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For a work designed to promote education in the spirit of American citizenship it would be difficult to imagine a more competent authorship than that which has been provided for “The Short Constitution”. Either of the writers alone would have produced a book of high standing in this field; the collaboration of the two makes it a remarkable production in its adaptation to the subject for home reading, the study club, and the school curriculum. It is unique, and has justly been termed “the first real attempt to popularize Constitutional law.”

Federal Judge Martin J. Wade has had a varied contact with people in his long experience as practicing attorney, district judge, member of Congress, and Judge of the United States Court. A well known Iowa publicist, he has gained nation wide fame as a public speaker and writer on Americanization and citizenship topics, basing his themes on first-hand experiences with conditions which have produced much unrest throughout the Nation. As a member of the State Council of National Defense during the World War, and as presiding judge at the trial of many obstructionists in that period, he conceived the idea of the need for a school of Americanism, to teach what our country has done for its citizens. Clearness and eloquence mark his public addresses, and have enriched the arguments and illustrations of this first book of the “Elementary Americanism Series”.

Dean William F. Russell was the educational adviser sent with a group of experts by appointment of the President of the United States to advise disorganized Russia during the latter part of the World War; and also one of the five members of the China Educational Commission of North America, sent to China in 1921. His course of study in American [pg 008] citizenship, written at the request of the National Masonic Research Society for use throughout the United States, was inspired by the observation that the government in Russia, in contrast with our own, was an agency that took money for its coffers and boys for its armies and gave nothing in return. In addition to his work as Dean of the College of Education of the State University of Iowa, and his record as a widely-known lecturer on educational topics, he has found time to write school texts notable for accurate and concise statement, adapted to arousing and sustaining interest in the student mind.

The authors have done more than present the facts about the Constitution of the United States, with particular emphasis on its personal guaranties. They have vitalized a topic generally thought to be dry and technical. They have succeeded in making the Constitution seem to be what it is, a factor of first importance in the daily life of the average citizen. It is not too much to say that the seed of this book should be planted in every home in America.

The admirable work of annotation by Professor Chas. H. Meyerholz, Professor of Social Science in the Iowa State Teachers College, gives much additional material for elementary and advanced study. Professor Meyerholz is well known as an authoritative teacher, writer, and lecturer on subjects pertaining to government, and has done much valuable Americanization work.

The elementary and advanced questions at the end of each chapter will serve as a guide to all teachers and leaders of study classes. The text of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, with the original capitalization and punctuation preserved, and an abridgement of a State Constitution, printed at the end of the book, are valuable for reference.

The Publisher

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