CHAPTER II. THE FOUR GROUPS OF RIGHTS. 25. Men Differ concerning Rights.-We might think that every man could guard his own rights, and that in this way the rights of all would be protected. But men differ among themselves in their opinions about their rights: this difference of opinion is natural to men, and must always be taken into account in human affairs. Government is based upon men as they are; it is a formidable reality. If only a few men lived in the world, in a simple way of life, isolated from each other, they might possibly be able to protect their own interests, but they could not realize their own rights. Men cannot live in isolation; association is necessary, and this necessity gives rise to human society. 26. Rights of Society.-The word "society" is also an important word. Individuals have rights as individuals; they also have rights to and in association, called the rights of society. The relation of the individual to society is that of the part of a living organism to the whole of the organism. An individual is a part of society. The political rights of an individual are largely fixed by his relations to society. 27. Rights and Duties Related.—Every right, whether of the individual or of society, implies a duty. Every duty implies a right. A duty is the exercise of a right. The words right, citizen, society, and duty are of intense interest to civilized people; they stand for ideas and principles of primary importance to human beings. The rights of individuals and of society give rise to that kind of knowledge called political. The word "political" originally meant urban, or pertaining to the city, because people are closely associated in a city and are compelled to recognize their own rights and those of others. Cities have served a peculiar office in discovering the rights of men, and many of the cities of England maintained the rights of the citizens when these rights were lost in the rural districts. Cities have preserved human liberties. The duties of individuals and of society give rise to that knowledge which we call moral. The word "moral" implies the idea of conduct or custom of doing, judged by the standard of human welfare and of Divine law. A man is a political being because he has rights; he is a moral being because he has duties. 28. Individuals and Society.-Government protects a person in his rights and requires him to perform his duties. The character of society is the character of the individuals who compose it. Bad men make bad society. Government must therefore address itself directly to individuals, must have power over them, and must depend upon them for its authority and for its character. Each of us is individually a part of the government, and we should know our rights and perform our duties. The neglect to do so endangers the government and wrongs us individually. The rights now so common among us are ours only after the greatest struggles that the world has seen. 29. Natural Rights.-We do not inherit rights; they are inherent; God creates them in every person. There have been governments in the world for ages, but the truth that all men are born with equal rights has been accepted less than a hundred years. To understand and to live this truth is the privilege of the world to-day. We of the United States have this privilege by the law of the land. But because we have more rights than any other nation, we have more duties. American citizens have rights and duties unknown to the people of Europe. Yet many institutions common among us began long ago in Europe. 30. Foreigners become Citizens.-Several hundred thousand Europeans come to the United States every year for permanent homes. They are chiefly from England, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. They have caused those sections of the United States where they are most thickly settled to take on a character peculiar to themselves; some parts of the United States are Germanic, some are Scandinavian, some are Italian, in many of their prevailing customs. The African race has been in this country since 1619. Africans and Europeans and some Asiatics are made welcome by our government, and by conforming to the laws they have become American citizens. They learn the rights and the duties of American citizenship by actual practice. Serious social problems constantly arise; but the experience of the past encourages us to believe that we shall be able to solve these problems by earnestly grappling with them in the recognition of our rights and the performance of our duties. THE FOUR GROUPS OF RIGHTS. 31. Industrial Rights.-The citizen has the right and the duty to support himself and those dependent upon him by honorable labor: such rights and duties are called Industrial. These are many and of first importance. Within this group fall all the rights of laborers, operatives and of makers of things of every description. Industrial rights and duties affect the business, the material interests of the household, and the productive interests of the country-the farms, manufacturing plants, the wages of men, women and children, the hours of labor, the means of transportation, such as railroads, canals, steamship lines, express companies and common carriers. Industrial rights and duties also extend to society at large. America has vast industrial relations with other countries; we use arti cles produced in foreign lands, and they use articles made by us. Our industrial interests comprise a large portion of our wealth, and government guards them with extreme care. 32. Political Rights.-The citizen has also opinions as to what he himself and society should do and what ideas should be supreme in the state. These ideas of control or government are called political ideas. His political ideas. are his own property, and he has the right to express them and to carry them into effect with the aid of his fellow-citizens, provided that neither he nor they do or suffer wrong. His right is to do unto others as he would have them do unto him. Men are always trying to enforce their ideas upon others-i. e. to govern them. In this second group of rights and duties are all those rights of opinion concerning government, such as, what kind of government is best; how government should be administered; who should exercise authority; where that authority should be located. Political rights and duties affect all our opinions about human laws, the nature of public offices and the character of public officers. Political rights and duties are concerned when public servants are chosen, such as school-directors and assessors, tax-collectors and judges, governors and senators, members of Congress or the President of the United States. Political rights and duties are concerned in such ordinary and important matters as the carrying of the mails; the material, the quality, the quantity and the denominations of our money; the fixing of county, State and national boundaries; the support of an army and of a navy; and they are concerned also in such seemingly trivial matters as the shape, color and value of a postage-stamp and the selection of the man's face upon it. These rights and duties are of such importance that men organize powerful political parties to maintain their opinions, give their energies, time and money for the support of these opinions, and seek peaceful solution of gov ernmental problems by elections or compel the solution of them by wars and treaties. The political rights and duties of individuals have assumed so much importance in this country that they are often said to be the supreme interests of the citizen. But they are only one of a group of rights and are of equal interest with other rights. 33. Social Rights.-An American citizen is also part of society; he has social rights and duties. These are of a comprehensive character, because they affect the nation as a whole. Social rights and duties are concerned in the establishment of all kinds of schools for the benefit of the public; for the reformation of criminals; in the maintenance of asylums for the aid of the afflicted, such as the blind and the insane. Society is interested in the preservation of health and public comfort, public order, good roads and bridges, clean and passable streets, safe public and private buildings, the lighting of public places, the removal of all substances that may poison the air we breathe or the water we drink. These rights and duties are liable to be neglected, although they are commonly admitted to be of vast importance. The welfare of society is often of greater moment than the comfort of an individual. When the interests of the individual and of society conflict, the individual must yield to society if society insists upon the yielding. This right of society is called the right of eminent domain. THE RIGHT OF EMINENT DOMAIN is a sovereign right exercised by a government or by a corporation, by which individual interests are compelled to yield to the interests of society, of the corporation or of the government. A CORPORATION is a body of persons authorized by law to act or do business as a single individual. A railroad company, a manufacturing company, a bank, a chartered city, are illustrations of corporations. 34. Moral and Religious Rights.-The citizen has also moral and religious rights: he is a child of God and lives in |