OMMUNITY IVICS UC-NRLF ^B ED MfiS Field and Nearing COMMUNITY CIVICS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO ,.S; COMMUNITY GI¥ICS BY JESSIE FIELD FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, PAGE COUNTY, IOWA AUTHOR OF "THE CORN LADY" AND SCOTT NEARING PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, TOLEDO UNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF " INCOME," " SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT " ETC. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All rights reserved -^ • * ' • \^» * ' Copyright, 1916, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1916. Reprinted June, August, 1916 ; July, August, 1917. J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE Schools are the laboratory for our democracy. Peo- ple have a right to expect that our public schools should train their children for good citizenship. To be a good citizen means, first of all, to be willing and able to take part intelligently in the affairs of one*s own community. To train such citizens, civics must be taught to children in the terms of their own lives. It must be real. It must connect with the affairs with which they are famiHar in their town or neighborhood. That is why this book on Community Civics has been written. It brings to boys and girls in the country, — to those who are away from cities, to those who are living in towns that are the center of country interests, and to those living on farms, — at the time when they are forming their civic ideals, the problems that are being met in their own communities. When these boys and girls see their part in making their community life all it can be, they will not be satis- fied with poor roads, a low rate of production per acre, a school that is inefficient, or a lack of community co- operation. Nothing else will so surely bring to them an appreciation of the opportunities of the country and a desire to invest their lives as citizens of such communities. 544 i)'45 vi PREFACE The authors of this book hope that it may help many teachers of one-room country schools, consolidated and township schools and of schools in towns that are closely related to country interests, to give to their pupils defi- nite instruction in the kind of civics that will make them some day better citizens in a live country community. INTRODUCTION Rural community building is the greatest social task which now confronts America. We are just emerging from the pioneer stage in our national life. The great shifting wave of population which has been moving stead- ily westward for two hundred years has beaten against the shores of the Pacific and is now settling back into the abandoned fields and open spaces with some promise of stability. The virgin resources in soil and forest which tempted the exploiter have been largely exhausted and man must now. invest his time, his energy, and his in- telligence in order to receive dividends from the earth. This means a greater interval between work and reward, higher and more stable prices for farm products, and a tendency to permanent residence in the country. The tremendous development of industrial life during the past three decades has restored the equilibrium be- tween the farm and the workshop and has neutralized the economic pull toward the city. The steadily increasing cost of farm products has awakened an universal interest in the farmers' welfare which is thoroughly genuine if not wholly altruistic. External conditions are remark- ably favorable to the development of a more satisfying country life in America. We have reached the point viii INTRODUCTION when prosperity and happiness in the country depend on the attitude of the farmer toward his own work and on community organization for the attainment of attain- able social ends. The new generation of farm boys and girls are begin- ning to see a new beauty in the blue skies and the growing things of the open country ; they are acquiring a deeper understanding of the significance of country activities in the common life of humanity. With a con- ception of the inter-relations of the country community there comes a growing capacity for cooperation and lead- ership which is breaking down the intense individualism of pioneer times. This new attitude comes from an intimate knowledge of one's own community. The love of home, school, neighborhood, and county will easily expand into the larger patriotism which will include State, Nation, and humanity. In the chapters which follow, Miss Field and Dr. Nearing have presented the spirit and the essential facts of good citizenship in a vital and interesting manner. If the boys and girls of America will catch the spirit of the authors and will do the things suggested in this volume, we shall have a generation of rural community builders. W. K. TATE. George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee. CONTENTS I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. Country Boys and Girls The Institutions of Country Life Country Life Ideals . . ... The Country Home .... The Art of Home Making . The Home as the Center of Family Life The Home as a Spirit of Fellowship . The Home and the Neighborhood The School Home Good Books and Good Reading Learning Teamwork at School The School and the Community School Work and Home Life Citizenship and Country Life The Country Community and its Officials The Country as Life Giver to the World The Country Community's Work for Greater Production . The Country Community's Gains through Cooper ATION .... The Country Community's Work for Good Roads PACK I 12 22 31 42 58 n 90 103 "3 124 141 151 163 174 184 199 211 X CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGB XX. The Country Community's Work for Good Health 220 XXI. The Nation as a Community . . . .231 XXII. Managing National Affairs ..... 243 XXIII. Country Life and National Life . . . .254 COMMUNITY CIVICS COMMUNITY CIVICS CHAPTER I Country Boys and Girls I. The Country Offers Many Chances to the Boys and Girls Who Live in It. — A great man once said that in thinking of all that had come to him in his life, he believed that the chance to grow up in the country was his richest heritage. The country offers a chance to learn much of the beauty and truth and strength of the real things of life. There are beautiful wild flowers on the way to school. The soft greens of the alfalfa field and the old oak in the pasture wait for us as we go for the cows in the evening. And everywhere, we read not only a lesson of beautiful things, but also a lesson of steadfastness and strength. If stones are thrown into the brook to stop it, it flows right over them with greater strength than before, and adds to its strength a song. Plants burst the seed cases and push up through the dark soil to the light. Every- where through the country, for those who have learned to see and understand, are lessons which point toward the richness and strength of life. ^ //"... ;;;c6'MMyNiTY civics Country DoyVahd girls have a chance to grow because they know the people around them so well. It is not unusual in the city for people who live in the same building to be entire strangers. But in the country, one is apt to know every one who lives for several miles around — the fathers and mothers One is apt to know every one who lives for several miles around. and the grandfathers and grandmothers and the hired men and the little children. Boys and girls in the country know when the neighbor's bees swarm ; how many chickens they raise ; and whether they can bake good cookies. They know, too, where the best apple trees grow and what people have the kindest hearts. And before they are very old, every country boy and girl learns the law of the country COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS 3 road — that a lighter load alWays gives tfie whole road for a heavier one. So while the country might not, at first thought, seem the place where there is the best chance to grow through knowing other people, it does offer a big chance for the kind of everyday neighborliness which counts for so much in life. 2. Country Boys and Girls Should Know Their Surroundings. — Although there are such great chances for growth through the surroundings in the country, there are many people who are blind to its beauty, deaf to its music, and unconscious of the interesting people who surround them. Two boys grew up in a neighborhood where there were masses of goldenrod every fall. They both passed by it when they were going to school. They could see its sunshiny blossoms from the fields where they husked corn, and it grew on the edges of the timber where they went nutting together. When they were young men, one of them was asked to get some goldenrod for decorations for a party, and he asked : *' What kind of flower is it .? What does it look like .? I shouldn't know what to pick." " Why, ask Tom," the girls said, " he knows every kind of flower and tree that grows around here." And sure enough, the other young man knew forty-two kinds of goldenrod that grew in that vicinity. Yet he had had no better chance to know about goldenrod than the young man 4 eOiMMUNITY CIVICS who did* riot' 'even 'Know what it was when he saw it. It is only when we do not know our surroundings in the country that we are apt to think there are other places which have more life and light and beauty. The way to learn about things is to use, every day, all the powers we have for securing knowl- edge. Then the more we know about any definite thing, the greater our interest becomes. It is be- cause it makes the world so much bigger and more wonderful and interesting that every one should study his surroundings. 3. The Country Calls for the Love and Loyalty of Those Who Live in It. — When we have started to learn something of the life that is around us on every side in the country, an appreciation of it comes to us. Then there are added the joy and gladness of the freedom and reality of the country and its great open places where there is room to grow, and we under- stand what the Wisconsin girl meant who said, when she was asked if she lived in the country : " Yes, I am a country girl, and I am proud of it." In one county all the boys and girls wrote composi- tions on the subject, *' Country Life — Why I Like It." There were many very good reasons given for liking the country. A boy wrote : " I like to live in the country because you can do whatever you please and it doesn't bother any one. You can whistle and sing as loud as you wish and no one cares. I COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS 5 milk three cows every morning before breakfast, and in fact, it seems to me as though the louder I whistle the more milk those cows give." Young people are seeing now, too, the great op- portunities there are for scientific farming and for making up-to-date homes in the country. In fact, it is a great thing to live in the country these days when new things are coming so fast, and when there are such widened priv- ileges for living in a worthwhile way. Those who know the country and who love it believe that nothing is too good for country people. This is the kind of loyalty which will be in the heart of every young person in the country who un- derstands its possibil- ities. 4. The Country Needs Leaders. Yes, I am a country girl, and I am proud of it." When a country boy or girl is planning to make a life that will be of help to the world, he should consider the needs of his own neighborhood and think of the chance for 6 COMMUNITY CIVICS leadership there. In many neighborhoods families have moved away, renting their farms, and the young people, failing to see and know their surroundings, have gone to cities, until there is no one left to see what can be done and to show how to do it. If these leaders of country life are to be really of the greatest use, they must be a part of the neighbor- hood. That is why this need for country leadership is of real interest to country boys and girls. The roads need to be made good — and who is there to go ahead and see that they are dragged .? The school needs a new heating and ventilating plant — and who has the courage and the influence to get people to see how important it is for the children to be comfortable and have fresh air to breathe ? Sometimes young people dream of great things they wish to do, and it is right to plan for making dtie's life count for the very most. But boys and girls who live in the country can remember always that there is a great need and a chance for a big serv- ice through leadership near at hand. Once a prophet asked a country woman, who had been very hospitable and kind to him, what she would like to have for her kindness, and if he should intro- duce her to the king. She replied : " No, I do not care to meet the king. Lo, I dwell with my own people." And so the country to-day is needing boys and girls who will learn what it means to give of their best for their own home neighborhoods. COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS 7 5. The Country Life of To-morrow Depends upon the Country Boys of To-day. — Perhaps you have sometimes talked with your grandfather or with the oldest person who lives in your school district, and he may have told you about a time that he can remember when the country was very different. You have I A flail, used when everything had to be done by hand. listened to the stories of how there was once a time when there were no reapers nor binders nor riding cultivators and steam threshers and all kinds of wonderful farm machinery, when everything had to be done by hand with scythes and flails and hoes. He has told you of a time when people came out across the United States in covered wagons that were called " prairie schooners " and got land from the government by homesteading. And then he has 8 COMMUNITY CIVICS remarked how times have changed in the country, for that same land would sell to-day for over a hun- dred dollars an acre and is still increasing in value. He will laugh as he tells of the first telephone and how strange people thought it was, and how people declared that rural free delivery of mail never would work, and later how they thought that parcel post could not be, and how excited every one was over the first automobile, and how now they are so common that even the horses are not afraid of them. After you have talked with him for quite a while, he will say : " Yes, the country has changed a lot since I've been living in it. Many things have happened. It's getting to be a better and better place to live. I wonder what you who are still young will live to see!" Then comes the realization that whether we live to see a wonderful country life, fuller and finer and better than anything our grandfathers have dreamed of, will depend upon those who are boys and girls now. It is not cattle nor crops nor improved farm machinery that make country communities good places in which to live. It is the people who live there. Even now, as boys and girls, you are beginning to share in what the neighborhood is, but in the future this responsibility will grow greater and greater. Finally, when you are grown, the whole burden of leadership will fall upon some of you. COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS 9 There are people who love the open country, who have caught a vision of a time when there will be a new country life, when every acre of land will produce the most that is possible, when there will be better ways for marketing and for carrying on the business of the farm, when every man will own the land which he farms, and when there will be a chance for every one who lives along country roads to get the best that there is in life. When this time comes, people will not be thinking of their own selfish interests first but they will unite in thinking of what is best for the good of every one who lives in the neighborhood. The country boys and girls of to-day will have a chance to make this vision for the country life of to-morrow come true. Questions for Study and Review 1. What advantages have country boys and girls.? What lessons can they learn from nature ^ from people .? 2. Do people differ in their knowledge of their surroundings in the country ? 3. Why is it important to know these things for oneself.? 4. What are some of the reasons for liking country life .? 5. When are leaders needed in a country neighborhood ? 6. Who make the best leaders ? 7. What should a country boy or girl consider in deciding what to do ? 8. Make a list of the ways in which country life has changed in the last fifty years. 9. What brought about these changes ? lo COMMUNITY CIVICS 10. Do you think it will change as much in the next fifty years ? 11. Upon whom does the future development of the country depend ? 12. Describe the vision of the country life of the future. 13. Who can make this vision a reality.? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I.' Make a list of the reasons why you are glad you live in the country. II. Write a letter to a country boy persuading him to stay in the country. III. Write a letter to a city boy urging him to come to live in the country. IV. What did you see on your way to school .? V. Of the things which you saw, what did you like best ? Tell why ? VI. Each member of the class should put on the board a list of ten things he saw on the way to school Monday morning. Keep the list and add the names of additional things seen each day during the remainder of the week. VII. Where in your school district is the most beautiful view ? the finest tree ? the prettiest flowers ? VIII. A visitor comes to your house who is anxious to see that part of the country, (i) Where will you take him .? (2) What will you show him ? (3) What will you tell him about the most interesting places in the neighborhood ? IX. Make a list of the diflFerent kinds of trees, wild flowers, and birds you know. X. Write a short essay on: "Interesting People in Our Neighborhood," showing how many kinds of people live in it. XI. Is there any person who goes ahead with planning and carrying out things in your neighborhood ? Who is president COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS ii of the school board ? Who is the representative of the telephone line ? XII. Write a short story about the most successful man in your community. XIII. Write a story about the most successful woman in your community, telling particularly what she has done for people outside of her own home. XIV. When was the first telephone started in your school district ^ the first rural mail route .? the first automobile ? XV. What improved machinery is used in your home .? on your farm ? XVI. List the changes and improvements which you have seen in your neighborhood in the last five years. XVII. Write a brief prophecy about your home neighbor- hood as you believe it will be in ten years from now, stating the changes you think there will be: (i) In the homes. (2) In the school. (3) In the roads. (4) In the church. (5) In the organizations of people. (6) In the methods of farming. CHAPTER II The Institutions of Country Life I. The Country Develops through its Institu- tions. — Wherever a number of people live near each other, there are w^ays in which they unite for development and helpfulness. We call these organi- zations that belong to every one the community insti- tutions. First and most important of these institu- tions in the country is the country home. Then there is the country school, which has been established to train boys and girls for life. In many places there is the country church, which brings to people the opportunity for worship. Besides these three institutions, which are the most fundamental ones and which are found almost every^where, there are other organizations which have influence in many places. There are Farmers' Clubs, Granges, and Farmers' Institutes. There are Home Economic Clubs, Boys' Corn Clubs, and Girls' Tomato Clubs. There are literary societies and co- operative creameries and citrus fruit associations. All these agencies are bringing country people to- gether to consider their common needs and interests THE INSTITUTIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE 13 and are helping to build up country life and make the country a better place in which to live. Country boys and girls should be interested in all of these institutions. They should know especially well the various institutions that are found in their own home neighborhood, and study how these can be made of the greatest use to the people living there. I BHI^^'^^^S PI feSi^^^k ^'■^ ^^^m.mmmmmmm mugigiggiii^ _^ '- A Typical Country Home. 2. The Institutions of Country Life Should Serve the Needs of Country People. — Sometime you may have passed a strange-looking farmhouse, very high and very narrow, which looked as though it had to be built to take up the least possible ground space. Looking at the sweep of the yard around it^ you have wondered why it was built in this way. The trouble was that the people who built it took the plan for a city house, and in the city they have to make the most use of every square foot of ground. 14 COMMUNITY CIVICS But this city house set down out in the midst of the country, where there is plenty of room, does not fit, and looks strangely out of place. The fact is that imitations are never good things. We need to plan all things to fit the place where they are going to be and the people for whom they are to be used. Country institutions must be planned to serve the country and its people. In Denmark the country homes have big porches with long benches on them, where all the people of the neighborhood come to- gether in the evening to sing the songs they love at the close of the day's work. It was because the country people there cared to come together this way in the evening when the work was finished that the homes were built to meet this need. There is a country school in Missouri where the people have fitted up the basement with a swinging table and chairs so they can have suppers together there, and they have added to the main room of the school a workroom for the boys and girls. Another school has bought five acres of land to be used for gardens and for an agricultural experiment plot. The people did these things for their schools that they might better serve the needs of the district. Everywhere, country people are realizing that the institutions which belong to them should be planned to fit the country and to meet the needs of the people living there. THE INSTITUTIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE 15 3. The Strength of the Institutions of Country Life Depends upon the Spirit of Working Together. — It means much to have country institutions really meet country needs. This can only be done, how- ever, when the people have learned how to unite for the common good. Very often country institutions are not doing the great work that is possible in a coun- try community because the people have not learned what it means to think together and work together. There is a schoolhouse in New York State that is painted like a checkerboard in large gray and white squares. The reason for this, the oldest man in the district will tell you, is because when they painted the schoolhouse half the people thought it should be painted white and half thought it should be painted gray, and so this compromise was decided on. The result is neither artistic nor appropriate. Often this same kind of divided spirit shows itself. Sometimes when it is best to hire a good teacher and keep her or to put in permanent concrete culverts or to plan for contests for the boys and girls, this same lack of united effort for the community comes up and the country institutions do not have a fair chance to be of service. Yet, wherever people have found out what it means to work together, strong and lasting country institutions have been developed. 4. Country People Should Always Support Their Institutions. — There are many ways in which the i6 COMMUNITY CIVICS country and towns and cities must work together because of mutual interests. Yet country institu- tions cannot live and grow without the support of country people. If instead of building up the best kind of school out in their own district, people send their children to town to school, the result will be weaker schools in the country. The same thing is true of good times. If country people go to town for all their pleasure, they cannot build up in their own communities the neighborliness and cooperation which result from having good times together, and learning to know each other better. Then, too, they are apt to grow to like the town or city kind of good time, which is usually the kind some one is paid for furnishing to us instead of the kind of good time made in the country, where all join in getting up the good time for themselves. For instance, there is more real fun for a country boy in playing on a baseball nine out in the pasture of a near-by farm with the other boys of the neighbor- hood, than in going to the city and paying twenty- five cents to get into the fairgrounds and see the team that is hired by the city to play. And there is more genuine enjoyment in going to the grove near the schoolhouse for a Fourth of July celebration, where everyone has a part in the program, than there is in going to town, standing on the street to watch the parade, and paying five cents a glass for pink lemonade that some one else has made. Yet since THE INSTITUTIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE 17 it is easier to pay people to amuse us, we sometimes lose our taste for real fun as we learn to indulge in the other kind. Some people say that the reason country institu- tions in some neighborhoods have gone down is because many country people prefer to go to town to school and church since they have automobiles. A Country Baseball Nine. Many country people see, however, that their own institutions deserve their support. Such farmers are saying : " I could send my children into town to school. But we have a good school out here, and we are making it better all the time. It deserves and needs the support of all of us who live here." Country institutions can only develop their greatest strength when all country people help to support them. 5. The Institutions of Country Life Are Growing into a Larger Place of Influence. — This has been i8 COMMUNITY CIVICS made possible because they are facing more and more ways in which they can be of practical and definite service to the community. So country schools are concerning themselves with the ways in which they can create interest among the pupils in the work at home. In many places these schools The schools are becoming centers where all the people come together. are becoming centers where fathers and mothers and all the people come together. There has been found practical service, such as testing the seed corn and the milk for the district, which the schools can do. In the measure in which country schools have in this way been of real use in the community, they have grown in their influence with the people. THE INSTITUTIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE 19 This spirit of adapting country institutions to country needs has touched not only schools but every other institution, and always it has resulted in a greater support for the institution and a Inuch larger place for it. People always respond gladly to any country institution that is distinctly and earnestly facing its chance for helping in the com- munity. The place of influence of a country institution is as large as its service to the country community that supports it. 6. Country Institutions of the Future Will Co- operate More Closely and Serve Larger Communi- ties. — The best results can always be obtained when not only the people but the institutions of a neighbor- hood work together. Only a beginning has been made along this line. Yet those who are thinking the most about the future of the country are seeing that for the greatest efficiency in developing the resources of a community, there must be some plan of cooperation between institutions. There is gradually coming, too, with the im- provement of roads and the quicker methods of transportation, a tendency towards larger communi- ties. So we are finding an increasing number of consolidated schools and a far more general uniting of country people by township and county organiza- tions. This all means that the future will bring more 20 COMMUNITY CIVICS efficient institutions than we have yet known. The boys and girls in the country to-day are the ones who will bring this to pass. Questions for Study and Review 1. Name the most important institutions of the country. 2. What are some of the other groups of people who work for the good of the community ? 3. Why should the institutions of country life be different from those of the city ? 4. Tell some ways in which country homes can fit into the needs of the country. 5. How can country schools serve the community ? 6. Upon what does the strength of country institutions depend ? 7. Give reasons why country people should support their own cpuntry institutions. 8. What is the difference between country good times and city good times ? Which do you prefer ? 9. What measures the influence of a country institution ? 10. Explain the present tendency of country institutions as related to each other. 11. How does the country show that it is developing larger communities for institutions to serve ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Draw a map of your own township, showing the location of the schools, the churches, the town hall, grange hall, or any other buildings owned by community organizations. n. Mark the homes in your own school district on your map. HI. Which of these homes have children in school .? Which are represented in organizations and associations .? THE INSTITUTIONS OF COUNTRY LIFE 21 IV. Make a list of the organizations there are in your township. V. What institution in your community reaches the most people ? VI. Write a short composition on this institution, explaining why it is so successful. VII. What are the reasons for its success ^ (i) Has it good leadership ? (2) Does it fill a greatly felt need ? (3) Has it been built up gradually or slowly ? (4) Is selfishness or neigh- borliness its animating spirit ^ VIII. Are there any community needs for which no institu- tion has been provided ? (i) Make a list of the needs, if you know of any. (2) What institution could be organized to provide for them ? (3) How could such an institution be started ? (4) Who are the people best qualified to start it .? IX. What home in your community is best fitted for the needs of the country ? (i) As to its building and equipment. (2) As to its efficiency and methods of work. (3) As to the spirit of the people. X. In what ways is your schoolhouse fitted for the use of the people .? If you could fix it for this purpose, what changes would you make ? XI. In what ways do the people in your neighborhood work together.? (i) On the telephone? (2) On the school.? (3) On the roads .? (4) In clubs ? (5) In public sales ? (6) By exchanging help at threshing time or in filling silos .? (7) For the church ? the Sunday School ? (8) By joint ownership of farm machinery ? (9) In picnics and good times .? XII. List the kind of good time you have out in the country. List the good times you might have. XIII. What kind of good times are there in the nearest village or town ? XIV. Write a brief article on : "Ways in Which Our School Can Serve the District." XV. Do the institutions in your community work together .? CHAPTER III / Country Life Ideals I. Ideals Help Us to Grow in the Right Direction. — There is no way to grow straight towards better things except through having a true ideal of the place we want to reach and the thing we want some- time to do and be. Every country boy knows that the only way to plow a straight furrow is to look a long way ahead. This is the way with ideals. Our ideals are always something bigger and finer than we have accomplished. People sometimes reach what was once their ideal only to find that their ideal has grown and is still on beyond them, calling them on. True ideals are like the end of the rainbow which is always further on. They are like the line of the far horizon, which opens as we approach it to the horizon of new worlds of hills and valleys and fields and distant towns and cities. To-day there are great country life ideals to grow toward. These are the ideals of greater production, better business methods, abundant living, and strong, united communities. The future of country life will hold even greater ideals, but the accomplish- COUNTRY LIFE IDEALS 23 ment of these ideals which we have to-day will help us to grow towards the vision of the wider horizon of the country life of to-morrow. 2. Country People Are Growing towards the Ideal of Greater Production. ideal as " making two blades of grass grow where one grew be- fore." It is the ideal of making use of every acre of good land and growing the largest pos- sible number of bushels on every acre. Greater production means more than get- ting a large yield from every acre in one year. It must be carried on in a way that will keep the soil fertile for crops of future years. A few bumper crops of corn on a field, taking from the soil the plant food A man once stated this UM An Intelligently Farmed Cornfield. needed in later years, with no thought of feeding this corn on the farm or putting the field into clover or some crop that will restore the nitrogen, is not being true to this ideal of greater production. 24 COMMUNITY CIVICS Greater production means farm improvement. It demands a long look ahead. This ideal demands intelligent farming. Such farming requires the use of one's head as well as one's hands. A country boy who realized this was once writing a composition on ** Selecting, Storing, and Testing Seed Corn." He said, " It takes study to select good ears of corn for seed just the same as it does to work arithmetic problems." Through this ideal, farming is becoming more and more an occupation that demands the best kind of education, education that trains the person who expects to take it up for this special work. So we are realizing the great value of a course in an agricul- tural college, and the benefit that comes from study along all such lines. There is a chance to use every bit of intelligence and mental power that any man was ever endowed with in working towards the ideal of maximum produc- tion on the farms. 3. Country People Are Awakening to the Need for Better Business Ideals. — New farm bookkeeping methods determine the exact cost of growing crops and record whether or not the cows in a dairy herd are profitable. Country people are finding more direct ways of marketing their produce. In some localities, every one unites in growing the same kind of crops. They unite in keeping everything up to a certain high COUNTRY LIFE IDEALS 25 standard. In this way, they make a reputation for the thing they produce. Through wise methods of advertising and marketing they can then secure the highest prices. An example of this is the Hood River apple and the Southern Cahfornia orange. The world knows them because they have been honestly marketed and extensively advertised. This Cooperative Irrigation. ideal of marketing brings the producer and the con- sumer into the most direct communication. Denmark is famous for the way in which its farmers have cooperated in their production and in their marketing. They have many cooperative cheese and bacon factories and creameries. Their standards of quality are very high. A great pros- perity for all has been the result of the adoption of these high ideals of business. 26 COMMUNITY CIVICS Closely connected with the advantage of marketing things together is the matter of buying needed sup- plies in the same cooperative way. But business ideals would not be reached, with all these good ways of buying and of marketing and of determining what crops pay, unless all waste were done away with. The windfall apples, the corn- stalks, the corners of the fields where weeds grow, the swampy " back pasture " — must all be made use of before the highest degree of business efficiency is attained. 4. Better Living Is the Greatest Country Life IdeaL — The reason for greater production and for better business methods is, primarily, that there may be more to invest in making better living possible. The increased yield of wheat means not only that the farmer has done more towards feeding the world. It means also that he has money with which to do more for his home. It makes it possible to put run- ing water in the house and to have books and music and other things which make work lighter and life fuller and richer. This ideal of better living is of great interest to country girls for it is closely connected with efficiency in country homes. In working for it, they will realize what the President of the United States meant, when he said to the country girl who was the champion bread baker in a state that he thought it was quite as important for a country girl to know COUNTRY LIFE IDEALS 27 how to bake a good loaf of bread as it was for a country boy to know how to raise a record yield of corn to the acre. To make better living possible, country girls should study the problems of home making and learn ■9 ^^^|p^' i^H^^KL^r^H rj i ' 4 * J ■bi^Jr^ ^V^^Bf r'^j^.^i^J ^^HnM> ~ v'.'ii^B IME ™ It is quite important for a country girl to know how to bake a good loaf of bread. the reasons back of the right way to do everyday things. They should understand how to arrange a home to save time and work, the value of a small kitchen, and the right height for the work table. Then they will find there is time for the happy extras 28 COMMUNITY CIVICS of life that bring so much of beauty and joy. There will be time, too, to open the doors of the home in glad hospitality to friends and neighbors. To make real this ideal of better living in the country, every one must master the work that is his to do and take time to come in touch with the best in the place where he lives, and the best that the world has to offer in literature, music, art, and human experience. The country is the best place there is to live for people who do this. 5. These Ideals Are All Expressed in the Spirit of the New Country Life. — Into the hearts of country people there has come a great love for the country and a loyalty to it. They appreciate the many opportu- nities that surround them. They rejoice in the great part they can have in making their homes and com- munities all that it is possible for them to become. This spirit of the new country life is an unselfish spirit. Because of it, people think of the common good rather than of their own interests. It makes people share the best they have with others. It brings to mind those who are having the least chance. It makes the man on a good farm of his own remem- ber the man who is having a hard fight for a living on a run-down rented farm. This spirit of the new country life is a spirit of true everyday friendliness. It promises the realiza- tion of all the ideals of country life through the bring- ing in of the Kingdom of Love for Neighbors in country communities. COUNTRY LIFE IDEALS 29 Questions for Study and Review 1. What is the use of an ideal ? 2. What makes our ideals ? 3. How do our ideals change ? 4. What effect have ideals on people ? 5. Name the four great country life ideals of to-day. 6. Explain the full meaning of the ideal of greater produc- tion. 7. What kind of ability and training does a farmer need to reach this ideal .? 8. What is the advantage to a farmer of keeping books ? 9. Why is it important to market produce direct, if possible ? 10. In what way has Denmark developed good business methods in farming ? 11. What is the relation of the doing away with waste to business ideals of farming ? 12. How should increased income on the farm be invested ? 13. How is the ideal of better living related to the interests of country girls ? 14. What is the spirit of the new country life f Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. What are your ideals for country life .? II. What field on your farm came nearest the ideals of maximum production the last season ? Do you know another person's field that had a higher yield ? III. Find out the highest yield per acre in your neighborhood of all the staple crops. IV. What was the average yield per acre of these crops in the county ? V. Was the record for your neighborhood better than that for the county at large .? Why .? 30 COMMUNITY CIVICS VI. Did the yield of your own farm come up to the yield of the neighborhood ? to the county yield ? VII. Are there any crops that go to waste on your farm .? How could this waste be prevented ? VIII. What kind of work do you like to do best ? Why .? IX. Describe the right way, giving reasons: (i) To wash dishes. (2) To make a bed. (3) To sweep and dust. X. Describe the right way, giving reasons: (i) To plow. (2) To chop. (3) To handle a seeder. (4) To start a truck patch. (5) To take care of a horse. XL List the resources of your neighborhood in books, music, and lectures. State a plan by which boys and girls could have more of such resources to enjoy. XII. In what ways have you known neighbors to help each other ? XIII. Write an account of the finest incident showing true neighborliness that you have ever seen or heard about. XIV. List things that boys and girls can do to express the spirit of the new country Hfe : (i) For the children. (2) To help in times of extra work, such as threshing, apple picking, etc. (3) To care for those who are sick. (4) For the old people. (5) For community institutions. CHAPTER IV The Country Home I. The Home Is More Important Than Any Other Part of Country Life. — Every one begins in the home. It may be a poor, one-room log cabin, like that in which Abraham Lincoln was born, or it may be a fine-looking, well-built stone mansion. In whatever form it may be found, the home is the place where people begin life, surrounded by the various members of their families. People begin life in the home, and live nowhere else for the first five or six years. They eat, sleep, play, and work, — all in the home. The first seven years of life are called the forma- tive years — the years during which children re- ceive their first impressions of the world. Children are born with certain faculties which they must learn to use. They have two feet, for example. After a time, they learn to walk. They have tongues and vocal chords, with which, when they are about eighteen months or two years old, children learn to talk. They have minds, which they learn to use in thinking. They have will power or char- 31 32 COMMUNITY CIVICS acter, which Is developed by the way in which it is used. Children, during the first seven years of their lives, are learning to use their faculties for the first time. They should learn to use them in the right way. Each thing that a person does helps to form a habit. If a boy throws a ball time after time with his left hand, he gets the habit of throwing it with his left hand. Acts repeated make habits. The beginnings of habits are made in the home. It is easy to see why the home is looked upon as important. It is the place where early habits are formed. Early habits are hard to break. Home training follows people through life. 2. The Home Is a Living Place for the Family. — The home is important because it is the place where children form their first habits. It is important for another reason, and a larger one, — the family lives in the home. People are tied closer to families than to anything else in the world. The members of families live together every day of the year, and in living to- gether they learn a great deal about one another. They learn to be kind, to be helpful, to be consid- erate, to be sympathetic. Life in the family teaches forbearance. It leads people to an interest in others. Family life gives the tone to a person's life out- side of the home. The boy or the girl who grows up in a home with a kind, loving, considerate father THE COUNTRY HOME 33 In whatever form it may be found, the home is the place where people begin life. 34 COMMUNITY CIVICS and mother is apt to be kind, loving, and considerate at school, at play, and at work. He has felt the power of kindness and learned the habit of kindness at home, and the habit goes with him wherever he goes. 3. The Country Home Is a Fine Play Place. — There are more chances to do more things in a real country home than in almost any other place in the world. While boys and girls are young, there are the cats, the dogs, the chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys, the pigs, the cattle, and the horses. Perhaps there is a pet lamb in the spring, or a brood of little chickens newly hatched. The cat comes in crying one morning, and leads the way to the box under the manger. There, ^ , squirming; in a nest of bven a pig may be a pet. n t> rye straw, are four little kittens with their eyes tight shut, opening their tiny mouths, and making just the faintest kind of THE COUNTRY HOME 35 faint squeak. All through the year, the animals are there to be petted and played with, talked to, fed, and trained. For every tame creature in the barnyard, there are a dozen wild ones in the meadow, the woods, the shrubbery, the brook. Nature has stocked the world with thousands of birds and animals, each one of which builds Its nest, has its young, feeds itself and them, and lives its own particular life. The wild creatures are more interesting than the tame ones in a way. They are more natural. They do what they please. They are not caged or fenced in. They are hard- er to get acquainted with, however, for those very reasons. The winter brings skating and sledding. There is the haymow, and the broad white stretches with the rabbit tracks crisscrossing here and there. Spring comes. The world buds and then blos- soms into life. Flowers are everywhere, the birds return, the earth is soft and brown. There is kite The wild creatures are more in- teresting than the tame ones. 36 COMMUNITY CIVICS flying, fishing, bird nesting, swimming, until the autumn frosts bring the nuts ratthng down on the crisp leaves. 4. The Farm Is a Work Place. — Play cannot last forever. It would grow tiresome if it did. As boys and girls grow older, they are asked to do part There are many things about the farm that a boy can do as well as a man. of the work of keeping up the homestead. The boys help with the farm work. As every country boy knows, there are many things about the farm that a boy can do as well as a man. He can drive the cows to pasture in the morning and bring them home at night. He can water the horses, feed pigs, milk, drive the team, and help in a thousand other ways. Some of the chores that fall to the lot of the coun- try boy are almost play. When, for example, he is asked to fix the farm gate or to go to town on an THE COUNTRY HOME 37 errand, he may enjoy himself hberally if he is so indined. Some of the chores mean hard work. Stone picking is hard work. So are potato digging and hoeing. Milking is hard work in the winter time. There is this thing about hard work which is always One way in which girls will learn to make good home?. worth remembering, — in the first place, it trains the muscles ; in the second place, it steadies the nerves and makes strong determined men. Every boy looks with admiration at a strong, vig- orous athlete. There is only one way in which muscles and nerves are trained and developed, that is through work. While it is being done, work is sometimes disagreeable. When it is finished, how- ever, even if one is tired and worn out, there are 38 COMMUNITY CIVICS two rewards which the completed work brings. In the first place, father may say, ** That was a good job, Thomas." In the second place, even if father is not so considerate, Thomas has the satis- faction of having done a good job. Most girls look forward to marrying and settling down in homes of their own. There is only one The whole family is working together for the best interests of all. way in which a girl will learn to make a good home — that is by the experience which she gets in her mother's home, or the training which she has received in school. After all, no school training will equal the training which a well-kept home affords. 5. The Country Family Is Kept Together in the Home, — The home should have a natural attrac- THE COUNTRY HOME 39 tion that brings the family together and holds it together. Father, mother, boys, and girls look to the home as the place where the family has lived its days and years, played, worked, grown up, and grown old. Father, mother, boys, and girls alike have a part. The father does the heavy, outside work, — teaming, plowing, harvesting. The mother does the work in the house, — cooking, cleaning, tending the chil- dren. The boys help with the outside chores ; the girls with the inside chores. The whole family is working together for the best interests of all. The spirit of the home becomes the spirit of the family life. The duty of maintaining the home- stead spirit rests on all alike. Questions for Study and Review 1. Who live in the home ? 2. What are the first seven years of life called ? Why ? 3. Why should you be careful as to the kind of habits you form while you are young ? Make a list of the habits you are forming. 4. What are some of the qualities you acquire while living together in the home ? What does the family teach ? 5. What kind of influence will a kind, loving, considerate father and mother be likely to have on the boy or girl ? 6. Have you made pets of any of the animals on your farm ? Which animals ? 7. Why are the wild creatures more interesting than the tame ones ? 8. Make a list of the winter sports of the country. 40 COMMUNITY CIVICS 9. What changes do you notice on and around the farm in the spring ? 10. Name some of the things which a boy can do to help with the work of the farm. Which of the tasks are easy and which are hard ? 11. How can the girls help with the farm work? Make a Hst of the tasks she can do. 12. Which is the better place to learn the art of home making — the home or the school ? Give your reasons for your answer. 13. Name some reasons why the home should be well kept or managed. 14. Who should do the work of the home ? 15. Who is responsible for the spirit maintained in the home } Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the time you spend each day on the various things that you do. II. How many hours each day are spent at home: (i) By you? (2) By your father? your mother? (3) By each of your brothers and sisters ? HI. Do the above answers hold true for Sundays ? for a holiday ? for Saturday afternoons ? IV. Would your answers be different: (i) For winter? (2) For summer? (3) For a rainy day? V. Make a list of the habits that children form at home. VI. Name the habits that you formed at home. VII. Suppose you had a family of three girls. What habits should you want to have them develop at home ? VIII. Would your answer be different for a family of three boys ? of two boys and two girls ? IX. Make a list of the separate parts of your farm home. X. Make a similar list for the house in which you live. XI. Name the games that you play at home. THE COUNTRY HOME 41 XII. Do you know of any games that you might play at home and that you have never tried ? XIII. What kind of game is the easiest to play at home .? XIV. What kind of home games do you enjoy the most ,? XV. What animals might you have on your farm ? XVI. Make a list of all the birds that you have seen on your farm. XVII. Make a list of the wild animals that you have seen on your farm. XVIII. Make a list of the insects that you have seen on your farm. XIX. Make a list of all the pets you have ever had. XX. Make a list of all the pets you would care to have, putting first the one you would Hke best. Give the reasons for your choice. XXI. If you were a boy on a general farm, which of the chores should you prefer to do .? Why ? XXII. If you were a girl living on a general farm, which part of the housework should you prefer to do ? Why } XXIII. In what ways could the chores on your farm be made more interesting ? XXIV. You are the head of a family of a man, wife, a boy of fifteen, a girl of eleven, a girl of nine, and a boy of eight. You are living on a general farm of eighty acres. You have one hired man, five horses, three cows, a dozen pigs, and a hundred chickens, (i) How -would you divide up the chores during March and April ? (2) During May and June ? (3) During August and September ? (4) How would you divide the work if the hired man was sick for the first two weeks in October ? (5) How would you divide the work if the wife was in poor health during June ? XXV. Apply the questions in Exercise XXIV to : (i) An apple and peach farm. (2) A dairy farm. (3) A squab farm. (4) A wheat farm in North Dakota. (5) A general farm of 160 acres in Iowa. CHAPTER V The Art of Home Making I. Home Making Is an Art. — The homestead must be arranged in such a way that it will make the Hfe of the home effective and comfortable. There are two parts in homestead making. One has to do with making a workplace ; the other with making a living place. Homesteads do not happen. Homesteads do not happen. They are made by men and women. Their goodness or badness 42 THE ART OF HOME MAKING 43 is therefore the resuh of the good planning or the bad planning which men and women do. Suppose that you had decided to settle down, marry, establish a homestead, and bring up a fam- ily, how would you plan your work ? What steps would you take to make of the homestead a work place and a living place ? Few people who begin housekeeping nowadays are able to plan their entire home. The farm which they take already has buildings on it. At the same time, in twenty, thirty, or forty years, a family can make great changes in any property. It is well worth while to have the plans ready, at any rate. The work can often be done in odd moments if you know exactly what you want. 2. The Buildings Are the First Consideration. — The buildings come first, because the family and the stock must live in comfortable, healthful sur- roundings. At the same time, convenience must be borne in mind. The house should be on high ground — the higher the better, unless it is in a very hilly region. Height means good drainage, which is one of the most important things to consider. Height also means fresh air, which is the other important thing from the viewpoint of health. At the same time, the house should be convenient to the road, but far enough away to be free from dust and to make possible a front lawn, flowers, a hedge, and shade 44 COMMUNITY CIVICS trees. These may not come all at once, but they can be started, a few at a time, and, almost before you realize it, the surroundings of the house are artistic and comfortable. The surroundings of the home must be planned, like every other part of the homestead, — planned Convenience, Comfort, and Beauty. for convenience, for comfort, and for beauty. A little care and judgment will keep shade trees, grass under the trees, clumps of shrubs and flowers, lend- ing a touch of color from early spring to late fall, and an appearance of homelikeness that makes any one who passes feel like coming in to rest and enjoy the place. The farm buildings are as important as the house. THE ART OF HOME MAKING 45 They too must be laid out with an eye to con- venience, to efficiency, and to architectural effect. Where new farm buildings are being erected, care should be taken to make them fit into the landscape. There is no reason why landscape architecture should be confined to cities and city suburbs. It Old buildings can be painted and well kept up. can be made more effective on the farm than any- where else, because the opportunities on the farm are greater than they are elsewhere. The area is larger and the chances for effective work are more abundant. Most people who have farm homes do not erect the buildings. They take some or all of the build- ings which they find on the farm, and utilize them 46 COMMUNITY CIVICS to the best possible advantage. Old buildings can- not be architectural in their structure, but they can be painted and well kept up. Whenever a new building is added, it can be harmonized with the rest of the buildings on the farm. Each building that is erected should be designed to suit the purpose for which it is constructed, and all of the buildings should answer the general pur- poses of the farm. The buildings on the dairy farm should differ from the buildings on the general farm, just as the buildings on the fruit farm differ from the buildings on the poultry farm. Every form of build- ing can be made artistic and effective. The nature of the work on each farm must determine the kind of building. When buildings are erected, they should be laid out in pursuance of some general plan. On many farms, the building which was designed for a corn crib is turned into a henhouse because no other place for the chickens is available. The barn is located here, the wagon shed yonder, and the water- ing trough over there, without any particular rela- tion to either the barn or the shed. The group of farm buildings should be planned just as carefully as a group of factory buildings is planned. The first aim must be convenience and efficiency ; the second must be that the buildings look as if they belonged in the places where they are put. Buildings are the backbone of the homestead. THE ART OF HOME MAKING 47 Where they are built new, they deserve more thought and attention than any other single part of the farm. If old buildings are used, they should be made as sightly as possible, and whenever con- venient, they should be replaced by buildings better suited in comfort, design, and location to fit the needs for which they are intended. 3. The Water Supply Must Be Carefully Selected. — People who live in cities are handicapped for lack of good air, as well as for lack of good water. Coun- try people have an abundance of good air, but in many cases, they have difficulty in getting good water. The problem of water and the problem of drain- age go hand in hand. Too often the house and the barn are located on the same level or they are sup- plied with water from a spring or well into which water that has run from both house and barn may drain. In hilly districts, the problem of water-sup- ply is not very serious. The house is located higher than the barn, and the bottom of the spring or well is higher than any of the possible sources of contam- ination. In districts where the land is flat or only slightly rolling, the water problem becomes a most serious one. If possible, in such places, water should be supplied from a driven well made sufficiently deep to be free of all surface drainage. Where this is not possible, the greatest care should be exercised in the use of water into which any surface drainage may enter. 48 COMMUNITY CIVICS One of the heaviest tasks of the country home has always been carrying water. Modern mechanics has contributed no more important thing to the farm than plumbing and pipe fitting. So simple has pipe fitting been made that, in many high schools and in some country schools, boys are given a course $> '% m H^ij^^^^f ^ - '-m mm£LM ^^^M^ jAi|^(L/ .-^^^^^fe A windmill can easily be made to furnish running water. which enables them to return to their homes and fit out a complete water system for house and farm buildings. Any person of ordinary mechanical ability can pipe a farm for water. The heavy work involved in digging trenches for the pipes is more than com- THE ART OF HOME MAKING 49 50 COMMUNITY CIVICS pensated by the saving in time and energy which results from having water handy in the house and the barn, instead of in an unhandy well or spring. Many farm buildings are so located that a water supply can be secured from a point higher than the house or barn. In such a case, it can be piped down the hill to insure a flow of water always. In many other cases, tanks must be erected and the water pumped up into them by wind or gasoline engine. In any case, farmers and farmers' wives are justified in going to great lengths in providing a water supply that will relieve them from the back-breaking task of carrying water. 4. The House Must Be Planned for Efficiency. — There are three different parts of the house : the work part, the sleeping part, and the living part. Each has its uses and each should be designed with its particular use in mind. The principal work place in the house is the kitchen. The farm build- ings and the farm are the workshop of the man. The kitchen and the house are the work place of the country woman. Most country women spend a great majority of their waking hours in their kitch- ens. They are the source of supply for the food of the family. They are used for washing, ironing, and many of the other activities of the household. Sometimes country people sit about in their kitch- ens, — particularly during cold weather. The opin- ion seems to be gaining ground, however, that THE ART OF HOME MAKING SI 52 COMMUNITY CIVICS a kitchen should be built for efficiency and not for comfort. The country kitchen should be so designed that it will make as easy as possible the work of the country woman. First of all, water should be piped into the kitchen. In the second place, the kitchen sink, the stove, the kitchen table, and the cupboard in which dishes and supplies are kept, should all be within easy reaching distance of one another. Many kitchens are built so large that it is necessary to walk miles in the course of preparing a meal. The well- built kitchen dispenses with unnecessary steps. An efficient kitchen is a rather small kitchen. If washing is to be done, the kitchen must be larger. If there is a laundry or shed in which the washing can be carried on, the kitchen can be reduced in size, and its efficiency increased proportionately. The country kitchen should be well equipped. It should be equipped with a good stove, and if possible, with a gas, gasoline, or oil stove for cook- ing during hot weather. The housewife should have good kitchen implements and sharp tools with which to work. As much care is needed in the purchasing of kitchen implements as is required for the purchase of farm implements. The kitchen implements facil- itate the work of the woman just as the farm imple- ments facilitate the work of the farmer. Both are necessary in the well-regulated home. Many modern farm homes are provided with a THE ART OF HOME MAKING 53 study, library, or other work place where the farmer has his desk, keeps his records, letters, books, and the like. Record keeping is a necessary part of the management of an up-to-date farm and a study or library is becoming indispensable in farm households. The great essential for the bedrooms is fresh air. In many sections of the country where the weather is not too severe, people are sleeping on screened porches during the entire year. Indeed, it seems absurd for people to sleep in stuffy rooms until they are diseased, and then to go to a sanitarium, and sleep in the fresh air until they are cured. Where no porch or other outside sleeping place is available, the windows may still be numerous and large so that air in sleeping rooms can be changed frequently. The third essential part of a well-organized coun- try home is a living place. People frequently use the kitchen as a sitting-room. This practice is open to the objection that it makes the kitchen large and inconvenient for the work of the housewife. The most desirable form of sitting-room is a small, cozy, comfortably furnished room with an open fire- place. Wood is usually cheap in the country and the open fireplace can be kept burning at little cost. It gives out a considerable amount of heat, and is of great use in drawing stale air out of the room. It possesses the additional advantage of throwing an air of comfort over the entire room. 54 COMMUNITY CIVICS There is no need in a country home, or in any- other home, for an uncomfortably furnished room that is used only when there are callers, and then to the discomfort of both family and guests. Such superfluous house space is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. It is yielding to the American demand for ease, comfort, and enjoyment. 1 <^ m Is 1^4 An Example of Careful Upkeep. The three main purposes of the house are efficiency, health, and comfort. Each portion of it should be planned and maintained with these three things in view. 5. The Planning of the Countryside Begins at Home. — The countryside cannot be reorganized all at once. The work must be done gradually in order that it may be done effectively. Poorly THE ART OF HOME MAKING 55 kept homes, unpainted buildings, broken fences, bad roads are evidences of low standards of family and of community life. Neat fences, careful shel- ter, good stock, well-kept gardens, and comfortable- looking homes are all indications of a well-kept, well- regulated community. The work necessarily begins in the home. It is unreasonable for one man to hang over his unhinged gate and rail against the broken pickets on a neigh- bor's fence. A good example in the form of care and careful upkeep will do more than a myriad of criticisms and sermons. In those country com- munities where each family takes pride in the upkeep of its own home, the community plainly shows the result. Questions for Study and Review 1. What should be the aims of the homestead ? 2. What are the two parts to be considered in home making ? 3. How will you plan your home ? 4. If you are going to live in a hilly country, where should you be likely to build your house ? 5. What are some of the things to be taken into consideration in building your house ? 6. If you have the chance to erect new buildings, what are you going to do to make them more effective ? 7. Suppose you buy a farm on which there are old buildings ; how can you improve them ? 8. Why should the purpose for which a building is to be used be taken into consideration ? 9. What is one of the first things to be done before any buildings are started .? 56 COMMUNITY CIVICS 10. Why are buildings the backbone of the homestead ? 11. Why are the problems of water supply and drainage so important in the country ? 12. What precautions should be taken in regard to surface drainage I 13. For what reasons is it better for the house to be located on the top of the hill rather than at the bottom ^ 14. Name the different parts of the house and give their uses. 15. Make a list of the advantages of a small kitchen. How is your kitchen arranged ? If you were given a chance to change it, what would be some of the points you would consider .? 16. What is meant by an "efficient kitchen" .? 17. Describe the sitting-room. 18. What are some of the advantages of an open fireplace ? 19. Name the three main purposes of the house. 20. What are some of the signs of a well-kept, well-regulated community .? 21. How can you help to keep up a high standard in your community ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Begin the discussion of home making with a study of your own home, (i) Draw a free-hand map of the farm, locating the elevations, streams, and other geographic features. (2) Show the location of the house, the farm buildings, and the water supply. (3) Draw a map to scale of the house and farm build- ings, showing the relation to each other and to the roads and lanes. (4) Make a free-hand plan of your own house, show- ing the various rooms, the doors, windows, and so on. II. Suppose you were able to rebuild any one of the farm buildings on your farm ; which one would you rebuild, and for what reason .? THE ART OF HOME MAKING 57 III. Suppose you were able to refurnish one room in your house ; which one would you refurnish, and for what reason ? IV. You have been given ^1250 for the purpose of making the most-needed improvement on the place. Show in detail how you would spend it. V. Your father tells you that you may make the layout of the front yard. Make a plan showing the changes which you would make in it during each of three succeeding years. VI. Your farm buildings and house have all been burned to the ground. The insurance money is sufficient to rebuild all of the buildings. The family holds a council and asks you to draw up plans for rebuilding. You need not locate the new buildings on the site of the old ones, (i) On what part of the farm would you locate the new buildings .? (2) Draw a plan showing the location of each new building. (3) Make a sketch of the plan of each building. VII. Your family decides to select a new water supply, (i) Where would you go for the water ? (2) What means would you employ to get it to the house and farm buildings .? (3) Make a plan showing the location of pipes and apparatus. VIII. You decide that your health would be improved by sleeping on an open porch, (i) How could this be arranged most cheaply ? (2) If you make up your mind to build a sleeping porch, where should you place it ? CHAPTER VI The Home as the Center of Family Life I. The Home Centers about the Hearth. — As far as men can go in history, this holds true. The members of a family, coming together around the hearthstone, have made of it the hub of family existence. At first the hearthstone was a fire, built in the open or in the mouth of a cave. The crude men and women who assembled about this fire were dressed in skins ; their long, unkempt hair hung over their shoulders ; they spoke a choppy, broken language ; and they held in their hands crude weapons made of wood, or perhaps of wood and flint. These wild people, living their wild life, joined one another around the fire, where they ate, shouted, and danced. The hearth was the common meeting place where the members of the tribe, clan, or family came to satisfy their hunger. As time passed, a religious significance was given to the meetings around the hearth. Primitive men attached a great deal of importance to their ances- tors. They thought of them as having made the s8 HOME AS CENTER OF FAMILY LIFE 59 great discoveries, perfected the inventions, and handed on the knowledge of the tribe or clan. The hearthstone became an ahar stone, and the ancestors were worshiped at the common meeting place of the family. The hearth was thus made sacred. The outcome of this ancestor worship with its emphasis on the hearthstone, and the necessity for the worship of ancestors by their descendants and by them only, was a tribal spirit that bound the members of the tribe together with the strongest bonds. So strong was this feeling, that each mem- ber of the tribe was willing to give anything or sacri- fice anything for the other members. Ancestor worship does not exist in Western civili- zation, nevertheless, the hearth may still be made the center of family gatherings which will strengthen family ties in the same ways that tribal gatherings strengthened tribal ties. 2. The Breaking of Bread Is a Sacrament. — Among people who live in warm countries and who do not have fires and fireplaces — the Arabs, for example — there is a strong significance attached to eating in common. An Arab is very particular about the persons with whom he eats. Only his friends and intimates may eat with him, but once let him partake of salt at the same table or meal with any one, and by that act he becomes his friend, even to death. The man who eats salt with an Arab may rely on him absolutely. 6o COMMUNITY CIVICS You will remember, in the story of " Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," that Morgiana put no salt into the bread, so that her master would be free to kill Ali Baba without breaking his faith. The eating of salt is symbolic of close friendship. The country family usually assembles three times each day around the common board. What happens there ^ In some homes there is bickering and fault- finding, in others there is quarreling. The success- ful home is one in which the mealtime is used as a means of cementing the relations of family life. When the family assembles at the table, it has two purposes, — first to get acquainted, and second to eat. The '^ get acquainted " idea should be kept continually in mind. If a boy wishes to ask some question of common interest, he should ask it at the table. If a girl has learned something that she thinks would prove of interest to the rest of the family, she should tell it at the table. Father and mother should both aim to keep the mealtime in- teresting, and make it the real center of the thought life of the family. 3. There Should Be a Story Hour in Every Home. — Most homes can easily have a story hour. Per- haps it will come only once or twice each week. It should come, however, with insistent regularity. It should come, no matter how old the members of the family are. Even in those homes where there are no children, HOME AS CENTER OF FAMILY LIFE 6i a man and his wife may have a story hour. At stated times each week, they may take turns read- ing plays, stories, poetry, science, biography, or any other form of writing in which they may be in- terested. Such homes are, of course, the exception, yet even there family ties may be cemented by common activities. A home in which there are young children should have a story hour, or a reading hour as a part of the regular home life. The mother may have a moment to read to the children while they are eating their lunch or supper, unless they sit at the table with the family. If they do, she may read to them or tell them stories while they are undressing or immediately after they go to bed. Where there are older and younger children, the story hour gives a splendid chance for both. The younger children may be given their lunch or supper before the rest of the family, and while they are eating it, the older chil- dren may read to them or tell them stories. In this way the younger children have the advantage of the story hour, and the older children have the oppor- tunity to care for their smaller brothers and sisters in a way that is helpful to both. As children grow older, the whole family may meet in the evening around the stove, or around the fireplace, and read, tell stories, or talk. It will not do, however, for one person always to be the reader. As boys and girls grow older, they get a larger interest 62 COMMUNITY CIVICS and a new view of life. They, too, must have an equal share in family activities. There is Httle diffi- culty, nowadays, in maintaining the interest in a family reading circle. All of the magazines and some of the daily and weekly papers contain stories that are worth reading. Many books are published on science, biography, social topics, and community topics which make good reading and good material for thought and discussion. All of these sources may be relied upon to provide the necessary reading material. The reading circle gives the family a common meeting ground of common interest. Where each one takes part, each has an opportunity to express his own choices and his own opinions. 4. The Family Council Makes Home Spirit. — The family council is a home asset that is often neg- lected. It is really invaluable for every one con- cerned. Most of the questions, however, that come up before the family for discussion should be passed on by every member of the family group. Each boy and each girl should have a share in deciding what color the barn is to be painted ; whether pansies or lilies of the valley shall be set out along the front walk. They should be consulted too, before a patch of alfalfa is planted, and before white leghorns are banished in favor of Rhode Island Reds. Some boys and girls may not know very much about these HOME AS CENTER OF FAMILY LIFE 63 questions, — others do. They will learn, by having a chance to think them over and talk them over. Young children should not be unfairly burdened by the problems of family life. Boys and girls often worry over things that are not worth worrying over. What to discuss and what not to discuss depends a great deal upon the way in which children take things. In general the more chance children have to discuss and decide, the better for them and for the home. The family council is a training ground for democ- racy. Democratic citizens are never produced in homes autocratically run by either the father or the mother. Most communities are too large nowa- days for effective town meetings. Every household can have its family council. Perhaps it is too much to ask that a majority vote settle home questions. Indeed, voting is undesir- able in family councils, the principal purpose of which is discussion. It is always well, however, for parents to bear in mind that children do feel and think and understand a great deal more than they are sometimes given credit for. Their judgment may not be so valuable as that of their parents, but the feeling of satisfaction which they get from being asked and consulted does more than anything else to make them appreciate their share in family life. 64 COMMUNITY CIVICS Questions for Study and Review 1. About what does the home center ? 2. Write a paragraph on the hearthstone as it existed in primitive times. 3. What was the outcome of meeting together around the hearth ? 4. How did primitive men regard their ancestors ? Why ? 5. What developed out of the guarding of the hearth ? 6. What kind of feeHng did a member of a tribe hold toward the other members of his tribe ? How were strangers regarded ? 7. How may family ties be strengthened ? 8. Name and tell about a certain custom of the Arabs in regard to salt. 9. What are the two purposes which the family has for assembling at the table ? 10. If there is a question of common interest to be asked by the boy or girl, when and where do you think it is best to ask it ? Give your reasons for your answer. 11. Do you observe a story hour in your home ? If you do, at what time is it .? Who reads to you ? 12. Is it necessary that there be children in order to have a story hour .? What can be done in the homes where there are no children ? 13. Do you think that the younger children feel that the older ones look down on them ? Why ? 14. As the children grow older, what may be done in the evening to maintain interest in a family reading circle ? Why is it poor policy to have one person do all of the reading ? 15. Make a list of the books, magazines, etc., that you can get for your reading material. 16. Why should the children have a share in discussing ques- tions relating to the family or family welfare ? What advan- tages do they derive from being allowed this privilege .? 17. Why is the family council important ? HOME AS CENTER OF FAMILY LIFE 65 Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. At what meals are all of the members of your family present ? II. What do you talk about at mealtime ? III. Suppose you were head of your family: (i) Should you talk politics at meals ? (2) Should you talk religion ? (3) Should you talk business ? (4) Should you talk about the news ? IV. If you had your choice, what should you talk about : (i) To-night at supper.? (2) To-morrow at breakfast.? (3) Make a list of the things you would like to talk about at each meal to-morrow. V. Do you have family reunions ? VI. How many people are invited ? How many come } VII. If you had a family reunion, how many people should you have to ask ? VIII. What kind of stories do you best Hke to hear ? IX. Make a list of your five favorite stories. X. Suppose you were reading stories to a little girl of seven and a boy of ten : (i) What stories would you read them at bedtime ? (2) What stories would you read them on Sunday morning when the rest of the family was away at church .? (3) What stories would you read them on Saturday afternoon .? (4) What stories would you read them in the spring, when the flowers were beginning to come out ? (5) What stories would you read them in the late fall and winter ? XI. Suppose you were telling instead of reading stories to the little girl and boy in question X ; what differences would you make in your answers } XII. There is to be a story hour in your home this Saturday evening: (i) You have been asked to read a story that will not take over fifteen minutes. (2) You have been asked to tell a story. (3) You have been asked to select the stories that are to be read and told. 66 COMMUNITY CIVICS XIII. There is to be a story hour this Saturday evening : (i) In a home where there are a mother, a father, an older brother, and four boys and girls between nine and sixteen years. (2) In a home where there are a father, a mother, and three boys and girls between eighteen and twenty-four. (3) In a home where there are four little girls. (4) In a home where there are three young boys. XIV. You are the head of a household in which there are two boys of eight and twelve, and three girls of five, nine, and fourteen: (i) Would you invite all of the children to a family council .f* (2) What questions would you discuss in a family council with all of the children present ? (3) Which of the children would benefit most by a family council .? (4) For which would a family council be uninteresting ? XV. You are placed in charge of your own home : (i) Would you have a family council ? (2) Which members of your family would you consult upon questions of family interest .? (3) Would you exclude any members of the family? Why? (4) Make a list of the questions that you would take up at a family council this week. (5) Make a Hst of the questions that you think should be brought up at a family council in your own home. CHAPTER VII The Home as a Spirit of Fellowship I. The Spirit of the Home Is Its Greatest Asset. — No matter what advantages the home may enjoy, if it lacks in spirit, it is almost worse than no home at all, because it preserves the appearance of a home without its reality. It is a sham, — *' a goodly apple, rotten at the heart." The home spirit is hard to describe, but it is easy to recognize. Enter a home, and you feel the home spirit at once if it is there. It does not exist in the furniture, the cooking, or even in the conversation. Instead, the furniture, the cooking, and the conver- sation are a part of the home spirit. It is every- where and in everything. Once you feel its spell, you feel glad that you are alive, and alive in that particular place. Home spirit shows itself to outsiders in a true hospitality. To the members of the family it means strong, binding family ties. There is nothing in the whole countryside quite so warm and kindly as true hospitality. The people of the South have always been noted for their open-hearted generosity to 67 68 COMMUNITY CIVICS strangers. Hospitality grows in regions like the old South, where cities were few, hotels rare, and travelers scarce. Men and women made every effort to wel- come the chance guest, and to make him feel at home. True hospitality is a natural feeling toward out- siders. Every one in the family is eager to entertain the stranger. True hospitality is one of the greatest assets in any country community, because it is an outward indication of community warm-heartedness. 2. Home Spirit Makes Strong Family Ties. — The same home spirit which shows itself in cordial hospitality to strangers shows itself with equal power in the binding family ties which it creates. Where there is home spirit, there the members of the family stand together for the home and for each other. People who live in fine homes are loyal to their homes. They carry their home spirit into the neigh- borhood and the school. They will listen to no slighting remarks about their homes. They believe in them, and practice loyalty toward them. Loyalty to the home finds its best expression in the loyalty of one member toward another. Family loyalty that wears itself out in a defense of the home and home doings possesses no great value. Only when it takes the form of active help for other members of the household does it count. Instances of family loyalty are almost too common to need mention. There is hardly a family in which HOME AS A SPIRIT OF FELLOWSHIP 69 the children do not care for their parents when they have grown too old to work for themselves. The old people have done their share in raising and educating the children, and it seems no more than just that the children should in return take care of their parents when they can no longer care for themselves. Parents make innumerable sacrifices for their children. They give up enjoyments, and even the necessaries of life, in order that their children may have necessaries, education, or enjoyments» Brothers and sisters take care of one another. From the time when they carry the baby or take him out to show him the early spring flowers, or the big rooster, until they are old and gray, they stand together. A sister sends her brother to col- lege, or a brother his sister. They help one another over the hard places in life ; they counsel and guide one another. Family members stand by one an- other because of the feeling of fellowship and help- fulness that the family has created. Family loyalty is one of the strongest of social bonds. It holds the family together, and gives to each of its members an interest in the others that stands them in good stead. 3. Comradeship in the Home Develops Family Loyalty. — One of the best ways of developing family loyalty is through the comradeship of parents and children. The family council is meaningless 70 COMMUNITY CIVICS unless it is based on a feeling of comradeship. The best thoughts and the clearest ideas should be listened to and acted upon in the family council, as in any other meeting place. Some parents act as if they thought their children were inferior to them. They talk down to the children, and condescend in other ways. They think that children are ignorant or unintelligent simply because they are children. Parents usually know more than their children. It does not follow that they have better judgment. Parents, because they are older, have had more ex- periences, seen more of life, and had more facts brought to their notice. Then, too, they have been called upon many times to exercise judgment by deciding the many important questions that come up, sooner or later, to every one. The extent of the parent's experience in life is much greater than that of the child, because he has had more years in which to gain experience. The parent is older, not necessarily better than the child. His wide experiences give him a better basis for judgment, but his attitude toward life may be biased or embittered to such a degree that he will not exercise better judgment. Still, as always, it is true that out of the mouths of babes proceed words of wisdom. That does not mean that all children are wise. It does mean that youth is no guarantee against wisdom. HOME AS A SPIRIT OF FELLOWSHIP 71 There is no reason in the nature of things why children and parents cannot be comrades. The child is learning. Soon — in a few years, at most — he will have acquired all of the knowledge and experi- ence of the parent. If he has opportunities equal to those of the parent, he will acquire more knowl- edge and experience, since each day that passes adds to the number of things that men may know. Children are able to be comrades with their parents. At the same time comradeship helps them to de- velop their ideas, and to direct their thinking and living. No boy or girl will go freely to a father or a mother who rules the house with a rod and exercises a des- potic power over every one. Feelings of good fellow- ship are the product of friendliness, and not of punishment and severity. There are times when parents must be stern and exercise their authority ; but, in the main, their power should be the power of love and good fellowship — the same power that one friend exercises over another. In a home where such a spirit prevails, the parents and children will be found to understand one another, and to treat one another as equals and comrades. Comradeship between parents and children has another advantage, — it makes the children feel that they are a part of the home life. Each child has ideas about the way things should be done. If he is consulted, he goes on thinking, develops more 72 COMMUNITY CIVICS ^*J/JP^ zr.-^m^ 'B\ ideas, and thus grows in his abiHty to think things out — the most valuable of all mental attainments. Comradeship in the home results in good fellow- ship, in cooperation, in enthusiasm for the home life, in a more demo- cratic home spirit, and in a feeling of loyalty for the home and home people. Good comradeship in the home is a sure sign of a good home spirit. 4. Each Person Can Do Something for the Home. — That idea is em- phasized by family discussions, and by the fellow-feeling among the members of the family. Each person can do some- thing for the home, and the successful home is the home in which each per- son is doing something for the rest of the family. Most people like to help. Lending a hand yields Each person can do something for the home. HOME AS A SPIRIT OF FELLOWSHIP 73 a great deal of satisfaction both to the lender and the person who is assisted. Helping is a privilege that is often highly regarded. No well-regulated family will deny to its mem- bers the advantage that comes from being helpful. Helpfulness trains the helpful person. It likewise binds together the entire family with the strongest ties of fellow-feeling and mutual understanding. The burden of directing the help in the home falls on the mother. Courage and cheerfulness she needs, for her tasks are often exacting and wearing. Her work is highly useful, however. She is the center of the home spirit. Many times the mother says, '^ It is easier for me to do it myself than to get Mary to do it." For the time being that may be true. Finally, however, when Mary has learned her work thoroughly, she will relieve her mother of that part of the household burden. Even though it is much more difficult for the mother to persuade Mary to do the work than it is for her to do the work herself, she cannot afford to take from Mary the training that the work brings, nor from the family the cementing power of mutual helpfulness. Questions for Study and Review 1. Why is a home without home spirit almost worse than no home at all ? 2. What kind of spirit prevails in your home ? 74 COMMUNITY CIVICS 3. Can you tell whether or not there is home spirit in the home as you enter it ? How ? 4. What is the importance of home spirit to the members of the family ? 5. For what are the people of the South noted ? Can you give any reasons for your answer ? 6. What is meant by true hospitality ? 7. What makes a home hospitable ? 8. What is family loyalty ? 9. When does family loyalty count ? 10. Name some instances of family loyalty. 11. Why do parents make so many sacrifices for their children .? 12. How can the boy or girl show the loyalty he or she has for the home and family ? 13. What is there about family loyalty that holds the family together .? 14. How may family loyalty be developed .? 15. Why do some parents look down upon their children as inferior to them ? 16. How do children feel when the parents think they are inferior .? 17. Make a list of the reasons why parents know more than the children. Does knowing more mean that they are better ? Explain your answer. 18. In what ways does comradeship help both the children and the parents with whom the children are comrades I 19. There are times when it is necessary for parents to be stern, but in general, what kind of power should the parents exercise ? 20. Make a list of the results of comradeship in the home. 21. What are some of the things to be gained by each one's helping in the home ? 22. Why do you think the mother often says that it is easier HOME AS A SPIRIT OF FELLOWSHIP 75 for her to do a thing herself rather than ask some member of the family to do it ? Has she ever said that to you ? 23. What do you gain by doing the tasks your mother asks you to do ? What does the family gain ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the ways in which the home spirit could best be developed in each one of the following homes: (i) A home with a father, mother, and two children of four and six. (2) A home with a father, mother, and four children — the youngest eight and the oldest seventeen. (3) A home with a father, mother, and three grown-up children — the youngest twenty. II. Name the things which you would do to develop home spirit in each one of the above families : (i) During the summer months. (2) During the winter months. III. Make a list of the things which you think would result in the greatest amount of home spirit in your home. IV. Do you know any instances of home loyalty ^ (i) Loyalty of parents to children. (2) Loyalty of children to parents. (3) Loyalty of children to each other. V. Tell in each of the above instances the reasons why the loyalty exists. VI. Do you know of any instances where family loyalty learned by children in the home with their parents has been carried by them into the homes which they have made them- selves ? VII. What is your idea of comradeship between parents and children ? VIII. What kind of comradeship can exist between : (i) A father and a baby of two or three years .? (2) A father and a boy of ten ? (3) A father and a boy of sixteen .? (4) A father and a daughter of seven .? (5) A father and a daughter of fourteen ? 76 COMMUNITY CIVICS IX. Answer the above questions for the spirit of comradeship between a mother and her children at each of the designated ages. X. Name some of the indications of comradeship between parents and children which you have seen in the homes of people in your neighborhood. XL If you should be given charge of your own home, how would you go about developing a spirit of comradeship between parents and children ? XII. Do you believe that there is a danger that children who are comrades with their parents take unfair advantage of their comradeship ? Do you know of any instances of this ? XIII. Name the ways in which you think children can be most readily made to feel that they are a part of the home life. XIV. Answer the above question for children of twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. XV. Answer it for children of seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. XVI. Take your own home as an illustration, and make a list of the things which each member of the family does for the other members of the family. XVII. What things do you think each person in your own home should do for the other members of the family .? XVIII. Suppose you were in charge of a family ; what duties would you assign to each member of the family in each of the following cases ? (i) A father, a mother, and two babies. (2) A father, a mother, baby, and boy of six. (3) A father, a mother, a girl of eight, a boy of six, and a baby. (4) A father, a mother, two older brothers, and a sister of ten. XIX. How would you modify your answers to questions in Exercise XVIII if there was a maidservant in the house ? If there were a maidservant and two men working on the place .? CHAPTER VIII The Home and the Neighborhood I. The Neighborhood Is Made Up of Homes. — Each boy and girl, each man and woman, is a member of some home. The success of the home as a spirit of good fellowship, as a living place, and as a working place depends upon all of the members of the family. If one shirks his part, all suffer. If each does the best he can, all benefit. The home is built upon the lives of the individuals that compose it. They are the home in its home sense. Homes make up a neighborhood in exactly the same way that individuals make up homes. The neighborhood consists of a group of homes, and the spirit of those homes make the spirit of the neigh- borhood. Looked at from the other side, each person is a citizen of the neighborhood in exactly the same sense that he is a citizen of the home. The neighborhood is really a larger home, to which every one living thereabouts belongs. People may shirk their neighborhood responsi- bilities just as they may shirk their home responsi- 77 78 COMMUNITY CIVICS THE HOME AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD 79 bilities. They may pay no attention to neighbors and neighbodiness. They may believe that it is none of any one's business what is happening to the man or the baby on the back road. People may feel that way if they like, but if they do, the neighbor- " That is a fine-looking neighborhood," hood will lack the spirit of neighborliness which is to the community what the home spirit is to the home. Homes make the neighborhood in two ways : first, by their appearance, and second, by their attitude or feeling. The appearance of a group of homes is the appearance of the neighborhood. In 8o COMMUNITY CIVICS driving through a section of country one is im- pressed by the whitewashed fences, the well-con- structed farm buildings, the neatness of the fields, the trim, well-groomed front lawns, the hedges, the shade trees. There is a thought that comes at once to a person's mind : " That is a fine-looking neighbor- hood. I shouldn't mind living somewhere along here myself." The neighborhood is attractive be- cause each homestead is attractive. The passer-by is taken with the group picture of well-kept homes. The spirit of the neighborhood is less on the sur- face than the appearance, but it is even more impor- tant, particularly to the neighbors. When you move into a new neighborhood, it makes a great deal of difference to you how the neighbors feel and act. If they are cheery and good-natured, you are ap- preciative and glad. If they are aloof and distant, you feel the coldness and dissatisfaction of this lack of neighborliness. 2. Each Home Should Be Neighborly. — There should be one law written on the front page of the life of every home, — the law of neighborliness. The mother can be neighborly. She can lend a hand in time of sickness by helping a neighbor with the work, or sending to her some little delicacy that shows her feeling of neighborliness. She can help the children in their neighborhood play by keeping an open house for them. It means a great deal to a neighborhood to say : '' Oh, yes ! Mrs. Wallace. THE HOME AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD 8i She's always glad to have as many of the children as will stop there for a half hour on their way home from school. She goes to a lot of trouble for them, too. She has cookies and apples to eat, she plays some records, and she does her best to make them There are many ways in which people can be neighborly. feel at home." Mrs. Wallace, on her side says : " I always like to have the other children stop in to see my girls and boys. It helps them to have a good time together." A few such women will put a new spirit into the dullest neighborhood. The spirit of the neighborhood is also seen in the life of the farm. Neighbors lend a hand to the man 82 COMMUNITY CIVICS who is " short-handed." In some neighborhoods, a whole valley will *' swap time " at harvest, or in the filling of silos. The first three days of a week, all of the teams and men go over to neighbor Brown's and fill his silo. The last three days they fill Thomas's silo, next door, and so on it goes, up and down the valley, until all of the silos are filled. Meanwhile, the men have worked side by side, eaten dinner together, talked, laughed, and joked. At the end of the silo-filling season, more work has been done than each man could have accomplished working on his own place, and there is a feeling of good fellowship among all who have had a part in the work. The cooperative creameries, fruit growers' associ- ations, market gardeners' associations, and the like are larger examples of the neighborhood spirit. Expressed in a word, this spirit is, — all hands around for the neighborhood. 3. Any Home Can Stimulate Neighborhood Life. — There are many ways in which the life of the neighborhood can be brought together and made worth while. One of the oldest ways of helping along neighborhood life was to have a reading circle, a sewing circle, a literary circle, or a debating society meet around from house to house, once a week or twice a month. Then, if no one began entertaining so extensively as to make it a burden, all enjoyed the neighborhood spirit which entertaining created. THE HOME AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD 83 There are other ways of starting neighborhood Hfe. One man may whitewash his fences, or cut down the brush and brambles along his lanes ; or trim out beside the main road, or paint his buildings, or plant out his front yard in neat, orderly fashion. By this example he leads every one else to do the One man may whitewash his fence, same thing. He starts the idea going, and the chances are that unless he is richer than his neighbors, so that they feel unable to afford what he has, they will follow suit and the whole neighborhood will be built up. A good illustration of what one family can do for the neighborhood comes from Putman County, Illinois, where John Swaney and his wife gave 24 84 COMMUNITY CIVICS acres of land to found a consolidated school. The tract lies a mile and a half from the nearest village, and ten miles from the nearest town. The school itself is in an open country community which was originally settled by a band of Quakers. The agitation for consolidation in Putman County led to the gift of the 24 acres as a campus for a local consolidated school. The gift was generous to a degree beyond the possibilities of most country people, yet the results of the act have more than justified the expectations of the givers. The community banded itself together to erect a school property worthy of the campus which John Swaney and his wife had provided. The school cost ^15,000 equipped. It is of brick with four classrooms, two laboratories, a library, offices, a manual training shop, a domestic science kitchen, and a basement playroom. The building is lighted, heated, and ventilated in the most modern fashion. The John Swaney School thus came into existence with an equipment adequate for any school and elaborate for a school situated far from the channels of trade and industry. The course of study organized includes all of the modern specialized work which the effective city school is able to do. Securing good teachers and possessing unique facilities, the school carries boys and girls through a series of years, in which intellectual, experimental, manual, recreationary, THE HOME AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD 85 and social activities combine to make the school the center of community life and community in- fluence. The school campus is used as a laboratory and a playground. The trees provide subject matter for a course in horticulture. The fertile land is turned to agricultural use, and the broad expanse of twenty- four acres furnishes additional space for games and sports. The social life of this school is no less eff^ective than is its location and equipment. The teachers' cottage, an old school building converted for this purpose, furnishes a center for the life of the teaching staff, and makes a background for the social life of the entire school. There are two strong literary societies, including that of the pupils in the school. Each year plays are presented on the school stage. There are musical organizations, parents' conferences, entertainments, and community gatherings of all descriptions. In every sense, the John Swaney School is a community center. Prosperity has followed in the wake of this ed- ucational development. The John Swaney School is known far and wide, and consequently farm renters and farm buyers alike seek the locality because of the educational opportunities which the school affords for their children, and because of the social opportunities which the community around the school affords for them. 86 COMMUNITY CIVICS 4. Neighbors Can Work and Play Together. — Neighborhood hfe can be made interesting and attractive for every one. The task of making a good neighborhood is exactly the same as the task of making a good home. People must bear and forebear. They must learn to under- '-i r - • ^^-■-' '^HHPSHl^H PHIH^HJIi^^HHI fcpsj^ ', r ■B PP! r^^^'^S^J ^^^^^■Ir ' air Ji^^^i^^l Wii »i^B Hufl ^^e^^lr^' *T" ^* ^ai^^^^^i ^^^1 IHBT^ t ^.^ditHHHHHHI HHHHHHH^BBI Neighbors can work and play together. Stand one another and to put up with queer ways and strange ideas. There is scarcely a home in which trouble would not be stirred up pretty easily if people tried to misunderstand one another. There is not a neighborhood where trouble cannot be made and every one kept unhappy. On the other side, in nearly every home there is a way to keep the family together, to cement the home THE HOME AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD 87 ties, and to build up home spirit. The same thing is true of the neighborhood. It can be done if people are of a mind to do it. The neighborhood spirit depends on the neighbors and on their feelings for one another. It is made up of homes and people. Together they are the neighborhood. Questions for Study and Review 1. How do the lives of individuals compose the home? What happens when some one shirks his part ? 2. Of what does the neighborhood consist ? 3. In what ways may people shirk their neighborhood re- sponsibilities ? 4. Make a list of the things you might expect to find in an attractive neighborhood. 5. In order that the neighborhood be attractive, what first must be done to the home ? 6. How does the spirit of the neighbors affect the neighbor- hood ? 7. Make a list of the ways in which children can be neigh- borly. 8. Make a list of the ways in which the mother can be neigh- borly. 9. Is there a woman Hke Mrs. Wallace in your community ? 10. Tell how the spirit of the neighborhood is shown in the life of the farm. 11. What are some of the older ways of helping along neigh- borhood life ? 12. What are some of the newer ways ? 13. Tell all you know about what John Swaney and his wife did for a neighborhood in Putnam County, 111. 14. What can you say of the social life of this school .? 88 COMMUNITY CIVICS 15. What effect would a school* like that established by John Swaney and his wife have upon farm buyers ? 16. Why is the task of making a good neighborhood like that of making a good home ? 17. On what does the neighborhood depend ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a rough map of your neighborhood, showing : (i) The homes. (2) The schools. (3) The churches. (4) The villages or towns. II. What additions might be made to your neighborhood : (i) In the way of buildings.? (2) In the way of institutions or community centers .? III. Suppose that you had an opportunity to replan your neighborhood: (i) Where would you change the roads? (2) Where would you locate the school ? (3) What churches would you erect and where .? (4) Where would you build the houses ? IV. Name the things that should be chiefly considered in planning a neighborhood. V. If you were in a position to plan the layout of your entire neighborhood, how would you arrange it ? Draw a rough map, showing the proposed roads, buildings, farms, and the like. VI. Make a list of the things that the various families in your neighborhood are doing to foster neighborhood spirit. VII. Make a list of the things that might be done. VIII. What could your own home do to stimulate neighbor- hood spirit: (i) In the autumn? (2) In the spring? (3) Among the children ? (4) Among the grown-ups ? IX. Suppose you were the head of a family in your neigh- borhood ; what would you do to stimulate neighborhood spirit : (i) At Christmas time? (2) At Easter? (3) On the Fourth of July? (4) During the winter months ? (5) In the summer ? THE HOME AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD 89 X. What can be done to stimulate neighborhood spirit by : (i) The school? (2) The church? (3) The grange? XL Are the children in your school neighborly ? XII. Are the people that you see going to and from school neighborly ? XIII. What has the teacher done during the year to foster a neighborly spirit among the children ? among the parents .'' XIV. How can neighborly ideas best be taught in the school ? in the community ? XV. Write a composition telling why you like to be neigh- borly. CHAPTER IX The School Home I. The School Is a Larger Home. — It is the home of the children. It is the home where the boys and girls of the district spend a great part of their time during school days. Each pupil has a part in the work and the play of the school home in the same way that each member of the family has a part in the work and the play of the home. Upon the willingness and gladness with which each one does his part, the spirit and success of the school home depend. The teacher is the school mother. It is to her that the pupils look for wise direction and counsel and understanding. She divides the work and tells each one what he has to do just as one's mother does at home. She leads in all that concerns the welfare of the school home. When boys and girls think of the school as another and a larger home, it is easy to understand why they should always be loyal to it and bring to it their very best. It gives a reason for taking good care of all the desks and maps and books. For 90 THE SCHOOL HOME 91 like their own home, they care for their school home. The school home exists for a special purpose, that all the boys and girls of the district may secure an education. Part of this education comes from the The teacher is the school mother. study of books ; part of it comes through doing things ; and another large part come? through being a member of the school family. 2. Some Schools Eat a Warm Lunch Together at Noon. — Instead of taking their dinner pails and lunch baskets outdoors and eating as fast as possible, 92 COMMUNITY CIVICS the boys and girls take a little more time for eating. Families take turns sending the supplies necessary for cooking soup or cocoa or something warm and nourishing for dinner, and the big girls take turns seeing that it is cooked. A Homemade Fireless Cooker. In one country school a twelve-year-old girl read in a farm paper on the reading table how to make a fireless cooker. She took a box and some hay and muslin and made one according to directions. In this the school often cooked rice for the lunch. Where schools have tried this warm lunch at noon, THE SCHOOL HOME 93 they have found it made a stronger home feeHng, besides being good for the health of the pupils, and giving a chance to study some things about cooking and about good table manners. 3. Pupils Can Make Many Things for Their School Home. — In one school the boys made a reading table from pieces that were left over in building a house near the school. They stained it a pretty brown, and on it they put many farm journals and other magazines that people who had already read them gave to the school. These boys made a rack, too, for filing farm bulletins, and a sand table for the little children. They mended a place in the fence that was broken, and made a cupboard to put the dinner pails away in. The girls did their part, too. They stenciled and hemstitched sash curtains for the windows. They stretched dark green burlap in one corner on the wall on which the best school work could be mounted. They drew each month a pretty calenda^ on the blackboard. When they had finished all these things, their school home meant much more to these boys and girls because they had shared in making it home- like. In every school there is a chance for the pupils to help by making things that are needed. 4. Boys and Girls Can Keep the School Home Clean. — To do this, means more than keeping desks neat and scraps picked up off the floor. A clean 94 COMMUNITY CIVICS school home has fresh air, plenty of light, and pure water. A heating and ventilating plant will provide fresh air. If a school does not have a good ventilating A Good System of School Ventilation. system, boards can be fitted into several of the windows and they can be raised at recess time so that the air in the room can be entirely changed. If the air in the schoolroom is too warm and is im- pure, it causes dull minds, headaches, and sickness. School wells need much care. After standing THE SCHOOL HOME 95 during vacations, they should be thoroughly pumped out. Pupils should not drink out of the same cup or dipper. A drinking fountain or individual drink- 1 l^^HI ' mm Individual drinking cups are necessary from a standpoint of cleanli- ness and good health. ing cups are necessary from the standpoint of clean- liness and good health. The lighting of the schoolroom means much to the comfort and happiness of the school home. The north light is especially good. It is always desirable 96 COMMUNITY CIVICS to have the Hght come from the back and one side over the left shoulders of the pupils. If the win- dows are on opposite sides of the room, shades and sash curtains can be adjusted so there will not be cross lights. Even though a schoolhouse has not been built with modern lighting and heating plants and with the latest ideas of comfort and sanitation, the boys and girls can do much to make it so clean and so livable that as soon as any one enters it, he feels its home spirit and recognizes that it is a good place in which to live and study and keep well and strong. 5. The School Home Should Be Beautiful. — Cleanliness and sanitation are the fundamental re- quirements. To these should be added beautiful things. The boys and girls can keep a vase on the teacher's desk filled with wild flowers in their season — from the earliest violet to the snow- caught bittersweet in the fall, bringing the beauty of the out-of-doors into the schoolroom. The walls should be a plain color. On the walls should be hung a few good pictures. A mistake is sometimes made in having too many pictures that are not good enough in quality. Two or three copies of masterpieces, framed simply, will add much to the beauty of the schqolroom and make it a better place in which to study. There is a wonderful opportunity for the boys and girls to help make their school grounds more beauti- THE SCHOOL HOME 97 ful — shade trees and shrubs and flowers and vines will grow there if planted and cared for, and the grounds around the school home may be as beautiful as the best-kept home grounds in the district. The school home should be beautiful. In one county the boys and girls were given bulbs to plant a tulip bed on every country school ground. They planted them in the fall, and under the earth and the leaves the roots were growing all the long cold winter months — and early in the spring, when the snow had just gone off, the flowers appeared with their burst of gold and crimson beauty. Each year 98 COMMUNITY CIVICS the tulip beds are bright with bloom, bringing anew their message of courage and gladness. These boys and girls are very proud of their tulip beds and they have been the inspiration for many other plans .for making the school grounds more attractive. L :i^^r V0^- Making a School Garden. A plan should be made for the planting of the school grounds, and year by year this should be followed out. In order that this plan may be the very best, pupils can consult with the Extension De- partment of their State College of Agriculture, who can send expert information about the planting of grounds in such a way that the laws of beautiful THE SCHOOL HOME 99 arrangement may be observed and the right varieties of trees and shrubs and flowers planted. Committees can be appointed for taking care of the grounds during the summer, so that the things that have been done during the school year will not be lost through neglect. In this way the school grounds may become so beautiful that every one in the district will be proud of them, and the boys and girls who have helped to make them so will love their school home for which they have done so much. 6. Each Member of the School Family Has a Responsibility towards the School Home. — Only in this way can the school home reach its best. No boy or girl who is old enough to come to school is too young to take a share in helping make the school all that it is possible for it to become for the training of lives. But on the older pupils there is the added responsibility that comes with the strength and judgment that they have gained through living. Courtesy and kindness and a fine thoughtfulness for the common good and an active working for it must characterize the school home if it is to do its best work. Questions for Study and Review 1. Compare the school and the home. 2. What is the purpose of the school and how is this accom- plished ? 3. In what ways does a warm lunch at school help ? loo COMMUNITY CIVICS 4. What are some of the things which pupils can make for their school home ? 5. Why do you think it helps when the boys and girls make things for their school home ? 6. What is meant by a clean school ? 7. How can good ventilation be secured for a school ? 8. What precautions should be taken about the water supply ? 9. What is the right kind of lighting for a schoolroom ? 10. Tell several ways in which a schoolroom can be made beautiful. 11. How can the school grounds be beautified ? 12. Where can plans for planting school grounds artificially be secured ? 13. How can the grounds be cared for in the summer ? 14. What responsibility have the boys and girls who are pupils towards their school home ? Exercises foR Investigation and Discussion I. Do you think of your school as a larger home ? II. Make a list of the ways in which your school is home- like. III. What could be done to make your school more home- like : (i) By the pupils? (2) By the teacher? IV. What things could your school do beside teaching the children to study from books ? V. What are some of the things which you think a school might do that would help boys and girls secure an all-round education ? VI. Study your schoolhouse. (i) Make a list of the things that the boys might do to improve its appearance. (2) Make a list of the things that the girls might do to improve its appear- ance. (3) Suppose the older boys and girls should stay after THE SCHOOL HOM£ J J^^'O^^ ;^^!- school some day next week; what could they do to make the school more homelike ? VII. Study your school grounds. Make a plan to scale on the blackboard showing the location of the school, the fences, trees, etc. VIII. On another blackboard, draw a plan showing what improvements might be made to the school grounds, (i) Indicate the location of trees and shrubs to be planted on Arbor Day. (2) Show where flower beds and paths could be placed. (3) Provide for a playground. (4) Indicate the methods to be used to cover up ugly spots on the school grounds. IX. What might be done for the improvement of the school grounds: (i) This spring.? (2) During the fall? (3) Dur- ing the winter .? (4) What could be done by the boys .? (5) What could be done by the girls .? (6) What could be done by the parents ? X. Suppose your school had raised ^35 by an entertainment, to be expended for the improvement of the school. If you had the responsibility of spending this money, what would you plan to do with it ? In what ways would you have the pupils help .? XI. A well-to-do neighbor offers to give something to im- prove the school grounds. Write a letter to him suggesting : (i) That he give some of his time or some of the time of one of his hired men to make certain improvements to the school grounds. (2) That he give lumber or other building materials with which the older boys are to make improvements. (3) That he give money. Indicate the exact nature of the improve- ments that will be made by this money. XII. With your own school as it is at the present time, what would be the best plan at the least expense to the district for putting in : (i) Satisfactory heating and ventilating appara- tus .? (2) Pure water and some kind of drinking fountain or individual drinking cups? (3) The right kind of lighting? 4«a3tj^:0"!; COMMUNITY CIVICS XIII. List the most beautiful things you have in your school- house and on the grounds. XIV. What would be the first thing that you would add to make them more beautiful ? XV. Draw a plan of your school grounds as they are at present. Indicate, on this plan the changes you would make and the additions for the next three years. XVI. Name some of the most beautiful things you have seen in the yards and houses of your district which might be dupli- cated at school. CHAPTER X Good Books and Good Reading I. Books Are Friends. — Through them we come in touch with the best minds and the greatest thoughts of all time. In reading them we share in comradeship with the greatest men and women of the world. No one is ever lonely who has found the friendship of books. Some one has said : " Tell me the books a man reads, and I will tell you what kind of man he is." That is true of boys and girls everywhere. Country boys and girls are fortunate in having time to read. There are the long winter evenings which seem to call us to the books we love. Then there are the rainy days in the late summer when no one can work except the hired man who tinkers up the harness and paints the wagon. On such days, in the old barn up in the haymow, there is a wonder- ful chance for reading through, uninterrupted, '' Scot- tish Chiefs," or '' John Halifax, Gentleman," or " Hans Brinker," or any of the books we have found to be real and interesting. Books are not all good. Some books are cheap and trashy. The worst trouble in reading this 103 I04 COMMUNITY CIVICS kind of books is that they crowd out good books and spoil our appetite for the best Hterature. " But these are such exciting books of adventure," a boy will say. Or a girl will remark that she is just " so much interested in such love stories." And so they go on reading nothing but love stories and adven- tures. There are books of adventure and love stories written by the master writers that are fine and real and high in their ideals. When boys and girls be- gin their friendships among books, they should start with these. Then they will have no trouble with the others. Mothers and fathers, teachers and libra- rians can advise what books are good. In making friends with books, every boy and girl should make this resolve : " I will make friends only with good books and I will make friends with all the good books that I can." 2. Good Books Can Be Secured in Many Places. — In every school there are textbooks which are the basis for study. These are especially good friends because they are mastered so thoroughly. But along the line of any study in school, not all the good thoughts and the truth regarding it are to be found in one textbook. For this reason many schools have libraries in which may be found sup- plementary books, — histories and physiologies and geographical readers and all kinds of books which will give a broader and clearer idea of the subjects GOOD BOOKS AND GOOD READING 105 ^^^K^ ^^^^^^V^^^B^^^^^^^I ^H^K ^^1 County assistant checking and packing a box for a county station. Branch library at a trading center of about fifty people. io6 COMMUNITY CIVICS that are being studied. These supplementary books should be used a great deal by the pupils. In school libraries, besides these supplementary textbooks, there are good stories and poems, books of travel, biographies, and histories. Such books teach many things outside of school work. Almost every town has a free library and many states furnish free traveling libraries. Never has there been such a chance for securing good books- to read. Any country boy or girl who desires to read good books can secure them at little expense and without going very far for them. 3. Country Boys and Girls Are Specially Inter- ested in Country Life Literature. — They want to read all that is best in the world of books but they must not fail to include in their reading those books and bulletins that concern the country. There are many such books now and their number is constantly* increasing, as country life grows better and more and more writers are coming to appreciate its possi- bilities. Free Farmers' Bulletins that are exceedingly in- teresting and very helpful in a practical way can be secured from the United States Department of Agriculture at Washington and from the state Universities and Colleges of Agriculture. The United States Bureau of Education is publishing very help- ful bulletins now, too. Every country school and country home should GOOD BOOKS AND GOOD READING 107 have a classified set of these bulletins, dealing with local problems. They have been written by experts and can be depended upon to give the best and most up-to-date information in the practical subjects with which they deal. Bulletins can be secured on almost every subject that concerns a country community. A list of the subjects of all such bulle- tins can be secured on request and one's name can be placed on the mailing list for the announcement of all future bulletins that are published from time to time. 4. There Is Much of Help and Interest in Farm Journals and Magazines and in the Newspapers. — Every country boy and girl should keep up to date by reading some of the best periodicals. Any young person who does not read the papers and magazines is seriously handicapped because he is out of touch with what is going on in the world. There are some very good farm journals these days which deal with the things country people are most vitally interested in. Every one who lives in the country will want to keep in touch with at least one of these. The best magazines, too, are considering more and more subjects and current events that concern country people. In order to keep in touch with what is happen- ing in the county, state, and nation, country boys and girls must read the local newspaper and some good daily. Some farm homes have very little io8 COMMUNITY CIVICS reading matter in them. Boys and girls from these homes must make the very most of their advantages for reading at school and, as far as they can, should help secure books and papers for their homes. For to be well read is to be in touch with all the best thought of the day and every country boy and girl can be well read if in earnest in his desire for this. 5. Reading Must Be Done with a Purpose. — It is not the number of books and papers that we read that counts. It is the kind and the way in which we read them. To know well a few books and to have gained from them all that they have to give us is far better than to have skimmed through a great many. The greatest men and women the world has ever known mastered a few books and made them real friends. To know a few books well and to apply all that we read to our own everyday lives is what counts. A young hired man once brought a prize-winning sample of corn to the Farmers' Institute Corn Show. Read with a purpose. GOOD BOOKS AND GOOD READING 109 This young man had never had a chance to go to an agricultural college or even to a short course to study corn judging, yet he had selected his corn more intelligently than many who had been instructed in the selecting. When he was asked how he knew so much about selecting a good sample of corn, he replied : " I learned all I know through reading about it. I just got all the bulletins and premium lists I could that told how to select corn and then used what I had read." He had read with a purpose and gained much for his everyday life through this reading. Some boys and girls have a notebook and make notes on the things they read, writing down the authors, some of the best quotations, and any other things they want especially to remember. This helps to fix in their minds the best things. This plan or any other plan which adds depth and purpose to our reading is of value. When some- thing very beautiful is found in a book, it is best of all to memorize it. Then it belongs to a person and will remain for him to think of and use all through life. 6. It Is a Help to Have a Library of One's Own. — There are many books that are available these days that we do not have to own ourselves but when we find a book that means much to us, we shall wish to own it so that we can read it more than once and have it always at our hand. no COMMUNITY CIVICS A library can be started with only a few books, — two or three that^are the best one has ever read. To these can be added a few each year, until some day we shall have around us many of these book friends that can be turned to for companionship and knowledge and practical help. In this library, a boy or girl can keep a file of farm bulletins and a book in which are pasted clippings from papers that are of interest. It is certain that a person can have no greater resource on which to draw than to have read real good things and have these to turn to whenever needed. Questions for Study and Review 1. Of what use are books ? 2. Describe the kind of books which boys and girls should read. 3. Should pupils study more than their textbooks ? 4. Where can books be secured ? 5. What kind of books are of special interest to country boys and girls ? 6. What are farm bulletins and where can they be ob- tained ? 7. Of what value are farm journals and magazines ? 8. Why should boys and girls read the newspapers ? 9. What counts for the most in reading ? 10. How can a boy or girl apply what is read ? 11. Do you think it is helpful to record what is read ? 12. What is the use of starting a Hbrary of one's own ? GOOD BOOKS AND GOOD READING in Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of all the books that you have read. II. Which of these do you like best and why ? III. Write a letter to a friend, describing your favorite book. IV. Write a story on "My Favorite Book." (i) "My Favorite Book of Fiction." (2) "My Favorite Biography." (3) "My Favorite Book of Travels." (4) "My Favorite Textbook." (5) "My Favorite Book on Country Life." V. Give an illustration of the way in which some book that you have read has helped you: (i) In your studies at school. (2) In your experience with other people. (3) In your experi- ence with life. VI. Do you know of any book that describes : (i) Scenes such as those with which you are familiar ? (2) People with whom you are acquainted ? (3) Your own experiences ? VII. Which of the books that you know makes things seem most real ? Why .? VIII. Where can the boys and girls in your school district secure good books to read ? IX. From the books in your school library which the teacher recommends make a list of those which you have not read. X. Suppose you were helping to direct the reading of the boys and girls you know: (i) What general advice would you give them about reading ? (2) What books would you recommend to a boy ten years old ? fourteen years old ? A girl ten years old ? fourteen years old ? (3) Where would you tell them to get these books ? (4) If they were not interested, how would you go to work to interest them ? (5) What would you advise them as to starting a Hbrary ? (6) What magazines and newspapers would you recommend to them .? XL Get lists of the bulletins published by the Department of Agriculture at Washington ; by the State College of Agricul- ture, (i) Which of these bulletins apply particularly to the 112 COMMUNITY CIVICS locality in which you live ? (2) Get a bulletin on local soils. Examine it and find out what it says about the soil on your farm. (3) Read one of the bulletins on local conditions and write a brief essay telling about it. (4) Read one of the bulletins on local conditions and tell the class what it contains. XII. Do you know of any people who read farm bulletins .? Why do they read them ? XIII. Do you know of any people who have been helped by farm bulletins ? In what ways have they been helped ? XIV. Make a list of all the farm journals that you know, (i) Which of these journals do you read .? (2) Which do you like best ? Why ? (3) What is the best thing that you have seen in a recent issue of a farm journal ? XV. If your school had ^25 to spend in buying books for a school library and it was purposed to secure books that would be helpful to every one living in the district, what twenty books would be your choice ? XVI. If your father and mother can spend ^10 each year for reading matter, what should you like to have on the list for the coming year, taking into consideration the interests and needs of the whole family ? CHAPTER XI Learning Teamwork at School I. There Is Happiness and Success in Doing Things Together. — Learning to do things with •1 M ki. .- ^^&^' ^ w*' ^ s^ Doing Things Together. Other people is one of the greatest lessons. School is the first place in which boys and girls have a 114 COMMUNITY CIVICS chance to learn this lesson and it is one of the most important parts of the education which school can give. The whole idea of school is based on belief in the value of teamwork. There is no place for selfish- ness in a school. Teamwork must always be the rule if the school is to succeed. There are many interesting things, besides the ordinary classwork and program of the school, which boys and girls can do together there. Some schools make model farms — about five feet square, planning the fields and the crop rotation for each for five years, putting in the fences and the telephone and the house and barn and silo. In Montana, they even put in the irrigation system. In the mak- ing of this farm, every pupil contributes some thought or plan or skill in workmanship. When it is finished, it is the product, not of one boy or girl, but of the best efforts of the whole school. It is the result of teamwork. Schools can make wonderful collections together, too, of native woods, of wild flowers, of weed seeds, or of minerals. In such collections every one can have a part. Where boys and girls work together much finer collections can be made than where one works alone. 2. Boys and Girls Learn to do Things Together by Playing Together. — The best kind of games are those games that require teamwork. No one LEARNING TEAMWORK AT SCHOOL 115 member of the team can think of personal success. All think of the success of the team. A game that is played by teams always has cap- tains and sides and a score. There are a great many such games that can be played at recess and noon on a country school ground. The best known are baseball, basket ball, and volley ball. School work can be planned to develop team work. Did your school ever choose sides for spell- ing or ciphering or for geography or reading .? If it has, you know what fun it is sometimes to have teamwork in school lessons. Through it comes the lesson that for either side to win every person on that side must take a creditable part ; that one per- son cannot win alone. Sometimes schools are divided in two sides with leaders for giving programs. Or the schoolroom and grounds may be divided to see which division can be kept the neatest. And always there comes the same lesson. It takes every one working to- gether to succeed. The leader alone cannot make his side the best. 3. All Must Join in Heartily if Games Are to Succeed. — Every boy and girl has tried to get up a game with some one in the crowd who says : " Oh ! that is no fun ! " " Don't let's play." " Fm tired of that ! " No game can go on with such a boy or girl around. They must either leave tl^e crowd or else the fun and spirit of the game are sure ii6 COMMUNITY CIVICS to be spoiled. No boy or girl can afford to be a " pull-back " unless the thing that the crowd is going to do seems to him to be wrong. The world likes " boosters." The world likes ''boosters." The "booster'' is just the opposite of the " pull-back." He sees a chance in everything. The " booster " leads the crowd because he can LEARNING TEAMWORK AT SCHOOL 117 look ahead, pick out something for the crowd to do, and then help along until they do it. The " booster " begins games. He knows good games ; he enjoys playing them ; and he gives a part of his enthusiasm to others. He keeps the crowd interested and lively. He has new ideas and new suggestions. As soon as people are tired of one thing, he has another ready at hand. The " booster " is the man who helps out In the neighborhood. Some one suggests a camp meeting, a picnic, or a family reunion. The '' booster " goes to work on it. He talks it up ; writes letters about it ; and has notices put in the papers. He is full of the idea and, in a short time, he has the whole community full of it, too. He never stops to think of failure. If any one suggests that the thing will not succeed, the " booster " answers, " Just you wait and see ! " He says it, too, in a tone of enthu- siasm and vigor that sometimes convinces even the doubter and the " pull-back." The '' booster " is always looking ahead, asking himself, " Well, what shall we do next ? " He sees things in the future that other people do not see because they forget to look for them. The '' pull-back " has his eyes over his shoulder. He is constantly pointing backward, and talking about " the good old times." He shakes his head sadly when anything new is mentioned. For him, good times are past times. The future is a blank wall. ii8 COMMUNITY CIVICS The " booster " looks over his shoulder once in a while to take in the landscape and see how things are back there, but most of the time, he is busy looking forward. And such a jolly time as he has, wondering, searching, and planning. He sees that the things that are coming will be the best things if some one makes them the best, so he sets out to do it. Things center around the *' booster." People look to him for ideas and help. They come to ask him what he sees, and go away glad that they came. The " booster," with his forward look, is a prophet and a worker for the better things that are to be. The person who is continually finding fault with the community in which he belongs is never in great demand. The boys and girls who find fault with their schools, the citizens who find fault with their government, and the church-goers who object to the conduct of their church, always leave a bad taste in the mouth of those to whom they talk. On the other hand, people are glad to meet any one who has a good word to say about the institutions with which he is connected. The " boost " idea carries with it the thought of making the most of the good things of the com- munity and as speedily as possible doing away with the bad things of the community. Every com- munity has its good points. They are the things most worth talking about, outside of that com- LEARNING TEAMWORK AT SCHOOL 119 munity. Every community has its bad points. They are the things against which each community should work with all of the vigor at its command. 4. In Team Work There Is Always Considera- tion for Others. — Good sportsmanship is unself- ish and just in its appreciation of good work by whomever that work may be done. It cheers good playing done by the other side. It is thoughtful always of the weaker and less efficient members. Perhaps real teamwork shows itself most clearly in a school in the way the boys and girls treat the smaller children or any pupil who is handicapped by being slow to learn or who takes part poorly in the games. A good team is always loyal to the captain and does not question the decision of the umpire. So the team spirit of a school is shown in its attitude to the teacher, who is the leader of the school. A fine loyalty and respect and unquestioned accept- ance of her decisions show that a pupil is playing his part well in the school. 5. Through Working Together It Is Possible to Make a Record for the School. — As a part of the school community each pupil should do his best to make a record for the school. It is true that the record of a school depends to a large degree upon the boys and girls of the school. If all the pupils stand for thorough scholarship, high standards of behavior, the right kind of work I20 COMMUNITY CIVICS and play and loyalty to their school and teacher, it is possible to make a splendid record for the school. Almost every country school has a certain standing in its community. Some districts are proud of their school because of the record it has made and the kind of work it does. Other districts are not so proud A School Exhibit. of their school because somehow the school has not learned the lesson of teamwork and play. Every boy and girl in the country school should work to bring up the standing of the school in the com- munity. The school is theirs. Its record is their record. If it makes a high score in the things that LEARNING TEAMWORK AT SCHOOL 121 a school stands for, it will be because all the pupils in the school have learned how to take their part on the school team and work earnestly and unselfishly for the good of the whole school. Questions for Study and Review 1. Why is it important to learn to do things together ? 2. In what ways is school based on the idea of team- work ? 3. Make a list of some of the things that schools can do together. 4. What is the value of playing together ? 5. What kind of games teach the most about playing to- gether ? 6. Name some of the best games for teamwork. 7. How can the apparatus be secured for these games ? 8. Why do you think it is important that pupils should play games at recess and noon ? 9. Tell ways in which school work can develop team- work. 10. What are the characteristics of good sportsmanship ? 11. What is a "pull-back"? How does he influence the community .? 12. What is a "booster" ? How does he influence the com- munity ? 13. Why does the world like boosters ? 14. How does real team spirit show itself best in a school ? 15. How is the team spirit of a school shown in its relation- ship to the teacher ? 16. Upon what does the record of a school depend .? 17. How can a school make a good record ^ 122 COMMUNITY CIVICS Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of all the things which your school does to- gether. II. Explain how the rules of your school are based upon the need that exists for doing things together. III. If your teacher should ask each pupil in the seventh or eighth grades to suggest one thing that your school could do together that you have not done, what would you suggest ? IV. What games does your school play ? Do all the pupils take part ? What new games would you suggest that they might enjoy ? Could you teach them how to play these new games ? V. If you were planning for the placing of a baseball dia- mond and a basket ball court on your school ground, where would you locate them ? VI. If your school ground is too small to provide for a larger play space, is there any way in which room for play can be obtained ? (i) Will the school commissioners buy extra ground ? (2) Will any farmer in the neighborhood give a piece of land ? (3) Will the parents in the neighborhood club together to buy a piece of land ? VII. Your school has decided that it should have additional room for play. Plan out a campaign which would aim to secure this play space, (i) How would you start such a campaign ? (2) Who would be called upon to do the work? (3) How would you advertise it ? (4) To whom would you appeal for funds or land ? (5) Whom would you put on the committee to work up the project ? (6) What would you ask for ? (7) Plan for a public meeting in which the whole question is to be brought up. VIII. Write a short essay on: (i) The life of the best "booster" in the neighborhood. (2) The life of the best "booster" in the school. LEARNING TEAMWORK AT SCHOOL 123 IX. Suppose that you were given charge of your local school : (i) What would you do to make it the best school in your section of the country ? (2) What would you do to make it the most effective in bringing up the standards of the scholars ? (3) What would you do to give it the greatest influence with the homes in the neighborhood ? (4) What would you do to make the school the most use to the older people ? X. You have made up your mind to do everything in your power to improve the conditions in your neighborhood, (i) To what people would you go for help ? (2) What would you ask each one of them to do ? (3) What would you try to do your- self .? (4) To what organizations would you turn .? What part should you expect each one of them to play ? XI. Write a letter to a friend urging him to become a "booster." XII. State ways in which the older pupils in your school could do more for the younger children. XIII. Do the best players in your school use the baseball grounds to the exclusion of those who cannot play so well .? XIV. Write up a set of rules for the use of your baseball diamond, (i) Try to give the younger boys a chance. (2) Try to give every boy an opportunity to get some baseball practice. (3) Allow time enough for the better players who are on the team to get their practice. XV. Try to write a school song, a school yell, a school watchword. XVI. Write a brief essay about the person in your school who shows the most team spirit. XVII. Describe the record which your school has now; state how it is known in the district; tell how this record might be improved. CHAPTER XII The School and the Community I. The School Is Closely Related to the Farms and the Homes of the District. — It exists to train better farmers, better home makers and better citi- zens. The things a boy or girl does at home, if done in the right way, are quite as much a part of their education as the things done at school. Because of this, many country schools are now giving credit at school for home work, — for milking the cows, washing the dishes, getting the meals, plowing a field, — if it is done well. From this same idea of the educational value of work at home has grown the movement of Boys' and Girls' Clubs. Schools help to interest boys and girls to undertake these club projects at home and to carry them through. There are thousands of girls and boys in Corn Clubs, Tomato Clubs, Garden- ing Clubs, Canning Clubs, Bread Clubs, Pig Clubs, and so forth. Those making the best record in each state have been given trips to the National Capital at Washington. Many wonderful records have been made. Walker 124 THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 125 Members of the Boys' Clubs. Lee Dunston, of Alabama, grew two hundred and thirty-two bushels of corn on an acre and Eloise Parsons, of Iowa, cleared ^143.24 on a tenth of an 126 COMMUNITY CIVICS acre of tomatoes. In all this club work accurate record has been kept of the cost of growing the crop and of the total income from the product ; and a story of how the crop was grown has been written. Warren dorreff While l^brns ^V fl^H I^^^H^^^i ^^■^^^yW^^^^^w . y. Mi If you have ever had experience in raising poultry, it is not hard to write something interesting about it. It has been a great education to link up the home and the farm and the school in this way. 2. Country Schools Should Teach about Country Things. — The best country school is one that fits itself to the needs of country boys and girls and country people. Such a school finds lessons in corn THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 127 and in clover and in the wonderful things all around in the country. Compositions can be based on farm and home sub- jects. It is not hard to write well about the things we know and are interested in. So country boys and girls enjoy writing on farm and home subjects. If you have ever had experience in raising poultry, it is not hard to write something interesting about it. If you know just the way that the kitchen of a country home should 'be planned in order to save time and work, you like to tell about that. Each country boy and girl has some pet theme or hobby, about which he can write and talk interestingly. The right kind of school leads to a more intelligent under- standing of the country and its problems. Arithmetic problems can deal with farm crops and other matters of farm interest. Country boys and girls should learn how to solve the kind of prob- lems that come up at home. They should know how to tell the number of bushels of corn in a crib, or wheat or oats in a bin ; how to figure up scale tickets ; how to keep records of the cost of growing crops ; how to estimate the cost of tilling a field and of filling a silo. The chief business of country school arith- metic is to teach country boys and girls how to solve the problems that are met with every day in the course of country life. Manual training in country schools can train for country tasks. Manual training is considered an 128 COMMUNITY CIVICS Training for Country Tasks. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 129 important part of education. It is that training which teaches a person to do things skillfully with his hands. Once there were some people who thought that all education consisted in learning from books. They believed only in training the head. Now, we believe that the ideal education is that of the three "HV'— the education of the Head, the Hand, and the Heart. To train the hands of country boys and girls, work should be given that they can use in the country. In some country high schools, blacksmithing is taught and the plan- ning of model farm buildings. The splicing of ropes, making of rope The splicing of ropes and tying dif- ferent kinds of handy farm knots afford excellent manual training. halters, and tying different kinds of handy farm knots afford excellent manual training and can often be used to advantage on the farm. On one farm the hay rope broke in the midst of the haying. There seemed nothing to do except to stop work and lose the time of all hay hands, while some one went to town for a new rope. Just then the farmer's son came into I30 COMMUNITY CIVICS the barn and said : " I can splice the rope in a few minutes so it will be as good as new. I learned how at school last week." And that farmer believes now in his school more than ever before. Girls can learn how to make devices for lightening the labor at home and how to make things that are The school must express the life of the farms and the homes in the district. beautiful and useful in a country home. Sewing is only one part of the manual work that will benefit a country girl. She has many tasks that require nimbleness of finger and quickness of eye and hand. Reading and current events should consider the THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 131 farm and the home. In fact there is no subject in the whole course at school which should not be studied with regard to the country surroundings of the school. Geography should take up first of all the study of the school district. History should begin with the community in which the school is located. The school must express the life of the farms and the homes in the district. Only in this way can it give the best training for life to the boys and girls who attend it ; only in this way can it be of the great- est real service. 3. The School Belongs to the Community. — A larger part of the taxes paid on the property in the district goes to support the school than for all other things put together. Yet assessors say that very few people ever complain about paying the school tax. Because the school 'belongs to the people and is supported and directed by them, it owes the greatest possible service not only to the boys and girls who go to school but to the entire community. The community-serving school that helps the farms and the homes of the district ; that touches every life in the district ; that leads in the building up of a community spirit and in the strengthening of every community interest, uniting the people of the district in working for the best things is the kind of school that country people are asking for to-day. 132 COMMUNITY CIVICS 4. The Country School Can Help the Farms of the District. — There are many ways in which they Many country schools test the seed corn for the farmers. can do this. Many country schools test the seed corn for the farmers. Cook County, Ilhnois, has THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 133 led in this work. The corn has been brought in from all the farms to the schoolhouse, where it has been numbered and tested for germination, and only the ears having a perfect germination test are planted on the farms of the district. Information as to the best way of testing seed corn was secured from the most reliable sources, and the work done systemati- cally and thoroughly, so that the results could be depended upon. In one school, weed seeds were identified ; and when clover or alfalfa seed was bought for planting on any of the farms of the district, a sample was brought to the school, and if any bad weed seeds, such as quack grass or Canadian thistle, were found in it, the purchaser was told of it, so that the seed could be returned and the district saved from being troubled with these weeds. 5. The Country Schoolhouse Is the Center of Com- munity Life. — It belongs to every one and should be used more than the school time hours. It should be the general public meeting place for the district. It is the place for elections and telephone meetings. In it can be held literary societies, debates, lecture courses, and Farmers' Clubs. Certain events may come to be celebrated annually at the schoolhouse, and so community customs be established which will create a love for the district and a loyalty to neighbors. Such a custom has been established in one country school district, where 134 COMMUNITY CIVICS each spring a dinner is given at the schoolhouse in honor of the people who have newly come to the com- munity. Some country schoolhouses are not very well fitted for community gatherings. More and more as 'i^ygraH ■ '"J #^ /m. ^ 1 An Annual Celebration at the Schoolhouses. we see their value, schoolhouses will be built with this purpose in mind, and so the school can serve the whole district as a meeting place. The school library can serve the community. Every one should be encouraged to draw out books THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 135 from it. Circulating libraries on subjects of local in- terest should be established at the school for the use of the community. It should always be possible to se- cure the latest information from farm bulletins here. Information in regard to the reading courses planned by the United States Commissioner of Education should be available at the school for the use of all who might be interested in them. Often the school may be used as a medium for the exchange of good books between the people of the district. It is certain that it can give great service as the center for distributing and making available the best reading for the community. Many country people are working to make the school the center of community life. This ideal, too, is one which country boys and girls should cherish as they work together for their school. If there are men or women, no matter how old, in the district who have never learned to read or write, the school belongs to them, and there they can come at night to learn the things they did not have a chance to learn when they were young. In this way, hundreds of older men and women have learned to read and write in the ** Moonlight Schools " held in the country schoolhouses of Rowan County, Kentucky. If there are young men and young women living in the district who have dropped out of school and are working, the school is theirs whenever they can 136 COMMUNITY CIVICS use it for good times, for singing schools or for literary- societies that will help them to continue learning about things. It is the center to which farmers can come to talk over better methods of agriculture and to which A "Moonlight School." mothers can come to talk together of the problems of home making. So country boys and girls should work for " The School at the Center/' the school that is the common meeting place for all, the school that is truly at the very center of all community life. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 137 Questions for Study and Review 1. For what does the country school exist ? 2. How are the things done at home a part of a boy*s or a girl's education ? 3. Tell about Boys' and Girls' Clubs and some of the records made in them. 4. How can language be related to country life ? Give a list of subjects for compositions that are about the farm or the farm home. 5. Explain how arithmetic can be made to fit the country needs. 6. What is manual training .? Is it an important part of an education .? 7. What kinds of manual training are especially useful for country boys and girls ? 8. Tell how geography and history can be made to fit the needs of the school district. 9. What reading should be encouraged in a country school .? 10. To whom does the school belong .? 11. What service does the school owe to the district .? 12. Why should the school be used for more than school hours ? 13. What kinds of meetings can be held at the schoolhouse ? 14. What is the value of the custom of observing certain annual events at the school ? Give an illustration. 15. How should the needs of the whole district be considered in planning the schoolhouse ? 16. What is meant by "the school at the center" ? 17. What use may the farmers make of the school building ? 18. What use may the mothers make of the school building ? 19. How can country boys and girls help make the school the center for the community life ? 138 COMMUNITY CIVICS Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the home work for which you think school credit should be given. II. Send to the United States Secretary of Agriculture for bulletins in regard to Boys' and Girls' Club Work, and their printed report of the work for the past year, (i) What part of the material is of interest in your community ? (2) What part of it might be used advantageously in the improvement of the farms in your community? (3) Have any of the suggestions already been in practice on your own farm ? (4) Write an essay telling the advantages of work done by the Agricultural Department. III. What was the record of the prize winners in the Boys' and Girls' Clubs of your state the past year? (i) How many were enrolled ? (2) How many were enrolled in your county and what was the highest county record ? (3) Who were en- rolled that you knew ? (4) Who from your school district ? IV. If there has never been any organization of Boys' and Girls' Clubs in your neighborhood: (i) What kind of club should you prefer to organize ? (2) Get from the State Agricul- tural College a statement showing the ways in which such clubs are organized. (3) Draw the plan for the organization of a club in connection with your school. (4) Which people in your community would take the most interest in helping such a club to get to work ? (5) How many of the children in the school are interested in the organization of Boys' and Girls' Clubs ? V. In which subject connected with the work of your home and your home farm are you most interested ? Write a short theme on it. VI. Write an arithmetic problem based on some transaction which has taken place on your own farm. VII. Work out a method for keeping account of the costs of THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 139 farming, (i) Plan a blank form in which there will be on one side space for the items of expense and on the other side space for the returns secured (Dr. and Cr.). (2) Make an account showing expenses and receipts from a certain crop on your farm. (3) From a certain field. (4) From a dairy. (5) For the canning of fruit or vegetables. (6) For bread making. (7) For the home garden or truck patch. (8) For the entire farm. VIII. Give a brief description of some poem about the coun- try that you have read. IX. Give a brief description of some story about the country that you have read. X. Write a poem and a story reflecting the spirit of country life. XI. Who are the officers of the school .? XII. What does each of the school officers do .f* (i) What are the official duties .? (2) What things do the officers of the school do other than their official duties .? XIII. Draw a plan of your schoolhouse as it is. (i) How many people will it seat? (2) Can desks be moved ? (3) Are there good lights for evening meetings .? (4) Are there horse sheds and hitching posts ? XIV. What improvements could be made in each of these respects .? XV. Draw another plan showing your ideal of a schoolhouse for the use of the people as a community center. Indicate on the plan : (i) The different rooms. (2) The heating and ventilating system. (3) The cloak room. (4) The windows. (5) The kind of furniture. (6) The number and position of benches. XVI. How many people besides the pupils have been in your schoolhouse in the past year? (i) How many of these people were adults ? (2) How many were parents of the children in the school ? (3) Why did they come ? XVII. Make a plan for getting people interested in coming I40 COMMUNITY CIVICS together at your schoolhouse. (i) At what times of the year would you have the meetings ? (2) On what occasions ? (3) What hoHdays would you celebrate by meetings at the school ? (4) What would you do at the meetings ? XVIII. Write a short composition, giving your ideas of "Our School at the Center." CHAPTER XIII School Work and Life Work I. The School Prepares for Life. — In fact, it not only prepares for life, it is a part of life. Through this school part of life, a life with wider boundaries The school prepares for life. and greater depths opens, bringing with it a greater chance for service. This is possible because of the preparation school has given. At first a boy or girl has only a responsibility as a 141 142 COMMUNITY CIVICS part of his home and then of his school. Soon, however, he must bear responsibihty as a part of his school district and his township and county. And eventually, he must take a part as a citizen of the United States and of the world. In order to do his part well, he must have thought and studied. Perhaps, it would help in understand- ing the relationship of school work and life work, if the meaning of education is considered. There have been many definitions given for it but the farmer who said at a meeting in his schoolhouse one night : ** It seems to me after all our talk, that an education is just one simple thing. It is what teaches a person how to live," came as near to the truth as any one could. An education teaches us how to make the most of life. It gives us judgment about people. It brings us appreciation of all that is true and beautiful. It fits us to make a living. It helps us to know right standards. It prepares us to live — soberly, right- eously, and godly. This is the way to measure an education and by such an understanding of education, the work of a school should be planned. 2. Education Takes Drudgery from Work. — A father once wished very much that his son might go to the State College of Agriculture. " Why should you send him away to school to learn about farming ? " a neighbor asked. " You SCHOOL WORK AND LIFE WORK 143 are a good farmer. Can't you teach him, yourself, the things you know ? " " Yes," the father answered, " I suppose I could teach him the way to do things on the farm, but I want him to understand the reason down under- neath. It will make the corn rows shorter for him." This father understood that an education, bring- Education takes drudgery from work. ing out the reasons back of doing things, makes a person use his mind as well as his muscle and takes away the monotony from everyday work. It adds a song and makes the rows shorter. It brings the joy of the master workman. The same thing is true about an education in its relation to home work. A country girl in writing about " The Right Way to Do Common Things " 144 COMMUNITY CIVICS was describing just how to wash dishes. When she had finished teUing the easiest and most sanitary way, she added, " And if you wash dishes in this way, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do." Now anything which has the power to make washing dishes and doing the other kinds of everyday work in such a way that it makes girls enjoy doing it is a wonderful thing. This is just what the right kind of education does. Education makes the rows shorter in our work because it adds the zest of knowing just how to do things and why to do them in a certain way. It trains our intellect to work with our hands. 3. School Work Gives the Reason for Efficient Ways of Doing Work. — Experience teaches how to do things in an efficient way and in a way that will get results. But it is a costly teacher and when we have learned through experience, it is still impossible to give a reason for the conclusion to which we have come. A fine farmer once asked a corn judge who was visiting in his home to look over some of his best seed corn with him after supper. He brought the corn in and put it on the table and together they studied the ears, deciding on the same ear as the best for use as seed. Then the farmer turned to the corn judge who had studied these things, and said : " Now, I knew that was the best ear to use for seed, because I had found it out in the years I have been growing corn ; but I SCHOOL WORK AND LIFE WORK 145 cannot say why it is best. Do you mind telling me in words ? " And, as the corn judge explained the points that were considered in selecting a good ear of corn for seed, the farmer's interest grew. *' There is a lot of sense in that," he declared. " I like the way you can tell it. It's clear and true. I'm going to send my boy where he can learn to give the reason for the things he is learning in part now through experience on the farm." It is a great thing to know how to do farm work and home work or any work in a masterly way. And the joy comes in its mastery and in knowing the reason why. 4. School Work Prepares for Sharing in the Life of the Community. — Ignorance and selfishness are apt to go together. If men and women know nothing of the possibilities there are in the world for growth and development ; of the things which people in other places are doing to make their com- munities good places in which to live, they cannot be expected to be thinking in a very large way of what they can do as members of their own com- munity. So the right kind of education is sure to prepare any one for unselfish service. It brings an ideal of the way in which one person can contribute to his community. It makes it possible for a person to realize that often personal interests must be second- 146 COMMUNITY CIVICS ary to community interests. It arouses a sense of civic responsibility. It creates standards. Through a school that is planned with the thought of giving this kind of education, boys and girls find their place as leaders and workers in the community. Education gives to them the social vision that means the building up of a real community. 5. Education Opens the Way to the Richness of Country Living. — It is true that the richest and fullest living is possible along country roads. Around those who live in the country there is the wonder of real things and the beauty of nature in all its perfection. There is the inner strength that comes from producing what the world is needing and producing it without having to make life harder for any other persons. There is an intimate touch with the fundamental things of life. In the country there is a freedom to live and to enjoy things as one's own master. This means time, if one will take it and so plan the work, for reading and for music. It means time to see the clover blooming by the road and the wonderful white of the bursting cotton bolls against the blue sky. But, in order to be in touch with all the finest and deepest and truest things of life, an education is necessary. There must be that training which has opened the eyes to see and the heart to understand. It is said that a very small percentage of country people make use of the farm bulletins issued by the SCHOOL WORK AND LIFE WORK 147 148 COMMUNITY CIVICS United States Department of Agriculture, though they are full of practical help that many farmers are wanting. There are many country boys and girls who are only half awake to the big possibilities of life in the country. The way has not yet been opened for all to the richness and fullness of living in the country. The right kind of education will open the way. It is the door to the new country life, — that country life where every one loves the country and under- stands its great opportunities for living a life full to the brim with the best things. Questions for Study and Review 1. What is the duty of the school ? 2. Describe the six steps of responsibility of a boy or girl. 3. What is "an education" ? 4. How does an education prepare for living ? 5. Give an illustration of the way in which an education takes the drudgery from farm work. 6. Give an illustration of how an education takes the drudg- ery from home work. 7. What is the use of knowing the reason for doing work in a certain way ? Give an illustration. 8. Why is it that only a small percentage of country people read and make use of the farm bulletins of the United States Department of Agriculture ? How may they be encouraged to read them ? 9. Where could the farmer's son learn the reasons for doing things .? 10. Why are ignorance and selfishness apt to go together.'' SCHOOL WORK AND LIFE WORK 149 11. How does the right kind of education prepare for un- selfish service ? 12. In what ways can an educated person better serve the community ? 13. In what ways does the country offer the best chance for complete living ? 14. Why is an education necessary to get the most out of country life ? 15. Explain how an education opens the way to having the best kind of living in the country. Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. In what ways does your school prepare for the kind of life work that the people in your school district are doing ? To be considered in answering this question : (i) Make a list of the occupations of the people of the district. (2) Briefly state by each occupation what you think would be needed in way of preparation for it. You might make some inquiries in regard to it from the people themselves. II. If you were planning the school work for a district located in the cotton belt, what are some of the things you would include ? in the citrus fruit country ? in the corn belt .? in a country where lumbering is the chief industry ? III. Would you make any difference for boys and for girls in the answers to Exercise II ? IV. How would you answer Exercise II if you were con- sidering men and women ? V. Analyze your home and farm tasks, (i) What is the character of the tasks ? (2) Is there any similarity between them .? (3) Is hand work or head work most necessary .? (4) If you used more head work, could you manage with less hand work ? (5) Do you plan your tasks consistently ? (6) Write a short paragraph explaining how you would plan the tasks that you have to do after school to-day. ISO COMMUNITY CIVICS VI. What tasks did you do at home or on the farm yester- day ? (i) Why did you do them ? (2) Did you understand the reasons why the tasks had to be done ? (3) Did you see the advantage of doing them when you were through ? (4) Did the tasks appeal to you as important ? (5) Were there any other tasks that might have been assigned to you that would have been more interesting ? more important ? VII. What did you gain by doing the tasks at home and on the farm ? (i) Did you get hand training ? (2) Did you get head training ? (3) Did you learn the most the first time that you did the task, or later when the task was more familiar ? VIII. What are the reasons for doing things at school .? Analyze them as you have already analyzed farm tasks. IX. In what ways does education increase understanding ? X. Do you find that your judgment and understanding have been increased by your school work ? In what ways is this true .? XL Is there an explanation for everything that we do ^ XII. How does understanding the explanation help us ? XIII. Accepting the definition for an education given in this chapter, do you think an education can only be secured at school ^ Have you ever known a well-educated person who had not had much chance to go to school ? XIV. Think of the people who are most interested helping with community things in your district. Are they educated people .? Do they read ? From your own experience, do you think it is true that those who have the right kind of education do most in the community ? XV. Write a short composition on "How School Work Makes Me Understand the Chance for the Best Kind of Life in the Country.'* CHAPTER XIV Citizenship and Country Life I. The Countryside Rests on Its Citizenship. — Emerson said that the state cannot be better than its citizens, any more than a spring could rise higher than its source. The fact holds true of country life. The countryside is no better than its citizens. The basis of country life lies in the country people. Where they stand together and work together, country life will be strong and vigorous. Where they lose interest and hang back, country life suffers accordingly. It is a very common thing for one man to say : *' Oh, I don't care. It's no business of mine." His attitude corresponds with the old saying, " What's everybody's business is nobody's business." Whose business is it if the community is careless and shift- less in its community life ? It is the business of each citizen, of course. Unless each citizen sees to it that the business is done, it will remain undone. The success of the whole rests upon the work of each. Again a man says : " Oh, I'm only one. My vote doesn't count anyway." Remember, however. 152 COMMUNITY CIVICS that the total vote is made up of the votes of indi- viduals. There is no escaping the fact that community responsibihty rests back finally upon the individual citizen. The individual may not like the job. He may shirk and hang back, — with what result ? The basis of country life lies in the country people. Simply that he lives in a shirking community. His spirit makes the spirit of the countryside because he and his neighbors are the spirit of the countryside. 2. The Community Life Is Larger Than Politics. — During past years there has been a feeling in some places that community life began and ended with politics. Since women could not take an active part in politics, they were excluded from community CITIZENSHIP AND COUNTRY LIFE 153 life and banished to the kitchen. The community Hfe was a Hfe for men. They enjoyed it, and they alone had a right to it. The past few years have marked a great change in the understanding of community life. Gradually the thought dawned upon men and women that the community meant all of the people in the neighbor- hood, and that community life was made up of all of the things that people might do together. There were some sections of the countryside where people came together very little. They saw each other on fair days, at funerals, and sometimes at church on Sunday. Otherwise, each lived in his own home and forgot that he belonged in a neighbor- hood. The country life movement is an effort to make more chances for country people to see one another. It is based on the idea that the schools, churches, clubs, granges, and other associations make up the community life of the countryside. The opportuni- ties for each of these organizations to play a part in community life are becoming more apparent as the questions involved in their organization and maintenance are brought up for discussion. There are two possible centers for the general community life of the countryside. One is the school, the other is the church. Each has a field distinct from the field covered by the other. Each has separate problems, and yet both may work to- 154 COMMUNITY CIVICS gether for the common goal of better community living and better community spirit. The effective country school is far more than a schoolhouse in which sessions are held during a few hours on five days of each week for a few months in There they play their games. the year. The country school is rapidly becoming a social center of a large section of countryside life. The most effective type of country school for most purposes is the consolidated school. The one-room school is small and cramped. The consolidated school, with its assembly room and its more ample quarters, can afford better opportunities for com- munity gatherings. The consolidated school suffers CITIZENSHIP AND COUNTRY LIFE 155 from the one disadvantage of being farther away from the average home than is the one-room school. Its better equipment more than offsets the difficulty which some families have in reaching the school building. The well-directed country school is a center for The school may organize a play festival. the life of the country children. There they receive intellectual training, play their games, and organize their clubs and reading circles. The school must do more than this, however, if it is to do its utmost for the community in which it is located. The adults must also be drawn to it by the opportunity which 156 COMMUNITY CIVICS it affords for adult social life. The school can be made a lecture center, in which experts talk on agriculture, or in which popular lecturers entertain and enlighten. The grange may meet in the school. The Domestic Science Department, cooperating with the Agricultural Department, may treat all of the parents once or twice a year to a good dinner, and a series of papers and discussions by the students on the agricultural problems of the neighborhood. The school may organize a play festival — one each year — to which the parents come in order that they may see their children do the work, and carry on the organized play of the school. In these, and many other ways, the school may act as a center of social and educational life for young people and old people alike. Country communities have always been interested in politics. Political subjects have come up for discussion and have been laid to rest time out of mind. The day has already dawned when the interests of the countryside are recognized as broader than the interests of politics. Country communities have awakened to the fact that the school, and the other community institutions, can be made a force in community life that will transform community activities and elevate community standards. 3. Each Person Should Have a Part in Settling Countryside Affairs. — In an Americanized com- munity each person will be anxious to participate in CITIZENSHIP AND COUNTRY LIFE 157 the affairs of community life. Such an ideal is at the basis of American institutions. From earliest times the American people have told one another that each man was second to none, and that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were the right of all. The life of the average countryside has not worked out in exact conformity with this political theory. In the states where women are not allowed to vote there is a growing insistence that if a community is to be fairly managed in the interests of all of its citizens, the women should have a say at the polls equal to that of the men. The agitation for equal suffrage is but one phase of the general movement toward an increased democ- racy in American life. Certain things must be managed by the community. Why should not each person in the community have a share in the manage- ment, and why should not community affairs be managed in the interests of the great body of citizens } The answer to these questions may be found in the many published discussions in the hotly contested elections, and in the multitude of newspaper and magazine articles on the various sides of public questions. The truth seems to be that if the community is to remain democratic, each member must feel a duty and a responsibility toward the rest of the com- munity ; furthermore, that the majority of the 158 COMMUNITY CIVICS people in a community should have the chief con- sideration in any decision affecting community affairs. At the same time the majority must deal fairly with the interests of the minority. Most vital of all, however, the citizens of a community must take their citizenship seriously, and think of Good citizens are the life of the community. themselves as responsible for the doings in their communities. 4. Good Citizenship Means Participation in Com- munity Affairs. — Every one cannot play the same part in the life of the community, but each person can play some part. CITIZENSHIP AND COUNTRY LIFE 159 There will always be people in every community too indifferent, too inefficient, or too selfish to take part in community life. If such people are in the great majority, there is no community life. Each household is a law unto itself, breaking the com- munity up into a collection of individual units lacking common interest and common activities. Such a community misses all of the advantages that should come with a well-organized community. Most communities contain men and women, or at least boys and girls, who are community leaders. They get things going. They manage the grange, get up entertainments at school, start church socials, organize a corn club among the boys or a tomato club among the girls. Such people are the good citizens. Good citizens are the life of the community. They keep things booming and keep people interested. They are the source of community spirit, and the center of community activity. They are good citizens because each time an opportunity offers to lend a hand for the community, they pitch in and do their share. Questions for Study and Review 1. What must be done in order to assure strong, vigorous country life .? 2. What happens when the people lose interest and hang back I i6o COMMUNITY CIVICS 3. What is the effect upon the countryside when some people fail to do their share ? 4. Who is responsible for a careless, shiftless community ? 5. What was the feeling regarding the woman and commu- nity life ? Why ? 6. What is the feeling now ? Why ? 7. What is meant by the country life movement ? Explain how it aims to help community Hfe. 8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the con- solidated school for community gatherings ? of the one-room school for the same purpose ? 9. How may the school help to promote community spirit in the countryside ? 10. Why should the schoolhouse be used for other than school purposes ? 11. To what other uses may the school be put ? 12. How may the country church stimulate social life in the community ? 13. What are some of the ways in which the church may make community spirit ? 14. How have politics come to be regarded in the country- side ? 15. What is the result of indifferent, inefficient, and selfish people in a community, especially if such people are in the majority ? 16. What is meant by good citizenship ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the duties which fall to the lot of every good citizen: (i) Those that fall to men. (2) Those that fall to women. (3) Those that fall to children. II. How many of the people in your neighborhood, who are qualified to vote, do vote.? (i) Did your father vote at the CITIZENSHIP AND COUNTRY LIFE i6i last election ? (2) Did your brother vote ? (3) Find out why people failed to vote. III. How many of the people are not allowed to vote .? (i) Do men vote.? Why? (2) Do women vote.? Why.? (3) Do children vote .? Why.? IV. If you were rearranging the suffrage in your com- munity, whom would you permit to vote .? V. Are there any questions that now come before the voters, upon which you believe they should not vote .? VI. Are there any questions which do not now come before the voters, on which you believe they ought to vote .? VII. Do you ever hear men talking politics: (i) At home.? (2) At the store.? (3) On Sundays outside of the church .? VIII. What do men talk about when they talk politics .? IX. If you could talk politics, what would you talk about .? X. Suppose you were able to get all of the men and women in your neighborhood to come to the schoolhouse one even- ing each month: (i) What would you do the first evening.? (2) If you decided to talk, what would you talk about .? (3) Make a general program for each of six meetings to be held in the local schoolhouse during the year. XI. Make a list of the things which the church and school in your community might do to build up the citizenship. XII. Suppose you were a school director; what should you expect the school to do.? (i) For the pupils outside of school work. (2) For the adult people of the community. (3) To promote community spirit. XIII. Make a list of the things that a wide-awake school director might do for your school. XIV. Make a list of the things that you would do for your school if you were its teacher. XV. Make a list of the things that a good home should do for the school. i62 COMMUNITY CIVICS XVI. Make a list of the things that a good student should do for the school. XVII. If you were in charge of a country church, what would you try to do for the community ? XVIII. Make a list of the things which the church in your neighborhood does for community life. XIX. Who are among the good citizens of your community .? What are they doing for the community? CHAPTER XV The Country Community and its Officials I. The Public Work of the Community is En- trusted to a Number of Officials. — Some of these officials hold local, some hold state, and some hold national offices. The justice of the peace is a local officer. He is elected by his neighbors to carry on certain routine work in connection with the administration of the laws. He may issue warrants for the arrest of a supposed criminal, or he may perform a marriage ceremony. In the case of minor offenses, he is a judge. Perhaps the three most important officers in a country community are the school director, the road commissioner, and the health officer, if there is one. The school director is occupied with the most important single duty of the community, — that of organizing and supervising the work of training children. While he selects a teacher to do the actual work of instructing, the director is finally responsible for the teacher as well as for the instruc- tion. 163 164 COMMUNITY CIVICS COUNTRY COMMUNITY AND OFFICIALS 165 Children are spending a larger and larger part of their time in school work and the schools are being called upon to do more and more toward the training of children. A few years ago, high schools were only occasionally met with. To-day, they are being built in cities, towns, and rural districts alike, and a high school education has become almost a necessity. There is a strong movement — one which seems to be rapidly gaining ground — to elect women to the position of school director. There was a time when all of the duty of training children rested upon the woman in her home and now that the burden has been shifted to the community during school hours, it seems only natural that the women who were formerly responsible for child training should have some degree of responsibility for school work. The road commissioner is appointed to maintain the highways of the community. Supplies are secured, crops are marketed, pleasure rides are taken, and all communications are held over the roads. The community which has good roads has the basis for prosperity. A bad road is the most expensive thing that can be found anywhere. It takes time, exhausts horses, and adds immensely to the cost of getting supplies from the market. Up-to-date communities are appointing health officers because of the widespread recognition of the importance of health. A doctor is usually i66 COMMUNITY CIVICS named health officer. The duties of the office take Httle of his time but require constant vigilance on his part. He must see to it that the community stays well. If disease threatens, if there is possi- bility of contagion or epidemic, he must act promptly and effectively. He is a sentry posted to guard the community against bad health. The school directors, road commissioners, and the justice of the peace belong to the borough or the township. The boroughs or townships, combined, make up counties. Each county has a number of officers. The county officers, — a treasurer, assessor, recorder of wills, judge, sheriff, and so on, — are in charge of the affairs of the county. There are two classes of county officers, — those connected with the administration of justice and those connected with county business. The judge, the sheriff, and the court officers have to do with the administration of justice. Both civil suits and criminal offenses come before the court for settlement. The county assessor, the county treasurer, the sheriff, the re- corder of wills, and other similar officials manage the public business of the county. They are respon- sible for collecting taxes and for running the county business. The state and national officers usually play very little part in the life of rural communities, with the exception of the postman, whose daily visits make COUNTRY COMMUNITY AND OFFICIALS 167 him one of the most necessary things in country Hfe. In many states, the game warden is the best known state officer in each locaUty. In case of an epidemic of some disease Hke small- pox or typhoid fever, the State Department of Health may send men into a rural community. Rural Free Delivery. If there is a plague like hog cholera or hoof-and- mouth disease, the state veterinarian may take an active part in local affairs for a short time. Gener- ally neither the state nor the national government has much to do with the affairs of a local community. Since county, state, and national officers have so small a part to play in the affairs of local com- munities, it follows that the success or failure of the township or borough rests with the local officials. i68 COMMUNITY CIVICS As they do their work, the community will be well or badly served. 2. The Officers of a Community Have Only One Duty — to Serve Their Community Honestly, Earnestly, and Efficiently. — Honesty in public office is now looked upon as a matter of course. There may have been a time when grafting in public office was looked upon as a legitimate practice. If that time ever was, it is now in the past. The people who elect a man to office expect him to be square in his dealings. That means that he must not take any of the public money, directly or in- directly. It is practically impossible for him to put his hand in the public treasury. He may, however, take a percentage on contracts, take fees for securing special favors, or in other ways sell the rights of his office. The salary which a public official receives is fixed by law. He cannot be hon- est and make more money out of his office than his fixed salary. Earnestness is as important as honesty in public office. There is a danger constantly threatening the public service, — the danger of growing indif- ferent to public well-being. The public official who holds office during the tenure of his political party sometimes looks upon his office as a means of getting a living without working very hard. Public office is in reality an opportunity to serve the com- munity. COUNTRY COMMUNITY AND OFFICIALS 169 Public offices must be administered efficiently. Honesty and earnestness are not sufficient in them- selves to guarantee the success of a public official. A school director may be as honest and earnest as he pleases, but he will not be a first-class school director until he learns something about education. The road commissioner must know something about the construction and maintenance of roads. Fur- thermore, in the conduct of his office, the official must be efficient. That means that he must get the most out of the money and time which the public provides. Honesty, earnestness, and efficiency are the basis of good public service. No one of them can be dispensed with if the public service is to be made effective. 3. The Person Best Suited for Any Official Place Is the Person Who Can Best Do the Work of That Place. — If a community is to get the best service from its officers, there is no other way in which they can be selected. There has been a strong tendency in the past to select public officials on party lines. As long as a party system of government prevails, party lines are necessary wherever the public official directly represents the people at the same time. There is a growing number of public offices in which ability and devotion to public interests is in far greater importance than political affiliation. It is more important, for example, I70 COMMUNITY CIVICS that the road commissioner should understand road building than that he should be Republican or Democrat. A school director may be extremely efficient without having any political affiliations at all. A doctor may make a good health officer whether he does or does not belong to your political party. The community which is to be well served must pick its officers primarily because of their qualities rather than because of their political views. This grows more true as the government is called upon to render a larger and larger amount of service to the community. 4. Officers Are Selected by the Fellow Citizens to Represent Them and Serve Them. — The official must represent and serve. Official responsibility carries with it this responsibility of service. The boy who is selected captain of a baseball team must think of the team before he thinks of himself. The man who is selected county judge must place justice first ; the school director must put schools first ; the road commissioner must put roads first. The duties of a public official are first to the public. The successful public official works as hard for the public as he would work if he were working for himself. To him, the responsibility which the voters have placed upon him is a trust that he feels bound to execute. COUNTRY COMMUNITY AND OFFICIALS 171 Questions for Study and Review 1. What are the three divisions of officials who carry on the public work of the community ? ^ 2. Who is the justice of the peace ? By whom is he elected ? What are his duties ? 3. Name the three most important officers in a country community. - 4. What is the duty of the school director ? 5. Why is his position so important ? 6. Do you think the school director ought to be a woman ? Why? 7. Tell all you can about the road commissioner. 8. Make a list of the disadvantages of a bad road. 9. Why do up-to-date communities appoint health officers .? What kind of man is usually chosen for health officer .? 10. What are his duties ? 11. Make a list of the county officers. 12. Name the two classes or groups into which they are divided, and tell what each does. 13. How are you represented by national officers .? 14. In what ways may the state or national governments have occasion to deal with the affairs of a local community ? 15. Upon whom does the success or failure of the township or borough rest ? 16. What three qualities are at the basis of good pubHc service ? 17. How may an officer be dishonest ? 18. What part does earnestness play in public office ? 19. What do you understand by efficiency in public office ? 20. Which is the best way to select a person for any official place ? What should be the consideration ? 21. What was the tendency in the past in this respect .? 22. Explain the weaknesses of this tendency. 172 COMMUNITY CIVICS 23. Why are officers selected? What' responsibility is at- tached to public office ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the names of all of the officers in your locality. II. Can you name any of the county officers ? III. What type of men are elected to local office .? to county office f IV. Write a brief composition describing the kind of man that you think makes the best officeholder. V. Do you know any men who possess such qualities .? VI. If an election is pending, pick out the men, who, in your judgment, would make the best local officers. VII. Make a list of the duties of all local officers. VIII. State which of these duties you consider most impor- tant. IX. Name the state and national officers who represent you. What are their duties ? X. Write a letter to the school commissioners calling their attention to the most urgently needed improvements in and about your school, (i) Improvements in the building, — heating, lighting, ventilating, etc. (2) Improvements in the equipment. (3) Improvements in the course of study, with particular reference to the things which you think would be of advantage in your neighborhood. XI. If you were a school commissioner, what improvements would you first make in the local school ? XII. What improvements should you consider next in importance .? XIII. Write a letter to the road commissioner, suggesting improvements in the roads in your neighborhood, (i) Do you think it would be advisable to lay a more expensive kind of COUNTRY COMMUNITY AND OFFICIALS 173 road than that now in use ? (2) What can you tell him regard- ing the upkeep of the roads ? (3) What can you say regarding labor on the roads ? XIV. Have you ever visited the county jail ? XV. Write a letter to the county attorney, enumerating the methods which, in your estimation, are best calculated to keep the jail empty. XVI. What people do you consider best quaHfied to pick local officers ? state officers ? national officers ? XVII. Would you exclude women from the franchise ? Why ? Would you exclude children ? Why ? CHAPTER XVI The Country as Life Giver to the World I. The Country Feeds and Clothes the World. — This is the great economic contract which the country has undertaken to fulfill. The world looks to the country for the supplying of most of the necessaries of life. The wheat, corn, cotton, wool, beef, pork, milk, eggs, and cheese upon which the world feeds and clothes itself owe their origin to the work of country folks. The shoes have gone through many processes of manu- facturing since they left the steer's back in the eastern St. Louis packing house, but there was a time when this steer was quietly feeding on a pros- perous farm in Kansas. The eggs have been handled and rehandled, shipped, stored, and sold, but the hens that laid them are still at work in Mis- souri. It is a long way from a calico dress, through the clothing manufacturer, the cotton manufacturer, the cotton warehouse, the railroad, and the cotton warehouse back to the cotton fields of Texas, but it was in those cotton fields that the cotton from which the calico was made grew. 174 COUNTRY AS LIFE GIVER TO WORLD 175 3iik; The country feeds and clothes the world. 176 COMMUNITY CIVICS Stop in at the wholesale market of any large city from New York to San Francisco, and you will see the products of the country which are being brought in and distributed to the consumers in the city, — dairy products, fruit, vegetables, and coun- try products like wheat, manufactured into flour, cereals, and other eatable and wearable things. The city reaches all over the world for the things necessary to its support. Its immediate food sup- plies are drawn from the surrounding country. Milk cannot be carried more than a few hundred miles ; green vegetables are usually grown close at hand ; grain crops can be transported for long distances, but whether the city depends upon the near-by or the distant farm, it lives upon the products of the country life. The farmer frequently sells his product directly to the city consumer. He drives his market wagon into town or goes from house to house or else he hires a stall or a place at the curb market and offers his wares for sale. Where the producer and the con- sumer come together, the greatest savings are effected and the most satisfaction is secured. There, too, it is made most clear that the man from the country supplies the necessaries without which the city fam- ily could not live. The city would starve over night without the farm. The milk, eggs, butter, and cereal on the city breakfast table must be brought into town every COUNTRY AS LIFE GIVER TO WORLD 177 day. Sometimes when there is a teamsters' strike or a bHzzard that ties up the city food supply for only a day, prices rise, and some things, like milk, cannot be had at any price. People find a great deal of satisfaction in working at the real things of life. They grow tired of the frills and fancy trimmings. They want work that is vital. The farmer has vital work. He is feeding and clothing the world. The world looks to him, eagerly, for the things that are necessary to keep it alive and com- fortable. The farmer is making the life of the world possible. 2. The Country Builds Rugged Man- hood and Woman- hood. — This is a work quite as important as that of feeding and clothing mankind. The conduct of the world is a diflScult matter. It is no easy task to find road com- missioners and school directors who are able to do their work easily and effectively. How much more w * mf^^l^^^^W.-'wLt BfeiS^k^^ plt^ 'S'^.^^^Ki ^^■^kB^^sk^^^mj^ $i^ ,w •• ' a^^l ^^■•.^ ^ ^^j£s£^3M 8^^£^5^!%Jfe^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ fj^^^ 'it-. j^^A ^^hHI^^Ni j^^^ ^^HH^^^ ^T^'Sa*^^ Z"^'' -»."» ^^^ The country builds rugged manhood and womanhood. 178 COMMUNITY CIVICS difficult it becomes to secure strong men for the management of banks, colleges, railroads, and gov- ernment activities like the post office and the state bureaus of health. From the lowest to the highest positions in life, the world is working for leaders. The world is very hard on its leaders. It takes them from the city, town, or the open country, overworks them, makes it difficult for them to play, and in the end, breaks down their health. City life is always severe because of the restricted way in which people are compelled to carry on their activities. It is doubly severe where it is subject to the intense pressure of business demands and social demands made upon the people who are in charge of its affairs. The foundation of success in life is rugged health. A clear eye, a steady hand, and a strong will are the outward manifestations of rugged health. Most of the men and women who have done the impor- tant things have had strong constitutions and a world of surplus physical energy. As some one says, they are dynamic activity. The country must build rugged health. How easily this can be done where fresh air, good water, nourishing food, and a simple life combine their health-yielding possibilities. The man plowing along the valley or chopping on the hillside or driv- ing along the open road can hardly realize the lack of opportunity of the man who sits at his desk COUNTRY AS LIFE GIVER TO WORLD 179 all day or the women and children who are confined to the narrow walls of a city house. City office buildings, city factories, and city stores all shut out the fresh air and sunlight, which are so generally enjoyed by the country workers. Work in the city is highly specialized. Men and women labor under the pressure of excitement and the necessity for a large amount of products. They are on a piece-rate system or they are working under the eye of a foreman who speeds them to the limit of their endurance. They are striving to do great things in law or medicine. They are building businesses or managing schools and colleges. The pressure of city life is intense and the resulting nervous strain takes a heavy toll of strength and energy. The country with its early hours, its simple and comparatively unspecialized work, and its absence of strain is the very opposite of city life. It affords every opportunity for the development of vigorous manhood and womanhood. 3. The Country Gives Character to the World. — Food and clothes are necessary, good health is indispensable, but if people have the wrong atti- tude of life, they cannot be truly useful. The country must develop a fine honesty that will say '' yes " when it means yes, and *' no " when it means no. The man of character is the man who knows himself, who commands himself, and who acts up to the best of his beliefs. i8o COMMUNITY CIVICS r- n 4. The Country Has a Mission. — The country boy and girl have a wonderful chance to give their fellows. We are taught that the greatest thing in the world is service. Country people have a splen- did chance to be of use in the world. The world depends upon the country for its food and clothing. The country gives health and character in the men and women that it sends into the world. Many people are learning to recognize the greatness of the country's mission. It is a common thing nowadays to meet a lawyer, a doctor, or a city business man, and have him say : " Yes, and I'm tired of it all. I want to get where life is real and true. I want to be my own master, and feel that I am getting somewhere. I'd rather raise a good crop of potatoes than win a case before the Supreme Court, so I've bought a farm, and I'm going out there to live." ^2r.>^ I'd rather raise a good crop of po- tatoes than win a case before the supreme court." COUNTRY AS LIFE GIVER TO WORLD i8i Many a city man is moving into the country be- cause he feels that country hfe is more real. Many a city-bred boy is taking a four-year course in an agricultural college and setting up in business in the land. The country has a mission to fulfill, — it must feed and clothe the world, and give physical and spiritual health to its people. It is clear that the best food, the best clothing, and the best physical and spiritual health are the least that the country can afford to supply. Questions for Study and Review 1. Make a list of the things which the country supplies to the world. 2. What is necessary before many of the things which the country supplies can be used by the world ? Cite several illustrations. 3. Does the farmer sell his products directly or indirectly to the city consumer ? Why ? 4. Where are the greatest savings effected ? 5. How does a strike or a blizzard which ties up the city food supply show the extent of the city's dependence on the country ? 6. What other work of the country is quite as important as the feeding and clothing of mankind ? 7. Why does the world need leaders ? In what respects is it hard on its leaders ? 8. Make a list of the reasons why city life is severe. 9. Make a list of the reasons why country life is rugged. ID. What are the outward signs of rugged health .? 1 82 COMMUNITY CIVICS 11. What do you understand by "dynamic activity'' ? 12. Describe the man of character. 13. What is the mission of the country ? 14. How is the greatness of this mission being shown ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the chief products which are grown on your farm and tell where each one goes. II. Do the same thing for the neighborhood ; for the county. III. If the products are sold to a buyer or a jobber, find out what he does with them. IV. When all of the children in the room have completed their answers to Exercises I, II, and III, take an outline map of the United States and make a cross on every spot to which the products of the locality are sent. V. If there are derivatives from the products of your locality (for example, flour derived from wheat or meat products derived from farm animals) make a list of the number of things that result indirectly from your local products. VI. With what forms of direct marketing are you familiar ? VII. Make a list of the advantages of direct marketing. VIII. Write a letter to your father suggesting some methods of direct marketing which he might apply to the products on his own farm. IX. Write a letter to the mayor and alderman in the nearest town, suggesting methods by which direct marketing could be started in his town. X. Draw up a plan for an annual exhibit to be held in the nearest town for the encouragement of direct marketing. XI. Write a letter to the managers of the county fair making suggestions that might lead to the development of direct market- ing methods, COUNTRY AS LIFE GIVER TO WORLD 183 XII. Write a letter to a friend in town, telling what you know about the ruggedness of country people. XIII. Write a composition explaining why country people are rugged and strong. XIV. Make a list of the things that are responsible for the ruggedness and good health of the country. XV. Make a list of the things that prevent country people from being rugged and healthy. XVI. What people in your neighborhood have the best health ^ Ask them why their health is good, and then write a composition on "The Weight of Good Health in Our Neighbor- hood." XVII. Give some instances of people with strong characters. XVIII. Why is character important in your home } in the school ? in the neighborhood .? in public Hfe .? XIX. In what ways may character be developed in the home ? in the school ? in the neighborhood ? XX. Write a composition on "The Mission of the Country." CHAPTER XVII The Country Community's Work for Greater Production 1. All Life Is Dependent for Food upon the Prod- ucts of the Soil. — The soil is the greatest gift that has been given to the people living in the world. Upon it life depends. Suppose, for an instant, that the soil should be taken away and that there were no more the kind of an earth's surface upon which plants and trees and all kinds of vegetation could grow. Very soon all animals in the world would die from starvation. The soil and what it produces make the foundation for prosperity. The soil is necessary for the main- tenance of life. 2. The Fertility of the Soil Must Be Conserved. — This is not only necessary for good farming ; it is necessary for good citizenship. It is the responsi- bility of the farmer towards the world of people that he must help to feed, and towards the coming genera- tions who, in the future, must be fed from the prod- ucts of the land. 184 THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 185 The amount of farm land on the earth's surface is limited. The number of people in the world is steadily increasing. It is possible to farm in a way that will keep the soil fertile or to farm in a way that will make it impossible to grow a crop on the The Result of Unintelligent Farming. land after a few years. In New England there are a great many abandoned farms, — left idle because the soil has become too worn out to produce a crop. Even the wonderfully fertile black loam of the Corn Belt is showing in places that its fertility can be exhausted through continuous cropping to corn. 1 86 COMMUNITY CIVICS The plant food in the soil is like money deposited in a bank. Every time a crop is taken from the soil it takes a certain amount of this plant food from the soil. This is like checks drawn on a bank account. Every one knows that if one continues to check on his bank account without making any deposits, his balance at the bank will diminish until he will have nothing left upon which to check. In the same way, if a farmer continually takes the fertility from the soil through growing crops on it without putting anything back, it will become exhausted and it will be impossible to grow any more crops on it. In some places, it is not the growing of crops that takes from the fertility of the soil. The rich black loam is washed away by the streams. This great waste can be seen in the way that the Mississippi River fills up at its mouth with the soil washed from the farms along its valley. In countries that are older, like China and Japan, the people have learned more about the necessity for taking care of the soil, and they terrace their hills so that not a particle of soil is washed away. Trees planted on hillside pastures help, too, to prevent washing away. 3. Rotation of Crops Helps to Keep the Soil Fertile. — Every kind of crop takes from the soil certain kinds of plant food. These differ with the different crops. Some crops even help put back into the soil certain necessary elements. The most im- portant of these is the legume family, — clovers, THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 187 cowpeas, alfalfa, — which have tubercles on the roots that draw the nitrogen from the air and change it so it can be used in the soil. As corn and wheat and certain other grain crops take much nitrogen Alfalfa. from the soil, it helps to follow them with a legume which will deposit a supply of nitrogen in the soil. Since each crop grown in the soil takes out certain elements of plant food, it is easy to understand how growing the same crop year after year on a piece of land, takes from it all of a certain kind of 1 88 COMMUNITY CIVICS plant food. Some farmers grow the same crop con- tinuously because it is the crop for which they can secure the largest immediate cash returns. This is often the case with wheat in the great Northwest and with corn in the Corn Belt. But, though the im- mediate cash returns for a few years may be greater, it is not long until the land begins to produce less to the acre and if the practice is continued the yield will become much smaller. In the long run, an intelligent rotation of crops pays in the value of the crops produced as well as in the way in which it maintains the fertility of the soil. 4. The Greatest Possible Production on Every Acre is the Standard. — This means the putting of a great deal of thought and planning and study into the work of farming. Colleges of Agriculture are showing methods which will mean a large production to the acre. They have established Experimental Stations where they are producing improved strains of seed which have high-yielding qualities. Here, too, they are finding out the best methods of cultivation and of planting. Through their Extension Departments they tell all the people on farms the things which they have found are true about the possibilities for greater production. The United States Department of Agriculture is working for greater production, too. Besides the bulletins which they send out, they conduct many THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 189 helpful experiments. They send men into distant countries in search of new varieties of crops that can be grown to advantage in our country. Then they send out these seeds to farmers in order that they may get new varieties started. From the De- partment of Agriculture, farmers can secure on re- ^ m r^'i k /' ^ m^^^^^^ Wl PfpR ^Mk^'-^- ' „^ %:^^^ ' . -. - '- x^^^B Wichita Falls Experitnent Farm, Wichita Falls, Texas. quest the bacteria that is necessary for the soil in order that alfalfa will grow in it. They help, too, in fighting all kinds of plant diseases that tend to decrease production. It pays to make use of every available resource in working for greater production. A farmer once thought that he could find out all that he needed to know about farming by just working things out 190 COMMUNITY CIVICS himself. So he worked very hard for many years. He learned many things through experience. Just when he had begun to find the best ways to do things, he was old and had to give up farming. When he was old and had quit farming, he took time to read and then he discovered that many of the things that he had been years and years finding out had already been worked out by the Colleges of Agriculture and that he might have had the information to use from the very start as a young farmer. Then he saw how foolish he had been and he determined that his sons should all be educated for their work as farmers and in this way have the benefit of all the best experience and knowledge about agriculture before they began. 5. Production Depends upon the Soil, the Seed, and the Climate. — Not only the fertility of the soil, but the way in which the seed bed is prepared influences production. Deep plowing makes the fertility of the soil available. A surface well culti- vated helps to hold the moisture in foi; the use of the plants. With the soil carefully prepared and cultivated, the matter of greatest importance is the kind of seed used. It takes as long to plow and cultivate a field that has a poor stand of cotton as it does one with a perfect stand. All seeds that are planted by a farmer should be carefully selected from varieties that have been bred for high-yielding qualities, and THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 191 all seeds should be tested before planting to be sure that they will grow. For the selection of the right type of high-yielding seed, there have been certain standards worked out All seeds should be tested before planting. which are expressed in score cards. Score cards for judging oats, corn, potatoes, and other varieties of seeds can be secured from the Extension Depart- ments of the Colleges of Agriculture. These all country boys and girls should study. 192 COMMUNITY CIVICS SCHCCLS DIETHICC SO. / y/ rircA',,r'- 1 • '■ --■'■'-' -^ ' ■ ' ■''',''/,. "^ ' 1. '^ SAP -~SirPJ)4B —i'iui^ --Xia'i FF'TASKi- ™7~ 1 (■^ /:^ 1 ^■ / ; <^ ^ 1 // i : .^ ,/ ! / l-l- '..-.--. 1 / ■ 4 .^' ^..z ^A' i 5 .-7; / ■j^ '"■ L/- i 6 1 i> ff i 1 ; 1 ^- 7 iv"^ / ./....i .^ u. : i ? ! V ' / \ / -.. ^ ;■ / i :c 1 ^- (f \ rJ j 1 / j 11 . 1 (^^ // I /:7 i 1 ; r. i,,- / i .;• 1 IS " \ t^ z;^ 1 , ^ •"^'' ' ->■/ .--,-.- / u u^" ! / 1 -^ 15 i ..:^>- 1 ^ i .;::^ ic /■ 1 ^■•i /-:? s 17 1 ^-^ 1 ^^^ i ..■ ' . . It 1 ^" i / 1 ^ : . . . u 1 .^ 1 ^ i ^ i 2C l^r' t,/ 1 ,-?■ i > ... Score cards for judging corn and other varieties of seed can be secured from the extension department of the colleges of agriculture. THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 193 6. There Should Be No Waste Land. — Every country boy and girl can think of waste places in the farms they know, — corners where the weeds have grown up ; back-pasture swamps where nothing grows well but cat tails ; and such neglected places. There should be no waste land. But they, probably, do not realize that not a fourth of the arable land in our country is under cultivation. Great tracts of land are being held out of cultiva- tion by their owners until the price of land increases. Other tracts are waiting for the right kind of drainage and tilling. Thousands of acres can be irrigated and will be as soon as the people realize the great impor- 194 COMMUNITY CIVICS tance of securing the maximum production from all the land that can be cultivated. Perhaps the boys and girls in the country to-day, with their understanding of the importance of greater production and their great interest in intelligent agri- The increase of production is a community concern. culture, may see the time when all the land of our nation that can be cultivated and on which crops will grow is made to produce. 7. The Increase of Production Is a Community Concern. — The farmer who carefully plans his crops and his methods of farming so that his land will be as fertile ten years from now as it is at the present THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 195 time is a good citizen. The farmer who carelessly mines the plant food in his land, getting from it all the money he can with the least work, regardless of the fact that he will leave the land worn out in a few years, is not a good citizen. While a farmer is apt to think of the land that he owns or rents as his to farm as he wishes, it is really only a trust. He is bound by his relationship to others as a part of a community of people, to take care of this land that has been entrusted to him and to leave it fertile for those who come after him. Now, there are a good many farmers who are getting a high rate of production from their farms. But there are many others who have not reached even the average in production. Together, the people of the nation and the state and the neighbor- hood must work for greater production in such a way that they can be of help to the farmer who is produc-. ing'the least. Many counties now have county agricultural agents or demonstrators who are leaders for greater productions as well as for other important movements of country people. Our farmers have much to do yet in bringing about the greatest production on every acre and a county leader in the work is of great value. In this way, they unite and through uniting make larger yields possible on every farm. 196 COMMUNITY CIVICS Questions for Study and Review 1. Why is the soil so important a natural resource ? 2. How does the soil compare in importance with great industrial interests ? 3. Why is it necessary to keep the soil fertile ? 4. What are some of the evidences in our own country that the fertility of the soil can be exhausted ? 5. Compare the plant food in the soil with a deposit in the bank. 6. What effect has the growing of crops on the soil ? Give an example of a crop that puts back in the soil an element of plant food. 7. State the reason for crop rotation. Does it pay .? 8. Give your idea of the way a farmer who is a good citizen will keep up his soil. 9. Upon what does a large yield depend .? 10. Explain ways in which the soil affects the yield. 11. Tell all you can about the selection and testing of seed. 12. How are the standards for selecting seed expressed.? 13. Why is not all the land on which crops can be raised cultivated ? 14. Why must people work together in order to secure the greatest production .? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a collection of the different kinds of soil in your school district. This can be put into small bottles. II. Write to the United States Department of Agriculture and ask if a soil survey has been made of your county and, if so, ask that one be sent you. If no soil survey has been made of your own county, ask for one of the nearest county to you that has been surveyed in this respect. THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY'S WORK 197 III. Make a general soil survey of your own district. What kinds of soil are there in it and where is each kind located ^ For what are the different kinds specially adapted ? IV. What is the common practice of crop rotation in your school district ? V. How long have the farms in the district been under cultivation .? Ask three of the farmers who have lived there longest whether the land has lost any of its fertility. VI. Write a composition on the subject : "The Best Plan for Keeping the Soil on My Home Farm Fertile." VII. If fertilizers are used in your community, study the best methods of using them. Consult with those who know in regard to their use. VIII. Make a plan for a model farm, making out the crop rotation for each field for five years. IX. Find the average yield per acre for the past year for the leading crops of your county. (This information can probably be secured from the county auditor's office.) X. How many acres were planted to each of these crops in your school district the past year ? How many bushels would be produced at the average yield of the county .? XI. What was the highest yield per acre for each of these crops on any farm in your school district ? How many bushels of each crop would have been produced in the district at this rate of yield per acre .? XII. At market prices what would be the difference in the value of each crop in your district, between the average for the county and the highest yield in the district ? XIII. What plan do you think could be followed to help make it possible for every farm in the district to produce as much per acre as the highest yield produced in the district ^ XIV. Write to your College of Agriculture for score cards for judging corn and oats and any other kinds of seeds of local importance. 198 COMMUNITY CIVICS XV. Test some sample of seed from the seed that is to be planted on a farm in the district. XVI. Write a paragraph on "The Importance of Selecting and Testing Seed before Planting It." XVII. In what ways do you think a school can help in encouraging greater production in the school district ? XVIII. Make a map of your farm, showing any waste places on it and telling how you think these waste places could be used. XIX. Make a map of your school district, showing any land not under cultivation, stating how you think such land could be brought into cultivation and made to produce. CHAPTER XVIII The Country Community's Gains through Cooperation I. Loyalty Begins at Home. — There is much talk of patriotism, — of loyalty to the nation. Loyalty to the family and loyalty to the community are the real basis of true patriotism. It is easier to be patriotic to the nation on Memorial Day and on the Fourth of July than it is to be loyal to the family and the neighborhood on three hundred and sixty-five days in each year. The three-hundred- and-sixty-five-day loyalty counts for most, however. It begins in the simplest way and leads farthest. There is no place like the home to cultivate loyalty. There can be loyalty in work and in play, loyalty at breakfast, and in the evening before the fire. There is the loyalty of father and mother to children, of children to father and mother, and of brothers and sisters to one another. From babyhood, loyalty develops in the home, and it is the basis of all other loyalty. Boys and girls often feel that they would like a chance to die for their country on a glorious field 199 200 COMMUNITY CIVICS of battle, with drums beating, bugles playing, and flags fluttering in the reign of shot and shell. There is no necessity of waiting to be loyal until some such bloody opportunity offers itself. The time to be There is no place like the home to cultivate loyalty. loyal is now. The place to be loyal is the place where you now are. Loyalty does not begin on battle fields. It begins in the local community. Patriotism is not taught at the cannon's mouth. It is taught on the hearth- stone. The boy or the girl who is looking for a chance to die for the country would do a far greater service by living for the country. The man and woman who GAINS THROUGH COOPERATION 201* raise a family of stalwart sons and daughters have done far more for the country than the man who has shot down its enemies. True patriotism involves the service of one's country at home as well as abroad. 2. Community Life Is Built upon Loyalty. — The first place to learn loyalty is the home. The second place to learn it is the community. Loyalty to the neighborhood, the church, the school, and the grange teaches a never-to-be-forgotten lesson in the patriotism that begins close at hand. All men are not called to serve their country at Washington. All men cannot be Federal attorneys, or judges, or Congressmen, or cabinet members. All men can be loyal citizens of the communities in which they live. A man can best serve his country by serving his commuhity. A country is made up of communities, just as a community is made up of homes. The only successful way to build a nation is to begin with communities. In forging a chain, it is necessary to make it link by link. If all the links are strong, it is a strong chain. 3. Cooperation Is the Result of Loyalty. — Once a spirit of community loyalty is developed, cooperation follows as a matter of course. There are some things that can be done by the community better than they can be done by any single individual in the community. Schools can be developed, roads can be improved, shipping 202 COMMUNITY CIVICS facilities can be increased, libraries and recreation centers can be provided by the community and by it alone. No individual can maintain schoolhouses or build roads. These things make up community No individual can maintain schoolhouses or build roads. business and they must be attended to by the com- munity. One of the most important experiments in com- munity loyalty is the cooperative marketing asso- ciation. The farmer of to-day faces great business problems. These are as great as are the problems of production and of the conservation of the fertility of the soil. Much of the advantage the farmer has gained through being a better producer, he has lost through not being able to dispose of his crop at good prices. GAINS THROUGH COOPERATION 203 In this way, a great crop of peaches may go to waste because there seems to be no way of marketing them. The producer may receive three and a half cents a quart for milk that sells at eight cents a quart. In eggs and poultry, in vegetables and in grain, the same wide difference usually exists between the price received by the person who produced the articles and the price paid by the person who finally uses them. If a more direct way could be found between the farmer and the one who uses what he produces, it would be possible for the farmer to receive more for his work and for the people in general to secure food at lower prices. But in this, to a greater extent than in any other, community marketing depends for its success upon the finest kind of cooperation. Those who have had successful experience in community marketing as- sociations say : " Members must believe in coopera- tion and in each other. Without abiding faith and loyalty on the part of the members, it is useless to endeavor to form a permanent association of this kind." 4. Cooperation Has Succeeded. — Almost every- where in Europe farmers have secured great financial advantage and conducted their business in a keen and successful way through buying and selling together. In some countries, the results of these cooperative business methods have been wonderful. Denmark has become world-famous and rich 204 COMMUNITY CIVICS through its cooperative production and marketing of eggs, poultry, cheese, and bacon. And Httle Ireland, for many years the poorest country in Europe, has made wonderful progress in its agricul- ture simply because of the businesslike way in which it has developed cooperative societies to handle the buying and selling of their agricultural require- ments. Cooperation has succeeded in the United States. Minnesota has many successful cooperative cream- eries. In one of these they have, also, started a co- operative laundry where the laundry work for all the community is done. Wisconsin, too, has been leading in the solution of the business problems of farmers through its co- operative cheese factories and creameries. In some places in Wisconsin they have united in buying pure- bred cattle. Through the Middle West, there are many successful cooperative grain elevators. The Associated Raisin Company of the San Joaquin Valley of California and the Citrus Fruit Associations of the same state are well known through the wonder- ful results they have obtained. In the South the idea of cooperative handling of business among farmers is taking hold and is succeed- ing. Altogether, though the United States has not developed so far in this as European countries have, it has gone far enough to show that the same ideals of cooperative buying and selling on the part of GAINS THROUGH COOPERATION 205 agricultural producers will bring added financial returns and a great measure of success. 5. Cooperative Business Methods Consider the Good of All. — " You see I am wanting to help the fellow that is having a hard time to make his farming go," said a fine president of a Creamery Association in North Carolina. Then he added, " That is what we can do, too, by all working together." Recently the president sent a number of men to Europe to study their methods of farm credits and banking and business cooperation. When these men reported, they said that the wonderful results were made possible in Europe through the vision of great leaders who saw the needs of country communities as a whole and sacrificed all personal interests and gave of their time and strength to the utmost in order that better things might come to all. As cooperative associations increase in our own nation there will be a constantly increasing need for men and women of this clear insight into the meaning of unselfish service. Through such men and women and such cooperation the business problems of the country can be solved. 6. Country Boys and Girls Should Be Loyal to the Countryside. — Community life and community success depend on such loyalty. Each country boy and girl should write a declaration of faith in the country. Words without deeds do not go very far, but it is often important to put down in words 2o6 COMMUNITY CIVICS the things in which we believe. It makes a goal to work toward, and keeps before the mind the things we want to do. Here is a statement of the belief of a country- boy : I believe in SOMERTON. I believe in its Past, — in the men and women who have lived before me; whose toil cleared the land, made it productive, erected the buildings, laid out the roads, and constructed the bridges; whose foresight founded the churches, the schools, and the public buildings; and whose love and devotion set up homes and raised children to be strong men and women. I believe in its Present, — in the men and women and children about me who are living, working, and playing together; in the homes and the families; in the schoolhouse, the library, the grange, and the church; in the growing prosperity of the community ; in beauty, friendliness, and comradeship; and in the spirit of neighborliness and good will that makes these things possible. I believe in its Future, — in the men and women and children who will come after me. I believe that the things that have been done are only a beginning in comparison with the more splendid things that are to be done. I believe that the homes of to-day will give place to finer homes to-morrow; that the schools of to-day will be bettered by the schools of to-morrow; that GAINS THROUGH COOPERATION 207 better roads and railroads, better amusements, better farm machinery, and better town governments are coming. I believe that all of these promises of the future will be but a part of that great promise of each new generation grown nobler than the last, — more useful, sympathetic, neighborly, democratic, and pros- perous. This is the creed of a country girl : / am glad I live in the country. I love its beauty and its spirit. I rejoice in the things I can do as a country girl for my home and my neighborhood. I believe I can share in the beauty around me, — in the fragrance of the orchards in spring, in the weight of the ripe wheat at harvest, in the morning song of birds and in the glow of the sunset on the far horizon. I want to express this beauty in my own life as natu- rally and happily as the wild rose blooms by the road- side. I believe I can have a part in the courageous spirit of the country. This spirit has entered into the brook in our pasture. The stones placed in its way call forth its strength and add to its strength a song. It dwells in the tender plants as they burst the seed cases that imprison them and push through the dark earth to the light. It sounds in the nesting notes of the meadow lark. With this courageous spirit I, too, can face the hard things of life with gladness. I believe there is much I can do in my country home. 208 COMMUNITY CIVICS Through studying the best way to do my everyday work I can find joy in common tasks done well. Through loving comradeship I can help bring into my home the happiness and peace that are always so near us in God's out-of-door world. Through such a home I can help make real to all who pass that way their highest ideal of country life. I believe my love and loyalty for my country home should reach out in service to that larger home that we call our neighborhood. I would join with the people who live there in true friendliness. I would whole- heartedly give my best to further all that is being done for a better community. I would have all that I think and say and do help to unite country people near and far in that great Kingdom of Love for Neighbors which the Master came to establish, — the Master who knew and cared for country ways and country folk. Some people will put their declaration of loyalty in one form, and some people will put it in another. In any case, it is the strong, free expression of the belief which each country boy and country girl has in the home, the neighborhood, and the com- munity. Questions for Study and Review 1. Where does loyalty begin ? Why ? 2. How does loyalty become a matter of habit ? 3. How do some boys and girls feel about being loyal to their country ? GAINS THROUGH COOPERATION 209 4. How do you explain the fact that a man can best serve his country by serving his community ? 5. What relation exists between them and community Hfe ? 6. Name some of the ways in which community loyalty is developed. 7. Make a list of some things which must be handled by the community and not by single individuals. Why ? 8. How does difficulty in marketing affect farmers ? 9. Explain the kind of cooperation necessary in order to secure good markets. 10. Tell of the success of cooperation in other countries. 11. How do the farmers in these countries plan for the handHng of their products ? 12. Tell about the success of cooperation in the United States. 13. What is considered in determining the business methods of cooperative associations ? 14. What kind of men and women are needed to make such plans succeed ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Write a letter to a friend explaining why you are loyal to your home. II. Do the same thing for your school; for your neighbor- hood. III. You are patriotic. Why .? IV. What do you consider the most important thing about patriotism ? V. Are you loyal to your friends ? VI. Write a composition on "Loyalty and Friendship." VII. Would you be loyal to a friend whether he was in the right or in the wrong } p 2TO COMMUNITY CIVICS VIII. Would you be loyal to the county whether it was in the right or in the wrong ? IX. Name some of the ways in which a habit of loyalty could be cultivated: (i) In the home. (2) In the school. (3) In the neighborhood. (4) In the nation. X. In what ways would loyalty build up your home .? your neighborhood .? XI. Who are the most loyal people that you know .? XII. Can you think of some good instance of loyalty which you have seen .? Tell about it. XIII. Is there any difference between loyalty to a principle and loyalty to a person ? XIV. Get from your nearest postmaster full information as to the kinds of packages recommended by the Postmaster General for shipping produce. XV. Are the people who live in your school district cooperat- ing in buying or selling ? XVI. Do you think the school could help as a center for working out some plan of cooperation ? XVII. Suppose the people of the district should decide to sell their eggs together; give a full and practical plan that you think they could follow. XVIII. If the people in your community should unite for business reasons, what products do you think they could handle the most successfully ? XIX. Write about the success of cooperation in some coun- try. Look this up and study in full. XX. Write a declaration of faith in your home; in your community. XXI. Write a letter to a friend telling the ways in which you show your faith in your home; in your friends; in your neighborhood. XXII. Write an essay on "The Value of Loyalty." CHAPTER XIX The Country Community's Work for Good Roads I. Good Roads Help Build Up a Community. — All history shows how dependent advance in civiliza- tion is upon the maintenance of the right kind of roads. When the Romans were working on the great problem of bringing their civilization to new countries one of the first things they did was to build roads. John Frederic Oberlin, a great country preacher and leader, started his work with the people by going with them to build roads through their coun- try and across the mountains. Roads are of great influence in developing communities because they furnish a way for people to get together. Good roads take away all loneliness from life in the country. They make it possible for people to visit together and hold meetings. Not only do such roads furnish a greater chance for social times, they open the way for the shipping out of the prod- ucts of the farms. Roads are like the blood vessels of the human 212 COMMUNITY CIVICS body to the country community. They carry the streams of Hfe from one farm to another. That they should be well kept up, and in good condition for travel at all times, is vital to progress of any country neighborhood. Every person who lives in the country should work enthusiastically for good Good roads take away all loneliness from life in the country. roads. Nothing has a greater influence in the build- ing up of the community. Nothing helps more in binding together the people of the neighborhood. 2. Permanent Roads Are Worth What They Cost to the Community. — Each year there are added many miles of brick, macadam, and other kinds of permanent roads in the country districts of our na- tion. It is expensive to build these roads. In some places and for certain roads, the state helps WORK FOR GOOD ROADS 213 with the expense, but for the most part, the expense is borne by the farmers adjoining the road. Wherever there are such roads, it is the general behef that they have paid in convenience and com- fort, in better marketing conditions and in the added value of the land. Often in the South, several cotton bales can be seen piled by the side of a macadam road where a cross road which is muddy and rough joins it. The people who live there will tell you that these bales are drawn there one at a time over the bad cross roads and stacked on the macadam road, from which they will be all loaded on at once and taken on into town. These farmers do not need to be urged as to the value of building such roads. They know from experience that it pays. 3. Dirt Roads Can Be Much Improved by Using the Road Drag. — It will be a very long time before any of the country roads, except those most fre- quently traveled can be paved. This makes it very important to consider how dirt roads can be kept up and made good for traveling. One of the best methods is the use of the split-log road drag. This was thought out by a Missouri farmer, D. Ward King. So simple and practical is the plan, that the United States Government has published a bulle- tin about it and has made Mr. King one of the advisory experts on good roads. The bulletin published by the United States De- 214 COMMUNITY CIVICS partment of Agriculture on the Split-log Road Drag, tells exactly how to make and use one of these devices. Like every other simple device, it must be made in exactly the right way and used in- telligently in order to secure the best results. In one county all the country schools sent for this bulletin and made model road drags. These were sent in to a county contest. The boy who had made the best model split-log road drag had said at first, *'My grandfather makes a road drag that is much better than this." But as he studied into the bulle- tin, he began to under- stand the reasons for Dirt roads can be much improved by using the road drag. making the road drag in just the way Mr. King advised and after he talked it all over with his grandfather, he agreed with Mr. King's way, too. If the drag is used after every rain, when the road is just beginning to get dry, it will make a smooth, WORK FOR GOOD ROADS 215 hard road bed and one which slopes up towards the center, making very good drainage. In some states, there is a law requiring the roads to be dragged. It is possible to improve dirt roads very much by using the split-log road drag. 4. Country Boys and Girls Should Have a Stand- ard for Good Roads. — Score cards are made to teach the standards for good seed. Could a score card be made for fixing the standards for good roads ? If so, certain points would have to be included. One of the most fundamental of these is the con- tour of the road. It should be higher in the center and slope gradually towards each side. In this way the water will all run off after a rain and the road will soon dry. A road, lower in the center, so that the water stands in it, would score low. It would not be a good road. Then, the road bed should be hard and without any holes or ruts in it. And the sides of the road should be well kept up, — fences in good repair, hedges trimmed, weeds cut, and ditches cleaned out. It will help to study all the roads that you see to find out exactly what points do go to make up a good road and how much these would each count on a Good Roads Score Card. Since so many farmers have automobiles, good roads are of even greater interest. But no one who lives in the coun- try can help caring very much that the roads should be kept up. 2l6 COMMUNITY CIVICS If country boys and girls get an ideal in their minds of the best kind of road, they can do much to help make all the roads in the neighborhood come up to that standard some day. And, always, in the standard, the highest ideal should be for permanency in roads and in culverts and in bridges, — a highway that will give the people the best service for many years to come. S. It Takes Pulling Together to Make Good Roads. - — The roads belong to the whole com- mmw It takes pulling together to make good roads. munity and are for the use of every one. Laws about dragging the roads and working them help. State aid and national aid encourage people to make ad- vance. But nothing counts for so much in the mak- ing of good roads as the united belief of a com- WORK FOR GOOD ROADS 217 munity in their value and the united effort of the community to secure them. It takes teamwork to get good roads. In one county the boys organized themselves into teams for dragging the roads. Teams of from six to ten boys dragged from three to five miles of road in a stretch, each boy being responsible for a half mile. At the end of each half mile was a sign giving the boy's name and age. One of the boys on the team acted as captain. These teams met in the schoolhouses and studied about good roads. The State Highway Commis- sioner came down, bringing pictures with him and diagrams showing what they should work for. From early in the spring, through the summer and until the snow came in the fall, these teams of boys worked at dragging and keeping up their stretches of road, trying to make them reach their standard of what roads should be. Some of them made their stretch of road so good that automobiles would go miles out of their way to go over them. When the ten boys who had the best five miles of road came up on the platform at the Farmers' Institute to be recognized as the boys who had done the best work, the chairman of the county board of supervisors said that the boys of that county had done more to make good roads in the county than all the money that had been spent by the county. 21 8 COMMUNITY CIVICS Good roads are possible in every county and in every country neighborhood when the people are united in wanting them and are willing to work for them. Questions for Study and Review 1. What does history teach about the value of good roads ? 2. How did Oberlin start as a leader of country people ? 3. Explain the ways in which good roads are of service to country people and country communities. 4. Do you think it pays to put in permanent roads ? Why ? 5. Give an illustration of the way in which permanent roads help in marketing crops. 6. In what way can dirt roads be improved ? 7. How can information be secured as to the right way to make the split-log road drag and how to use it ? 8. Explain fully what points would be included in a score card for roads. 9. What is the highest standard for a good road .? what things beside the road itself should be included ? ID. What is the greatest force in securing good roads .? 11. Tell about the boys who worked for good roads. 12. Why do you think that every one should be interested in keeping up the roads .? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a chart of the roads in your school district. How many miles of road are there ? How many bridges and culverts ? II. In what ways do you think that each half mile of road in your district could be improved .? HI. If you had the power to put in new culverts and bridges, where would you put them in and what kind would you put in .? Why? WORK FOR GOOD ROADS 219 IV. Make a small model of a good road and a poor one. V. Make a score card for roads, stating the number of points you think should be allowed for each thing. VI. What would you do to make the half mile of road in front of your schoolhouse come up to your standard of what a road should be ? to the half mile of road in front of your home I Would it be possible to do this ? VII. What person or persons are responsible for keeping up the roads in your school district ? in your township .? in your county .? VIII. Where is the best stretch of road that you have seen anywhere near your home ? Who keeps it up and how ? IX. What are the laws in your state about working on the roads ? X. Write a short article which could be used in a county paper on "Why Country People Want Good Roads and How to Get Them." CHAPTER XX The Country Community's Work for Good Health I. Good Health Is the Basis of Usefulness and Happiness. — No one realizes just how important health is until it is gone, and men and women are willing to take any steps to recover it. People depend upon health to work, to play, to sleep, to eat. In short, good health is the basis for good life. In the absence of good health, life loses some of its finest hues. The age has been called extravagant. Resources are wasted, luxury abounds. Food, clothes, houses, and pleasures are used in needless abundance. Admit this widespread extravagance in all of its aspects, and yet it is probably fair to say that there is nothing of which the American people have been so extravagant as they have been of health. Young and old alike have vied with one another to squander health, to dissipate it, and to destroy it. There has been no lack of patronage for doctors and druggists. Medicines are consumed by the ton and the hogshead. People have failed, not in efforts to restore health, but to conserve it. WORK FOR GOOD HEALTH 221 The medicine chest is a second-hand remedy. It is not called into action until people get sick. The medicine chest is like a fire engine ; it is not needed until a fire is started. The ideal is no fire People depend upon health to work, to play, to eat, to sleep. engine and no medicine chest. Neither can be dis- pensed with, however, until there are no fires and no diseases. That time may be a long way in the future, but it is surely worth working for. Is it possible to start people working for good health ? Will men and women try to abolish dis- 222 COMMUNITY CIVICS ease and the cause of disease ? The answer can be made in unquahfied terms, — they are already actively engaged in the campaign. 2. Health May Be Conserved. — Health means normal function or action, ^s long as the body acts Is it possible to start people working for good health ? normally, it is in health. While the digestive sys- tem, the respiratory system, the nervous system, the heart, and the other vital organs do their work properly, the owner is scarcely aware of their pres- ence. They act as they should, the body works smoothly, and life goes on easily and joyfully. Health is good as long as the body is normal. There are many forms in which ill health appears. A child is born with a crooked back or a defective WORK FOR GOOD HEALTH 223 brain. All through Hfe the back is aihng and the mind and body are weakened. Such defects are largely incurable, and also infrequent. Ill health comes with old age, which is itself, according to one modern view, a form of disease. The walls of the arteries harden, the bones become brittle, the mus- cles lose their fine tone, the nerves no longer respond quickly and eas- ily, consequently the old person is " poorly." Old age is inevitable. A multitude of other diseases are not. Much ill health the result of IS neglect. Filth, ^^ ^ pollution, insects, and like causes lead to the propa- gation and circu- lation of a myriad of tiny bacilli, or germs. These germs, introduced under certain con- ditions into the human system, make ill health. A number of lung diseases are typical germ dis- Vaccination prepares disease. the system against 224 COMMUNITY CIVICS eases. In pneumonia, for example, the germs gain a foothold in the lungs and increase so rapidly in numbers that the sick person is suffocated be- cause the normal amount of oxygen cannot reach the lung tissue. The germs of tuberculosis destroy the lung tissue so that it is no longer useful for the III health is often the result of poor drainage. purpose of supplying the body with oxygen. The remedy for such germ diseases is to prevent the germs from getting into the system or else to prepare the system to resist them by injecting an antitoxin. Vaccination is the most widely known of the methods of preparing the system against disease. Many diseases are serious. Tuberculosis, pneu- monia, and typhoid may destroy life. Most ill WORK FOR GOOD HEALTH 225 health is due to minor ailments, — colds, headaches, and the like. Every day, in the United States, there are many millions of people suffering from these minor ailments. Sometimes they disappear in a few days ; at other times, they result in more serious diseases. 3. Science Works Wonders against Disease. — The triumphs of science over disease are more wonderful than those in any other field, with the possible exception of mechanics. Once disease was regarded as an affliction sent upon men because they had committed sin. Science, using the micro- scope and the formulas of organic chemistry, and of biology, shows that most disease is the result of developing microorganisms. As time goes on, the germs of more and more diseases are discovered and studied. While disease was looked upon as a punishment for sin, little or nothing could be done except to try to be good. If it can be shown that disease is the result of chemical and biologic changes, the prevention of disease becomes a matter of counter- acting these changes by diverting them into some harmless channel. The power of science over disease is well illus- trated in the results of the campaign against tuber- culosis. A quarter of a century of education in the causes of tuberculosis and the methods of its pre- vention have decreased the tuberculosis death rate 226 COMMUNITY CIVICS to less than half. As In no other disease, perhaps, the control of tuberculosis was well within the power of the great mass of people. Unless they helped, the disease could not be prevented. With their intelligent help, its control was readily possible. Tuberculosis is yielding to education and to growing public intelligence. During the past few years, the government has been fighting plague. The germs of plague are carried by rats. A ship from Asia anchors in an American port ; the rats jump ashore ; and the plague germs infect the rats on the wharves. From there, the disease may spread to the population. The authorities have killed rats, cleaned out filthy places in which rats bred and lived, and thus far, practically prevented plague. Had it not been for the knowledge that the germ of plague Is carried by the rat, the disease might have obtained a foot- hold In the country. The campaigns against tuberculosis, typhoid, yel- low fever, and plague are affairs that must be worked out on an extensive scale. The diseases against which they are directed are serious menaces. The great work of health conservation must, however, be done by the people. 4. Health Conservation Depends upon Public Intelligence. — Only as this fact is made apparent, will it be possible to cope with ill health. The necessities in the case may be summed up in WORK FOR GOOD HEALTH 227 the term, " sane living/' 111 health is due to care- lessness or ignorance as to the simplest rules of wise living. If good health is to be insured, the means necessary to insure good health must be adopted. What are these means ^ Broadly speaking, they are three. First, there is cleanliness ; second, wise eating ; and third, fresh air. Should the people of the United States clean up, eat carefully, and get plenty of fresh air, half of the doctors would be forced to take up some other profession. Cleanliness, wise eating, and fresh air are within the reach of every one. An individual cannot man- age a campaign against typhoid or malaria. He can be sane in his living. Many of the minor ailments come from a dis- ordered digestion. Headaches and colds are fre- quently due to this cause. Stop overeating ; chew your food ; do not eat late at night ; do not eat rich foods ; eat regularly ; avoid stimulants ; treat your digestion as well as you would treat a good horse and many of the little troubles will disappear. The diseases of the respiratory system are every- where, — colds, sore throats, bronchial troubles, lung troubles. Be sensible ! Do not wait until you have tuberculosis. Keep in the fresh air ! Sleep on an open porch, if you can ; open the windows at night ; walk in the air ; keep the living place and the work place well ventilated. Fill the lungs with good oxygen and laugh at disease. 228 COMMUNITY CIVICS There is one other element in good health — exer- cise. The body is a machine. It should be used as well as kept in good repair. It develops through use. Campaigns against disease depend on public intelligence. The conservation of health is impos- sible when people are ignorant. Much of the ill i p ^' *-\f ' i 1 i ■ '•^^JT w 1^m> ^M p^ f^m ^ ■1 J I There is one other element in good health — exercise. health can be conquered by simple, individual, pre- ventive measures. Much more of it will yield to a trained energetic public opinion. Questions for Study and Review 1. Why is good health so important ? 2. What can be said of this age ? Why ? 3. What is the reputation of the American people in regard to health ? WORK FOR GOOD HEALTH 229 4. Wherein have the people failed regarding health ? 5. What do you understand by the term "medicine chest" ? To what may it be compared ? What is the ideal in this respect ? 6. What does health mean ? Explain your answer. 7. Make a list of some of the forms in which ill health ap- pears. 8. Name some causes of ill health. 9. How does pneumonia affect the lungs .? 10. What is the effect of tuberculosis on the lung tissue ? 11. Name two remedies for such germ diseases. 12. Under which heading does vaccination come? Have you been vaccinated ? 13. What part do minor ailments play in health ? 14. What was the old belief regarding health ^ 15. What is the modern belief ? Why? 16. According to the modern beHef as to the causes of dis- eases, what can be done to prevent the diseases ? 17. Tell how tuberculosis has been controlled. 18. Tell how plague has been controlled. 19. Upon what factor does the conservation of health depend ? 20. What do you understand by the term "sane living" ? 21. Name the three means necessary to insure good health. 22. Name seven ways in which many of the minor troubles may be stopped. 23. Make a list of some of the diseases of the respiratory system. 24. What is the remedy for these diseases ? 25. Why is exercise so essential in the conservation of health ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. When are you in the best of health ? Why ? H. Is every one in your family in good health ? Explain why or why not. 230 COMMUNITY CIVICS III. Write a composition on the advantages of good health. IV. Write a letter to a friend who is risking health, advising against it. V. Do you see any way in which the school might improve the health of its pupils ? VI. Write a letter to the school commissioners suggesting methods of improving the health through the school. VII. Write a letter to a local doctor, telling him what you think he ought to do to preserve the health of the community. VIII. Make a list of the advantages which come to a com- munity because of good health. IX. What steps is your community taking toward the preservation of health ? X. What steps might be taken ? XL Work out a plan by means of which the local health officer could improve community health. XII. You are responsible for the care of a family of young children. Make a list of the things which you consider most important for the preservation of their health. XIII. You are a teacher in charge of a school in your neigh- borhood. What advice would you give the children regarding their health ? XIV. What are some of the reasons for the existence of a state board of health ? Has the state board of health ever done anything in your community ? XV. Is there anything which the state board might do to improve the health in your community ? CHAPTER XXI The Nation as a Community I. The Nation Is a Large, Complex Community. — It consists of many people, doing many different things and living as many different lives. Their interests, their activities, their problems vary from one part of the nation to another. Nevertheless, they are all bound together by common ties. It is difficult to get a good idea of the nation as a community. Each person is apt to think of the part of the nation in which he belongs as the essential part or the important part, forgetting meanwhile that there are many other communities in which millions of other people are making and spending a living. The difficulty of understanding the larger relations of community life is increased by the fact that most people seldom travel far from the place in which they live for the greater portion of their lives. People should understand that the United States is one community. They should realize the common interests that hold it together and the common bonds that exist among the different sections and between 231 THE NATION AS A COMMUNITY 233 the diflFerent people. They should feel their relation to the whole country because they are citizens of the nation, and the community in which they live is an essential part of the national community. It is not enough that each citizen take an interest in the affairs of his immediate neighborhood. He must, in addition, be interested in the affairs of the county, the state, and the nation. The United States is a large and very complex community. It covers an area of three million square miles. Its population in 1910 was 91,972,266. It consisted of more than fifty states and territories. In 19 10, there were three cities with over a million inhabitants ; fifty cities with over a hundred thousand inhabitants ; one thousand two hundred and thirty cities with over five thousand inhabitants ; and two thousand and two cities and towns with more than twenty-five hundred inhabitants. The total mileage of American railroads in 191 2 was 258,033. In 1913, there were 58,020 post offices, and postal routes covering 436,293 miles. The Western Union Telegraph Company alone had 1,562,497 miles of wire. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the companies as- sociated with it had 14,610,813 miles of wire. The Company reports 4,953,447 subscribers with 10,880,321 telephone instruments. These are but a few of the many figures which indicate the extent of American life. 234 COMMUNITY CIVICS People are living under the most diverse conditions, — some of them in cities and towns ; some of them in rural districts ; some in the hot climate of Georgia and Mississippi ; some in the mountain ranges of Colorado and Idaho. 2, The Citizens Differ Widely. — There are all nationalities, all types. Slightly more than half of the people in the United States are men. There are io6 males to every lOO females in the population. Of the people of the United States in 1910, 81,73 1,957 were white and 9,827,763 were negro. There were 265,683 Indians; 71,531 Chinese; 72,157 Japanese, and of other colored races, 3,175. Among the white people in the country, 68,386,412 were native born ; 49,488,575 of native parents; 12,916,311 of foreign parents, and 5,981,526 of mixed parentage. Among the white people of the country, 13,345,545 were foreign born. The people themselves differ in their training and in their lives. The foreign born come from countries which have standards of living very different from those that exist in the United States. They have been trained to the use of certain foods, of certain kinds of clothing. They are accustomed to living in a certain type of house, to farm in certain ways, or to working with certain methods. Their activities in this country, while differing necessarily from those abroad, take on many of the features which life abroad develops. THE NATION AS A COMMUNITY 235 Differences in nationality do not make real differ- ences in people. The man who speaks German, French, or Swedish is, at bottom, the same kind of man as he who speaks English or Norwegian. National differences do affect a man's life relations, however, to such an extent that they modify his entire nature. The ease with which men from different nations have been assimilated into the population of the United States is one of the clearest evidences of the real likeness among men. Irishmen, Germans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Scotchmen have intermarried, abandoned their native languages, and become Americans. They are assimilated into the American population. They look at problems from an American viewpoint and work in the inter- ests of America. Differences among people are not confined to the people who are born abroad. People born in the United States live so differently and are so differ- ently educated and trained, that they are really different people by the time they have grown up to adulthood. Many differences shape American life. There are, first of all, the people who are born and brought up in the city and in the country. Country living and city living are essentially different in the effect which they have upon men and women. Again some people are born in poor homes, and some in homes which are well-to-do. The differences of 236 COMMUNITY CIVICS poverty shape boys and girls in one mold, while the differences of comfort shape boys and girls in an essentially different one. The same boy who is useless and worthless as the son of a beggar, born into a comfortable house and carefully trained, might change the entire course of his life, and act in the same way that any other well-to-do person would be expected to act. 3. People Earn Their Living in a Multitude of Industries and Trades. — The census reports for 1910 show that there were 38,167,336 persons gain- fully employed in the United States. Of these persons, 30,091,564 were men and the remaining 23.4 per cent were women. These figures include persons who are working for wages or some form of gain. They do not cover the people, particularly the women who, in their homes, care for the other members of the family, cook, sew, and keep house. Among the great army of people gainfully em- ployed at the time of the last census, 33 out of every hundred were at work in agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry ; 28 in every hundred were at work in manufacturing and mechanical industries ; 10 were engaged in domestic and personal service ; 9 were engaged in trade ; 7 were engaged in trans- portation ; and the remainder were occupied in the extraction of minerals, public service, clerical oc- cupations, and professional service. The most as- tonishing thing about these figures is the comparative THE NATION AS A COMMUNITY 237 largeness of the number of persons engaged in agriculture and its allied branches (12,659,203), and the comparative smallness of the number of people in professional service (1,663,569). Agriculture, the work of the countryside, employs more people than any other single trade in the United States. One third of all of the people who are at work for gain in the United States are at work in agriculture. There are, however, two thirds of the gainfully employed people who are at. work in other trades. Agriculture is the greatest single occupation. There are many others which employ, in the aggregate, twice as many people as those employed in agriculture. The result of the activity of these people is ex- pressed in the figures which show the total products of American activity. There is, first of all, the foreign and domestic commerce, the transportation of goods, the carriage of passengers, and the trans- mission of messages from one part of the country to another, and from this to other countries. In 1910, there were 6,361,502 farms in the United States. On these farms, there were, in 191 3, 56,527,000 cattle; 20,567,000 horses; 51,482,000 sheep; 4,386,000 mules; 61,178,000 swine. Some of the products of the country in 191 3 were wool, 296 million pounds ; wheat, 763 million bushels ; corn, 2,447 million bushels ; cotton, 14,594,000 bales ; rice, 715 million pounds; sugar, 1,728,000,000 238 COMMUNITY CIVICS pounds. It is more difficult to give an idea of the min- eral and timber products of the country. They like- wise are in the millions of pounds and of tons and their value must amount to billions of dollars each year. 4. People Spend Their Earnings in Very Different Ways. — The people of the United States work to- gether to produce these results. The farmer in North Dakota raises wheat, and with the money which he receives for it, buys hardware in Connecti- cut. The cotton weaver in Massachusetts makes cotton cloth, and with his wages buys Dakota wheat. The Pennsylvania coal miner eats meat packed in Chicago. The cotton growers of the South buy their agricultural implements from Michigan. 5. The Nation Is Tied Together by Common Inter- ests. — The differences in social life and in national- ity are more than offset by the common interests and common advantages that are involved. The country is knit together in its interests. The people who live in the cities depend on the farm. The people who live on the farm buy many of their commodities from the manufacturing town. The farmer, miner, manufacturer, and banker join to- gether to make the living for all. The channels of communication, — the railroads, telegraphs, and tele- phones, — ^bind together activities of the people in the different sections of the country. There are binding political ties which hold people THE NATION AS A COMMUNITY 239 and communities together. The nation is engaged in activities such as the management of interstate commerce, and of the construction of irrigation and drainage projects that concern all of the people, or at least, large sections of them. There is a common bond of political feeling in the institutions of democ- racy, and common patriotism toward the national An irrigation Dan government that has succeeded in holding together the democratically governed states, and in cement- ing them into a national union. People are bound together by the ties of language, by common customs, a common system of education, and common methods of social life. They think and live in similar ways and gain similar impressions from their thinking and living. The entire nation is a unit tied together and held together by the 240 COMMUNITY CIVICS invisible economic, social, and political bonds which unite individuals and communities. National in- terests are common interests, and common interests are national interests. Each citizen and each section of the country depend upon the other citizens and the other sections of the country for its well-being. The nation is a community in the same sense that the locality in which you live is a community. Questions for Study and Review 1. What do you understand by "the nation" ? 2. Why is it difficult for some people to understand the larger relations which exist between them and the nation ? 3. Give the population and area of the United States at the time of the last census (1910). 4. Cite a few figures which indicate the extent of American life in recent years. 5. Do all people live under the same conditions ? 6. What per cent of the population (1910) of the United States was white ? what per cent was negro ? 7. In what respects do the people of the same race differ from each other ? 8. Do differences in nationality make any real differences in people ? Explain your answer by illustrations. 9. What do you understand by "assimilation into the Ameri- can population" ? 10. What does the ease with which men from different nations have been assimilated into our population show ? 11. Make a Hst of differences which shape American Hfe. 12. What astonishing thing do you learn from the figures given by the last census as to the number of people gainfully employed ? THE NATION AS A COMMUNITY 241 13. What can be said of agriculture ? 14. Give several illustrations of how people spend their earnings. 15. Name three ways that people are bound together. What ties hold and bind them with the community ^ Explain your answer. Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the most important ties that hold the different parts of the nation together. II. Make a list of all the ties that hold together: (i) The people of the North and the South. (2) The people of the East and the West. (3) The people of Texas and Illinois. (4) The people of New York and Illinois. (5) The people of New York and California. (6) The people of Iowa and Massa- chusetts. (7) The people of Kansas and Illinois. III. What ties do you think should unite a nation .? IV. What are the ties between your community and : (i) The nearest village ? (2) The nearest city .? (3) The state in which you live .? (4) The nation .? V. Write down the names of all of the communitites that depend upon the one in which you live. Opposite each name write a sentence telling in what way each is dependent. VI. Suppose that the community in which you live were wiped from the map; what would be the effect upon : (i) The nearest village? (2) The nearest city? (3) The state? (4) The nation ? VII. Write out a list of the ways in which your community is dependent upon: (i) The nearest village.' (2) The nearest city. (3) The state. (4) The nation. VIII. Take an inventory of your own clothes, (i) Where do they come from ? (2) Who has assisted in providing them for you ? (3) Upon what parts of the country are you depen- dent for these things ? 242 COMMUNITY CIVICS IX. Answer the above questions for your food. X. Answer the questions in Exercise VIII for the things in the parlor; the things in the kitchen; the things in your bed- room ; the things in the farm barn. XL Look over ten random pages in the catalogue of a mail- order house. From what parts of the country do the things listed on these pages come ? XII. Look over one section of the shelves in the local grocery or drug store. From what sections do these things come .? CHAPTER XXII Managing National Affairs I. The Business of the National Government Seems Large and Complex. — When the Constitution of the United States was drawn up, the men who were responsible for it attempted to give the national government power over all affairs of national im- portance. Therefore, they delegated to Congress the right to control interstate commerce ; to collect tariffs and duties ; to establish post offices and post roads ; to coin money ; and to carry on the various other activities which ordinarily devolved upon a central government. Pursuant to the powers delegated to it by the Constitution, the national government has organ- ized an immense governmental machine, employ- ing hundreds of thousands of persons and spending a billion dollars annually. The funds necessary to carry on the activities of the national govern- ment are secured principally through tariff duties and internal revenue taxes. These are both indirect methods of taxation. They are levied upon the things which people use, and not upon the people themselves. 243 244 COMMUNITY CIVICS The government of the United States was divided into three departments, — the legislative, the execu- tive, and the judicial. The legislative department makes the laws. The executive department first sanctions these laws and then enforces them. The The Senate Chamber in the Capitol, Washington. judicial department is charged with the interpreta- tion of the laws. Congress, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives, enacts laws. Both the Senators and the Representatives come from every part of the country. Each member of Congress represents the community which elected him, while at the same time, as a member of the national Congress, he aims MANAGING NATIONAL AFFAIRS 245 to promote the interests of the entire nation. For example, a man elected from Colorado would work earnestly to secure funds for the erection of an irri- gation project in his home state. He would be equally interested in the building of the Panama Canal, which would be of only remote benefit to his own state. The former interest is a local one, peculiar to his community. The latter interest is a national one, from which all of the states will derive more or less benefit. The business of Congress is carried on by com- mittees. Each member is appointed to one or more of these committees. For example, a man may be placed on the Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. He may be made a member on the Committee on Inter- state Commerce and the Committee on Indian Affairs. When a bill is introduced in Congress con- cerning post offices or Indian affairs, it is referred to the committee on that subject. This committee considers the bill, modifies it, if it sees fit, and if it so desires, reports it to the House or Senate. After the bill is reported out of committee, it must pass the House and Senate, before it is sent to the Presi- dent for his signature. When the President has signed a bill, it becomes the law of the land. Once the law has taken effect, all people are bound by it. If they feel that the law works an injustice on them, contrary to the Consti- 246 COMMUNITY CIVICS tution, they may appeal to the United States courts, which decide whether or not the law is constitutional. If the courts declare the law unconstitutional, it ceases to be law. Within recent years, the business of government has been greatly extended along administrative House of Representatives, Washington. lines. Congress appropriates large sums to special branches of the government which are directed to do certain things of public moment. For example, the Agricultural Department, with its experiment stations and large corps of assistants, is interested in promoting scientific agriculture. The Depart- ment of Labor deals with problems affecting labor MANAGING NATIONAL AFFAIRS 247 conditions, wages, hours, safety, and the hke. The Department of Education seeks to promote the educational interests of the country. In these and many other directions, the government is working for the welfare of the different sections of the com- munity. 2. The Business of the National Government Is Really Quite Simple. It Exists to Serve All of the People. — A study of the national government leads to the conclusion that the system is intricate and complex. The machinery of the national gov- ernment is complex. Its purpose is simple and direct. Difficulties arise in the interpretation of national governmental functions and duties. It may seem, for instance, that the imposition of a high or a low tariff results in advantages to one part of the com- munity and in disadvantages to another part. The government may seem to favor one class in the community above another class. In so far as either of these things is true, the government is failing to live up to its obligations, which are to all of the people. A monarchial or despotic government is managed in the interests of a special family or special class in the community. Democratic governments are of the people. Their power is derived from the people, and their business consists in the rendering of public service. 248 COMMUNITY CIVICS 3. The Problems of National Government Have Changed during Recent Years. — When the gov- ernment w^as first organized, its duties seemed quite simple. It W2LS to coin money, regulate interstate commerce, and carry on the usual business of gov- ernment, w^hich was, at that time, largely poHtical in nature. The early laws that were passed, the early decisions of the Supreme Court, and early government activities were carried forward along political lines. The government was a political government existing to serve political ends. The government of the United States is, at the present time, essentially economic and social. Its political functions have decreased in importance as its economic and social functions have increased. The problems before the American people have changed so radically and so fundamentally that the government, of necessity, changed in response to the changed popular needs. When the Constitution was drawn up in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the United States consisted of a few colonies scattered along the Atlantic seaboard. The population was small, — scarcely four millions in all. These people, for the most part, lived in small towns or villages, or else on isolated farms. Only one person in thirty lived in a city of 8000 or more. The city of New York, was, at that time, a village with one impor- tant street, — "The Broadway," — which extended MANAGING NATIONAL AFFAIRS 249 for a couple of miles north and south along Man- hattan Island. Each farm produced things which the people on that farm required. There was little commerce or communication between the villages. The mail was carried two or three times a week by- post horses or stage coaches. Agriculture was the industry most generally depended upon. The peo- ple in each community that was remote from other communities made their living in the pursuit of simple trades and professions. The century and a quarter which have passed since the adoption of the Constitution have witnessed marked changes in the character of American in- dustry and of American life. Cities and towns have sprung up, factories, mills, and shops have been established, and mines have been opened the conti- nent over. The belt of seaboard villages has spread into a nation of populated cities. Instead of four millions of people, there are one hundred millions. The isolation of the eighteenth century has been replaced by the rapid communication of the twen- tieth. People see more, learn more, travel more, and come into contact with a larger number of ideas than did their forefathers. Each advance in the unification of scattered communities and in the expansion of national life has forced new problems upon the national government. The political questions now before the national government are very similar to those which it faced 250 COMMUNITY CIVICS in the eighteenth century. The economic and social questions which a century's growth has brought about are wholly new in the problems which they present. 4. The National Government Deals with Those Things Which Local Governments Are Unable to Handle. — This rule was applied in the Constitu- tional Convention, and it can be employed with equal force in determining the scope of Federal activity at the present time. The Constitutional Convention delegated to the national government control over affairs of national scope, and reserved to the state government the control over affairs local in their nature. The reason for this action is plain. The experiences of the colonies under the Articles of Confederation had persuaded even the enthusiast that national af- fairs cannot be successfully dealt with by local governments. The colonies had tried the scheme and found that it did not work. Therefore, in draft- ing the national Constitution, they determined to place in the hands of the national government what- ever power was necessary to enable it to direct national affairs. The scope of national affairs in 1789 was much more narrow than is its scope in the twentieth cen- tury. Progress has increased the number of things which to be successfully managed must be managed through the exercise of some central authority. MANAGING NATIONAL AFFAIRS 251 Where communities are isolated, and while life is simple, it is an easy matter to control local affairs in each locality. As community interests broaden, as specialization increases, and the complexity of living grows greater, more and more things must be handled by the national government. Questions for Study and Review 1. Make a list of the powers delegated to Congress by the national Constitution. 2. What methods are used to secure necessary funds to carry on the government .? 3. Name the three departments of the government of the United States, and make a statement telling what each one does. 4. Name the two divisions of Congress. How is each com- munity represented in Congress ? Give an example of the ways in which the members of Congress work together for the interests of the entire nation. 5. Explain how the business of Congress is carried on by committees. 6. How is a law declared unconstitutional .? 7. What does each of the following seek to do .? (a) The Agricultural Department, (b) The Department of Labor. (c) The Department of Education. 8. Contrast a monarchial or despotic form of government with the democratic form of government. 9. Contrast the government of the United States in former times with the present time. In what respects has it changed ? How do you account for this change ^ 10. What can be said of the city of New York at the time of the adoption of the Constitution ? 11. Enumerate the changes in American industry and Ameri- 252 COMMUNITY CIVICS can life which have occurred since the adoption of the Con- stitution. 12. What led the Constitutional Convention to reserve to the state affairs local in their nature ? 13. Make a list of some questions which could be better handled by the state government. Name some which could be better handled by the national government. 14. What three things tend to give the national government a wider scope of power .? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list, consisting of your own state and the states bordering upon it. For each state, write out: (i) The total area. (2) The total population. (3) The number of men, women, and children in it. (4) The number of cities of over 25,000 population. (5) The number of families. (6) The number of farms. (7) The number of homes. II. Compare the above facts with the total for the United States. If you have not these figures in your school, write to the "Director of the Census, Washington, D.C." and tell him what you want. You should also get, and keep in your school, a copy of the "Statistical Abstract of the United States," which can be secured from the Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. This abstract contains all of the leading facts about the United States and many of those about individual states. III. From a copy of the Federal Constitution, make a Hst of: (i) The powers and duties of the President. (2) The powers and duties of the Senate ; of the House of Representa- tives. (3) The powers and duties of the United States courts. (4) The rights reserved to the states. (5) The rights of indi- vidual citizens. IV. Make a list of all the occupations you know about, (i) How many are carried on in your own community .? (2) MANAGING NATIONAL AFFAIRS 253 How many, carried on in other communities, benefit your community ? V. Do you know of any people, born outside of the United States, who have learned the American spirit and become a part of the American people ? VI. Do you know any people who have not done this ? VII. Make a list of the ten things which you consider most important for the successful conduct of national business. CHAPTER XXIII Country Life and National Life I. The Country Furnishes Some of the Neces- saries of National Life. — Without the countryside, and its industries, the nation would be unable to exist. The country provides the food for the nation ; the wheat, corn, beef, mutton, potatoes, green vegetables, and fruit — the great bulk of the na- tion's food supply has its origin in agriculture. The country feeds this nation as it feeds every other nation in the world. The mills and factories change the product somewhat. They turn wheat into flour and bread ; corn into meal and flakes ; and meat animals into a myriad of packing-house products. Nevertheless, the provisions come from the soil in the first instance, as the product of countryside activity. The country supplies the means for clothing the nation as well as the means for feeding it. Wool clothing owes its origin to sheep farming ; cotton clothing to the cotton fields. Although the wool and the cotton pass through many processes of 254 COUNTRY LIFE AND NATIONAL LIFE 255 manufacture, they have their origin in the country- side. The minions of men, women, and children who are at work on the nation's farms produce the means for maintaining national Hfe. The nation is fed and clothed from the farm. The countryside, furthermore, has supplied many of the great leaders of national life. A goodly num- s#W: m. The Product of Countryside Activity. ber of the men and women who are engaged in the direction of public affairs, and in notable services for mankind, were country boys and country girls. The countryside is always infusing fresh energy and new life into the city populations. Having done so much for the nation and having played such a significant part in national life, every boy and girl who is born in the country should be 256 COMMUNITY CIVICS proud of the countryside, and glad to share in the things that it is doing for the rest of the nation. 2. The Countryside Depends on National Mar- kets for its Prosperity. — Although it is of the greatest importance, the countryside is far from being independent. Indeed, its prosperity rests wholly upon the markets which it is able to find in the cities and towns of the nation. The old-time countryside was almost wholly inde- pendent of the remainder of the world. The man of the house cared for the farm. The women and girls prepared the food, made the clothes, cared for the house, and tended the children. In his free moments the man made the farm tools and kitchen utensils. He had built his own house and furnished it with furniture of his own manufacture. If any task was too large for one person to attempt alone, there was a '' barn-raising " or a " house-raising," when every one, for miles around, joined to put up a barn or a house. This countryside was inde- pendent of the remainder of the world, but it was also primitive in the last degree. The living of the old-time countryside was very simple. Houses, buildings, tools, furniture, and utensils were crude. There were few comforts or luxuries, but every one had a good share of the neces- saries. There was little money. The family made what it needed, sold little, and spent little. The modern countryside is not self-sustaining. COUNTRY LIFE AND NATIONAL LIFE 257 It depends for its income upon the products which it sells to the folk in cities and towns. With the money which is secured in exchange for crops, the people of the countryside buy the things which the factories, mills, and mines have made for their use. i ■''''■ '^ ' ■^''■"4''- ' '~%^^^I^^^H ■ %'K ^v '' -•^' '" v'M -v ;|Ni|9^^^^^^^^^H ,■•* Wm ' ^^^ '^ ^^ i- ■H- --^■■^j^^^ft^^^^A^^ li l# . w V '•* ' mt ',..'• "' |g . ^« ^ ^^Blii^^jlL^^- 1 ■■■ L f£. j ; . flBI.-':' x»^ 1 ^ ■'■ ' " liiiiiiiii III iiiii iiiffifiiwifl^^ Wr^'^^ i Each country community is producing things for some city market. Each country community is producing things for some city or town market. The wheat, the butter and eggs, the milk, the truck, the lambs, the poultry, the apples, peaches, and the grapes that are raised on the farm are placed on the freight car and sent by train or trolley in the direction of a city market. The up-to-date farmer not only sends things to 258 COMMUNITY CIVICS market, but he examines the market reports in the daily papers, studies the figures in his weekly and monthly magazines, and sends his produce to the best market. He strives to get the best return for the things he has to sell. The town and city dwellers depend on the prod- ucts from the country. They buy eggs, milk, flour, beef, and potatoes. It is their wants and their demands that make the city markets. The city markets are opportunities which the farmer has of disposing of his produce. If there were no farmers, raising food for sale, there could be no cities. The people would starve there. If there were no town and city markets, the countryside would be forced to depend upon itself for all of the things which it needs. City and country each gains by the presence of the other. 3. The Countryside Depends upon the City for Tools, Utensils, Magazines, Books, and Many Com- forts and Luxuries. — In reality, the countryside is as dependent on the city as the city is on the countryside. Country people and city people alike have learned to want more things. Their activities were satis- fied with a few simple necessaries of life. They are now reaching out in all directions for the comforts and luxuries. The secret of securing the things which constitute the bulk of these comforts and luxuries lies in specialization and exchange. Each COUNTRY LIFE AND NATIONAL LIFE 259 person must carry on efficiently the task which falls to his lot. The products of his task must then be given to others in exchange for the products of the tasks in which those others have been engaged. The Iowa farmer grows corn. He does not and cannot live on corn alone. On the contrary, he expects to have many other things in his house, on his farm, and for his personal com- fort and convenience. The other things which he desires are secured through the sale of his corn for money, which he can use in pur- chasing the products of factories and mills in other parts of the country. The modern farmer secures from cities and towns most of the things which he uses. He grows some of his food on the farm. In a few cases he and his family make tools, utensils, and some of the simpler forms of clothing. Most of the farm tools, how- ever, come from an implement factory ; most of the utensils in the kitchen come from a hardware store. Practically all of the clothes and a larger and larger proportion of the food are factory products. The a few cases he and his family make tools, utensils, etc. 26o COMMUNITY CIVICS farmer's clothing is made up of cotton grown in his own neighborhood. Perhaps it is shipped to New England and returned to him in the form of cotton cloth. The meat which he eats may have been grown on his own farm, shipped to Chicago or St. Louis, and returned to the local butcher in the form of dressed beef or pork. The comforts of life, — the books, magazines, phonographs, newspapers, carpets, curtains, china, and the like, — are all made away from the farm. In short, the life of the countryside to-day is built upon the products of countryside activity. This activity, however, is devoted to specialized industries, the products of which may be exchanged for the products of other like specialized industries located in all parts of the world. 4. The Large Interests of the Countryside and the City Are Common Interests. — At times, and on particular issues, it may seem that the interests of the two sections are in conflict. Indeed, they may conflict in a narrow sense. In the long run, however, the prosperity of the city is tied up with the prosperity of the country in exactly the same sense that the prosperity of the country depends upon city prosperity. Men might possibly go back- ward to a time when each family, by its utmost efforts, could supply itself with the bare necessaries of life — food, clothing, and shelter. Our fore- fathers knew such a time. Their struggles were COUNTRY LIFE AND NATIONAL LIFE 261 struggles for these simple necessaries. We in these modern times have learned what immense advan- tages may be secured by the cooperation of different portions of the community. One man, making locomotives ; another, laying tracks ; another, rais- ing wheat ; another, manufacturing hardware ; an- other, managing the post offices ; another, control- ling the bank, may, by working in unison, secure for every one more of the necessaries and many of the comforts of life which were entirely denied to the people who work, each man for himself, in unspe- cialized industry. The countryside needs the city and the town for markets and for factory products. The city and the town need the countryside for food and for the raw materials from which clothing is made. The interests of each section are best secured when the welfare of all sections is guaranteed. 5. All Sections of the Country Must Stand To- gether for National Interests. — There is a time in political and economic activity when it is impor- tant to work for local interests. At such a time, each man will be actively engaged in an attempt to do everything that he can for his locality. When larger issues arise, only one course of action is open. All individuals and all communities must work in uni- son for the common good of all. The conditions which demand this common action for the common good are not confined to war times. 262 COMMUNITY CIVICS They exist at all times. At the present moment, for example, the question of the position of rail- roads, trolley lines and telephone, telegraph, and express companies is an issue of the most supreme national importance. No one community and no Local Spirit. one state can decide the issue. It must be settled nationally or not at all. The questions of a reform in the currency system, of a regulation of the tariff, and of a control of the trusts are in like case. They depend for their solution upon national action. Local spirit is important. Local spirit is vital to the development of any community. National COUNTRY LIFE AND NATIONAL LIFE 263 spirit is essential to the continuance of any nation. The highest type of citizen is he who is loyal to his community in local issues, and to the nation in the larger affairs of national life. Questions for Study and Review 1. Make a list of the foods which the country suppHes to the nation. What articles are raised on your farm that are shipped to the nation's markets ? 2. Name some reasons why the country is indispensable to national Hfe. Had you ever thought of these things before ? 3. Why should we be proud of the countryside ? 4. In what respects is the mode of living on the modern country farm different from the mode of living on the old-time farm ? 5. What forces have been at work to bring these changes about ? 6. If there were no farmers raising food for sale, what would be the outcome ? 7. Suppose there were no markets for the food raised in the countryside, what would happen to the nation ? What effect would it have on the countryside ? 8. What is your conclusion regarding the relative position of city and country ? 9. Why is it that now the countryside is as dependent on the city as the city is on the countryside ? 10. What do you understand by "specialization" and "exchange" as used here? Can you think of any illustra- tions ? 11. Explain how cooperation of different portions of the community plays such an important part in securing greater advantages for all. 264 COMMUNITY CIVICS 12. What do you understand by "common action for the common good" ? 13. Explain what is meant by "local spirit." Why is it important ? 14. What is meant by " national spirit " ? Why is it important ? Exercises for Investigation and Discussion I. Make a list of the principal things that the countryside does for the nation. II. Read the advertisements in your local paper, (i) Classify them according to the things to which they refer. (2) Do these various things represent service from countryside to nation or nation to countryside ? (3) Why was each kind of advertisement inserted in your local paper ? III. Analyze the articles which appear in your local paper. Do they relate to the things of your immediate community or to the things of the nation ? IV. Analyze the articles in a paper from the nearest large city. To what things do these articles refer ? V. Study the advertisements in the same paper. Analyze them as you did in the case of your local paper. VI. Analyze the advertisements in any one of the leading magazines, (i) What classes of subjects are advertised .? (2) In what respects do they differ from those of your own local paper and those in the city paper.? (3) Can you explain the reasons for the differences ? VII. What kind of things are advertised on billboards and by posters through the countryside ? VIII. Think over these various classes of advertisements and the things which they represent, (i) Are they intended to emphasize country life or the country community .? (2) Are the products which appear in these advertisements farm prod- COUNTRY LIFE AND NATIONAL LIFE 265 ucts or factory products ? (3) Do these advertisements point to the countryside or to the city ? (4) If you could choose the kind of advertisements which should appear in your local paper or in the magazines, what would you choose to advertise ? IX. Make a list of the things in your own room. Are you dependent for them upon the country or the city ? X. Name all the ways you can think of in which the country helps to support the city. XL Name all the ways you can think of in which the city helps to support the country. XII. Give your reasons for thinking that the country is more important to national life than the city. XIII. Give your reasons for believing that, the city is more important to national life than the country. XIV. Make a list of the ways in which the country could make a greater contribution to national life. XV. Name the ways in which the nation could make a greater contribution to country life. INDEX Agriculture as an industry, 236. Beautifying the school home, 96. Better living, as an ideal, 26 ; ways to, 27. Books and country life, 106. Books, as friends, 103; kind of, 103. Boosters, advantage of, 116. Boys' and girls' clubs, 124. Buildings, location of, 43 ; planning for, 46; purpose of, 46. Buildings and home making, 43. Chores, and country life, 36; value of, 37- . , Citizenship, importance of, 151; in U. S., 234; responsibilities of, 152, 158; types of, 235. Citizenship and community life, 158. Citizenship and country life, 151, Citizenship and country problems, 156. Citizenship and democracy, 157. Citizenship and equal suffrage, 157. City, dependence of, on the country- side, 258. Climate, an element in production, 190. Clubs, value of, 124. Common good, cooperation for the, 261. Community education and the school, Community gatherings in schools, 134. Community leadership, 159. Community life, meaning of, 153 ; place of schools in, 131 ; schools as centers for, 133 ; ties of, 238. Community life and consolidated schools, 84. Community life and increased produc- tion, 195. Community life and politics, 152. Community life and the nation, 231. Community officials, duties of, 168. Community service, objects of, 169; qualifications for, 169. Community service and leadership, 168. Community spirit and consolidated schools, 84. Comradeship, in the home, 69; of parents and children, 72. Comradeship and authority, 70. Congress, business of, 245. Consolidated school, activities of, 85. Consolidated schools and neighbor- hood life, 83. Continuation schools, 135. Cooperation, benefits of, 205 ; in buy- ing, 26; in marketing, 25; in the home, 73 ; loyalty as an element in, 201 ; spirit of, and country life, 15 ; success of, 203. Cooperation and community problems, 202. Cooperations and country institu- tions, 19. Cooperation and good roads, 217. Cooperation and the community, 199. Country creed, 206. Country efficiency, importance of, 184. Country home, 31. Country institutions, growing power of, 18. 267 268 INDEX Country life, a source of knowledge, 3; benefits from, 177; books about, 106; dangers to, 17; education for, 147; future of, 7; ideals of, 22; importance of good health in, 220; importance of good roads in, 211; institutions of, 12; lessons of, i; literature of, 106; loyalty and, 4; mission of, 180; national impor- tance of, 176; need of leaders in, 5 ; new spirit in, 28 ; new, and its insti- tutions, 12; opportunities of, i; playmates, 34, 35; spirit of, 179; Country life and character, 179. Country life and citizenship, 151. Country life and family life, 39. Country life and leadership, 5, 178. Country life and national life, 254. Country life and neighborliness, 2. Country life and school work, 127. Country life and the school, 155. Country life movement, 153. Country people and institutions, 13, Country schools and country life, 126. Country schools as community centers, 133- Countryside, planning of, and the home, 54. Countryside prosperity and national markets, 256. Country work, general character of, 179. Creed of a country girl, 207. Crop rotation, importance of, 186. Current events and the country school, 130. Democracy, meaning of, 157. Democracy and the family council. Disease, science and, 225. Domestic efficiency in the country home, 52. Domestic science in country schools, 130. Education, as a preparation for life, 142 ; for efficiency, 144. Education and country living, 146. Education and drudgery, 143. Efficiency, in the country house, 50; opportunities for, in country life, 24; through education, 144. Experts as community officials, 165. Faith in the country, value of, 205. Family life and community life, 33. Family life and the home, 58. Family life in the country, 38. Family loyalty and comradeship, 69. Family ties and home spirit, 68. Farm buildings, location of, 45. Farm journals, value of, 107. Farm management, cooperation in, 204. Farms as work places, 36. Fellowship in the home, 67. Fertility, conservation of, 184. Futures in country life, 8. Games, importance of, for all, 115; teamwork through, 114. Games and sports in the country, 16. Good books, means of securing, 104. Good books and the school, 103. Good health, prevention and, 221; road to, 228. Good health and country life, 220. Good reading, lessons from, 108. Good roads, as a community invest- ment, 212; cooperation for, 216; effects of, 211; factors in, 215; importance of, 211; standards for, 215. Government, community officials, 163. Government, functions of, 247; prob- lems of, 248; purpose, 168. Health, community work for, 222 ; conservation of, 222; importance of, 178 ; methods of preserving, 227. INDEX 269 Health and home, 59. Health and the water supply, 224. Health conservation and public intel- ligence, 226. Health officers, duties of, 166. Helping in the home, 73. Home, as a center of family life, 58; as a living place, 32; as a play place, 34; importance of, 31. Home and habit forming, 32. Home and neighborhood life, 82. Home and neighborliness, 80. Home and the countryside, 54, Home and the neighborhood, ']']. Home and the story hour, 60. Home cooperation, 73. Home making, art of, 42; business of, 42. Home reading circle, 62. Home spirit, 62 ; as an asset, 67 ; in the school, 90. Home spirit and family ties, 68. Home spirit and the family council, 62. Homes, surroundings of, 44. Home work, training through, 38. House, planning of the, 50. Hygiene and the school, 95. Ideals, better living, 26; better stand- ards of business, 24; greater effi- ciency, 23 ; of country Hfe, 22 ; value of, 22. Ideals and country life spirit, 28. Ill health, forms of, 222. Increased production, importance to the community, 194. Industries, types of, 236. Institutions and country people, 13. Institutions of country life, 12. Inventions and country life, 7. Landscape gardening in school yard, 97. Leadership, need of experts for, 165 ; need of, in country life, 5. Leadership and community Hfe, 159. Leadership and the booster, 118. Leadership and the neighborhood, 6. Legislation, method of passing, 245. Libraries in the home, 109. Livelihood, methods of securing, 236. Loyalty, value of, 15. Loyalty and community life, 199. Loyalty and cooperation, 201. Loyalty and country life, 4. Machinery, effects of, 7, 8. Magazines, value of, 107. Manual training in country schools, 129. Marketing, importance of, 24. National business, character of, 243. National government, departments of, 244; exists for service, 247; sphere of, 250; work of, 243. National life, cooperation for, 261 ; depends on the countryside, 254. Nations as communities, 231. Neighborhood and the home, 77. Neighborhood life, stimulus for, 82. Neighborhood life and the home, 82. Neighborliness, in the country, 2; methods of, 80. Neighborliness and community life, 86. Officers, duties of, 170, Officers in a country community, 163. Opportunities of country life, i. Patriotism, beginnings of, 199. Plant food, value of, 186. Play, importance of, 34; in the coun- try home, 34. Playmates and country life, 35. Politics and community life, 152. Production, cooperation in, 204; ele- ments in, 190; ideals of, 188. Productivity, standards of, 189. Public health, conservation of, 226. 270 INDEX Reading and good books, 103. Reading circle in the home, 62. Reading with a purpose, 108. Roads, methods of improving, 213. Rotation of crops, reasons for, 187. School and community, 124. School and team work, 113. School as a home, 90. School directors, women as, 165. School gardens, education from, 98. School gardens and the school, 98. School help for farms, 132. School home, beauty and the, 96; cooperative work for, 93 ; improve- ment of, 93. School home and cleanliness, 94. School hygiene, 95. School libraries, 134. School lunches and fellowship, 91. School sanitation, 93. Schools, as social centers, 154; rela- tion to farm and home, 124. Schools prepare for life, 141, School ventilation, 94. School work and community life, 145. School work and life work, 141, Science, effects of, on disease, 225. Seed, importance of, 191. Seed testing, 191. Social activities, consolidated school, 85. Social center bond, in the home, 14; in the school, 14. Soil conservation, importance of, 184. Spending and community life, 238. Standards of productivity, 189. Story hour, value of a, 60. Team work, for the school, 120; value of, 114. Team work and fellow feeling, 119. Team work and play, 114. Team work and the school, 113. The country neighborhood, 2. The countryside and national markets, 256. The countryside and the city, 258. The countryside and the consumer, 176. The countryside and the food supply, 174. The school as the center, 136, Transportation systems, U. S., 233. United States, citizenship in, 234. United States, common interests in, 238; Utilizing waste land, 193. Ventilation and the school, 94. Waste land, elimination of, 193. Water supply, importance of, 48. Water supply, safe guarding of, 47; selection of, 47. Water supply and health, 224. Work, value of education for, 142. Printed in the United States of America. ^HE following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects City, State, and Nation By WILLIAM L. NIDA Superintendent of Schools, River Forest, Illinois ; Author of " The Dawn of American History in Europe " Cloth, ill., i2mo 75 cents City, State, and Nation provides a definite, logical, and graded course of instruction in citizenship for children in the elementary schools. It approaches the subject matter from a social standpoint and emphasizes the practice of civic virtue in community life. Community health, public education, public utility, public recreation, and the many ways in which society is putting forth effort to protect itself and provide security and comfort, are topics of study. The eco- nomic features of the treatment so appeal to the student as to make him a faith- ful and loyal servant of the city, state, and nation. The Dawn of American History in Europe By WILLIAM L. NIDA Author of " City, State, and Nation " Cloth, i2mo, ill 80 cents The Dawn of American History in Europe is a simple account or story of Old World conditions, and of the important series of events that led to the dis- covery and colonization of America. It follows the suggestions and meets the requirements laid down by the Committee of Eight in its report to the Am^erican Historical Association for sixth grade history. The book is conveniently divided for study into chapters, each of which is synoptically outlined, the paragraph topics indicated and covered by definite formal stimulating reviews. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York CHICAGO BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS ATLANTA A Short History of the United States By EDWARD CHANNING Professor of History in Harvard University Revised in Consultation with SUSAN J. GINN Master's Assistant in the Hyde School, Boston 1 2mo, half leather, xviii + 407 + xxiv pages $1.00 A Short History of the United States in the new edition brings the narrative down to the beginning of the year 19 10. Basing his work on deep and far-reaching study of the condi- tions, physical, social, and political, from which the United States is developed, the author is able to unify his facts and present them impressively, so that the pupil whose education must be completed in the elementary school will carry away with him nothing that a wider experience will compel him to unlearn, while he obtains a sound knowledge on which to establish his ideals of citizenship. While presenting the political phases of the nation's history with due fullness and precision, its economic and intellectual development is recog- nized as of equal importance, and the foundations are laid for the study of civil government. The author's knowledge of the philosophy of history is everywhere manifest, but nowhere more so than as the motive of the Suggestions to Teachers, which follow each section. The Paragraph Headings, Marginal Topics and References, Summaries and Lists of Questions will be found most con- venient and teachable. There is a constant use of references for supplementary study, and by a division of parts which follows that of the author's '' Students' History " the use of the fuller text is encouraged. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO THE HEALTH SERIES OF PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE By M. V. O'Shea, Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin ; Author of " Dynamic Factors in Education," etc. ; and J. H. KELLOGG, Super- intendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium ; Author of " Man, the Master- piece," etc. Health Habits .... Cloth, 111., 12mo, $.45 Health and Cleanliness . . Cloth, 111., 12mo, $.55 The Body in Health . . Cloth, 111., 12mo, $.65 Making the Most of Life . . Cloth, 111., 12mo, $.65 Health Habits. The purpose here is to establish the child in the physical habits and forms of conduct that make for bodily health. Health and Cleanliness. The purpose of this book is to interest children in social service in health ; to show the dependence of health and well-being upon protection, and especially against infections through germs, and to teach children what to do for themselves and others in case of an emergency. The Body in Health. The human body is here presented as the most remark- able thing in nature, in the variety and delicacy of its action and in the marvelous adaptation of its parts and functions. It presents knowledge with sympathy and it leads to an appreciative understanding. Making the Most of Life. This book directs attention to the chief factors in modern life which reduce the vitality and the health of people. It is a forceful and constructive treatment of health. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK DALLAS CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO ATLANTA MUSCULAR MOVEMENT WRITING By C. C. LISTER Director of Penmanship, Brooklyn Training School for Teachers Elementary Book 16 cents Advanced Book ...... 20 cents Teachers Manual Muscular Movement Writing organizes systematically into two books the in- struction in writing. The Elementary Book is adapted to the needs and abilities of children in the elementary school and is intended for use in grades beginning with the third. The Advanced Book is planned to follow the Elementary Book, and completes the course of instruction in writing. The treatment of Muscular Movement Writing in this system places emphasis upon the following points ; — Correct posture to secure uniformity and ease in writing and to establish hygienic habits. Muscular Movement Practice to secure perfect motor control and muscular coordination. Rhythmic drill to develop freedom, elasticity, and individuality in writing. Good form in the models. Writing lessons, not copy lessons ; and writing books, not copy books. 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