The powers that the State Governments exercise are exercised through a variety of channels. (1.) Some are exercised directly by State officers. For the most part these are powers that concern the State as a whole. (2.) Some are exercised by county officers within the county. (3.) Some are exercised by town or township officers within the town or county. (4.) Some are exercised by city or municipal officers within the city. (5.) A few fall to officers elected by divisions of townships, as road-masters and school directors.

Items 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this enumeration constitute Local government, which the people of all the States, in some form, have retained in their own hand. Here we meet a political fact that distinguishes us from some other countries, the vigorous vitality of local institutions. France, for example, although a republic, has a centralized government; many powers are there exercised by national officers that here are exercised by local officers, while there the state often asserts direct control over the local authorities. Strong attachment to local self-government, and opposition to centralized government, is one of the boasted glories of the English-speaking race. Subject to the State constitution, the State Legislature is the great source of political power within the State. The county, the township, and the city owe their political existence and peculiar organization to the Legislature.

Different States have organized local government in different ways. Speaking generally, there are three types-the Town type, the County type, and the Mixed type. The Town type is found exclusively in the New England States. It throws most of the powers of local government into the hands of the town, few into the hands of the county. The County type, which is found

in the Southern States and in a few others, reverses this method; it throws all local powers into the hands of the county, and makes the sub-divisions of the county merely an election precinct, the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace, and perhaps the unit of the militia company. The Mixed, or Compromise system, as its name implies, combines features of the other two. It makes more use of the county, and less of the town, than New England; more of the township, and less of the county, than the South. It is found in the Central States and generally, but not universally, throughout the West.

Now not much argument is needed to show that the study of government, even within the limits of the elementary school, should embrace the two spheres in which the American Government moves, the sphere of the Nation and the sphere of the State. Neither is much argument called for to show that the study of the State should embrace Local government, as well as State government proper. The argument on the whole subject divides into two main branches-the one practical, the other pedagogical.

Unfortunately, the time given to the study of government in the schools has not always been wisely distributed. For many years the National Government received disproportionate attention, and such, though perhaps in less degree, is still the case. But, important as the powers of the Nation are, the common citizen, in time of peace, has few relations with it outside of the Post Office Department, while his relations with the State are numerous and constant. President Garfield, in 1871, said: "It will not be denied that the State government touches the citizen and his interests twenty times where the National Government touches him once."

Still another point may be urged. An American State is a distinct political community. It is a separate commonwealth having its own constitution, laws, and officers. It has its own history. The people boast its services to the country. They point to its great names. They glorify the associations that cluster about its name. They dwell upon its typical or ideal life.

All this is educative in a striking sense; such an environment necessarily reacts upon the people. Who can measure the effect of the old Bay State ideal, or the Old Dominion ideal, upon the people of either State?

Once more, Local government has received too little attention as compared with State government proper. Township or county government is on such a diminutive scale that to many it seems a subject unworthy of serious study. But it is important to teach the youth of the county that their future prosperity and happiness, as a rule, will depend upon what is done by road-masters, school directors, township trustees or supervisors, county commissioners or county courts, city authorities, and the like, far more than upon what is done by the Governor or the President. The common citizen is tenfold more concerned in the proceedings in the courts held by justices of the peace and by county judges than in the causes that are decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Government is fundamentally an information or guidance study. It is put in the schools to teach the pupil how to perform his political duties intelligently when he comes to the state of manhood. In order that he may perform these duties intelligently, he must understand the nature and the ends of government, whether National, State, or Local, and the mode of its operation.

The fact is, however, that characteristic features of our government are ill understood by thousands of our citizens. The functions of the Executive and of the Judiciary are often confounded; likewise the functions of State authorities and National authorities. A multitude of citizens participate in every election of electors for President, who do not know how the President is elected. The line dividing the State sphere from the National sphere is a very hazy matter to many persons who consider themselves intelligent. Owing partly to

this fact, and partly to the greater prominence of the Union, there is always a tendency in many quarters to hold the National authorities responsible for what the State authorities have or have not done. The adjustment of Local Government to the State and National Governments is another matter concerning which many are confused. Tax-payers can be found in every neighborhood who think the taxes that they pay to the township or the county treasurer go to Washington.

What has been said will suffice for the practical branch of the argument. Taking up the pedagogical branch, let us first observe the nature and the origin of the child's early education in respect to government.

It is in the family, in personal contact with its members, that the child forms the habits of obedience and deference to others. It is here that he learns, in a rudimentary and experimental way, that he is part of a social whole. Here he acquires the ideas to which we give the names obedience, authority, government, and the like. His father (if we may unify the family government) is his first ruler, and the father's word his first law. Legislative, executive, and judicial functions are centered in a single person. These early habits and ideas are the foundations of the child's whole future education in government, both practical and theoretical.

His future conception of the governor, president, king, or emperor is developed on the basis of the idea of his father; his conception of society, on the basis of the idea of his home; his conception of government by the State, on the basis of family government. Of course these early habits and ideas are expanded, strengthened, and adjusted to new centers.

While still young, the child goes to school. This, on the governmental side, is but a repetition of the home. It is the doctrine of the law that the teacher takes the place of the parent: in loco parentis. The new jurisdiction may be narrower than the old one, but it is of the same kind. The education of the school reinforces the education of the home in respect to this all-important subject. The habits of obedience and deference are strengthened. The child's social world is enlarged. At first he thought, or rather felt, that he was alone in the world; then he learned that he must adjust himself to the family circle; now he discovers that he is a member of a still larger community, and that he must conduct himself accordingly. The ideas of authority, obedience, law, etc., are expanded and clarified.

About the time that the child goes to school he begins to take lessons in civil government. This also is developed on the basis of his previous home-training. It begins at the very door-step. The letter-carrier, the policeman, the justice of the peace, and the postmaster introduce him to the government of the outer world. Some or all of these officers he sees and knows, and others he hears about. The very mail wagon that rattles along the street teaches its lesson, and so do other symbols of authority that confront him. He attends an election and hears about the caucus. As he grows older, the town council, the court of the local magistrate, and the constable or sheriff teach him the