The Children's Code of Morals.—It is in the spirit of such a patriotism that The Children's Code of Morals has been prepared by William J. Hutchins, and is sent broadcast by the "National Institute for Moral Instruction," In this code, boys and girls are enjoined and pledge themselves to be good Americans by obeying the following laws: "The Law of Health; The Law of Self-control; The Law of Self-reliance; The Law of Reliability; The Law of Clean Play; The Law of Duty; The Law of Good Workmanship; The Law of Friendly Coöperation in Good Team-work; The Law of Kindness; The Law of Loyalty."
Though children and youth may learn these laws by heart and understand and agree to the fine statements by which they are expounded and make through them a detailed promise to obey the laws of "right living" by which alone the citizenship of our country may serve its best interests—that in itself could not make all citizens what they should be. It is, however, a lesson of the past that youth needs some outward and visible sign of its "coming of age." Now, as in the past, youth needs some form of consecration to high ideals. It needs some ceremony that shall fix the lessons of patriotism, of social responsibility and of community service, and stir to noble purpose. The education that begins in the home is not finished by any college graduation or even by vocational training for a useful career. Its great "Commencement" is that which ushers the young man, and now also the young woman, into conscious and responsible relationship to the body politic. This Commencement should have its solemn and beautiful ritual and should be made the great event of all young life.
QUESTIONS ON THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER STATE
1. What changes in legislation and in law enforcement is the entrance of women into the electorate likely to effect?
2. Should the State be more and more charged with responsibility for care of the weak, the defective, the delinquent, dependent, and sick, the out-of-work, the aged, and those heavily burdened by parentage of young children, and if so, how can society escape a tendency to remove from individuals and from the family that sense of personal responsibility upon which the best things in our inherited social order have been built?
3. Should women voters particularly address themselves to increasing public welfare provisions or should they try to solve difficult problems of adjustment between public and private effort for the common good? If both, how can they adjust effort to party politics on the one side, and to independent use of the power of the vote on the other side?
4. When volunteer organizations of charity, correction, and education transfer their work to official boards and legal provisions, that work, experience shows, sometimes is lowered in standards and loses in efficiency. How can voting women prevent this? How can a new class of voters, hitherto specially interested in getting things desired done by others, best help others to do things through their own political action?
5. The army intelligence tests showed that our white drafted army contained 12 per cent. superior men, 66 per cent. average men, and 22 per cent. inferior men. This statement, made by Cornelia J. Cannon in The Atlantic Monthly of February, 1922, leads the author of the article to the conclusion that "our political experiments, such as representation, recall, direct election of senators, etc., are endangered by the presence of so many irresponsible and unintelligent voters." Is there a remedy for this, other than waiting for the slow process of education? If so, what is it?
6. The Neighborhood: A Study of Social Life in the City of Columbus, Ohio, by R.D. McKenzie, of the University of Washington, gives a good example of what such a study of one's own locality should be. Is it not the duty of those having the leisure and the ability to inaugurate such a study in the locality in which their political relation is most immediate? If so, how can a Women's Club, or a League of Women Voters, start such a study?