GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS IN VIRGINIA

FIRST PART

POWERS AND DUTIES OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

CHAPTER I

THE NEED FOR GOVERNMENT

THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND. The Commonwealth of Virginia covers an area of more than forty thousand square miles. Residing upon this area are more than two million people. If the territory of the State were divided equally among all the people, every man, woman, and child would. have about twelve acres of land for himself. If such a division were made, each of us might choose to live absolutely alone upon his own twelve acres and have little or nothing to do with his neighbors. Think what this would mean. Every individual would have to provide shelter for himself and all of his own food and clothing. How unhappy and how unsatisfactory our lives would be.

Now, as everybody knows, people do not live in any such absurd fashion as this. Most of us live with our families, and all of us have friends and acquaintances with whom we mingle.

In other words, people do not live separately but in groups. And there are many reasons why they live in this way.

THE FAMILY GROUP. It seems unnecessary to point out the various reasons why people live in family groups. Certainly one important reason is that during all the earlier years of their lives children are unable to provide for themselves. It is necessary that their parents should care for them; and this necessity, among other things, holds the family group together. It seems also unnecessary to discuss the numerous advantages which we enjoy because we live in these family groups. So many are these advantages and so strong are the ties of affection between the members of the family that, even after children are able to support themselves, they more often than not continue to live in the family group until they are ready to establish families of their own. The family is indeed the smallest of all the groups in which people live, but in many ways it is also the most important of all groups.

THE COMMUNITY GROUP. Of course every family usually lives by itself to a certain extent. But families also associate with one another and form larger groups. Even when families live on farms and are thus separated by considerable distances, they nevertheless have many interests in common. They make, for example, common use of the roads, the churches, the schools, the post offices. They form, in other words, a community group. Nearly three-fourths of the people of Virginia live in farming communities of this kind.

The people who live in cities and villages naturally live much closer together than the people of farming communities. Naturally also they have a larger number of interests in common. Their streets, for example, must be paved and cleaned and lighted for the benefit of the whole population. They must have a common police protection and common protection against fires. Such things as water and light must be furnished to their homes, and means of transportation must be provided.

WHY PEOPLE LIVE IN FARMING AND CITY COMMUNITIES. Everybody understands why a certain number of people must of necessity live in farming communities. Not only must the people of the farms raise their own food and the raw material for their own clothing, but they must provide these things also for the people who reside in cities and villages. There are equally good reasons why people live in cities and villages. One of the principal reasons is that the raw material raised upon the farms may be more easily manufactured in cities and distributed to the stores which make a business of selling manufactured goods. The people of the farming communities are themselves very dependent upon the labors of the people who reside in cities. How could the farms be properly cultivated without the implements that are made in city communities? Would it not be a distressing state of affairs if every farmer were compelled not only to raise the wool, the flax, and the cotton from which his clothing is made, but also to manufacture the necessary cloth and thread and make it up into garments?

It is clear, then, that the lives of all of us are made a great deal easier and happier because we live in community groups and because the farming communities and the city communities are dependent upon each other. Indeed we can scarcely imagine what our lives would be if people did not live together in these different kinds of groups.

HOW PEOPLE SATISFY THEIR DESIRES. Every person in the world has a certain number of desires that he wishes to satisfy. Although the desires of different individuals vary greatly, there are certain principal desires which nearly everybody has. For example, life itself is one of the things which all of us desire to preserve. Most of us also are anxious to preserve our health. We like to be free also to do as we please without interference from others. In other words, we desire liberty of action.

Another thing which nearly everybody desires is to earn money. Most people do not care for money in itself, but money helps us to live our lives in our community. The farmer does not ordinarily exchange a quantity of potatoes or corn for a suit of clothes or a plow. He accepts money for his potatoes or corn, and he gives the same money for the clothing or the plow that he wants. Moreover, the possession of money enables us to buy things which we call propertysuch things, for example, as land and houses, books and furniture, food and clothing, horses and cattle. These things make our lives more comfortable, and it is natural that we should seek to obtain them.

Most of us desire not only to associate with the people of our own community but also to keep in touch with the people of other communities. For this purpose we need roads and bridges, railroads and boat lines, postal and express services, telegraph and telephone lines. Another desire which most people have is the desire for knowledge. We want to know things. We must have, therefore, not only schools and colleges but also books and magazines and newspapers.

These, in a general way, are a few of the desires which nearly everybody has. In the realization of these desires, we find happiness for ourselves, and we increase our usefulness to our family and our community groups.

THE CONFLICT OF INTERESTS AMONG PEOPLE. When people live in groups it is utterly impossible for each individual to pursue his own desires without any regard for others. We desire to preserve our lives; but sometimes, as in time of war, men gladly give up their lives for their country. We desire health; but we cannot ignore the interests of others in this matter. We have no right, for example, in seeking to protect our own health, to drain the sewage from our house into an open stream, if thereby we endanger the health of our neighbors. We desire liberty of action; but we must use our liberty with due consideration for the rights of