It is very important that we should “get the right idea” of what our government is.  It is very much the idea that the officer gave his soldiers about the salute.  It is the idea contained in this chapter:  that government is our own organization for team work in community life.  All through this book we shall be engaged in discovering how far this is true.

Do you know of instances in which the national government has helped to secure cooperation among the farmers of your locality?

Discuss the parcel post as a means of cooperation.

During the war with Germany the United States government assumed control of all the railroads of the country.  Show how this was to secure better cooperation.

Is the government of your school democratic?  Explain your answer.  Do you think it should be made more democratic?  Why?

Compare the purposes stated in the preamble to the Constitution with the common purposes stated on page 6 of Chapter I.

Show how the pupil who does as he pleases in school may interfere with the rights and liberties of other pupils.  Is it right that his liberty should then be restricted?  Why?  Is liberty the right to do as one pleases?  If not, what is it?

Read together in class the preamble to the Constitution and carefully discuss the meaning of each phrase.

READINGS

Lessons in Community and National Life: 

Series B:  Lesson 17, The development of a system of laws.

Series C:  Lesson 17, Custom as a basis for law. 
          Lesson 18, Cooperation through law.

In Long’s American Patriotic Prose: 

Lincoln, “Mob Law,” pp. 173-177.

Lincoln, “Back to the Declaration,” pp. 170-181.

McKinley, “Liberty is Responsibility, Not License,” pp. 254-255.

The Declaration of Independence, pp. 67-71.

Beard, Chas. A., American Citizenship, chap, i ("The Nature of
Modern Government").

Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography.

CHAPTER V

What is citizenship?

WHAT MEMBERSHIP MEANS

Before we go further, let us get a definite idea of what it means to be a citizen.

IN THE BODY

We have frequently referred to the fact that we are “members” of various communities.  Our bodies have members, such as arms and hands.  The tongue has been called an unruly member.  “It is a little member and boasteth great things.” [Footnote:  James iii:  5.]

There are two important facts about members of the body.  One is that they get their life from the body.  If the hand is cut off, it quickly ceases to be a hand because it is severed from the source of life.  If the body is seriously ill, its members are unable to perform their proper work.