The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-10-17
TepMe.( $1.O0p per year. in adv a ice
Six Months 80 cents.

them what you choose, are schools in
the trueSt sense of the word, and
legitimate part of complete educa-
tiOnal system. Our common school
system is, in it's original conception,
the best in the world. There are, how
ever, mistakes in it today. 1t is like
some of the buildings of Chicago; too
many stories high for the space covered
on the ground. A man out in San
Francisco purposes putting up a build
ing fourteen stories high. Consider
ing the shakiness of the earth out
there, l would suggest that he put at
least ten of these fourteen stories on
the ground, side by side. So our school
system, | would broaden it at the base;
if necessary, take about eight stories
off of the top and put them on the
ground. We, as a nation, recognize
the duty of the state TO furnish its
citizens with at least the rudiments of
an education: but social and moral
education are vastly more essential to
good citizenship than the three Rs. or
any amount of merely intellectual ed
ucation. do not say there are no So
cial and moral educating influences in
our public schools. Far from it. But
l say this: Here are a host of young
men and young women, outside the
pale of these schools; SO, too, outside
the social and moral influence of home
who are often weak, whose environ
ment is largely anti-social, and anti
moral, all calculated to make them bad
citizens; and for the educational wants
of these, the state is morally, and for
its own safety, bound to provide. The
success of the Polytechnic school in
London and Peoples palaces, the sue
cess of some feeble attempts in this
country along a similar line, the sue
cess of all these, even hampered as they
have been for want Of funds, proves,
beyond a possibility of doubt, the value
of such institutions, and gives hint
of the possibilities of saving work along
this line. AS said in the beginning,
this is only one barrier. | make no
claim that it will exterminate all crime
and criminals. But do claim that it
will do much toward it. Nor is it
mere incidental attachment to the great
redemptive work of society. tits basic.
The pivot on which society turns up
ward or downward, is education. But re-
member, education embraces the whole
man, physically, mentally, industrially,
socially and morally; and the SUI
preme element in this education is the
moral. The late j. M. Guygau,
French writer of the highest authority
on education, places as the first and
fundamental element moral education.
But this includes also, social and indus
trial education.
But this writer adds another thought
of tremendous Importance. How is
this education moral and social espe-
cially, impaired? BY suggestion, he
says. And he piles up arguments and
marshals witnesses to prove it. And
he succeeds. Men act on suggestions.
These suggestions come from other
men, from pictures, music, sights,
sounds; the whole environment is full
of suggestions, and these are the great
schoolmasters of all men. Every sug-
gestion good or bad according to the
teachings of Guygau and others, too,
enters as an educating force into char
acter. When, now, these young men
are forced literally to spend their hours
for rest and recreation in an environ
ment that suggests drunkenness, de-
bauchery, theft, gambling, forgery,
anarchy and all lawlessness, they will,
by the very processes of education,
become drunken, debauched, anar-
chists, thieves, murderers, and crimi-
nails. But, provide for them, in their
, hours of recreation, an environment
suggesting industry, knowledge, Writ
ue, social and moral purity, and by
the same processes of education
they, not all, but many, very many, the
: majority, will develop honesty, and in
tegrity into good citizens.