The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-10
Our Special OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
PRISONS AND POOR HOUSES.
*** By HELEN CAMPBELL. ~


Work of the kindergarten.
One cannot help feeling a sense of
wrong in any putting that seems to
associate so beautiful an institution
as the kindergarten-with all it in
cludes of genuine benevolence and
enlightenment, and all it means for
the uplifting and expansion of the
human soul-with our police system
and criminal courts, our jails and
The protection of the
community against crime is certainly
a very negative way of considering
the aims and ends of education How
this result sinks into insignifcance
beside the positive achievement of
vast increase of human power, hui
man production, human character
and human happiness, through the
giving of gardens for the souls of
these little ones to grow in!
And yet the public protection in
the fullest sense is no small function
of the State in its highest develop
ment as in its lowest. Upon that
protection in it's perfective depends
our peace and safety, our progress
and wellbeing. The mistake is in
considering our punitory system as
protection in any real sense. 1t kills
the murderer after he has murdered;
it catches and cages the thief after
he has stolen, and generally after he
has squandered your property-when
it catches him at all. Our county
jails with their herding together of
young and old, have been well de-
scribed as compulsory schools of
crime supported by the State" There
are over 100000 convicted criminals in
the United States to day, about half
of them outside prison walls. In the
last decade, there has been large
increase in the number of criminals
in the United States, not only in the
actual number, but in the proportion
relative to the total population. In
the face of these facts can it be any
longer seriously asserted that the So
cial function of public protection is
subseryed by our criminal
code?
Protection of the Schoolhouse.
There is more protection in single
school house than in dozen jails,
and in one teacher than in regiment
of police, although the pay of the
average teacher is about half that of
the average policeman! The fathers
of the republic had sense enough to
see this. Such men as Washington,
Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and Ham
ilton were we'll aware that the safety
of republican institutions depended
II an enormous degree on wise sys-
tenn of general education. 1t was on
this account that they endeavored,
wherever possible, to insure a liberal
provision for the education of the
nations children at the public ex-
pense. Science is only beginning to
catch up with their sentiment in this
respect, and it has still far to go.
The three RS may have meant edu-
cation enough for the average man
hundred years ago, but such is no
longer the case. The time has como
when education in any true sense
must mean the harmonious drawing
out, strengthening and developing of
all the powers of all the man, and
"man" includes the female as we'll as
the male of the species.
Public Protection and Public Education.
In education, then, philanthropy.
enlightened, broadened and inspired
by the social spirit, will henceforth
find its most fruitful field. And what
field can be imagined wider, more
accessible or more attractive! Spread
the base-the kindergarten-and the
rest of the structure must in good
time conform to it. Let the children
of this whole wide country, in village
and town and city, be enrolled in our
kindergartens, multiplied to meet
such need. No doling of aims out
doors or indoors can mean what this
means in real charity. 1t will make
soup kitchens and poorhouses, pris-
ons, and in large degree hospitals
unnecessary, and it will bring to city
and State the surest and best protec-
tion.
Not one of us need fear that any
improvement in present conditions
tending to bring about greater equal
ity, material and intellectual, will les
sen the demand and the opportunity
for true charity. Not until we have
reached such improvement can there
be any such free Interchange between
human souls of that pure love with
out which the old words tell us, sand
though l bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though | give my BODY
to be burned, and have not charity. Il