8. Make a list of all the activities in which your state government is engaged where it acts in the capacity of (a) a business man or corporation; (b) an arbiter between parties; (c) a benevolent agency. In which of these does it meet competition from private individuals?
9. Make a chart showing the organization of the courts in your state, the number of judges in each, and the general jurisdiction of each court.
Topics for Debate
1. The commission plan of government, as it now exists in many cities, should be applied to the states.
2. The United States should not acquire any territory which cannot ultimately be admitted as a state.
3. Which is the better plan of choosing Supreme Court judges: (a) appointment for life by the governor (Massachusetts), or, (b) election every six years by the people (Illinois)?
CHAPTER XIII
THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION
The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the constitution was framed, how it has developed, and how it can be changed.
E pluribus unum.
The Achievement of Union.—The greatest achievement of the American people has been the welding of separate states into a single nation. To have brought into a permanent federation thirteen relatively small communities, containing less than four million people in all, may not seem to us to have been a remarkable feat. These thirteen communities had won their independence together in a common war; they were inhabited for the most part by people of the same race, speaking the same language, and accustomed to the same laws. Why should there have been any difficulty in getting them to form a union in order to provide for the common defence and promote the general welfare? Is not unification a natural process?