perience in this kind of undertaking, his corporation would collapse under the stress of competition with other corporations more wisely organized. But our cities are able to keep up their clumsy and wasteful processes, because they are not in a competitive undertaking. If they make wasteful blunders, if they are on the losing side of their economic transactions, it is all covered by public funds drawn from the taxpayers. Into the management of their cities the American people have instinctively carried their traditional form of government. Maintaining the form has been more to them than securing the result of good administration. When one regards the general enlightenment of the nation, its pretension to high political standing, and then considers the governmental condition of many of the cities, it does not seem extravagant to affirm that they constitute a national disgrace. The leading nations of Europe reach better results. By a system which centralizes power and provides for individual responsibility, the administration of municipal affairs in all of these nations is rendered more efficient and more economical than the municipal administration of American cities.

Topics.-Urban and country population.-General character of city government in the United States.-General form of city government: the executive; the legislative; the judiciary.-Likeness to State government.-Difficulty in electing city officials.-Municipal affairs compared to affairs of a private corporation.-Centralization and individual responsibility.

References.-Bryce, American Commonwealth, i, Chap. L; Fiske, Civil Government, 98-140; Ford, American Citizen's Manual, Part I, 66-83; Hart, Actual Government, Chap. XI; Cooley, Constitutional Law, 343–345.

FOR ADVANCED STUDY

The Town and the County.-Howard, Local Constitutional History; Cooley, Constitutional Law, Chap. XVII; Cooley, Consti

tutional Limitations, Chap. VIII; Ford, American Citizen's Manual, Part I, Chap. II; Hosmer, Anglo-Saxon Freedom, Chap. XVII; Hinsdale, American Government, Chap. LV; Goodnow, Comparative Administrative Law, i, 162-233; Bryce, American Commonwealth, i, Chaps. XLVIII, XLIX; A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, i, Chap. V; Fiske, Civil Government, Chaps. II-IV.

The Municipal Council.-Eaton, Government of Municipalities, Chaps. X, XI; Dillon, Municipal Corporations, i, Chaps. X-XII; Conkling, City Government, Chap. III; Goodnow, Municipal Problems; Fairlie, Municipal Administration, Chap. XVII; Wilcox, Study of City Government, 143–179; Mathews, City Government of Boston.

The Government of Municipalities.-Bryce, American Commonwealth, i, L-LII; ii, LXXXVIII-LXXXIX; Conkling, City Government; Cooley, Constitutional Law, Chap. XVII; Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, Chap. VIII; Dillon, Municipal Corporations; Eaton, Government of Municipalities; Fairlie, Municipal Administration; Goodnow, Comparative Administrative Law, i, 162-233; Goodnow, Municipal Home Rule; Wilcox, Study of City Government.

The Powers of the Mayor.-Yale Review, viii, 274-288; Municipal Affairs, iii, 33-60; National Conference for Good City Government, Proceedings, 1898: 71-80, 152-219; 1900: 119–126, 136-146; Political Science Quarterly, 2: 291-312; Fairlie, Municipal Administration, Chaps. XVIII, XIX; Eliot, American Contributions to Civilization, No. 7; Parker, Municipal Government in Massachusetts, 14-24; Durand, Council vs. Mayor (Political Science Quarterly, 15: 426-451, 675-709).

The Beginnings of the Public School System.-Martin, Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System; Bush, Higher Education in Massachusetts; Boone, Education in the United States; Adams, Editor, Contributions to American Educational History; United States Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information.

Municipal, State, and Federal Debts.-Adams, Public Debts; Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance; Kearny, Sketch of American Finances; Scott, Repudiation of State Debts; Fairlie, Municipal Administration, Chap. XIV; Adams, Science of Finance, Book III.

City Streets. Popular Science Monthly, 56: 524-539; Fairlie, Municipal Administration, 227-238; Lalor, Cyclopædia, i, 464; Nation, 49: 124, 125, 162, 163.

Municipal Socialism.-North American Review, 172: 445455; Arena, 19: 43-53; 25: 198-209; Forum, 32: 201-216; Independent, 53: 2633-2636; 47: 569-579; 52: 1165–1168; Engineering Magazine, 5: 725; 9: 44; Cosmopolitan, 33: 425-435.

The Poor of the Great Cities.-Riis, Battle with the Slums; North American Review, 161: 685–692; Atlantic Monthly, 83: 163178; Riis, Tenements; Scribner's Magazine, 16: 108-117; Century, 53: 247-252; 45: 314-316; Forum, 19: 495–500; Review of Reviews, 6: 720, 721; Scribner's Magazine, 11: 531-556; 697-721; 13: 357372; 14: 121-128; 17: 102-114; Seventh Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1894.

The Sanitation of Cities.-Forum, 20: 747-760; Outlook, 69: 728-730; Harper's Magazine, 71: 577-584; North American Review, 161: 49-56; Outlook, 62: 416; 66: 126-128.

CHAPTER XIII

THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN IN RELATION TO THE GOVERNMENT

177. The Minor. The first specific act of the Government with particular reference to the individual citizen is the registration of his birth. In the United States this registration is much less complete than in some other countries. It is made by different officers in different parts of the country. In the New England town it is made by the town clerk. In other places the health officer keeps a record of all births, and this record is deposited in the office of the county recorder.

The period of minority extends, according to the common law, till the age of twenty-one years for both sexes. In some of the States, however, young women are deemed to be of age at eighteen. Before becoming of age a person cannot do any act to the injury of his property that he may not rescind when he attains his majority. But during a part of his minority, that is, after the age of fourteen, he is held to be responsible for crimes committed; for it is presumed that in the period between fourteen and twentyone he is able to discriminate between right and wrong conduct. Before the age of fourteen there is a strong presumption of innocence, a strong presumption that a child has not a sufficient knowledge of conduct to bring any act of his into the same class with the criminal acts of mature persons. This presumption may be overcome by evidence. It may be shown that the child appreciates the criminality

of his conduct, and is thus guilty in the same sense that the mature criminal is guilty. After fourteen he is treated, as to all criminal charges, as an adult.

If a minor owns land, it can be sold only by direction of a court; and if the guardian would exchange the minor's money or other personal property for land, he must first be authorized by a court to do this.

The resident of the United States as a minor enjoys the protection of the laws, but is unable to vote. Property may be held for him by a guardian or a trustee. If he makes contracts they cannot be enforced against him; for he may successfully set up as a defense that he is not liable because he is a minor. If, however, he has made a contract for necessities, it may be enforced against him. Under the designation of necessities are embraced whatever things are needful for the minor's support in his proper station of life, including a certain expenditure for education. The fact that a minor cannot be legally bound by contracts with respect to other matters makes it inconvenient and undesirable for him to attempt to carry on business in his own name. If a minor is engaged by a person of age for labor or for service of any kind, the courts will enforce the contract concerning wages which he may make with his employer. His father, or his legal parent, has the right to receive the wages. The parent may, however, renounce this right, and thus, emancipating the minor, make it possible for him to collect and hold his wages.

Topics. Registration of births.-The period of minority.The minor's property.-Contracts by minors.

References.-Kent, Commentaries, ii, 233–245; Smith, Training for Citizenship, §§ 58, 59, 394.

178. Education.-Education is counted as one of the minor's legally recognized necessities. It is also one of the things which it is the duty of the parent to furnish his