Lessons in democracy

Front matter

THE LIBRARIES

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

Foreword

This book nas been prepared to assist newcomers in America to acquire a working knowledge of the duties and privileges of citizenship. It has been written for readers whose knowledge of the language is limited and whose previous education has not been extensive. Nevertheless, every effort has been made to use facts of interest to mature minds.

While primarily designed for use in schools, it is hoped that it may serve a much wider group than those who attend adult immigrant classes. Most immigrants never attend formal classes. Their knowledge of English is picked up in the associations of daily life. This book should find a useful place among those who do not attend American schools. It may thus supplement as well as assist in the institutionalized process of education.

As a text for schools it is intended for two types of students. It may be used as a supplementary reader in beginning English classes and as a text for more advanced students. In this way the learning of the language may go hand in hand with the acquisition of information concerning American

V vi

FOREWORD institutions. The second type of student that may find it useful is the candidate for naturalization. It is now almost universal for judges granting citizenship to require of all candidates an elementary knowledge of American institutions: The information most commonly required is presented herein in a simple and convenient form.

The vocabulary has been carefully adjusted to the ability of the beginner. The first lessons are therefore much simpler than the later ones, and the more difficult and abstract facts are reserved for the last pages of the book.

Every lesson presented here has been actually taught in classes and adjusted to the practical conditions which have been thus revealed. Most of those lessons have been used in the immigrant schools of Cleveland.

An attempt has been made to avoid the extreme localism of many courses in civics. We believe that good citizenship consists in much more than an ability to live usefully in a small community. Civics texts in seeking to be practical often overemphasize the concerns of the local community at the expense of broader national affairs, and while they may develop community interest, they fail to produce a citizenship with broad national and international Ideals. We have sought to retain the benefits

FOREWORD vii of the newer civic education while at the same time, we have presented adequately the national concerns of the citizen, which have been made so important by the Great War.

To the teachers and officials associated with us in Americanization work in Cleveland who have greatly assisted in the practical development and application of this course of study, acknowledgment is gratefully made.

K. M.

H. F. C.

Part I. The Meaning Of Democracy Lesson Page

1. Working Together 1

2. Working Together to Make a Steel Rail . 2

3. A Cooperation Owned and Managed by the

Workers . . 9

4. Our Free Government is a Cooperation Owned

and Managed by the Citizens .... 10

Part II. The Story Of The American Democracy

1. The Beginning op the American Democracy . 13

3. The New Struggle for Democracy ... 26

5. American Holidays .40

6. The Meaning op the Flag . . . . 45

7. Our Nation, the United States ... 48

Part III. The Government Of The Democracy

1. Our Constitution 53

2. The Powers op the States and the Powers of

the Nation 55

3. The National Government 56

4. How the Government of the Nation Serves

the Public 62

5. How the States are Governed .... 70

ix

X

CONTENTS

LESSON PAGE

6. how the government of the state serves the

Public 73

7. How the Cities are Governed .... 76

8. Laws and the Courts 80

9. How the People Pay for the Government . 86

Part IV. The Citizen In The Community

1. The Work op the Community .... 90

2. Protection op Health 90

3. Charities 101

4. Education 105

5. Protection op Life and Property . . . Ill

6. Recreation 116

7. Our Beautiful City 120

Part V. The Citizen And His Work

1. Opportunities for Work 126

2. How to Find Work 127

3. How to Advance in Work 130

4. A Letter Applying for Work .... 132

5. Spending Money and Saving Money . . .135

7. The Unions 146

Part VI. Citizenship In A Democracy

1. Citizenship — Its Rights and Duties . . . 150

2. How Laws are Made ' 154

3. Political Parties . . . ... • • 157

. 4. Electing Public Officers . ... . • 160

PRESIDENT WILSON'S GREETING TO NEW CITIZENS AT PHILADELPHIA IN 1915

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life. No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us. Some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here did not seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand. But remember this : If we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me. I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise. Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more likely to realize dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better than we are.

*******

You have come into this great Nation voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, and all that we have to give is this : We cannot exempt you from work ; no man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. We cannot exempt you from the strife and the heartbreaking burden of the struggle of the day ; that is common to mankind everywhere. We cannot exempt you from the loads that you must carry ; we can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice.