sports of the playground, where good manners prevail.  “Good manners” include more than the “party manners” that we put on and take off on special occasions, like “party clothes.”  They consist of the accepted rules of behavior toward those with whom we associate.  In the home, in school, in business, in public places, there are “good manners” that are recognized by custom and that make the wheels move smoothly and without jar.  We do not need a law or a policeman to require a man to give way to a woman, or even to another man, in passing through a doorway; good manners provide for this.  Even on the public street much confusion is avoided by an observance of good manners, or custom.  Thoughtful people instinctively turn to the right in passing others (in England and Canada the custom is to turn to the left) without thinking whether there is a law on the subject or not.

LAW GIVES FREEDOM

Now most of our laws that regulate the conduct of individuals are simply rules that experience has proved to be of the greatest advantage to the greatest number, and that are necessary because some people have not “good manners.”  Most people observe them, not because they are laws, but because they are reasonable and helpful in avoiding friction and in securing cooperation.  If they are good laws, it is only the “ill-mannered” who are really conscious of their existence.  Just laws restrict the freedom only of the “ill-mannered,” while they give freedom to those who have “good manners.”

What street or highway signs are there in your community?  Who placed them?  Are they faithfully observed?  If not, why?

What signals are there in your school?  Discuss their usefulness.

What are some of the “rules” of your school?  Are they good rules?  Why?  Are they an advantage or a disadvantage to yourself?  If they did not exist, would your own conduct be different?  Why?

What are some of the rules of good manners that are supposed to control conduct in your school? in your home? in the street?  Discuss their reasonableness.  Do they enlarge or restrict freedom?

Do the rules of football, or other games, increase or decrease the freedom of play?

What are some of the laws that control conduct in your community?  Would most people observe the laws you mention even if they were not written laws, and if there were no penalty for failing to observe them?  Why?

THE ORIGIN OF LAW

The following story illustrates the difference between law and custom, or “manners,” and how the former may develop out of the latter. [Footnote:  “Rudimentary Society among Boys,” by John Johnson, in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, vol. ii (1884).  The story as here given is reproduced from Lessons in Community and National Life, Series C, p. 145, U. S. Bureau of Education (Lesson C-18, “Cooperation through Law,” by Arthur W. Dunn). ] There was once a boys’ school located in an 800-acre tract of land, in the fields and woods of which the boys, when free from their studies, gathered nuts, trapped small animals, and otherwise lived much like primitive hunters.