Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/398

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380
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in life. After these have been established they must be so stamped upon, so burned into the mental fiber of every pupil, that he must by necessity carry them through life; that he can not by any possible line of conduct cause them to fade out, or by logical process silence their voice. This result I would make the aim of the remainder of the book, which should embrace civics in all its branches, business and industrial relations in all their ramifications, natural rights and duties of the individual, the objects, rights, and obligations of society and governments, and all kindred subjects.

Civics embraces duties to country and whatever contributes to best citizenship. Under this topic I would direct attention to political abuses of all sorts, and impress the importance of living by the same moral code in politics as in religion. I would discuss whatsoever would bring plainly to view the individual's ethical duties and obligations to country and government. In the treatment of business relations I would go into the details of the various branches. It seems entirely practicable for a man familiar with business life and methods to conduct students equipped with their code of universally accepted moral principles, according to which human actions are to be classified as right or wrong, into and through the ten thousand ramifications of all kinds of business, behind the counter, into the bank, into the boards of trade, into the business and professional office, into the exchanges, into the council chambers of great corporations, into every corner of the business world, and study the relations which exist among all who are occupied there, as well as between these branches and the great world outside. Here the like relations of the industrial world should be considered, the relations between those who possess capital and those who labor, between those who employ and those who are employed, the rights of each and the duties of each to the other.

In treating of the natural rights and duties of the individual I would attempt to impress the ethical relations between individuals which arise from the fact of birth. All are in the world through no merit or fault of their own, hence no credit or blame attaches to the fact of being here in any case. No man brought anything with him which every other man did not bring; hence all by Nature are endowed with equal rights and entitled to equal opportunities. This opens up an immense field of thought in the direction of modifying the existing conditions of unequal rights and unequal opportunities, which all students of social questions recognize with serious misgivings.

Closely allied with this subject are the objects of social organization, the relations which exist between society and the indi-