Community Civics and Rural Life Part 18

These are the two uses of money. Money has value only because of what it represents in wealth, and wealth is useful because it enables us to satisfy wants. These things are mentioned because it is quite important that we should never forget that "money" and "wealth" are worth working for only because of the "living," or life, that they help us to attain.]

Children are, as a rule, wholly dependent upon their parents for their living. But during their period of dependence they are gaining skill and experience, in school and otherwise, that will later enable them to earn their own living and that of other people who may, in turn, become dependent upon them.

As adult life approaches, there comes an increasing desire for independence of others, to have possessions, own property, or acc.u.mulate wealth. Our VOCATIONS, or occupations, by which we earn a livelihood, come to occupy a prominent place in our thought, and to a large extent control our activity. Doubtless most of those who read this chapter have begun to think more or less seriously about what they are going to do for a living. Some may be already doing so, in part, or helping to earn that of their families. Boys and girls who live on farms are especially likely to have a share in the work by which the family living is provided; but most boys and girls have more or less regularly "earned money," even if they have not considered it necessary for their living. An inquiry in a large, first-year high school cla.s.s disclosed the fact that the girls of the cla.s.s, quite as much as the boys, were thinking of their choice of vocation. More avenues are open to girls to-day than formerly by which to earn their living outside of the family; but even the management of a home is a business as truly as the management of a farm or factory, and is an exceedingly important factor in the earning of the family living.

What part, if any, do you have in helping to earn the family living?

What have you done during the past year to earn money (a) out of school hours on school days, (b) on Sat.u.r.days, (c) in vacation time? Tabulate the results for the entire cla.s.s.

What vocation would you like to follow for life? Why?

If you have not decided upon some one vocation, name several that seem attractive to you. Why are they attractive?

What do you know about the opportunities and the qualifications necessary for success in the vocations you have named? How may you proceed to find out more about them?

What vocations offer special opportunities for girls and women to- day? How do these opportunities compare with those when your mothers were girls?

Make a list of the occupations of the fathers (or other members of the families) of the members of your cla.s.s.

Make a list of as many occupations in your community (town or county) as you can think of.

DEPENDENCE OF THE PIONEER

Our dependence upon others for a living by no means ends with childhood. There is no such thing as an entirely "self-made man,"

by which is meant a man who has been successful entirely by his own efforts. It is true that the primitive hunter and the pioneer farmer were independent of others to an unusual extent. But their living was a meager one, and they could not acc.u.mulate much wealth. The very land that a pioneer occupies, even though it is extensive and fertile, has little value as long as it is remote from centers of population.

Even if a pioneer laid claim to a large tract of land, he could produce little wealth from it in crops if he could get no help to cultivate it, or if he had no improved machinery (made by others); and whatever he produced, he and his family could eat but little of the product. He could feed some to his few animals, and he would save some for seed; but anything that he raised above what he could actually use would have no value unless he could get it to other people who wanted it. If he could not sell what he produced, neither could he buy from others what they produced to satisfy other wants than that for food. So the kind of living a person enjoys, and the amount of wealth he acc.u.mulates, depend largely upon other people, and upon the community in which he lives.

DEPENDENCE OF THE MODERN FARMER

Under present-day conditions, a farmer who raises wheat probably uses none of it himself. He sells his entire crop for the use of others, while to supply himself and his family with bread he goes to the store and buys flour that may have been milled in Minnesota from wheat raised by other farmers, perhaps in North Dakota or South Dakota. In exchange for his wheat he also gets clothing manufactured in New York or New England from cotton raised in Georgia or Texas, or from wool grown in Montana. He buys a wagon made in Indiana from lumber cut in the South and iron mined in Michigan and smelted in Ohio. Thus he earns his living by producing food for other people, while the things he uses in living are the product of labor expended by other people in the effort to earn THEIR living. We noticed in Chapter II how many people and occupations were concerned in producing a pair of shoes.

EARNING BY SERVICE

While the farmer or other worker may be interested primarily in providing for his own wants and those of his family, he can do this only by producing something or performing service for others; and while each worker may be most concerned about WHAT HE RECEIVES for his work, the community is most concerned about WHAT HE PRODUCES. Earning a living has two sides to it: rendering service to others and being paid for the service rendered. It is as if the community entered into a sort of agreement with the worker to the effect that it will provide him with a living in return for definite service to the community or for the product of his labor.

What we call "business" is SELLING A SERVICE. It may be personal service, such as teaching, or prescribing medicine, or nursing, or giving legal advice, or cutting hair, or driving a team, or running an automobile. Or it may be purchasing, storing, retailing, and delivering things which have been produced perhaps many hundreds or thousands of miles away. Or it may be raising foodstuffs on the farm, or mining fuels and metals from the earth, or cutting timber from the forest. Or it may be manufacturing-- buying materials and converting them into products serviceable to others. Whatever it is, every man's business is also the community's business, and the community has a right to expect industry and honest, efficient work from every worker.

Discuss the occupations named in answer to the two questions on page 26, from the point of view of their service to the community.

To what extent is your father's business or occupation dependent upon the business or occupation of the fathers of other members of the cla.s.s?

Show how your father's business is also the community's business.

What is the price of land in your neighborhood? Consult your father or friends in regard to the increase or decrease in price in recent years and in regard to the reasons for it.

LIVING WITHOUT EARNING

There are exceptional cases where people RECEIVE a living without EARNING it. One cla.s.s of such people is represented by thieves, gamblers, swindlers, and persons engaged in occupations that are positively harmful to the community. Such people may be very skillful and they may work hard enough, but they take what others have earned without producing anything of value to the community.

Then there are those who are incapable of productive work because of physical defects, or through the feebleness of old age. It is the duty of every citizen to provide, as far as possible, during his productive years, for the "rainy day" of misfortune or advancing age. For those who cannot do so, the community must provide.

Very young children are users of wealth produced by others. It is expected, however, that children will in later years make return to the community for what they have received during their period of dependence.

INHERITED WEALTH

Some people inherit wealth, or otherwise come into possession of it without effort on their part. The wealth so received, however, has been earned by someone, or has come from the community in some way. If the person who so receives it uses it in a way that is highly useful to the community, he may in a sense earn it even after he receives it; but if he uses it solely for his own enjoyment, without effort to make it highly useful to the community, he does not in any sense earn it, and places himself in the cla.s.s of those who are wholly dependent upon the community.

UNFAIR COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE

On the other hand, there are people who do not get for their work a living that fairly compensates them for the service they render by it to the community. If our community life were perfectly adjusted in all its parts; if all the people clearly recognized their common interests and their interdependence; if they had the spirit of cooperation and were wise enough to devise smoothly working machinery of cooperation;--then the returns that a worker received for his work would be closely proportionate to the service rendered by his work. That is, he would GET what he EARNED, so far as wages or profits were concerned. But this is one of the particulars in which our community life is still imperfect.

Where so many different kinds of workers are engaged in producing shoes, for example, it is extremely difficult to determine how much each should be paid for his share of the work. What WAGES should be given to the different cla.s.ses of workers who care for cattle, make the leather, manufacture the machines with which the shoes are made, operate the machines, mine the coal and iron for the production of the machines, and so on? What PROFITS shall be allowed to the men who raise the cattle, to the merchants who sell the shoes and the machines, and to the transportation companies that carry them from the factories to the dealers? What INTEREST shall be received by the men who furnish the CAPITAL necessary to run the factories and the farms? These questions relating to the DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH that men produce have proved very difficult to answer satisfactorily.

A very useful and interesting, but rather difficult, science has grown up to explain the PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND USE OF WEALTH. It is called the SCIENCE OF ECONOMICS. Of all the divisions of this science, that relating to the distribution of wealth is the most perplexing. It is the inequalities in the distribution of wealth, the sense of injustice produced by these inequalities, and sometimes a failure to understand what a fair distribution is, that have caused all the labor disputes referred to in Chapter VII (p. 71), and the discontent sometimes felt by farmers and other producers in regard to the prices of their products.

Have you ever heard any one say, "The world owes me a living"? Is this a true statement? If so, in what sense do you think it is true?

Which do you think is the truer statement: "I have a right to a living," or "I have a right to earn a living"? Discuss the difference.

A thief has been known to say, "I was brought into the world without my own consent; therefore the world owes me a living, and I owe the world nothing." Is this good argument? Did the people upon whom he depends for a living have any more to say about their being brought into the world than he had?

What things are you using to-day that were not provided for you by others?

If a stranger should come to your community to-day to live, what are some of the things that he would find already provided by the community for his use in making a living?

Name five important inventions and state what they have done for you.

Would you say that the world owes Thomas A. Edison and Luther Burbank a living? Why?

How are you indebted for your living to the pioneers who settled your state? to Robert Fulton? to the men who built the first transcontinental railroad?

Can you think of some way in which your family is indebted for its living to the British nation? to France? to ancient Greece? to the Phoenicians? to the people of Brazil?

Which is the greater, the debt of your family to the world or the debt of the world to your family?

What is a "parasite"? Could this term be appropriately applied to any of the people referred to in the last few paragraphs of the text above?

GOVERNMENT INTERESTED IN PRODUCTION

Each citizen has a right to feel that the government is interested in his individual prosperity and happiness; and it is, for unhappy and discontented citizens are seldom good citizens. But the government represents community as a whole, and has the interest of the community as a whole in its keeping rather than the interest of particular individuals. Its interest is primarily in what each citizen PRODUCES, for it is upon this that the strength.

of the nation depends.

THE "NATIONAL SERVICE ARMY" OF PRODUCERS

A few days after war was declared against Germany, the President made an appeal to his fellow producers countrymen, in which he said:

It is evident to every thinking man that our industries on the farms, in the s.h.i.+pyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made more prolific and more efficient than ever and that they must be more economically managed and better adapted to the particular requirements of our task than they have been; and what I want to say is that the men and women who devote their thought and their energy to these things will be serving the country and conducting the fight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effectively as the men on the battlefield or in the trenches. The industrial forces of the country, men and women alike, will be a great national, a great international Service Army,--a notable and honored host engaged in the service of the nation and the world ...

Thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of men otherwise liable to military service will of right and necessity be excused from that service and a.s.signed to the fundamental, sustaining work of the fields and factories and mines, and they will be as much part of the great patriotic forces of the nation as the men under fire.