The Labor enquirer., 1886-04-17

ability or opportunities to teach their
children anything. The children are
born accidentally and may happen tc
have capabilities for good and may not,
They are sheltered by scant and
| wearIed mother-love through the ten
| derest months and set adrift for another
child or more work as early as possible.
The physical powers, mental energies
and time of both f,ther and mo ther are
taken up entirely in the pursuit of food,
shelter and clothing; the children them
selves are put into the treadnill about as
soon as they can walk and all of them
act as they must, not as some abstract
idea Of right and wrong directs. THIS is
| true of the majority of mankind,L The
middle classes have opportunities as yet
to teach, love and guard their children
until they are old enough to look out
for themselves"
But if we could all teach our Children
the highest moral principles, according
to the generally accepted code of morals,
what can they do with this training
when they leave our side to meet the
world as it actually exists? The train
Ing and the ways of the world do not tit
each other. They must of necessity un-
learn what has been taught them and
learn new code founded on business
principles prove unhappy failures in
life or die under the uneven struggle.
We teach boy that perfect honesty and
truth are correct principles in life, when
our present society is built on on basis
of robbery and falsehood. We teach
him that stealing is wicked and yet, he
finds that, out in the world, to get
something lor nothing" is tn" highest
aim of the men who are pointed out to
him as examples. We tell him lying Is
a great sin, and yet business success de-
pends upon concealing the truth, and
yet society forces every one of us to be-
come more or less hypocrites.
The merchant, speculator or business
man lives by profits, rents, margins-all
merely ways of getting something with
out giving an equivalent. The manu-
facturer only succeeds as he can accu-
mulate from unpaid labor; the competi-
ton in trade forces men to lie and cheat
and this same society holds up code
of morals which says we must not steal
or lie.
1t has been truly said that there are
more more miserable educated people
now than there ever were before and an
argument is based on this fact that edu-
cation makes peop.e unhappy.
1t does when education is 80 unified
to the actual state of affairs. 1t is like
training child to be an artist aUd turn
ing him into cutters with shovel IN
stead of a palette; or like raising hot
house plant to certain point OF deVel-
opment and then setting it out In the
cold air of midwinter to stand the blasts
of the elments as best it may.
Education and morals are all right
1t Is the systems that are out OF joint,
We teach goodness in the abstract, and
live by practical principles based on the
most abominable injustice. The indi-
yidual training of rare human plant
here and there will not change the poor
miserable ground and bad conditions IN
which humanity is forced to grow.
These must be changed. A good rich
soil, warm sunshine, light and pure
water will make garden full of bloom
and beauty. Natural, proper and just
conditions will produce beautiful and
grand humanity and especial coaxing
and petting of a few here and there will
be unnecessary.
We can teach the children this: that
thorough understanding of our rela-
tions ami duties to each other is neces-
sary to make the world better that things
are not right merely because they are
legal and that the great work of our
present and future men and women is to
tear down the manmade barriers that
now prevent people from living natural,
just and truly moral lives. This would
hasten the inevitable change certainly,
and make the next generation ready for
conditions of freedom.
LIZZIE NJ. SWANK.