The San Francisco call., 1896-08-23

can find to do, and he thinks sit Is useless
to learn it if there is no room for more
workers"
Then he looks about, and finds. with a
shock, that all the common avenues of Ia
Dor are crowded with hungry-eyed men,
who understand that the present lob
stands, frail barrier, between them and
charity, chance or starvation. He sees
new and even larger army of boys coming
on to claim place in the ranks already
crowded and overcrowded, and can you
wonder if sometimes his energy and am
bition relax, and he does any work which
will bring him in money. without much
regard to the honor or dishonor of it2
1t is a queer feeling, and one very pow
erful to change a stiff backbone to gela-
tinous condition, the feeling that there is
no place for one in the world. 1t doesn't
conduce to good citizenship at all. boy
feels something not akin to love for the
country which claims him, yet refuses
him a place and opportunity to labor
The result of the present Presidential
campaign will, 1 believe, neither end nor
perpetuate these conditions. The roots
lie too deep to be disturbed by such tenn
pest. The situation is as wide as the cir
cumference of the earth, and reform as
broad as that must come before things are
finally straightened out
A very funny argument is that which
saws there are too many people In the
world. and suffering must reduce the num-
ber. The United States is not nearly full
to the brim. vet, in comparison with some
countries more thickiy settled the condi-
ton of the people has been more rapidly
growing worse.
The place for advancement seems to be
in the learned professions and the occupa-
tions that require higher education. Edu-
cation is freer than 1t used to be, and at
the same time it is not so free.
True. a boy may be educated with
smaller outlay than was possible genera
t,on or two ago, but fewer, far fewer, of
tho fathers of the middle-class are able to
afford that outlay.
Higher education is most decidedly not
free. A college training costs much. The
free tuition makes no one perfectly free to
take it. College education must, 10 be of
anv value, be taken after boy is old
enough to work. Then his time is money.
While the boy needs his days for study
some one needs his days for dollars.
Sometimes in boys after life he feels
a sense of injury In that he lacks some
thing higher education might Tor might
not) have given him. 1t matters not
what his work is, the need of education
makes itself felt, and with it comes feel
ing of resentment toward somebody or
something.
1t is nonsense to say that only certain
occupations need any general education.
know it has been most satisfactorily
proven by argument, but the mechanic,
the clerk, the farmer, yes, even the laborer,
continues to feel, if he does not say, II
need to know more"
A man will sweep street.-The better for
having had general training. 1t will
make him discontented with his labor, to
be sure, which is the first step toward ele-
waiting him to something higher.
I have often, constrained by the affec-
ton bear for the whole varied race of
boys, thought of the other problem which
confronts them on the threshold of life.
Can it have a wholesome effect on the
character OF boy, on his honesty and his