Community Civics and Rural Life

It was the necessity for team work in carrying on the War for Independence that led the thirteen American colonies for the first time to unite under a common government. They ha...

When the thirteen original states were colonies, they derived their governing powers from CHARTERS granted to them by the king, as cities and some counties are granted charters...

When the first colonists of America undertook to organize governments for their local settlements, they naturally adopted forms with which they had been familiar in England. The...

This definition is taken from "Ten Lessons in Thrift," issued by the Treasury Department of the United States Government (February, 1919). The United States Government sent out...

Early in our study we considered the question WHY we have government (Chapter IV). We saw then that it is the people's organization for teamwork in protecting and promoting thei...

"NATURE WAS MUCH BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN MAN. SHE WOULD SUFFER NO SUDDEN HIGHWAYS TO BE THROWN ACROSS HER SPACES; SHE ABATED NOT AN INCH OF HER MOUNTAINS, COMPROMISED NOT A FOO...

The most conspicuous activities that we see going on in the community are usually those that have to do with earning a living or the production of wealth. [Footnote: The activit...

During the years 1910-1915 the Office of Public Roads of the United States Department of Agriculture made a continuous study, year by year, of the methods and results of road im...

Several times in the preceding chapters reference has been made to our national purpose "to transmute days of dreary work into happier lives." This does not mean to get rid of w...

It is important to get in the habit of thinking of our nation as a community, just as we think of our school or town or rural neighborhood as one. This is not always easy to do...

In the preceding chapter we learned that as a nation we have not been altogether thrifty in the disposal and use of our public lands. The same thing will have to be said regardi...

The very young and the very aged come within this group. Both are peculiarly dependent upon others, though the aged may, by thrift in earlier years, have acquired a competence w...

The pioneer family was dependent at first upon its own efforts for the education of its children. When other families came, a schoolhouse was built, a teacher employed and the w...

governments are doing to prevent loss of crops and of livestock from disease, insects, and other causes. What this may mean to the individual farmer and to the country is sugges...

People have never liked to pay taxes. Their repugnance to it is largely a survival of the times when an autocratic ruling class imposed taxes upon the people for its own selfish...

been in the use of their school organization for this purpose. The encouraging thing is, however, that rural communities are beginning to find the means to use their schools in...

The fascinating story of the development of language cannot be told here. It is referred to because we are likely to forget what an important factor it is in making community li...

Is there a world community? A world torn by war, as our world was from 1914 to 1918, may not seem to give much evidence of it, and many would at once answer "No" to our question...

According to the census of 1910, somewhat more than 38 million of the 92 million people of our country at that time were engaged in "gainful occupations"; that is, in earning th...

When a schoolhouse is built to-day, it is not done by combined manual labor, as in the pioneer community. As in all building, there is cooperation of a highly organized kind in...

When people have common purposes and are dependent upon one another in accomplishing them, there must be COOPERATION, which is another name for "teamwork." A team of horses that...

Nothing could be freer than air. But even as we sit in our schoolroom, whether or not we get all the pure air we need, depends upon how the schoolhouse was built for ventilation...

Our nation requires healthy citizens, intelligent citizens, prosperous and happy citizens. The home can do more to produce them than any other community agency. Therefore the na...

The most important element of success in community life, as in a ball game, a family, or a school, is TEAM WORK; and team work depends, first of all, upon a COMMON PURPOSE. Our...

great responsibility for the education of the children, both within the home itself and through cooperation with the schools (Chapter XIX). No matter how many social organizatio...

In the preceding chapters we have often spoken of "our community." As a matter of fact, each of us is a member of a number of communities. It is time to consider just what they are

The Employment Service had been created in 1914, but was rapidly developed during the war to meet the demand for farm labor to provide a food supply adequate to war needs. The m...

There is nothing else that concerns the community or the nation so much as the health of its citizens. Of more than three million men between the ages of 21 and 31 examined for...

We have frequently referred to the fact that we are "members" of various communities. Our bodies have members, such as arms and hands. The tongue has been called an unruly membe...

Both the efficiency and the democracy of a community depend upon the extent and the kind of education it affords to its people. Autocratic Germany had a most thorough-going syst...

In a similar manner imported seeds, plants, and plant products are inspected to prevent the importation of plant diseases and plant pests, and also to prevent adulteration of pl...

The home is the smallest, the simplest, and the most familiar community of which we are members. In many respects it is also the most important. The quotation with which this ch...

There is nothing more discouraging than to have the product of one's labor swept away by disaster. The farmer who has every prospect of a bumper crop after a hard season's work...

Roads and other means of transportation are important not only as a means of transporting products, but also as a means of communication among the members of the community. Team...

It should become a HABIT of both teacher and pupils to be on the constant lookout for news items and discussions in available newspapers and periodicals illustrative of the poin...

Consult "Guide to United States Government Publications," U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1918, No. 2; also, "The Federal Executive Departments as Sources of Information," U....