and Freedom were its watchwords
and the conditions of life of the pioneer settlers and their rapid
spread over one of the richest natural areas in the world favored
individual independence. It was the natural reaction from the previous
domination of a feudal aristocracy. For over a century our national
philosophy has been dominated by a doctrine of rights, and only recently
have we come to perceive that if democracy is to function in a complex
modern civilization, there must be an equal emphasis on duties. This is
the significance of the present interest in instruction in citizenship
in our schools.

Most of us hardly appreciate how complete a reversal of the organization
of rural life was involved in this sudden domination of individualism.
Primitive agriculture was made possible by men associating in small
village communities for defense and mutual aid. Their whole system of
agriculture, until very modern times, was controlled and directed, not
by the individual or family, but by the community. The typical peasant
community of Russia or India was in many respects but an enlarged family
and its economy and social control were based upon the customs of the
family. Indeed, historically the community was the outgrowth of the
enlarged family or clan. It is not surprising, therefore, that the
peasant's first loyalty is to his community. The nation or state is far
away and beyond his ken; his patriotism is for his home village. So Park
and Miller in their discussion of immigrants' attitudes say: "The
peasant did not know that he was a Pole; he even denied it. The lord was
a Pole; he was a peasant. We have records showing that members of other
immigrant groups realize first in America that they are members of a
nationality: "I had never realized I was an Albanian until my brother
came from America in 1909. He belonged to an Albanian society over
here."[98]

Prior to the last century the whole social organization of rural life in
the Old World was built up around the community. The family, the
community, and the state were the primary forms of human association.
Obviously, therefore, when families dispersed over the new territory of
the United States with no community ties and with but few contacts with
the national government, there was a lack of that social organization to
which the people had been accustomed and through which their whole mode
of life, their customs and moral code had been built up. These forms of
human a