county sheriffs, town constables, and so on. In addition to these a few States have bodies of constabulary or uniformed police which move about on horseback enforcing the law. As a last resort the governor may call out the militia and use it as a police force.

186. Other State Work. Not many years ago people thought of the making and enforcing of law as the only work a State government had to do. Now we expect its officers to do many other things in the service of the community. We find that it is economical for us to coöperate in the study and management of many of our affairs, and that the State government is a convenient organ through which we may do so. The Agricultural Department collects information which is valuable to the farmers and sends it out to them, thus helping to keep the soil fertile and increase our supply of food and raw materials. The Health Department guides the doctors of the State in fighting disease, sending them information, advising the legislature about making laws to protect health, and helping to enforce quarantine laws. Other officers protect our forests and State parks. The welfare of those who work in factories and mines is safeguarded by State officers; and the schools are stimulated and guided in their work for more and better education. Highways and canals are built with State money; and unfortunate persons, who are unable to care for themselves, are taken into asylums and other State institutions to be cured or protected.

187. The State Government. It is clear that this little book can contain only a hint at all of these great tasks. As much as we can hope to do in our brief course is to get a view of them such as we get of a valley when we look at it from the top of a mountain. We can see how it lies,

but we cannot know much of its details. After you become older you will be interested to go down' into the valley among the hundreds of workers for the community and see how they are devoting their lives to making our State a home for healthy, industrious, and happy people. If we write a constitution we shall try to arrange the government so that these public officers may be carefully selected, generously paid, and wisely protected from inefficient and selfish persons who may try to impose on them and on us.

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS

1. When was your State first settled? When was it organized as a territory? What kind of people came to it, and why did they come? When did it receive permission to organize itself as a State with a constitution of its own? Why did it become a State?

2. Draw a map of your State, putting in the principal cities, rivers, and railroads. Write into the map the principal industries showing in what part of the State they are to be found. Why were the boundaries of your State placed just where they were? 3. Among the kinds of State work mentioned in this chapter, which do you wish your State government to do?

4. In what condition would the affairs of your State now be if it had no government?

5. Ask some of your older friends why they live in your State rather than in some other. Ask them to explain to you the advantages that your State has over others.

6. If your friends think the government of your State is not as good as it should be, ask them what they are doing to make it better? Make a list of the things they are doing to make it a better organization for doing the things they want done.

7. Try to find some organizations of citizens, such as clubs and societies, which have been formed to improve your State government and to make it more useful.

CHAPTER XX

THE LAW OF THE LAND

188. A B C of Law. The law is a difficult subject. Whole libraries are written about it; and people spend their lives studying small parts of it. No one person can know all the law, and none can answer all the questions any child can ask about it. We say that ignorance of the law excuses no one from obeying it. But this is partly because to obey it requires merely that we live honest, sober, and reasonable lives. It requires in most cases only what an honest man or woman would do even if there were no law or government. In this chapter we shall discuss some of the simple notions that every one should understand so that he may have respect for the law and for the officers who enforce it. These notions are about the right of people to own property, to be protected from injury, either to person or to reputation, to depend on contracts that they have made, and the like.

189. Law and the Family. Among the most important questions with which the law deals are those that have to do with the family—the relation of parents and children to one another. Because it is so important that families live together and that each member be treated fairly, the government compels all people to obey the laws that protect family rights. The husband is obliged to support the wife and children; children are obliged to obey their parents and to support them when they are old; wives are obliged to be true to their husbands and their children. Other

people are forbidden to interfere with the family or to try to break it up. It is easy for any one to obey all of these laws if he does his duty as an honest and reasonable person. Marriage may be both religious and legal; but we are now speaking only of the legal side of it..

190. Safety and Freedom. As the family is the most important institution in the world, a thing which all people would fight for if there were no government, so safety and freedom are the next. Every person now demands the right to go about as he pleases without being interfered with. The government will protect him in so doing, and the law forbids any one to disturb him as long as he behaves as he should. He must not be injured, or shut up in any place, or prevented from going about the streets, or doing anything that other people may do. It took a long time for this law to develop. There are always many people who are not satisfied with managing their own affairs; they insist on trying to make other people obey them. But the law forbids them to do this, and the government will punish any one who breaks this law. Even if you threaten me in such a way that I obey you because of fear, you violate the law and the government will punish you. You must let me alone to do as I wish so long as I obey the law. In a civilized country any child should be unafraid to gò anywhere at any time; but there are still a few lawless people in all countries whom the government must watch to see that they obey this law.

191. A Good Reputation. We are not satisfied to be safe from injury to our bodies; we also require freedom from slander and libel. That is, we do not want people to talk or write about us and injure our reputations; and the law protects us from such injury. The government will punish

any one who tries to injure another by talking or writing about him. When there is a good reason any one may tell or write what he knows about another. For example, one may tell the police what another person has done; or an employe may tell his employer what another employe has done to hurt the business. In fact almost any one may talk about others if his reason for doing so is proper. But if the object is merely to injure the other person the government will make the offender pay damages.

192. Property. Next in importance is the right of property. The law will punish you if you take or destroy what belongs to me; but what do I mean when I say that something belongs to me? This is a very difficult question, and one which causes the officers of the government no end of trouble. Savage people do not respect property. They do not know what it is. We read in American history that the Indians would sell the same land to several different people. They had no law about property in land, and they did not think of any one owning it. They traveled about and hunted, and every one thought of the land as belonging to no one in particular. But civilized man thinks that the community is better off if people are encouraged to improve the land and build on it. Therefore the right of a person to property of this kind is protected by law. As civilization grows and we have factories and other complicated kinds of wealth, this law of property becomes more and more difficult to understand. To understand it is one of the most important results of the study of government. There is hardly any other thing which does more to make civilization secure than respect for the right of a person in his property.

193. Contracts. Business cannot go on unless we keep