complex that it is impossible for the judge to decide them to the satisfaction of all parties. But we must have courts and judges, and we must support them even when they seem to us to be mistaken. Our only wise course is to find the best possible way of selecting judges, to apply this method as carefully as we can, and then to support these servants in doing their duty as they see it.

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS

1. If you and your brother or sister have a difference of opinion or a quarrel you are likely to ask your mother or father to settle it. Your parent is the judge in the case. See if you can make a list of laws in your family which you are expected to obey.

2. If two citizens have a difference of opinion they ask a judge to settle the case. Describe the kind of person you would like to have as a judge.

3. Visit a court when a trial is going on and describe the work the judge does.

4. Describe the way the plaintiff presents his complaint.

5. Describe the way the defendant replies.

6. Make a list of all the officers who help the judge to conduct the trial.

7. Why are witnesses called into the case? How many witnesses are called by each side in the case you hear tried?

8. Describe the kind of lawyer that you would like to have present a case to a court for you.

9. If a lawyer is known to be a sharp and dishonest man would the judge have confidence in him? Can any one practice law in the courts of your State, or must one have permission from the government?

10. If judges are elected in your State, who nominates them? Ask your father if he knows very much about the judges he helped to elect.

11. Ask some lawyer whom you know why he does not try to be elected judge. Ask him if he would like to be a judge. 12. Draw a diagram of the courts of your State, putting the court of appeals or supreme court at the top.

13. Ask some older person to give you an illustration of a case which has been taken up to the court of appeals.

14. Have you ever heard any one find fault with the courts of your State? Do you think the judges did the best they could in trying the case that is criticised?

CHAPTER XXII

CRIMINAL LAW

209. The Law and Our Rights. In the last two chapters we have discussed the kind of law which describes our rights. It tells us what an honest man may do without imposing on his neighbor and what rights a reasonable man may require others to respect. He may insist that his family, his property, his reputation, and his person shall be let alone. He may also insist that people keep the contracts they make with him and that they shall not deceive or defraud him. We know what it means to define a word. This kind of law defines our rights. It draws a line around

each one of us. We must not cross this line or let other people cross it. If they do, they impose on us and we have a right to go to court and make them pay damages.

210. The Rights of the Community. Many of our communities have now become so thickly populated, and all of us depend so much on what each of us does, that we are not always willing to wait for those who are offended. to bring the offender into court for trial. Many hundred years ago people may have been willing to do this, but long before American history began there were officers of the State who would arrest a man who injured another whether that other asked to have him arrested or not. It was recognized that keeping the peace is an interest of the whole community. When the West was first settled there was little government, and desperadoes fought each other

on the streets of the little towns. Many citizens were lawdesperadoes did not hurt them Finally these law-abiding citi

abiding but so long as the they let the fighting go on. zens thought it was time to have government and to preserve order. They therefore formed vigilance committees and hanged some of the desperadoes. This was one kind of government, though not the best kind. In our time the regular government of the State preserves order for the same reason that this vigilance committee put an end to the desperadoes.

211. Kinds of Crimes. A crime is any act which the State will punish because it disturbs the general welfare of the community. There are many kinds of crimes, and as the community becomes more and more densely settled the number of acts which the government will punish increases. Stealing, burning houses, robbing, assaulting, killing, and so on, have been punished as crimes for hundreds of years. In more recent times bribing, cheating, and conspiring to injure have been added to the list. Still more recently the State has begun to treat as criminals those who sell unwholesome food or cause their employes to work in dangerous or unsanitary places. The dictionary will tell you that great crimes are called felonies, and lesser ones misdemeanors. Large books have been written on the criminal law, and there are long lists of criminal acts of greater or less degree, but we need not study these. The person who treats his neighbor fairly is not likely to find that he has committed a crime. This law like the other kinds requires merely that one act reasonably and justly.

212. Crime and the Organs of Government When you try to write a State constitution one of the most important things you will consider is the selection of officers to detect

criminals, capture them, and bring them to trial. Many constitutions provide that the governor shall enforce the law, but some of them give him but little power to perform this duty. We shall see more about this when we come to the chapter on State constitutions. If the governor cannot appoint and remove the higher police officers it is doubtful whether we should expect him to suppress crime. The next few paragraphs describe some of the officers whose duty it is to aid him in making the State peaceful and safe.

213. The Attorney-General of the State. The governor should be the head of the whole State government; but even if he knows the law he has no time to attend to all the work of enforcing it himself. Therefore every State has one high officer whose particular duty it is to punish criminals and to represent the State government in all kinds of lawsuits. He is usually called the attorney-general. Many people think this officer should be appointed by the governor as a member of his cabinet; but in some States he is elected by the people and so does not always work in harmony with the governor. Under a constitution which permits this condition of affairs the citizen does not always understand that the governor is not to blame when great criminals escape punishment. The fault is not with the governor, but with the people who fail to make a proper constitution.

214. District Attorneys. It is plain that the one attorney-general cannot expect to bring to trial criminals all over the State. Therefore we find the State divided into districts, and an attorney in each one of these. They are sometimes called prosecuting attorneys, sometimes district attorneys, and sometimes State's attorneys. But they all do the same kind of work. There is usually one such at