The Portland daily press., 1895-07-09

tention, as matter of health This con
. sideration has led the school committee O
| Boston to provide good lunches for fiv
cents per pupil, for all pupils in the Bos
ton public schools, thus almost realizins
my thought, even in the matter of ex
pense. 1t is also done in Cincinnati.
If a proper lunch during the day il
necessary as it certainly is, for the du,
ongoing of the pupils work that day,
see no reason why it should NOT be pro
vided at public cost, as much as the schoo
books. l say it is necessary. If NOT pro
yided suitably, all the pupils will eat colo
food. Part of this will consist of cake
scraps, ana other nnhygienic articles
caterers, loafing around the school houses
will provide, still worse in quality. and
at extortionate prices 1t is better every
way that provision for noon -day refec
tion for teachers and pupils should be in
the hands of the school authorities.
This is, repeat, the better course ever
II no further reform is sought. 1t is de-
sirable under the present system. But
our experience in kindergarten work has
shown us that there is great cultivation
and even stimulus to morality in the
proper eating together of meal by lot
| OF young persons, under the direction OF
cultivated superiors. Human beings come
specially and helpfully near to one anoth-
er.when they eat in common. In all ages
eating in common has been a powerful
means Of amity and brotherly love. This
principle underlies the Lords Supper
itself. Applied at what, 1 fear, is another
extreme, it forms large part of what is
good in modern club life. A family
would hardly seem family did its mem
bers not come together often about the
same table.
| Such, ladies and gentlemen, is, in out
line, the system of education which I
should be glad to see built up throughout
the United States of America. From such
a system, believe, would proceed an
elevation in the peoples standard of liv-
ing which would result in the abolition
OF poverty: Fourteen years of school life
OF this sort on the part of our popula-
| tion, would change the national concep-
| tion OF what 1t is to live. 1t would null
t1ply intelligence and morality SO that
the toilers would stand together for all
| their just rights. Trained In the way de-
scribed, people would be unwilling them
selves to descend to that level where so
MAJ many wage-earners and others now are,
and they would be- unwilling, also to un-
dertake parenthood, when there was any
| serious risk of their descendants sinking
to that level. What this would mean for
the general veal of the laboring popula-
t1on, we have seen in the earlier part of
this lecture. Redundant and feeble
population would cease to exist. Those
remaining would unite to secure their
dues. In the, / should hope, always rare
contingency of strike, there would be
no "scab'' underbidders for work. Wages
would all along the line be as high as the
condition of industry would admit, and
could not but afford decent plenty for
all. Absolute equality in human condi-
tions is not possible, nor is it desirable.
R11t tho rorn of
dehumanizing poverty is both desirable
and possible. 1t can be secured by the
means pointed out.
This benign and evangelical result might
be brought to pass without the slightest
clash between labor and capital, occasion
ing no cataclysm or break socially, and
not involving even the introduction of
the plan described is socalistic, triumph
antly reply that it is no whit more social
istic than the present system of public
schools. Nor would wealth suffer BY the
regime outlined. On the contrary it
would be greatly increased. The ignor-
ant work population is ever the least pro-
ductive. The millions upon millions now
spent for charity toward the poor would
be saved. The receipt of charity by poor
people always makes them dislike the
rich, and this dislike would be removed
by the means recommended. Such lack
of gratitude seem first an anomaly, but
it is based upon a certain right thought.
The poor have dim rational surmise
that charity ought not to be necessary.
and that things are out of joint when
they have to receive it. Could we do
away with the now unavoidable evil of
charity giving and receiving, that con-
summation alone would pay all the cost
involved in the experiment.
What hinders? Very little hinders, ex-
fhn fI,xrr of ftn @f11,
pie. To work the scheme requires union
and some enthusiasm. I have hope that
the study of it may result in both Some
may say that the schools are not good
enough to be put to this high use. True,
they are not now good enough Precisely
the demand is that we shall take hold
and make them good. If all would vote,
work and agitate for the very best school
system possible, the schools would speed
lily become, if not all that we could wish,
certainly perfect enough to render sue
cess that reform which we have been
studying.
I dare say that when first announced,
the system of education disiderated
WOULD MEET WITH CONSIDERABLE
OPPOSITION
in the Roman Catholic Church. 1 should
hope, however, that when fully understood
it would not do so, but would evoke in
stead the hearty support not only of the
laity of that church, which I am sure it
would do, but also of the hierarchy.
What has been described. is of course, a
system of public education, of education
for the children of all, irrespective ..of re-
ligious belief In such schools religion
cannot be taught. No functionary of
church can, as such, officiate in them
The teachers, drawn .impartially from all
religious bodies must, as teachers, repre-
sent no religious body. This we know
traverses the Catholic theory. which is no
doubt the proper theory if we could have
an absolutely ideal system of education If
we were all of one faith and under an
identical religious establishment, and
were certain to be so always, / believe I
should wish religious teaching to form
part of the child's education from the
earliest years, and to be impaired in most
cases by the very same persons who taught
the secular rudiments. In the actual
hurlyburly of religious belief and unbe-
lief, however, this cannot be, and no
Catholic is to be blamed for regarding
such impossibility as, so far forth, an OBJ
lection to the system.
But I seem to sec how it could be re-
duccd to an inconsiderable objection Let
the priests, with their assistants, and let
oil otbar ro1inionicfc oo,,o1l.. o,+oI1;,l