PART III SELF-GOVERNMENT IN STATES us. CHAPTER XIX WHAT IS A STATE? 177. The City and the State. The last fourteen chapters have discussed the government of a city. Now we come to a discussion of the government of a State. То understand clearly what a State is requires hard work. We can see the city clearly; its work is constantly before We see the men building and cleaning streets, the police keeping order, the fire engines rushing to put out fires, and the other officers busy about their tasks. But we do not see the State so clearly. To form a picture in one's mind of the business of its government is difficult. In fact it may be hard for us to see at once why there should be States and State lines. We might unite New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania into one; or we might divide New York into several States without seeing much change in the work the government is doing. It is also difficult to see what the State and city governments have to do with each other, and why it is important for the former to give the latter home rule to do its work without interference. It is a little confusing to know that you are a member of the city for some things and of the State for others; and also to remember that the city grows up out of the State like a muscle of your body with which you exercise a great deal. 178. The Study of State Governments. Some teachers think pupils should study the State before they do the city, because the city can be controlled by the State. But either may be studied first. We have taken up the city first because it is simpler and easier to understand. Now we shall read a few chapters on the work of the State, and then we might write a description of the kind of government we should organize to do this work. We shall find that the State makes rules or laws which some think more important to us than the city rules; that it is busy keeping the wealth of the country from being wasted; and that it does many things to make life for city as well as country people happier and better. But before we speak of the work it does we must say something about how the States came to be. This may be called the study of history rather than of government, but it will help us to understand the government more easily. 179. American Colonies. We have separate States because separate colonies were planted by European countries on the Atlantic coast and because these colonies changed their governments very little after they became independent. At the mouth of the Hudson River a colony was planted which grew into New York State. A colony on the James River became Virginia; another on the Delaware River became Pennsylvania, and so on. Each of these colonies claimed and ruled over the country district lying back of it. To organize a government for the colony and its district, each was given a charter (something which reminds one of a city charter, but it was for a large district and might have been called a constitution) by the English government. These charters were the beginnings of our State constitutions, as the colonies were the beginnings of our States. There were many disputes about boundary lines as these districts increased in population, for the early colonies made claims to territories which were not very clearly marked. And so the later charters and some of the constitutions which came after them stated just where the boundaries were. 180. Independence. When the colonies grew into important communities they became tired of being ruled by the English government and wanted more home rule than they had. Disputes arose between the people in America and the governors whom the English government sent out here, and finally a war broke out and the governors were driven away. The people of the colonies had declared that they ought to be independent, and that they meant to remain under the English government no longer. They fought the war so well that England decided to let them have their way; but she did this partly because a large number of the English people thought there was no good reason why the colonies should not govern themselves. These Englishmen held that self-government is a right of all people who are capable of it. Therefore each of these little colonies became independent States. 181. The First Constitutions. As soon as they were independent their charters given by the English government ceased to be law, and the States had no legal rulers. They, therefore, made constitutions for themselves. It is interesting to know that these constitutions differed very little from the charters the English government had given the colonies. The organs of government were much the same before and after the war for independence. The main difference was that the people or the legislature elected the governors instead of having them sent out from England. In some later chapters we shall study the organization of the governments under the constitutions. The important thing at this moment is to know that the States arranged to elect rulers and to make laws much as the colonies had done; and they also said that the laws of the colonies should continue as the law of the States. For the making of new laws another change was made. The members of the upper house of the legislature, called council or senate, had also been appointed in the colonies. In the States they were at once made elective. 182. Work of the State Government. We are interested in the State government because of the work it does; and we study it to see whether it is well organized for doing this work. Therefore it is important for us at the beginning to have some idea what this work is. The seven chapters which follow this one describe different kinds of work the State does through its government. In the remaining paragraphs of this chapter the tasks of the State are suggested by way of introducing these chapters. In reading about the government we must always think of it as engaged in solving many difficult problems,-problems which can never be completely solved. As civilization moves forward and as the population increases the same old difficulties constantly take new forms and require to be handled anew. 183. Making Law. The State government has no more difficult or important task than fitting the law to new conditions. For this reason we shall devote four of the seven chapters to this problem. We have seen that the city government makes some rules, which we call ordinances. We use this name in order to keep them separate from the rules of the State, which we call law, and which we divide into statutes and common law. Persons who live outside of the city have to obey the ordinances only when they are in it; but all persons in the State must obey the law whether they are in the city or the country. The ordinances are enforced merely to aid the working of the city government; the State law is far more important and has to do with many more things. Nearly all of our rights are protected through this kind of law. 184. Courts. Law is almost useless without courts to tell us when it has been broken and to impose penalties on those who break it. We shall see that the courts also help the law to grow in the right direction, guiding it and pruning it as a farmer cares for a tree in its growth. Some cities maintain courts for the enforcement of their ordinances, but nearly all judges we know of are engaged in dealing with State law and nearly all lawyers spend their lives working with it. Every State constitutional convention finds that it must devote much time to the problem of creating organs for making and interpreting law,—legislatures and courts. 185. Police. It is not quite accurate to say that the courts enforce the law. They merely aid in the enforcement of it by telling what it means and answering questions about it. It is really enforced by the police. We have seen that every city has a police department. Its members enforce both ordinances and laws, and it is therefore difficult to know whether we should think of its members as city or as State officers. In some places they are controlled by the mayor and in others by the governor. Out in the country where there are no policemen in uniform there are State and local officers who watch out for violations of law and arrest the violators. We call them |