CHAPTER IX SOCIAL PROBLEMS (Continued). Civil and Political Problems. THE TEACHING OF CIVICS.-An attempt to define the good citizenship which should be the definite aim of the teaching of civics, reveals the fact that it means far more than mere knowledge of civil and political organization methods and the study of history. In a contribution to Education for March, Doctor Edwin S. Todd, of Miami University, maintains that the real aim of this instruction will never be realized until the pupil is taught: (1) to appreciate his environment; (2) to sympathize with that environment; and (3) to complete the process of socialization by adapting himself to that environment. Doctor Giddings defines this civic socialization as "that process by which we get acquainted with one another, and thereby establish sympathies and friendships, learning to enjoy association and discovering how to coöperate with one another in our work." Doctor Todd claims that we fall short of this result in our instruction largely because we do not conform to the ideal of this present age-we miss the spirit of the environment in which the pupil lives and tempt him to regard our teaching as hollow, unreal, and impractical. The civic ideal with which our present instruction must fully square is the economic ideal. "The economic ideal has already profoundly colored and modified every phase of life." Social forces whose workings we do not yet clearly understand are fast ushering in this ideal, and our instruction must accord with it if we would have it appeal to the pupil as something real and vital. During the two centuries following the discovery of America religion was the centre of thought, and the efforts of democracy were in the direction of finding expression in the field of religion. For the following two centuries the ideal was a political one, and the questions of political science or civics centred around the relations of the separate commonwealths to the central authority and the nature of the right of suffrage. Beginning with the early eighties we entered upon "a period where democracy has its work in finding expression in the field of the economic." The Civil War and the reconstruction periods established the fact of National sovereignty and the idea that the rights of the individual are not always inalienable. Ohio is not a State but the subdivision of a State. The welfare of the individual is bound up with the welfare of others in the organized society of which he is a part. And in our educational ministrations we now have to consider, in connection with all civic questions, how they are apt to affect the welfare of the whole people. Acording to this ideal our instruction must now take the form of vigorous efforts to make our youth first intelligent citizens; secondly, useful citizens; and thirdly, citizens who appreciate all civil and political questions in their larger relations to the State and to others and all this that they may finally become not only cultured citizens but moral and righteous ones as well. Unjust Political Criticism and its Effects. In view of the fact that our whole governmental policy is under attack, and is likely to remain so for some years to come, the words of Senator Root of New York should receive thoughtful consideration by every loyal American without regard to party affiliation or political preference. Our whole system of constitutional freedom and order is attacked. It will go down unless actively supported by those who believe in government under the restraint of declared principles as opposed to the sway of impulse-the rule of law rather than the rule of man.' 66 It is so easy to arouse antagonism and to cloud issues in times of economic tension or great political excitement that men's judgments are apt, at such times, to be warped and their actions hasty, sometimes even unjust. It not infrequently happens in the administration of public affairs that the one is right and the many are wrong, that a hopeless minority has been wiser in its views than the triumphant majority. Hence, the overshadowing issue in all matters of grave public concern is to establish and maintain the kind of restraining influence and safeguarding that tends toward discussion, deliberation, and a wholesome delay. And all legislation that makes possible hasty action by an impatient popular will merely plays into the hands of those who have ulterior motives concealed beneath their fervid professions of devotion to the political, social, and moral uplift of the people. Our ancestors were wise in accepting the teachings of history as to the dangers of entrusting unrestrained power to a single person, to a single body, or even to the direct desires of the majority. They also showed commendable foresight in intrenching this wisdom in constitutions and constitutional provisions that cannot lightly or easily be changed. The Spread of Socialistic Views. The great changes going on in the industrial world are almost imperceptibly modifying our whole social view. Even the most conservative find every once in a while that, notwithstanding their refusal to accept the demands of the great social unrest which is everywhere evident, they have drifted with the tide of affairs and are accepting things which they had determinedly opposed. The demands of this unrest are affecting not merely financial regulations but also our political and social ways, and it is operative everywhere where industry is an important factor in the life of the people. The United States during the past year experienced turbulent unrest in the Lawrence mills and in the mills of Passaic, in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and in San Diego; France saw the rise of a great Syndicalist movement; Germany was alarmed by the great increase in the vote of the Social Democrats; and in England so determined were the coal strikers and their friends that a minimum wage law was enacted for the entire coal industry. The latter marked an almost revolutionary step in a conservative country like England, and, taken into account with the Old-age Pension Act and Lloyd George's "revo lutionary" budget, reveals a change in sentiment in its people that would have seemed impossible ten years ago. In this country our fundamental laws and even our judiciary were the objects of severe arraignment. And the remarkable thing to the conservative mind is the fact that these great socialistic changes seem to be accompanied with increased prosperity. Whether this has been due to an increased demand for more effective industrial and business methods, or to a substantial gain in economic and social progress, remains to be seen. In commenting on the English situation the Boston Transcript has said: "Our friends the Socialists have always been ridiculed for their pet claim that it is the business of the government to spread happiness and plenty among the people. Yet here, in a country the very quickest of all to foam at the very word Socialism, is a string of acts each having as its tacit side-issue the partial redistribution of wealth and the spread of happiness." As Germany has already adopted even more paternalistic measures, the Transcript asks whether the time has not come for us to frame slightly larger conceptions of government than we have been holding." CHAPTER X SOCIAL PROBLEMS (Concluded). Education in the South. FEUDS AND EDUCATION.-An effective cure for the deadly feuds and the defiance of law that, within recent months, have been attracting attention to certain mountainous regions in the South is found in education. Not only do ignorance and superstition disappear before it, but interdependence, social responsibility, and the submergence of self and selfish interests into the welfare of all are pressed home upon the minds and the hearts of all who become real learners. The petty feuds of life are soon lost sight of in the bigger vision that education promotes. An excellent illustration of this is being furnished by J. A. Burns in the Oneida Institute, which he founded in the very heart of the feud region in the mountains of Kentucky. Oneida is forty miles from a railroad station, and Mr. Burns, who himself was at one time involved in these feuds, could not at first secure help in his determination to bring better conditions as well as better feeling into the life of these people. His story is well told in the Christian Herald of March 27. "He begged a landowning cousin for an acre of ground and was refused. Then he succeeded in convincing a few Oneida citizens, and a board of trustees was at last organized. The first meeting was held in an old mill-shed which was full of bullet-holes from former battles, and the board itself was made up of two warlike factions of an ancient feud. Many at this first meeting were face to face with old enemies, and glared at each other while Burns was making his appeal. But the incorporation was effected and the enterprise was launched, though without a dollar in sight. Its single asset was Burns' inflexible faith and earnest purpose. The only help he could get from the trustees was their promise not to fight while he was building the school-house, which was a big concession; but they would not contribute a foot |