The young citizen

Preface

This book is intended as a reader for the school and home. The author believes that the subjects which it treats ought to be easily interesting to boys and girls. But they must not be presented as task work. It would defeat the pur¬ pose of the book to divide it into lessons.

The aim should be to awaken the natural interest of the children in the things that concern the city and the nation. The only need is that the child shall understand what he reads. Encourage him to ask questions and to talk about the topics treated in the book; also to report and describe whatever he can see with his own eyes or learn for himself about any of these subjects. Develop his sense of pleasure in being a citizen and in looking forward to a citizen’s duties. Encourage especially the warm ethical and patriotic feeling, which moves instinctively with the growing consciousness of the child, that right and wrong are involved in politics. Let him see the ideals of cleanliness, public safety, pros¬ perity, and happiness, for the attainment of which govern¬ ments exist, and he will never easily descend to base and dishonorable conduct. Be sure that he grasps the idea not only that the State is for the sake of the individual, but also that the individual lives for the State; that duties go with rights; that there is no lasting satisfaction except in gen¬ erous and public-spirited conduct. Let him also early be helped to see that friendly cooperation, instead of jealousy,

VI

PREFACE suspicion and enmity, is the law of happiness and success not only for his own nation, but equally for all nations which make up the commonwealth of mankind.

The author owes thanks to the late Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, a famous Mayor of New York City. His earnest concern in behalf of the multitudes of the children of his city, whose circumstances cut them off from completing their school course or taking any thorough training in civics, was a helpful incentive in preparing this book.

C. F. D.

Jamaica Plain, Mass., June, 1922.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Things That Belong to Us All . i

II. What the Children Can Do for Their City 8

CHAPTER I The Things That Belong to Us All

A great many things in our town belong to all the people. The schoolhouses with their desks and charts and blackboards, for instance, belong to the people. The fathers and mothers and older brothers of the children, and often men and women who have no children of their own, have paid their money to build the schoolhouses and to furnish them. They have sometimes made the schoolhouses a good deal better than their own homes. They have wished to make the children happy in their schools.

No one can say of the schoolhouse, “It belongs to me,” or “It is mine.” The richest man in the town cannot say this any more than the poor man. But the poor man as well as the rich man may say, “This is ours: we own it together.” The children also can say, “These schoolhouses and all that is in them are ours.”

The schoolhouses are not the only things that all of us own in common. Perhaps there are other buildings which belong to the people. In a large town there may be many such buildings; such as the police-stations, the houses for the fire-engines, the stables for the horses that draw the city carts, hospi¬ tals for the sick, garages and repair shops, pumping stations to force water to the highest parts of the town, and a City Hall full of offices.

Perhaps some can think of other buildings which belong to the people. The buildings and houses owned by all of us in common are called public . This means that no one can ever say, “They are mine,” but all can say, “They are ours.” What¬ ever is public is for every one.

To whom do the streets belong? To whom do the sidewalks and the curbstones and the street-lamps belong?

The street does not belong only to the man who lives on it; the lamp-post does not belong only to the man whose door is lighted by the lamp. The teamsters, the errand-boys, the boys and girls who ride their bicycles to their playground, the people who live on the other side of the town, own the street as much as the men who live on it. Every one who walks out in the evening has a share in all the street-lamps.

THE THINGS THAT BELONG TO US ALL

Philadelphia City Hall

This building, which belongs to the citizens of Philadelphia, cost twenty million dollars. The tower is 548 feet high, and is surmounted by a statue of William Penn. Many less costly public buildings are more beautiful than this.

Perhaps there is a Common, a Park, or a Public Garden in town; it may be that the land in it is worth a fortune; it may cost the city thousands of dollars every year to keep it in order. But no man

Boston Public Garden

This beautiful garden is in the heart of the city, and is free for everybody to enjoy.

is so rich as to say, “It is mine.” Every child can say, “It is ours.”

There may be a rule that no one shall pick the flowers in the Public Garden, or trample the grass. But this rule is not to keep us from our rights in the grass and the flowers. The rule is made in

THE THINGS THAT BELONG TO US ALL 5

order to give us our rights. It is intended to secure the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people. Is it not better and fairer to give all of us an equal chance to see the flowers, than to let a

A Well Kept Park

No good citizen will drop papers or rubbish in a park, or do harm to the grass or shrubs or trees.

few pick them and carry them away? The person who takes the flowers from the Public Garden seems to say, “The flowers are mine,” which is not the truth.

No one has a right to carry away without permis¬ sion, and much less to injure, what belongs to us all. Is it not a very good notice which is said to be put up in the public parks of Australia, “ This is your property: therefore do not destroy it”? Uncle Sam has similar cheerful notices, for instance in the wonderful Yosemite Valley, now set apart for all time as a great playground for the nation.

You see now what we mean by property . Property is that with which the owner may do as he pleases. Part of the property in town is private; that is, it belongs to some man or woman. A man’s clothes and tools and books and furniture are his private property. He may own a house or boat or garden. He can do what he pleases with these things; he can give them away or sell them. No one has any right to use them unless the owner gives him permission. But a large part of the property in town is public. It belongs to all of us in common. We can do what we please with it— not what any one person pleases, but what we all agree to do or to permit.

The Grand Canon of the Yellowstone

This beautiful scenery belongs to the people of the United States to enjoy forever. The big river leaps here three hundred feet into a deep channel or canon cut by the water in the rock.

CHAPTER II What the Children Can Do for Their City

If we traveled across the sea and wandered into a village in Africa, we should be amazed to see how the ignorant people live in the midst of dirt. They have no idea of health or tidiness. They throw bones and ashes, and all sorts of refuse, outside of their huts. The dogs are their only scavengers or health officers. This is the savage way of keeping a town. If the village becomes too bad to live in, huts do not cost much, and the people go to another place and build a new village.

Not all the bad towns, however, are among sav¬ ages. We have heard of towns nearer than Asia or Africa where we would not choose to live. The streets are filthy and unwholesome; all sorts of rubbish are thrown into them; a lady would have to pick her way along the dirty sidewalks with great care amid orange peels and banana skins.

What is it that makes such a city so disagreeable ? The trouble is, that the people are careless; they have no good rules about keeping their streets clean; or if they have rules, they break them, and 8

WHAT THE CHILDREN CAN DO 9

scatter papers and various unsightly things in their streets, or they allow needless noises, such as the screeching of automobile horns.

There are parts of towns, even in America, where a citizen would be greatly ashamed to take a visitor.

See what a clean way is here used for handling the dirt of the streets.

“What a dirty and tumble-down place this is!” the visitor would say. Or he would say, “How noisy and disorderly the people are!” Perhaps the stranger would observe pieces of glass in the street, and looking up would see that the street-lamp

IO THE YOUNG CITIZEN

had been broken. His friend would explain to him, “The boys down here break the city lamps.” Think of it; they do not know better than to de¬ stroy their own property!

Perhaps the visitor would go into one of the schoolhouses. Suppose he should find the desks cut and the blackboards scratched and spoiled, and writing on the walls of the buildings. Suppose he should see boys walking or standing about with cigarettes in their mouths, or throwing stones at the lamp-posts. He would say, “I do not wish my children to come here to live.”

How does a town get a bad name? It gets a bad name from the ill manners of its people, from the ugly look of its streets, sidewalks, and schoolhouses, and from the behavior of disorderly persons.

How then can children help to give their town or their city a good.name? What can they do to make strangers and visitors enjoy coming and staying in the place? What will bring the right kind of people to live in the town? What can chil¬ dren do to make the town a fine home for themselves and their friends?

The first thing they can do is to take good care of their own schoolhouses. If they do this they will never mar the walls, or cut and injure the desks, or make them unsightly. They will keep their desks

WHAT THE CHILDREN CAN DO n

in order; they will not mark their schoolbooks.

They will see to it that their own sidewalks and the sidewalks about their schoolhouse are not littered with papers and rubbish. Let them talk and laugh in the streets as much as they like, but why should they offend their neighbors by making

Beautiful School House and Grounds “Each the other adorning.”

disagreeable noises? They ought to help to keep fine order on their way to and from school, and no one ought ever to wish to move away from the neighborhood of the schoolhouse on account of the boys.

Do we like to have people respect us? Of course we do. Then we must respect ourselves too much to do mean things to others. If we like to have people respect us, we must show respect and kindly thought to them, and especially to strangers; to the people who wear plain clothes as well as to those who wear the latest fashions; to those who walk as well as to those who come in carriages. We

At Recess

On the playground all are equal in opportunity.

want to be kind to all, but doubly kind if any one is lame, or sick, or unfortunate.

Do we wish to be good Americans? Then we will never be less kind to any one on account of the color of his skin, whether it is brown, or yellow, or black, or white. All of us who wish our town to have a good name will treat others as we would wish to be treated if we ever went to live in a strange place,

WHAT THE CHILDREN CAN DO where no one knew us. Suppose all the other people in town were Russians or Chinese, and we were the only Americans, how would we like to be treated?

Another way to make a good name for our town is to take good care of ourselves and of our clothes.

Junior Citizens at Work

Boys in every city and village can aid in making streets and gardens and homes more attractive.

It is as good as a picture to see hundreds of tidy and clean children, with clean faces and clean shoes, looking happy and good-natured. It is like music to hear clean words and the pleasant voices of children.

It would be wonderful to find a school where i 4 THE YOUNG CITIZEN

teachers and pupils all spoke in a cheerful and pleasant voice and no one used offensive words. Why not try for this?

Why not set a fashion also against cigarettes and tobacco? Why should boys who want to grow strong

Beauty in the Street

Every good citizen will help to keep such streets free from litter.

and be well, enfeeble themselves with tobacco? The doctors agree that as long as boys are growing, tobacco enfeebles them. They are also beginning to find out that tobacco, like other drugs, takes off the fine edge of a grown man’s power. When you see boys smoking you may know that they are not

WHAT THE CHILDREN CAN DO 15

being well brought up; when they are men they will lack manly vigor. It is a filthy habit that blows smoke into people’s faces and makes the smoker wish to be spitting all the time.

The children in the schools are going to change every city in America for better or worse. They can make up their minds pretty early what kind of a city they intend to live in. They can determine that when they are old enough to vote, they will vote so as to make their city the cleanest and most beautiful place to live in. They can vote to have plenty of good water and bathhouses. They can vote to keep the streets well paved and brightly lighted. They can vote to get rid of the houses where disease lurks, and to let the light into the dark, damp places where it is not safe for little children to live. We want to raise up thou¬ sands of men who love and respect children. We need thousands of happy homes where everyone has plenty to eat and everyone is kind to the others.

Voting on election days will not be enough to do all these things. It will cost a deal of money and we must all be willing to give our work and our money. Neither can we ever have a city good enough to live in, unless we are good enough to fit it.

CHAPTER III What Schools and Teachers Are For

Everywhere throughout the United States one sees schoolhouses. In many cities they are the finest and costliest buildings. The school property of our country is probably worth more than all the lands and farms and shops and palaces of many an ancient kingdom. All of the gold and silver that comes from all the mines in the land is hardly worth so much as the people spend every year in paying their teachers, and in making the schools comfort¬ able for the children. Many parents also, who are very poor, and who badly need the help of their boys and girls in earning money, go without their help in order to send them to school. In some States the laws require parents to send their children to school a certain number of weeks every year.

What is the use of going to school? Why should the people pay such great sums of money for the sake of having good schools? Why would it not be as well to let the boys and girls go to school or not as they choose? How many children, we won¬ der, would like to be quite free of the duty of going to school?

WHAT SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS ARE FOR 17

Let us try to think what would happen if all the schools were closed, and the millions of school children were sent into the streets or the fields, or were put to work. We do not need to suppose this. We need only to learn about Africa or Turkey, or

State Education Building, Albany, N. Y.

This whole building is used by those aiding in the education of the youth of the State.

any barbarous country. We need only to read about England as it was less than a hundred years ago. The rich could go to school, but the children of the poor toiled in factories or in mines, and grew up in ignorance. Which are the best countries in the world to live in? They are those, like America, where the people take good care of their schools. Which are the best cities and towns in America? They are the places where the schools are the best.

But why would it not be as well to let those children go to school who choose, and allow the others to play or to work? Suppose we tried this plan; and suppose that in the course of a few years, when the children grew up, we had two classes of people in the town — the educated and the igno¬ rant! You see, we do not want two different classes in America, one class superior to the other. We want all the people as well educated as possible.

What will education do for us? some one asks; for it is hard work to sit still, to study, to work out questions in arithmetic, to write and to draw well.

Education is power. It is power to earn money. What if a man does not know how to read? He will find a hundred doors to employment shut in his face. The more a boy knows, the more he is wanted. Can a boy write well and add up columns of figures without making a mistake? That boy, if he is honest, is wanted at once. There are not enough boys of this sort to fill the places. Can a girl draw well? Can she make designs? Is she quick to catch an idea? That girl will have better wages, the more skilful she becomes. Yes! Knowl-

WHAT SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS ARE FOR 19

edge is a kind of power. You store it up, as you store up electricity in a battery. But it is better than electricity, for power of that kind may be used up; but the more you use your knowledge, the greater the store becomes.

Boys in the School Workshop Every boy should use his hands as well as his head.

The country wants something more of its boys and girls than that they shall know how to earn a living and to enjoy themselves. It wants brave, intelligent, and noble citizens. Here is the great reason why every one must be sent to school.

Suppose our people were as ignorant as most men were no longer ago than the Eighteenth Century. They could not even read the head-lines in the news¬ papers. They could not. read the names on the ballots on election day. Or, suppose they did not know the difference between the different parties; for example, between Republicans and Democrats and Socialists; suppose they did not know for what they were voting. The truth is, no one’s life or property is safe till the people know enough to vote for good men and just laws.

Knowledge is the power to see what is good for the country or for the city. The ignorant man does not see what use there is in the schools. He does

WHAT SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS ARE FOR 21

not see why he should pay money for them. It may be that he does not see why he should obey the laws.

We send our children to school in order that they may learn what the best things are for their city and for America. The more they know, the more they will want the best for their city — good roads, pure water, safety from fire and mischief, honest and truthful officers. The more they know, the better they will see what is good, not for the North alone, or the West, or for New York, or Iowa, but for all the people of America.

We want more than knowledge. We want friendliness. The schools teach us not to be mean, stingy, and selfish, but just the opposite. All the children are comrades.

We do not ask in our American schools who a boy’s father is, or who a girl’s grandmother was. We all meet on one level as fellow-learners. We want what is good, not for one, but for all. We learn to become friends of one another. We are friends also of all the school children. Throughout the United States they are like us. They learn the same lessons, they salute the same flag; they are all learning, as we are, to become true-hearted Americans.

There was a queer, false notion once, that teachers and pupils were against each other. The pupils tried to make trouble for the teachers, and the teachers often treated the pupils roughly. Sometimes they forgot that they had ever been children themselves. We do not believe any longer in America that teachers and pupils are against each other. The teachers and the children ought to be good friends.

We do not wish to break the will of an American boy or girl. We wish a boy or girl to have a very strong will. We only ask that it shall be a good will — the will to help, the will to make the school a splendid success, the will to learn; a friendly will toward all, a will to be honorable and useful.

CHAPTER IV American Citizens

Who have the right to be called true American citizens? Perhaps some one will say, “I have the best right to be called an American. My family is one of the oldest in the country. My ancestors came over here when there were only a few Indians on these shores. One of my forefathers came in the famous little ship Mayflower. One of my greatgreat-grandfathers came from Holland with the Dutch settlers, who founded the state of New York. Some of the men of my family fought with Wash¬ ington in the war for freedom. I have the right to belong to the Sons (or the Daughters) of the Ameri¬ can Revolution.”

All this is very interesting, but what do you think the Indian chief Massasoit, who helped eat the first Thanksgiving dinner in America, would say to this fine speech? We can guess, if Massasoit could speak, what he would answer back to the boy or girl who wants to be thought a better American citizen than the other children. “Your father,” the big Indian might say, “came here to my land a stranger and

2 3 very poor. I could have gathered my warriors and driven him and his friends into the sea. But I pitied them and helped them. My fathers had been in this land for countless years. We were the first and true Americans. We owned the corn-fields; we let the white men share the land with us. What right have you boys and girls, whose forefathers were strangers and emigrants, to set yourselves up as better Americans than others? ”

We may begin to hear other voices speak along with the old Indian chief. There was a famous American named Alexander Hamilton. He lived in New York. He was a great friend of Washington, and one of his assistants. He was one of the ablest and brightest men of his time, and he helped to es¬ tablish our Republic. But he was born in one of the West India Islands. His father was a Scotchman and his mother was French. He came from home to a school in New Jersey when he was only a boy.

Let us hear what he would say to the boys and girls who think that they are better Americans be¬ cause their families have been longer in the country.

“Do you mean to tell us,” Hamilton would say, “that your people loved America more, or did her more stalwart service, than I did? What stories I could tell you children about the brave deeds of my friends, who, like me, were immigrants to America. Was there ever a better American than the great-

AMERICAN CITIZENS

2 5

hearted Baron DeKalb, who came over here ready to die for liberty?”

And now others speak to us, “We came over

While still a student, Hamilton wrote such able articles in defense of the colonies that they were thought to be the work of a mature statesman.

strangers and immigrants, like your ancestors, from Ireland, England, Norway and many another home in the old countries. You needed us, and we helped you in all kinds of service. Thousands of us have worked for America. You needed us in your mines and on your railroads. Where do you find any men and women who love the flag more than we do?

John Boyle O’Reilly

Mr. O’Reilly was an American citizen, “by adoption,” as we say. He was born in Ireland and risked his life for what he thought his duty to the Irish people. When he came to America he gave his whole heart for the good of the American people.

Do you think you can find any better Americans than John Boyle O’Reilly or Carl Schurz?”

The truth is, we cannot make any division in America because some families have been here longer

AMERICAN CITIZENS 27

than others. The Indians would certainly be the best Americans, if we valued our citizens for the length of time their families have lived in this country. Neither can we call some boys and girls better

Immigrants at Ellis Island, New York Harbor

Immigrants come to our shores in great shiploads. Whole families, parents, grandparents, and little children, often come together. From what distant land do they not come with high hope of America!

Americans than others, for what their forefathers did. Suppose there was a great-grandson of Wash¬ ington in our school, and suppose he was tardy every few days, and did not learn his lessons, and disobeyed the rules, and made the teachers trouble, and was uncivil to strangers in the street; and suppose that there was by his side at school a little Italian or Russian or Jewish boy, who had just come over here, but who was prompt and faithful and obedient and good-tempered; this young Washington would not be so good an American as the other boy.

Whom, then, shall we call the best American citizen? Who is the best kind of pupil to have in the school? We do not ask who gets the best marks, or learns the lessons quickest, or makes the fewest mistakes. We mean the best all-round boy or girl, good in school and good in games too, whom the teacher likes, but whom the children like also, friendly and helpful at home as well as at school, kind and brave, honest and generous.

Show us boys and girls like this, and we will tell you who will make the very best American citizens. We do not care in what land across the ocean their parents were born, or what language they can speak besides our common English tongue. We do not care whether they are rich or poor.

Teach them the common language so that we can all understand each other; teach them also other languages that contain a great literature. Teach them about our history; it belongs to all of us in common. Tell them the stories of our noblest

AMERICAN CITIZENS leaders and teachers, our poets and prophets, our inventors and men of science, our lovers and helpers of men. Show them what kind of a country we are trying to make of America — the land of happy homes, the land of beautiful cities, the land of free¬ dom and justice. Give us plenty of true-hearted boys and girls, thousands and millions of them, and we will have in a few years the very best American citizens.

Bunker Hill Monument

How many of the pupils can tell the story of Bunker Hill? The great monument is 224 feet high. There is a stone staircase to the top of it, where one can have a grand view over the ocean and all about Boston.

CHAPTER V Who Patriots Are

Who are the patriots in America? No doubt many would answer at once, “The patriots are the men who fight for their country; the men who stood with Warren on Bunker Hill, and with Sumter and Marion and Morgan in the Carolinas; the men who made Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown; the sailors who fought alongside of Paul Jones; the sailors on the good ship Constitution; all the soldiers and sailors who gave their lives for duty in the time of the Civil War.”

“Yes,” some would say, “ the men who rode with Custer on the plains of the far West, Dewey and his men at Manila, Roosevelt and Hobson at Santiago, — all these were patriots. They were the same kind of patriots as the famous Spartans who died ages ago at the Pass of Thermopylae 1 over in Greece, of whom the orators and poets have spoken and sung ever since.”