Social Civics

PAGE The Center of Population Facing 21 The Growth of American Cities ” 183 The City Manager Plan ” 197 Municipal Administrative Departments ” 205 Traffic Zones ” 210 Simplified...

_The purpose of this chapter is to explain why human beings have come together into a society, to point out some of the chief influences which affect their action in organized g...

_The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the population of the United States has grown, how it is distributed, the varied races of which it is composed, and the racial pro...

=The Economic Needs of Man.=—The most elementary needs of human beings are for food, clothing, and shelter. Until these are satisfied no higher needs can develop. In the lowest...

=What is the State?=—The word “state” is so short and simple that everybody is assumed to know just what it means. And in a general way everyone does know what it means. But it...

=What Civil Liberty Means.=—One of the best ways to get an appreciation or what civil liberty means is to read any book which describes the life of the French people before the...

=How the People Rule.=—In free governments the will of the people prevails in the decision of all important matters. This does not mean, of course, that the people decide every...

=How the Voters Control the Government.=—A democratic government is one in which the people, acting directly or through their representatives, control the course of public affai...

=Why Political Parties are Formed.=—Whenever people are in control of their government, political parties are certain to be formed. No popular government has long continued anyw...

=What Local Government Is.=—The functions performed by governments fall into two divisions. First, there are functions which relate mainly to the life and activities of the neig...

=What is a City?=—The poet Cowper once said that “God made the country and man made the town”, a remark which was not intended to flatter the cities. Nor is there any reason why...

=Government or Business: Which is it?=—At the close of each year the city authorities issue a printed volume, its pages well packed with figures of all sorts and interspersed wi...

_The purpose of this chapter is to explain the relation of the states to the nation, to show how the state governments are organized, and what services they render the people._

=The Achievement of Union.=—The greatest achievement of the American people has been the welding of separate states into a single nation. To have brought into a permanent federa...

=Congress.=—The lawmaking branch of the national government is made up of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress of the Confederation consisted...

=The Man and the Office.=—Forty years ago, an eminent English writer on American government spoke of the presidency as the greatest secular office in the world “to which anyone...

=The Highest Court in the Land.=—Visitors to the Capitol at Washington on any week day from October to June are usually interested to see a group of nine distinguished-looking m...

=The Things that Make a Nation Great.=—Three things have contributed greatly to the upbuilding of the American nation. The first is the wide extent, the richness, and the varied...

_The purpose of this chapter is to show the large part which agriculture plays in the life of the country and to discuss briefly some of the problems of agriculture today._

=The Purposes of Commerce.=—The people of the world spend a large part of their energy in supplying their material wants, including food, clothing, and shelter. We commonly thin...

=What is Industry?=—Industry comprises the whole process of converting raw materials into finished products. It includes the production of goods by hand in the workshops, and by...

=Labor in the Old and the New Industrial Order.=—So long as the system of hand-industry was in existence there was no sharp division of employers and laborers into two separate...

=The Origin of Money.=—The use of money is one of the marks of civilization. In primitive communities money was unknown. Buying and selling was by barter, the exchange of one co...

=The Cost of Government.=—The cost of maintaining the national government and all its activities is now about four billion dollars per year, in other words about forty dollars p...

_The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the nature of public utilities, the various methods of regulating them, and the question whether they ought to be owned by the governm...

=Education and Democracy.=—No matter where one may go, in any part of the world, it will be found that political democracy and public education tend to keep pace with each other...

=A Highly Important Matter.=—Nothing among all the activities of modern government is more important than the care of the public health. Its importance cannot be measured in dol...

=Poverty and Pauperism.=—Poverty is one of the very oldest among human problems; two thousand years ago, in Biblical times, the world was trying to find a solution for it and it...

=The Stupendous Cost of Armaments.=—Although the people of the United States dislike war and desire peace the national government is now spending about $750,000,000 every year t...

=The Contact of Nations.=—In all ages the nations of the world have been brought into relations with one another. During the early centuries their contact was not very close, as...

=The Old Policy of Isolation.=—For more than one hundred years it was the settled policy of the United States to keep aloof from all entanglements in the affairs of the rest of...

=The Desire to End War.=—Since the dawn of human history mankind has been divided into independent tribes and nations ready to hurl themselves upon one another in warfare. No mi...

=The War and the New Era.=—The world has spent the years since the war in a condition of political and economic unrest. This is not surprising because this herculean contest roc...