PREFACE. In a law practice of nearly thirty years, including a term as attorney-general for the State of Kansas, Judge Kellogg has been employed in hundreds of cases embracing as great a variety of problems as usually come to the office of an American attorney. He has continually been impressed with the fact that the masses of the people are lamentably ignorant of the simple principles of common and statute law, and that much litigation and trouble could be avoided if the children in the public schools were instructed more carefully in the things that touch their every-day community life, and affect their ability to discharge the duties of citizenship. That our text-books and present methods are inadequate to the task is too clearly evident even to the ordinary observer. President Taylor, as teacher and counsellor for young men and women for over a quarter of a century, has discovered many times over the lack of knowledge on the part of people of all ages concerning the acts that constitute offences against the law and the manifest innocence of many youthful and even adult offenders. He believes that parents and teachers are taking for granted too many things relating to civil affairs, with consequent misfortune to the individual and to the community and the State. Both of the authors believe that civil affairs are not only legitimate subjects for study, but that their disciplinary and practical value is equal to that of the other branches included in the courses of study for the public schools. They believe that proper instruction in the range of subjects herein pre iii sented will not only increase the knowledge of what makes for good government, but will also increase the appreciation and reverence for the institutions of our country among all classes of people. The treatment is necessarily brief in details, but is sufficiently comprehensive to include the provisions of law with which every citizen, youth or adult, should be familiar. The attempt has been made to present the theme in such a way as to help the student to understand the genius and the wisdom of the various forms of government and of the laws under which we live. Though in a few cases the legal phraseology may be less clear to young students than a paraphrase might make it, the economy of space and the acquaintance with legal forms of expression resulting, make the retention of the original desirable. Many terms in common use, and some technical terms, are not defined in the text or in a glossary, because the authors wish the students to learn the art of consulting the dictionary and other authorities and of helping themselves. They also wish to leave something for the teacher to do in the way of directing inquiry and investigation. The personal element that he will thus be able to introduce will prove stimulating and fruitful, giving the students a wider outlook and greater self-reliance in solving the problems that affect their community life. The authors urge that the teacher call the parents into cont stant coöperation in the study of the different topics, provoking their free discussion day by day in the homes, and making the members of each household realize the vital relationship which each bears to the government whose blessings he enjoys. They believe that such a course will help the parents and children to understand each other better, and that the wiser and more sympathetic government of the home which will result, will have a most wholesome and far-reaching effect upon the problems of local, State, and National Government. |