CHAPTER XV

WHAT THE STATE DOES FOR US

1. THROUGH STATE OFFICIALS

State Government Important.-American voters sometimes pay little interest to the election of their State officers, but they are really most important. They touch the daily life of every one of us, both directly and also through the fact that State laws create and control our local governments.

Voting. Each State has full power to say which of its citizens shall vote-for national officers, President, and congressmen as well as local officers. This is part of the home-rule policy of our Constitution. The only restriction is that of the Fifteenth Amendment, passed to secure the vote for the negro, which declares that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Laws of Person and Property. It is the State that makes almost all of the laws affecting our persons and properties, of the utmost importance to every man, woman, and child. The law of marriage and divorce, who may marry and for what causes they may separate, is decided by each State. The State laws define all the common crimes-murder, robbery, etc.-and fix the sentence for each crime. The State builds and maintains the jails for these punishments. All the rights of

property, how land may be bought and sold, what contracts must be in writing, and so on, are for the State legislatures to decide. The forest, fish, and game laws, stating at what seasons wild animals can be taken or shot, are State laws (except in the national parks, of course). This produces some confusion, for the laws of no two States are alike. But it enables each State to pass the kind of laws best suited to its people and mode of life, and that is a great advantage.

Health. The State government maintains our asylums for the insane, the deaf, dumb, and blind. (Most hospitals are not State institutions but are run by public-spirited citizens and supported largely by gifts.) Many States have pure food and drug laws like the national law already described.

Education. The State has a commissioner of education who has general charge of the public schools. The general courses of study and examinations to be passed by each grade are often fixed by this State authority. The State university is supported by State funds, and there are usually State agricultural and engineering colleges and State normal colleges to train teachers. It is to our State and local governments that we look for our education.

Labor. It is to the State that we must look for laws making our factories safe, for laws preventing children under fourteen from working, and similar laws. Inspectors travel about enforcing these laws, seeing that dangerous machinery is safeguarded, that crowded buildings have fire-escapes, that there is sufficient fresh air, and that dozens of other rules are complied with.

Workmen's compensation laws usually provide that a workman injured through his work must be paid by his employer a certain fixed sum, graded according to the amount of the injury; or if he is killed, a fixed sum paid to his family. Such laws thus parallel the national workmen's compensation act; but that benefits only workers on interstate railroads, whereas a State law can protect every worker injured within the State.

Much has been accomplished and much remains to be done. The national government has done what it could to better the conditions of labor, but the main burden of this important reform work must be done by the States as part of their local power of regulation. Children under fourteen are still employed in the cotton-fields of the South and worked long hours in canning factories. Many States are far behind the humane and enlightened view of the time, which is that child labor stunts growth and mental development and causes disease, and thus is both cruel to the child and a waste of precious health and life to the community. The age of fourteen is now generally accepted as the age limit for regular work.

Many States have also passed laws to prevent the overworking of women with long hours and to insure healthful labor conditions for them.

A number of States are now experimenting with minimum wage laws, designed to prevent the paying of less than a living wage.

State Highways.-All roads were formerly built by the town or county, but of late years many States have undertaken the building of important highways, forming

through routes. Automobiles have hastened this new development.

2. THROUGH THE CITY

The City. The closer people live together, the more they must do in common, that is, through their government, in order that they may live safely and comfortably. Therefore a large city does a great many more things than a village, and a village more things than a town or township or county for its rural districts. There must be more rules and regulations in a city-traffic rules, for instance, which are quite unnecessary in the country. If we take up city life first, we can then compare it with village and rural life to see how they differ.

The Police Department. Service in the police department is like service in the army. A policeman always goes armed, with a revolver and a night-stick. He wears a uniform. The chief differences are that he fights not an army but one criminal or a few criminals at a time, and that he fights usually alone. Every policeman risks his life in serving us.

The policeman is the enemy of every law-breaker and the friend of every honest person. The traffic policeman helps little children cross a crowded street. Mounted policemen stop runaway horses. Finding lost children and returning them to their homes is a frequent duty. Many policemen have rescued men, women, and children from burning buildings. All this help to us is as much part of their duty as their work of watching for criminals night and day and arresting them at whatever risk.

It is the duty of every citizen, man, boy, woman, and girl, to help a policeman whenever possible. That is the law, and it is common sense as well, for the policeman is our policeman, it is our laws that he is enforcing, our property that he is protecting, our lives that he may save. Boys and girls should know the policeman on their beat and help him. He is one of the best friends they have, and they may owe their life to him some day when their house catches afire or a runaway comes down the street.

Every police force includes a large squad of detectives in plain clothes (therefore often called plain-clothesmen). At police headquarters is maintained a Rogues' Gallery, which contains not only photographs of all criminals but also nowadays accurate measurements of the head and other parts of the body taken according to a scientific system invented by a Frenchman, Bertillon. By this an arrested criminal giving a wrong name can be identified at once, and his whole record produced against him.

The police department is run either by one, man, called a chief of police, or by a board of police commissioners, in either case appointed by the mayor. His office is called police headquarters. The city is divided into precincts, each with a police station in charge of a police captain.

The Fire Department. Our firemen fight a war that never ends. At any hour of the day or night they must be ready to come to our rescue. The risk to their lives is even greater than that of policemen. They are every-day heroes, quite as brave and daring as any soldiers.