The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-08-08

OlliLENouiI Al I'D SOUntE.
good many years ago the workerl
among the Indians came to the reason
able conclusion that their mission was
among the children OF the tribes. There
was but little use in trying TO educate
and civilize the squawS and braves who
had aways led an untamed, indolent life
and who would lapse into their natural
barbarism regardless Of all efforts 10 save
them from it
But in the Indian children lay what
ever hope there was for the aboriginal
| race; so the industrial schools were es-
| tablished and large force of teachers
went TO work in earnest on the line OF
training the child in the way he should
go.
Apparently this long accepted view OF
the case where the Indians are most con-
cerned is well on its way toward the pale
face population as well. Educators,
workers among the poor-and the rich,
also-are united in this one principle that
the hope of better citizenship by and by,
the raising OF standards of living-in
fact, the advancement of the race, lies in
the training of those who are children
today. Unconsciously we have been, lit
tie by little, led TO see the sense and the
safety of this way OF looking at the mat
ter until the present time more than any
preceding period stands as prominently
the Children's Age.
Especially in the efforts to make exist
ence happier and better for the children
OF the poor is discernible this ever-grow-
ing conviction that by this means more
than by any other the country is to be
saved from the evils attendant upon igno-
rance, idleness and poverty. The old no.
tion was: punish the parents for their
vice, their vagrancy, or their lawlessness.
The newer and better way is to give the
Children born into an evil atmosphere
the chance to learn how to live SO as to
avoid many of the wrongs punishable in
their parents. 1t is simply another applica-
tion of the age-old maxim that an ounce
OF prevention is worth pound of cure.
Those who have the good OF humanity at
ri fofl 10
the children, particularly those of foreign
parentage, grow up in this country with
scarcely any training for citizenship, and
an almost utter disregard of their moral
and physical health, and then when they
have reached misguided maturity, pun
ishing them for offences that their igno-
rance and undisturbed habits OF lawless-
ness have never been aroused to class as
evil, is nothing less than an attempt
to solve the problem by beginning at
the wrong end. 1t Is the realization of
these facts and the consequent concern OF
those who have the betterment OF the
world at heart that has embodied itself in
the various charities of our large cities
where..t the tenement-house population so |
far outnumbers all others. The roots of |
society are in this lowest stratum rather
than in the higher and 1t is here that we
find the greatest danger to the social and
civic growth OF the land.
In New York with its. crowded, de-
graded East Side population there are less
than half dozen vacation schools estab-
lished, while the unused school buildings.
standing idle when they might be OF such
infinite service, and the /. forbidding,
closely -shuttered houses OF the rich who
leave the city poor to their own destruc-
ton during the summer, make one feel
hat the election frauds and public treas
nry plundering are among the more for
yivable OF the shortcomings OF this great
metropolis.
New York State has a new tenement law
which indicates that there is at least
sufficient public interest in the question
20 warrant legislation. Whether the spirit
nsures execution Of the laws made re-
mains to be seen.
The little already accomplished, how.
'ver, gives one courage to believe that
more and better is to follow. The mere
act that II is possible to call public at
ention to the conditions of child life in
'ities is proof that the human itarian in.
tinct in man has developed an hundred
old. 1t is worth much to us that in this
lay we realize how closely fresh air and
lean houses are related TO the future
'urity OF the ballot box and municipal
life. Money invested in hygienic tene-
nents, kindergartens, and public play
de 1