Taft, William Howard, why A league of nations is necessary (League to Enforce Peace, New York).

Sherman, Stuart P., American and allied ideals (World Peace Foundation, Boston).

The complete official record of the United States Senate debate on the treaty of peace is to be found in the congressional record, a file of which should be in your public library.

The junior Red cross news, American Red Cross, Washington, D.C.

For the work of the Pan American Union and the Red Cross, consult your public library; and write to the Pan American Union and the American Red Cross, both in Washington, D.C., for descriptive publications.

For the Hague Conferences and the Hague Tribunal, consult any good modern encyclopedia, and your public library.  Write for materials to the American School Citizenship League, 405 Marlboro St., Boston, and the World Peace Foundation, Boston.

CHAPTER IX

THE HOME

“No nation can be destroyed while it possesses A good home life.”

The home is the smallest, the simplest, and the most familiar community of which we are members.  In many respects it is also the most important.  The quotation with which this chapter opens suggests this.  It will appear at many points in our study.

What do you think that the quotation at the head of the chapter means?  In what respects do you think it true?

Some cities take pride in the fact that they are “cities of homes.”  What does this mean?  Why is it a cause for pride?

Is your community (neighborhood or town) a community of homes?  What is a “home”?  When a person is “homesick” for what is he “sick”?

May a good home exist in a poor dwelling?  A poor home in a fine dwelling?

Is a hotel a home?  May a family living in a hotel have a home there?

Is an orphan asylum a home?  Would you exchange life in your own home for life in an orphan asylum?  Why?  There are children who think an orphan asylum is a fine place to live; why is this?

The home is important (1) because of what it does for its own members, and (2) because of what it does for the larger community of which it is a part.  We shall consider first what it does for its own members.

THE PIONEER FAMILY

Under the conditions of pioneer life the wants of the members of the family were provided for almost entirely by their own united efforts.  They built their own dwelling from materials which they themselves procured from the forest.  They made their living from the land which they occupied, with tools which were largely homemade.  They provided their own defense against attack from without and against sickness within.  Such education as the children obtained was of the most practical kind, and was obtained by actual experience in their daily work supplemented by such instruction as parents and older brothers and sisters could give.  There was little social life except within the family circle.