The Young Citizen's Reader

Young persons are not alone in preferring to see how things are done in political life rather than to study the bare legal framework of the state. The author believes that emphasis on the structure of our government has been carried too far, especially in books for children and young students. The subject has been given too much of a legal character. Now to see men at work, to see them struggling for influence and power and performing the duties of office and of citizenship, is undoubtedly far more interesting than to consider the underlying legal principles of constitutional organization. The writer of this little book, the result of a period of leisure from more exacting duties, has therefore attempted to make it a portrayal of action in political life. Its prime purpose is to train boys and girls to notice and to understand what is going on about them in their town, state, and nation. However, for intelligent action in matters of politics, we need also some understanding of the outward form of government. After the more essential methods of political action have been described, some attention will therefore be given to the structure of the state in all its parts. To the ordinary citizen it is far more important to understand the meaning of such matters as elections, the action of the city council, and the police, than to dwell upon the refinements of constitutional law. Only the most essential features of state organization have therefore been pointed out.