A TEXTBOOK IN SOCIAL AND CIVIC PROBLEMS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS ་་་ BY EDWARD ALSWORTH ROSS, PH.D.,LL.D. Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York 1925 THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE Established 1905 by Caspar W. Hodgson YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK Thinking Americans today recognize, as RCS-1 Copyright 1925 by World Book Company Copyright in Great Britain All rights reserved PRINTED IN U.S.A. Wahr 10-7-25 12352 2 cop. FOREWORD Civic Sociology offers what the graduate of an American high school may reasonably be expected to know in this field. It aims to help in laying the foundations of sound citizenship by promoting the study of our chief social problems and civic problems. Among its distinctive features are the following: 1. Before the pupil is set on such problems, he is made acquainted with the master trends in American society. 2. Instead of scratching the whole field, the book plows into a limited number of big problems. 3. Since the citizen will have to face such lively issues as personal liberty, commercialism, sectionalism, sectarianism, and class struggle, this book introduces the youth to them. 4. Such chapters as "Standards of Social Distinction," "Willing Obedience to Law," "Independence," and "Freedom of Speech" strive to recapture some of the lost idealism of the Fathers of the Republic. This text ought to be tackled in the senior year, and it should be preceded or followed by a semester of elementary economics. Together with the usual study of forms and functions of government, these two courses ought to give the youth an impetus which in due time will develop him into an intelligent and public-spirited citizen. My idea of fitting the youth for good citizenship is to rid his mind, once and for all, of fallacies which otherwise may rule it so long as he lives. "Why shouldn't I vote for my friends?" "Is it anybody's business how much we spend to elect our candidate so long as we spend it legitimately?" "Why should I obey a law put over us by a lot of bluenoses?" The classroom is the place to thrash out such questions, and the time to do it is while the youth is still open-minded and disinterested. I wish to confess my debt to Professor David Snedden of Teachers College, Columbia University, to Professor W. F. Ogburn of Columbia University, and to Mr. Thomas N. Barrows of the Lincoln School of Teachers College, for the benefit of their judgment on certain parts of this book. EDWARD ALSWORTH ROss |