woven with the life of the community in which you live. You can imagine yourself shut off from mankind, like Robinson Crusoe, and living; but what a narrow life it would be! The best of your life comes from participation in the life of your community. When we speak of citizenship, we usually mean this membership in the commuCitizenship nity, with its giving to, and receiving from, the community's life. Citizenship carries with it certain privileges and certain duties. FOR INVESTIGATION the group 1. Talk over in class the four essentials of a community – of people, the site, the common interests, and the common laws. Apply these essentials to your own community. 2. Is your class a community? Explain. What are its common interests? Are its laws written or unwritten? 3. Show how the different classes in your school are bound together by interests common to the whole school. Compare this union of classes into a school with the union of states into a nation. 4. What are some of the things in which your family and your nearest neighbors have a common interest because of living close together? 5. What are some of the things in which the people of a city and the neighboring farmers have a common interest? 6. Name some things in which all the cities of a state have a common interest. What are some things in which the whole nation has a common interest? 7. Show how an injury or a benefit to one person may be an injury or a benefit to the whole community of which the person is a member. Show how an injury or a benefit to a community will injure or benefit the individual members of the community. 8. Can you be a member of your class without doing it either good or harm? If a member of a community contributes nothing to its welfare, can he avoid being harmful to it? Explain. 9. What are some of the things that a citizen receives from his community? 10. Think of some ways in which a citizen may contribute to the welfare of his community. CHAPTER III THE SITE OF THE COMMUNITY IN beginning our study we must remember that the people and the locality both contribute something to make our community what it is. The geographical features of the land enter into the life of the community in many ways. In its relation Importance to the land, we may compare the growth of a of the land community to the growth of a plant. The plant derives its support from the soil. Some kinds of plants flourish in one kind of soil, other kinds in other soils. In the case of all plants, their size and fruitfulness depend not merely on the kind of seed sown, but also on the character of the soil. It is the same with communities. Whether a community shall live or die may depend entirely on the character of its site. The importance of the character of the land is seen clearly in the account of the founding of the community in the first chapter. The site of a community is not always selected so carefully as in that case; but the influence of the site is always important. In deter Natural geographical conditions usually determine where large cities shall grow. Nature seems to have planned the mouth of the Hudson River as the mining site of the greatest city on the Atlantic coast. where cities shall grow A good harbor, like that of Boston or San Francisco; the junction of two navigable rivers, as at Pittsburg or St. Louis; the falls of a river, checking navigation and affording water power, as at Minneapolis or Louisville; the head of a river estuary, as at Quebec or Philadelphia; the center of a rich region where roads naturally cross, as at Indianapolis — all these are conditions favoring, if not determining, the growth of large communities. The health of a community depends in many ways on the character of the land. Low, flat regions are likely to be unhealthful. Sluggish streams and lakes In relation that tend to become stagnant breed disease. to health The supply of drinking water is an important matter, and often depends on the character of the underlying rocks into which wells are dug. These geographical influences become of the greatest importance in cities where the population is dense, for the artificial drainage may be good or bad according to the character of the natural drainage; and the water supply is in much greater danger of pollution in the city than in smaller communities. A stream which is naturally clear and sparkling may become, in the heart of a city, a foul breeding place of disease. Climate is also one of the conditions that influence community life. A little thought will show how climate may determine the mode of life-the character of Influence of the houses, the form of clothing, and even the climate nature of the sports and amusements of the people. The influence of natural resources on the forms of industry and on the growth and prosperity of communities is so clear that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. Can you not think of some cities in of natural the United States that are celebrated for indus Influence resources tries which depend on the presence of important natural resources? In many rural communities the farmers are almost completely isolated from one another during a part of the year Influence because the roads are impassable, owing to a soil which forms a deep mud, or to the flat and swampy character of the land. This condition interferes with the of surface social, business, and intellectual life of the farmfeatures ers, and influences their relations with one another in many ways. An unusually hilly site may affect the social and the business life of a city. A river and its branches may divide a city into parts more or less distinct and with differing characteristics. Such a city is Chicago, with its North, West, and South Sides. on the development of Virginia Virginia is a good example of how the land may shape the character and the history of a large community. The Influence of development of this colony and state was degeography termined to a remarkable extent by conditions of climate, soil, and surface which encouraged the cultivation of the tobacco plant. This industry required large plantations, which were distributed along the shores of the navigable rivers, of which there were many. These rivers were large enough to permit the ocean vessels of that time to pass some distance up their courses. Therefore each planter had his wharf, at which he loaded his tobacco for shipment and received manufactured goods from abroad. These conditions discouraged the growth of cities, and the population remained almost wholly rural. An abundance of cheap labor was necessary, and hence slavery gained a foothold. The scattering of the population over wide areas made it difficult for the people to come together at a common meeting place, so that the township organization with its government by town-meeting, such as was found in New England, was impracticable, and the county system of government developed instead (see chapter XXI). |