ed to vote?

7. Study athletics in your school and town to determine their
educational value.

8. Show by investigation the educational value of motion-pictures and
their misuse.

9. In what ways may social inequality be diminished?

10. Would a law compelling the reading of the Bible in public schools
make people more religious?

[1] Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, I, 220.

{486}

CHAPTER XXXI

WORLD ECONOMICS AND POLITICS

_Commerce and Communication_.--The nations of the world have been drawn
together in thought and involuntary co-operation by the stimulating
power of trade. The exchange of goods always leads to the exchange of
ideas. By commerce each nation may profit by the products of all
others, and thus all may enjoy the material comforts of the world. At
times some countries are deficient in the food-supply, but there has
been in recent years a sufficient world supply for all, when properly
distributed through commerce. Some countries produce goods that cannot
be produced by others, but by exchange all may receive the benefits of
everything discovered, produced, or manufactured.

Rapid and complete transportation facilities are necessary to
accomplish this. Both trade and transportation are dependent upon
rapid communication, hence the telegraph, the cable, and the wireless
have become prime necessities. The more voluminous reports of trade
relations found in printed documents, papers, and books, though they
represent a slower method of communication, are essential to world
trade, but the results of trade are found in the unity of thought, the
development of a world mind, and growing similarity of customs, habits,
usages, and ideals. Slowly there is developing a world attitude toward
life.

_Exchange of Ideas Modifies Political Organization_.--The desire for
liberty of action is universal among all people who have been assembled
in mass under co-operation. The arbitrary control by the
self-constituted authority of kings and governments without the consent
of the governed is opposed by all human associations, whether tribal,
territorial, or national. Since the world settled down to the idea of
monarchy as a necessary form of government, men have been trying to
{487} substitute other forms of government. The spread of democratic
ideas has been slowly winning the world to new methods of government.
The American Revolution was the most epoch-making event o