Studies in Civics | Page 3

The fox, the bear, and the lion represent the other
class. If we should make two lists, including in one all the animals of
the first class and in the other all those of the second class, we should
make this discovery, that government-forming animals are those which
by nature live together in companies, while the other class as a rule live
apart. The generalization reached is, that only gregarious animals form
governments. We would discover upon further investigation that the
greater the interdependence of the individuals, the more complex the
government.
Confining our attention now to man, whose government is the most
complex, we may put our generalization into this form: Man establishes
government because by nature he is a social being. This may be taken
as the fundamental reason. Let us now proceed to trace the relation
between cause and effect.
In order that people may go from place to place to meet others for
pleasure or business, roads are needed. Some of these roads may cross
streams too deep for fording, so bridges must be provided. These things
are for the good of all; they are public needs, and should be provided by
the public. But "what is every body's business is nobody's business." It
follows that the public must appoint certain persons to look after such
things. By the act of appointing these persons, society becomes to that
extent organized. We see, then, that society organizes in order to
provide certain public improvements, to carry on certain public works.
For his own preservation, man is endowed with another quality, namely,
selfishness. Sometimes this is so strong in a person as to cause him to
disregard the rights of others. By experience man has learned that every
person is interested in seeing that conflicting claims are settled on a
better basis than that of the relative strength of the contestants. In other
words, all are interested in the prevalence of peace and the rightful
settlement of disputes. That this work may surely be done, it is obvious
that society must appoint certain persons to attend to it; that is, society

organizes _to establish justice._
Communities take their character from that of the individuals
composing them, therefore communities are selfish. A third reason
appears, then, for the organization of society, namely, _the common
defense._
But this organization of society is the very thing that we call
government. We may, therefore, answer the two questions proposed at
the beginning in this way:
_Government is the organization of society to carry on public works, to
establish justice, and to provide for the common defense._
The term government is also applied to the body of persons into whose
hands is committed the management of public affairs.
To show that government is a necessity to man, let us imagine a
company of several hundred men, women, and children, who have left
their former home on account of the tyranny of the government. So
harshly have they been treated, that they have ascribed all their misery
to the thing called government, and they resolve that they will have
none in their new home. They discover an island in the ocean, which
seems never to have been occupied, and which appears "a goodly land."
Here they resolve to settle.
They help each other in building the houses; each takes from the forest
the wood that he needs for fuel; they graze the cattle in a common
meadow; they till a common field and all share in the harvest. For a
time all goes well. But mutterings begin to be heard. It is found that
some are unwilling to do their share of the work. It becomes manifest
to the thoughtful that community of property must be given up and
private ownership be introduced, or else that the common work must be
regulated. In the latter case, government is established by the very act
of regulation; they are establishing justice. If they resolve to adopt
private ownership, industry will diversify, they will begin to spread out
over the island, and public improvements will be needed, such as those
specified above. The conflict of interests will soon necessitate tribunals
for the settlement of disputes. And thus government would, in either
case, inevitably be established. A visit from savages inhabiting another
island would show the utility of the organization for common defense.
Thus government seems a necessary consequence of man's nature.
In this country we have the general government and state governments,

the latter acting chiefly through local organizations. For obvious
reasons, the common defense is vested in the general government. For
reasons that will appear, most of the work of public improvement and
establishing justice is entrusted to the state and local governments.
These we shall now proceed to study, beginning at home.
QUERIES.--Would government be necessary if