play-grounds and recreation, and one may supervise music and art.

110. Control of Education. One of the most difficult parts of the study of government is to decide how the citizen shall control the governors or officers. How shall we control those who manage our department of education? This problem may be too difficult a question for you. It often seems to be too difficult for grown people. But we may remind ourselves that efficient education must be planned for many years in advance. Since this is true, we must trust the planning to some one and not interfere with him too much. Having employed the best experts we can find, let us trust them and give them our loyal support.

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS

1. Does your city supply kindergarten education? Where is one of the kindergartens located?

2. What is the nearest elementary school to your house? 3. Does your city have both junior and senior high schools? 4. Who is the head of your school system? Who appoints him?

5. Who pays for the education that you receive?

6. How many schools would your city have for those who are not well off if the city were not organized into a government? 7. What other educational institutions does your city have? 8. Are there art galleries, museums, concerts, or public lectures?

9. Many cities do not have these things. If your city does not have them now, how should the citizens try to get them?

10. Do children in your city have to go to school whether they want to or not? Why are they required to take an education? 11. How are teachers selected in your city?

12. Are the teachers in your city paid as much as well educated and trained people should be paid?

13. How can the citizens provide better salaries for the teachers?

14. Has your school a play-ground where the pupils may receive physical education? Why is this important?

15. Do you try to help your teachers to make your school useful? How do you do this?

16. How far do you have to travel to the school you attend? How far would you have to travel if you lived in the country?

17. Ask your father what kind of school building he had when he was a boy, and how far he had to travel to get to it.

18. Find out what it costs to educate a child in your city. 19. If the citizens of your city wish to change the school system whom would they elect to make the changes they wish?

CHAPTER XII

THE UNFORTUNATES

111. Abnormal People. Thus far we have spoken of the relations between the city government and normal or ordinary people. Such people have occupations at which they work regularly; they earn a living and in a lawful way get as much out of life as the customs of their community make possible. They attract but little attention from officers or newspapers. If all the people of a city were normal the task of the policeman would be easy, and the expense of maintaining the government would be much less than it is. Most of the members of our school are normal people, and we have but little to do with law, even though we obey it. Abnormal people are different from the rest of us. They are handicapped in some way, and for this reason they are burdens on the community. This chapter treats of the relation of the city government to these unfortunates, and about the things we must consider when we write a charter if we are to handle such people wisely.

112. Kinds of Abnormal People. While there are many different kinds of abnormal people, we may divide them for our purposes into a few classes. First, are the paupers. These are people who are lazy or whose spirit has been broken by misfortune or disappointment, and who have not the strength of character to take a fresh grip on life. They are content to beg or steal a living as parasites on the community. They are pitiful and deserve our care just as

much as invalids do. Second, are those who are physically incapable. Among these are the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the crippled, the deformed, and those whose bodies are in some other way broken down. Third, are the mentally irresponsible. There are all degrees of these from the merely peculiar to the violently insane, who must be kept in a strait-jacket. Fourth, are the criminals. These range

in degree from the foolish boy or girl who breaks the law in a childish prank to the confirmed outlaw who starts again on his career of crime as soon as he is released from a prison sentence for some previous offense. All of these unfortunates are pitiable. Probably there is not one of them who, if he could be placed by some magic power in a condition of sanity and health, would not do anything to keep from returning to his previous sad state. They all lack some quality, mental or physical, that is necessary to make a normal man or woman.

113. Our Duty to Them. A great philanthropist once saw a drunken man reel and fall into a gutter. He looked sadly at the unfortunate and said, "But for the grace of God I should be where he is." None of us knows what good fortune has kept us out of the class of defectives; but it is probable that we may credit little of this good fortune to ourselves. We have been blessed with sober, hard-working parents; or good friends have guided us out of temptation; or Providence has in some other way kept us on the right track. There is no one who realizes the true nature of these unfortunate people who does not wish to do for them all he can. In fact there is danger that without careful reflection we will do too much for them.

114. Pauperizing. One of the most unkind things we can do is to pauperize them; yet this is what our first

impulse tempts us to do. No decent person can see another hungry without wishing to feed him at once. If a stranger begs of us on the street we are almost certain to give him something unless we reflect. If we reflect we will see that this may only send him one degree deeper in the scale of misfortune. It is easy to give a little money to every beggar we meet. It is hard to resist his appeal, but it may be kinder to stop and find out his condition and then to let the police know if he really needs help. It is generally illegal to beg on the street, but this law is evaded by the beggars pretending to sell shoe-strings or some other cheap merchandise. One need never turn a deaf ear to the unfortunates whom he meets. If one has time it is wise to stop and hear the plea and try to start the beggar on the road to work or friends. If he is weak one may take him to a place where food may be obtained and give him something to eat before sending him on his way. But it is almost always unwise to give money to a stranger. The effect is to encourage him to continue as a parasite and to lead others into his path. This paragraph, however, is no argument against generous aid to those whose misfortunes we know and understand.

115. Organized Charity. In some large cities those who wish to help the poor have formed associations for private coöperation in caring for them. Such organizations solicit subscriptions, urge individuals not to give to the poor separately, and make a study of the real needs of every applicant. If private charity is necessary, this is the best method of administering it; and many of the most generous people in the country support these charity organizations. One rich woman founded an Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor and gave to it a considerable sum