Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1890-11-15

little regard paid to authority, and so
little discipline enforced in the family.
The question most frequently asked
by them is "why are so many Of your
young men. and young women going
wrongf" The Indictment OF Ameri-
can society by these foreign critics has
a basis OF truth. and the answer to
their question is primarily to be found
in the absence OF family discipline.
The new method of parental govern
ment Is to have no discipline or
compulsion. The family authority
must be maintained upon the
basis OF moral suasion," or not
maintained at all, and the two
conditions are about synonymous
There is no authority. Our fathers
and grsndfaihers believed in family
law and compelled obedience. Now
IL a parental order il violated there
must be no punishment. This is the
fad in the house, and it IS the fad In
the school. Il IS only a question OF
time how soon the fad will become
universal, all parental authority over
children cease, and all social law be-
come a nonentIty. There Is no longer
ehastisement or punishment OF any
kind in the school. nor even restrie-
ton. Tho child is regarded as free
agent from It's earliest years. Its will
is allowed to prevail, and II a success
full appeal cannot be made to IFS con-
science, then e must be permitted to
90 on its way. With such a system
OF discipline, is ii any wOnderithat so
many boys and girls are turned out
upon the world from the home and
the scho0lhouse with the loosest ideas
Of obedience, authority, morals,
honor, or honesty; that so many city
boys are becoming "hoOdlums" and
so many girls are fast" and following
dangerous paths; tina. they take to
improper literature and improper
habits, and end by going to the bad or
wrecking their lives in some other
way? Boys and girls are observ-
ant, even in their earliest child
hood, and they reason shrewdly
even il they reason wrongly. They
ascribe the nnn-action Of parents
and teachers to fear, and from this il
is an easy step 10 the conclusion that
the law is all on their side. Hence so
many OF the children Of the rich be-
come idle and dissolute and the chill
dren Of the poor become vagabonds or
hoOdlums, they following the natural
bent of their inelinasions because no
restriction is imposed upon them and
no punishment follows the disObedi-
ence Of parental commands. In this
serious emergency which confronts so
many American homes, what are the
board Of education and the clergy
doing who have charge OF the intel
lec;ual and, to a large extent, the
moral growth Of children? The clergy
have the closest access TO the family
and the most influence upon the par
ents, particularly upon the mothers.
What are they doing towards instruct
ing parents in their plain duty towards
their offspring? What are Baptist,
Presbyterian, Methodist and Episco-
palian ministers and Catholic priests,
whose influence is almost absolute in
such matters, doing to enforce better
parental government Why do they
sit idly by, knowing that marital dis
cords, family scandals, violations Of
the moral code, eontemp. for all the
laws Of honor and honesty, and out
breaking defiance Of social prophecies
proceed from the absence Of authority
in thc home, followed by equaIabsence
OF authority in the school? They must
know that the next generation will be
worse than this; that ii will not take
many generations 10 suppress com
Pletely parental authority, and. this
once accomplished, that the nation it.
self will tumble into ruins. Youth
will always seek the lowest levels IL
left TO itself and not directed and In
nuenced by some other power. There
are two forms Of education needed in
this world. The one must give the
caild enlightenment in matters Of
knoNledge. The other must be
moral education, which shall enable
the child to overcome the dragging
down influences Of its own nature and
TO resist the evil advice aud examples
of older and dePrayed companions,
and it must be taught through the
agencies Of discipline and respect for
parental commands as aids to its will
and conscience. What are you doing
towards this, gentlemen OF the pulpits
and school boards? Your homilies,
theories, dogmas, and ceremonies are
Of little account in bringing the child
TO right living. to proper habits Of
thought, to high ideals OF personal
honor and honesty, and to loyalty to
parental authority. are not the loose
and vitiated conditions OF society suf-
iicienl proofs that there is something
wrong in the prevalent method Of
bringing up children7 Solomon says
bring up child in the way il should
90, and when II is old It will not de-
part tnerefrOm- WHAT was true and
necessary in family government thirty
centuries ago is equally true today"