school activity is under way in which all are deeply interested. It is often illustrated in our town, or rural neighborhood when some important enterprise is on foot, such as the building of a new railroad into town, a Red Cross "drive" and a county fair, or the construction of a much needed new schoolhouse.

RECOGNITION OF COMMON PURPOSES

All communities have common purposes, although they are not always as clearly defined as when our nation was at war, or as in the other cases mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Sometimes the people of a community, or a large portion of them, seem to be wholly unconscious that a common purpose exists. This may be true even in a family or in a school. And when this happens, the effect is the same as if there WERE no common purpose. No club or athletic team can be successful unless its members have a common purpose AND UNDERSTAND IT. Insofar as our communities are imperfect—and none of them, is perfect—it is largely because their members fail to recognize or understand their common purposes.

People in communities have common purposes because they have the same wants. This may not at first seem to be true.

COMMON PURPOSES DUE TO COMMON WANTS

If we visit a large city, we see throngs of people hurrying hither and thither, jostling one another, apparently in the greatest confusion. We wonder where they are all going, what they are doing, what they are seeking. In rural communities or in small towns there is less apparent confusion than in the bustling life of the city. Yet even here it is not always easy to see common purposes and common interests. Whether in large or small communities, we are more likely to be impressed by the VARIETY of men's wants and even by the CONFLICT of their purposes.

But no matter how numerous and conflicting our wants may seem, they may all be grouped in a very few important kinds, which are common to all of us alike. It will be worthwhile to test the truth of this, because it will help us to see our community life in some kind of order, and will throw a flood of light upon the common purposes that control it.

PHYSICAL WANTS: LIFE AND HEALTH

For example, we all want food, drink, and sleep, clothing to protect our bodies, and houses to shelter us. But all these things supply our PHYSICAL wants; that is, they re late to LIFE AND HEALTH. Many of the things that we do every day are important because of their relation to our physical well-being. One reason why we enjoy out door sports is that they make our blood tingle and give a sense of physical pleasure. Unless our physical wants are provided for, the other wants of life cannot well be satisfied. Good health is a priceless possession.

Mention some things you have done today for your physical welfare.

THE WANT FOR ASSOCIATION WITH OTHERS

Another reason why sports and games give pleasure is be cause of the association they afford with other people. ASSOCIATION WITH OTHERS is a second great want which explains many of the things we do. Whatever may be our other reasons for going to school, it affords us the opportunity to meet and work and play with other boys and girls to our pleasure and profit. One of the objections often raised against life in the country is the lack of opportunity for association with other people. But life in the country is not so isolated as it once was; and one may be very much alone in a city crowd, where nearly all are strangers to one another, and where there is very little real association among individuals. City families often live in the same apartment house without knowing one another.

What are some things you do especially for the sake of companionship?

THE WANT FOR KNOWLEDGE

While going to school enables us to associate with others, the principal reason for going is to gain KNOWLEDGE. Whether we always like our studies or not, we certainly want knowledge, and seek it in many ways. We read the newspaper or magazine that comes to the home. We ask questions of parents and others who have had more experience than we. We may travel to see new sights. We examine with curiosity a new machine for the farm. The discoveries and inventions that mark man's progress in civilization are the result of his unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Mention some of the different ways in which you seek knowledge.

Mention some geographic and scientific discoveries that have been made through man's search for knowledge.

What is science? Name some sciences.

THE WANT FOR BEAUTY

Besides health and knowledge and association with other people, we want surroundings that are pleasant and beautiful. The want for BEAUTY is sometimes more neglected than other wants, but it is important, and we all have it and seek to satisfy it in some way or other. It may be at one time by a walk in the woods or fields, or at other times by cultivating flowers, by keeping our room tidy, by looking at pictures, or by exercising good taste in clothing. We also enjoy beauty in sound, as the song of birds or music in the home or school.

In what ways do you provide for this want?

THE RELIGIOUS WANT

Very likely we go to church on Sunday. It affords opportunity to enjoy association with others, to add to our knowledge, and to hear beautiful music. But the church service is one of the chief means by which people satisfy another of the great wants of life —the RELIGIOUS want. Individuals differ in their religious ideas and in the depth of their religious feelings, but in every community there are certain things that men do because of it.

What are some of the great religions of the world?

Is religion a strong influence in your community?

Can you mention any great historical events that were due to religious causes?

THE WANT FOR WEALTH

Perhaps after school, or on Saturdays, or in vacation time, we work at tasks to earn money, or at least help in occupations that contribute to the "living" of the family. Doubtless we have thought more or less about what we are going to do for a living after we leave school. We all have a desire to own things, to have property, to accumulate WEALTH. This also is one of the great wants of life. We have perhaps already experienced the satisfaction of raising our own first crop of corn or potatoes, of acquiring our first livestock, of putting away or selling our first supply of canned fruits or vegetables, of buying a set of tools, a bicycle, or some books, of starting a bank account. But after all the chief reason why we want wealth, or to "make money," is because of what we can do with it. It enables us to satisfy our wants. Earning a living simply means earning the things that satisfy our wants in life.

Make a blackboard list of the occupations by which the parents and other members of the families of the pupils in the class make a living.

Make a blackboard list of things done by members of the class to earn money.

What is your choice of occupation by which to make a living in the future? Why? Make a blackboard list for the whole class.

THESE WANTS GIVE PURPOSE TO COMMUNITY LIFE

The six kinds of wants that we have indicated clearly account for many of the things that we do. In fact, ALL of our wants are of one or another of these kinds and EVERYTHING we do is important because of its relation to them. We may not be ready, yet, to accept this statement. We may think of wants that seem at first not to fall under any of these six kinds. It will do no harm to add other kinds to the list if we think it necessary. But, at all events, the six kinds of wants mentioned are common to all of us. We live in communities in order to provide for them, and a community is good to live in proportion as it provides for all of them adequately. It is these wants that give COMMON PURPOSE to our community life.

Make as complete a list as possible of the things you did yesterday (outside of school as well as in school). Then extend the list to include the more important things done during the entire week.

Write the six wants across the top of a page of your notebook or a sheet of paper:

Health
Knowledge
Association
Beauty
Religion
Wealth

Arrange the activities in your list in the six columns according to the wants which they satisfy. If any activity clearly satisfies more than one of the wants, write it down in EACH of the proper columns.

Which column is the longest? which comes next? which is the shortest?

Is your longest column also the longest in the lists made by other members of your class? Compare your other columns with those of your classmates. Which wants seem to keep you busiest?

Which do you think is most important? Why? Discuss this question in class. Do you all agree in regard to this point?

If any of the activities in your list are for the purpose of earning money, tell for what you expect to spend the money. Show how the things you expect to buy with your money will help to satisfy your other five wants.

For which of these six wants do you spend the most time in providing? your father? your mother? If there is a difference in the three answers, why is it?

Do you have difficulty in classifying any of the things you do, or that you see others do, under any of the six heads? Make note of these things and, as your study proceeds, see if the difficulty of classification is removed.

Suppose a boy is a BULLY: what wants does he satisfy by his bullying conduct? Suppose a boy or a girl is ambitious to become a LEADER, either among present companions or later in social life, business, or politics: under which head or heads would you place this ambition?

A boy wants to enlist in the army, or a girl as an army nurse: do these wants come under any of the six heads?

Would you, after your discussion of these topics, add any other group or kind of wants to the six mentioned? If so, what would you call it?

Every one wants HAPPINESS. Why is it not necessary to make a special group under this head?

Make a list of things done in your home to provide for each of the six wants.

What is done in your school to provide for the want for health? for beauty? for association with others? for the religious want? Has your school work any relation to your desire to make a living? Is it the business of the school to provide for all these things as well as for the want for knowledge?

Make a list of a few things done in your community outside of the home and school to provide for each of the six wants.

Think of something in which your entire community is deeply interested, such as the improvement of the roads, or the building of a new high school, or a county fair, and explain what wants it provides for.

What wants do the following things provide for: rural mail delivery; weather reports; a corn club (or a similar club); a school garden; a library; the telephone; a hospital; a parent- teacher association?

THE PURPOSE OF DEMOCRACY

We may often hear our common purposes as communities or as a nation stated in different terms than those suggested in the paragraphs above. For example, Franklin K. Lane, the Secretary of the Interior during the war, said, "Our national purpose is to transmute days of dreary work into happier lives—for ourselves first and for all others in their time." Again, President Wilson said that our purpose in entering the world war was to help "make the world safe for democracy." Although these two statements read differently, they mean very much the same thing; and they both refer in general terms to the things this chapter discusses in more familiar and express terms. For "happier lives" can only result from a more complete satisfaction of our common wants. Our own happiness comes from the satisfaction of our own wants AND FROM HELPING TO SATISFY THE WANTS OF OTHERS. And "democracy" means, in part, that the COMMON WANTS OF ALL shall be properly provided for.

In the Declaration of Independence we read:

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.

OUR UNALIENABLE RIGHTS

The statement that "all men are created equal" has troubled many people when they have thought of the obvious inequalities that exist in natural ability and opportunity. But whatever inequalities may exist, people are absolutely equal in their RIGHT to satisfy the wants described in this chapter. These are the "unalienable rights" which the Declaration of Independence sums up in the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." That community is best to live in that most nearly provides equal opportunity for all its citizens to enjoy these rights. From the Declaration of Independence to the present day, our great national purpose has been to increase this opportunity, even though at times we have apparently not been conscious of it, and even though we have fallen short of its fulfillment. One of the chief objects of our study is to find out how our communities are seeking to accomplish this purpose.

"The Declaration of Independence did not mention the questions of our day. It is of no consequence to us unless we can translate its general terms into examples of the present day and substitute them in some vital way for the examples it itself gives, so concrete, so intimately involved in the circumstances of the day in which it was conceived and written. It is an eminently practical document, meant for the use of practical men … Unless we can translate it into the questions of our own day, we are not worthy of it, we are not sons of the sires who acted in response to its challenge."— Woodrow Wilson, in The New Freedom, pp. 48, 49.

A and B are two boys of the same age. One was born in a rich family, and one in a very poor family. So far as this accident of birth is concerned, have they equal OPPORTUNITY to satisfy the wants of life? Have they an equal RIGHT to health? to an education? to pleasant surroundings? to earn a good living?

Suppose A is a Native American boy, and B a foreign-born boy who speaks a foreign language: does this make any difference in their RIGHT to life and health, an education, etc.? Does it make any difference in their OPPORTUNITY to satisfy their wants in these directions?

Can you think of persons in your community who have less OPPORTUNITY to satisfy their wants than you have? Can you think of any persons who have less RIGHT to satisfy their wants than you have?

The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States comprise what is known as a "bill of rights." Study together in class this bill of rights (see Appendix) to see how many of the wants described in this chapter are there, provided for directly and indirectly.

Has your state constitution a bill of rights? If so, read it together in class for the same purpose as suggested in the last question.

READINGS

Preamble of the Constitution of the United States (see Appendix).

The Declaration of Independence.

Dunn, Arthur W., The Community and the Citizen, Chapters, i, iv.
(Heath).

Tufts, James H., The Real Business of Living (Henry Holt & Co.),
Chapter xxxix, ("Democracy as Equality").

Van Dyke, Henry, "Equality of Opportunity," in Long's American
Patriotic Prose, pp. 311, 312 (Heath).

See the note on reference materials in the Introduction to this book.

It should become a HABIT of both teacher and pupils to be on the constant lookout for news items and discussions in available newspapers and periodicals illustrative of the points made in each chapter or lesson. Individual scrapbooks may be made, but more important than this is the assembling of such material as a class enterprise, its classification under proper heads, and its preservation in scrapbooks or in files as working material for succeeding classes. There will always be enough for each class to do, while each class at the same time contributes to the success of the work of later classes. The idea of SERVICE should dominate such work.