The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-16
K. THE HOME IN IT'S RELATION
TO THE STATE.

! =
TO THE STATE.
| Every oEe or almost every one. unites
in praise OF the family and the home.
Ii is the original unit of the state and
the ultimate test of its soundness- On
/ the one hand, good conditions here are
: the absolute necessary prerequisites of
good social conditions generally. On
the other hand. happy home conditions
are the intimate object of most human
endeavor.- James Russell Lowell says
in one of his delightful letters: You
say that life seems to be q struggle
after nothing in particular. But you
are wrong. 1t is a struggle after the
peaceful home of the soul in a natural
and loving state of life. Men are most
I ly unconscious of the object of their
struggle, but 1t is always connected in
some way with this. II they gain wealth
or power or glory it is always 10 make
up for this want which they feel but
scarce know what it is"
Nevertheless, when so much is said
in a general way of the Importance of
the home, remarkably little attention
seems to be paid 20 it in the concrete.
Whenever the need is felt of doing
something" whenever a want is detect
ed, any agency rather than the home
! is resorted to. Education must be made
more complete, and the school is insti-
tuted. The little child must be taught
to occupy itself, to observe, TO adapt
itself to others; happy and wholesome
moods must be made habitual TO it, and
the kindergarten takes in the little one.
Religious training must be made as far
reaching as possible. and the Sunday
school spreads itself over the land and
in large measure substitutes itself for
home teaching. There is felt to be a
lack of means of recreation, and socia-
bles and girls and boys clubs and other
organized schemes are started. Mothers
no longer find time to read as they did
let them form reading circles and read
together, or clubs and study and de-
bate together.
From religion to whist, the tendency
is to organize groups of persons. select
ed for their common interest in some
one matter, TO exercise or indulge them
selves together in special direction,
meeting on only one side of their lives,
themselves more or less all of one class
and with a corresponding narrowness
of experience to be got from one an
other.
All this is the direct opposite of the
conditions of home life. where a small
number of persons of both sexes, unlike
in age and generally in tastes, but unit
ed by close personal ties. meet, not for
one specialized kind of activity but in
the multifarious undesirable activities
of home life.
1t is obvious that the tendency to or
ganize in groups, cutting across the
family group, is natural and inevitable.
1t is also obvious that ii brings about
very great advantages. 1t is equally
obvious that it tends to take from the
duties and activities that find their
place within the family circle, to lessen
the scope of that family life which is
the object of so much enthusiasm.
This change, IL is interesting TO no.
tice. is quite in accordance with the
trend of the development of the family
as far as we know its history In early
Rome the state was essentially a fed
Grafton of patriarchally organized fam
lily groups. Each family contained not
only the immediate family, as we I'M
derstand it, but much more extended
circles of relatives-uncles. cousins,
married sons and grandchildren-be-
sides the slaves. These were bound to-
gether by the common and absolute
authority of the patriarch head of the
family (pater familias), who had the
right even to kill his children or to sell
them as slaves. This group was bound
together, too. by the worship of its an
cestors and the sacred ceremonies OF the
hearth, which gave it it's chief sanctity
and Importance.
Many of these features reproduce
themselves more or less exactly in the
most diverse nations and DIVERSE
times. The patriarchal family of the
early Hebrews, the Chinese family to-
day, with its ancestor worship and in
tense filial piety, are examples.
Such a family may be studied from
many different aspects, as a body of
kindred. as a household, as an economic
community, as a religious group or as
a political unit whether independent,
as clan. or an imperium in imperio, a
state within the state).
In all these aspects the tendency has
been sinilar-to reduce the family
group. to simplify it, to give over its
various functions, as they develop. to
be carried on in new ways and in a
more highly organized form outside the
family. The typical family comes to
contain only the parents and unmar-
ried children. The rites of religion are
observed not mainly within the family,
but in public worship. The family au-
thority not only extends over a smaller
group, but its scope is constantly les
sened by the growth of public author
ity. of law. of the state
This family had two sides, the au-
thority Of the family. vested in its head.
over its own members, and, secondly.
the duty of the family to protect its
own members from outside aggression.
The origin of our own penal law is in
the tribal codes of retribution. whereby
one family could exact from another
damages for injury inflicted by one of
its members. in place of the otherwise
revenge. with the endless
revengeS of blood feud there
by entailed. 1t rested also with the
family to punish its own offending
members, whether for injuries within |
It's own circles or for injuries to out
siders entaHing general cost 10 the |
group.
1t was momentous change when the |
state took from the family land from /
he individually the right of revenge and /
he responsibility for defense and I'M |
iertook to preserve order by public |
Jules and by public power-a step in |
which is not yet accepted. |
% our shame. in all parts of our coun- |
-ry. whether among Georgia lyrchers |
II Kentucky feud fighters
Equally momentous was the other |
'5de of this change, when the state
ook from the hand of the father the
light to punish the grown son. thus
bringing about the direct relation be-
ween the state and the individual citi-
ZEN which characteriZes modern civili-
.ation.
Nowhere. perhaps. has the disintegra-
ion of the family gone further than in |
his country, where children so early
eek independent lives. where parents
ire SO little disposed to exert author
ty.