The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-19

thought about the matter, or after
thinking they have not considered 1t
worth while to register once lifetime
and vote once a year.
There is in reality but little ex-
penditure of time and actual work in
voting. The time given to preparing
ones self on the questions to be set
tied is also comparatively brief for one
can keep abreast of the times by read
ing the daily paper and following the
accounts of meetings. This time is not
spent directly on voting, so 1t is
strange that it should be considered as
not worth while on account OF time
consumed.
II am going to try to stir up dis
cussion of this subject and point out
why it is worth while to take so little
effort for so important a matter. There
are three ways to get at the matter.
The first is the mothers point OF view
If we have children of our own In
school we are surely interested in their
teachers, committees and books and
we will vote for the people who are to
control these. If there is a mother who
would not vote in such case have
nothing more to say to her; she has
no logical mind. Her motherhood
speaks louder than 20 speakers. How
ever, this point of view concerns fewer
small number of women who nave
children in school.
1T is a common excuse, Il have no
child In school, We will not dwell
on the mothers as If 1t were the only
point of view There is more general
point a more general line of interest;
that which concerns us as citizens in
a commonwealth. We live in repub-
lie where all officers are elected by
fhof oil
government depends on the character
and education of the men whose votes
contribute to such government.
"In this we have most urgent inter-
est 1t behooves us to see that the
citizens have the best education for
this matter concerns our own personal
safety. 1t all concerns us directly In
a few years the schoolboy becomes the
lawmaker. He sees that the streets
are cleaned, houses built and proper
sanitary conditions are established.
He has to see that laws affecting crime
are properly made that the rights of
husband and wife, mother and child
are considered. 1t is not the enlight-
ened few, but the mass that governs.
appropriate here is the sentence
on the Boylston Street side of the Bos-
ton Public Library, 1.-THE education Of
citizens is the safeguard of the COM
monwealth."
1.-The third point of view strikes a
note in human nature-the point of
charity, philanthropy. The influence
under which your child may come for
few hours a day may not concern
you who can counterfeit that influence
in the home life. But what of the
thousands of children whose only
chance comes from hours spent in the
public schools? l doubt If your city
4 - L. er1tr 1fxFn
children the best of whose lives Is dirt
and ignorance, the worst of whose
lives is crime. In Boston you may see
them on Salem Street of a Sunday,
living like animals, in dirt ignorance
and vice. Their only chance Is to be
put to school
"They are sent to school by state
law during the most important years
of their lives. All their school days
stimulating influences or they may be
regarded as little animals 1t depends
on the kind of teacher.
Now that the foreign element Is
coming in, all that American citizen
ship means must be learned at once in
school am appalled, at the statis-
tics of your votes here. believe in
the work done by women in mission
classes yet I cannot understand why
suffrage. How much more economical
it is to attend schools where every
thing is ready for use. How much bet
ter chance is there to get after the
children. And yet only SO women in
Worcester choose to take such an In
terest in the public schools.
you need not take my word alone
on the subject. Teachers and students
of sociology talk most of beginning
with proper instruction for the child.
Prison reports say that the more work
done farther back in schools, the more
dollars saved In prisons and poor
houses. AS l heard a lecturer say,
1.-The boy without a playground is the
man without job" We are now ar
rived at a place where we have to
check crime and pauperisnr- as the old
country has been checking them for
generations.
I'm New York city, at meeting of
the Associated Charities. the causes Of
crime were given as, first, desire for
the things of life that one had not;
second, drunkenness and sickness;
third, failure of the public schools to
give education that fits for life. We
have grown out of town and village
life and are now a collection of great
cities. Different problems are now to
be solved than were to be solved so
years ago.
"Family opportunities have ceased
and schools are doing what the family
did. They are not doing it well. In
speaking of evil in the slums. John
Graham Brooks said that industrial
training is the solution of the prob
lem. This training is now more play
than work because no cities make an
important feature Of industrial train
ing on account of the cost.
IAN intelligent voting constituency
back of the school board would see
that money spent in industrial train
ing. though great, would be money
saved in the long run. Brooks is but
one Of many who think the same way.
IF you are not interested as moth
ers or as citizens then there is another
appeal to be made to you. Will you not
give a half hour once year for chill
dren who have mothers? Maybe you
will say that the schools are good
enough. Good teachers" are the
stock in trade of many cities, but there
are no schools in Massachusetts that
do not need some change. The science
of pedagogy is constantly changing;
schools must keep pace with the
changes in life. Nowhere do new
ideas spring up more rapidly than in
school matters. Superintendent and
committees cannot keep pace with the
times without a backing of voters who
support expensive but necessary
changes.
"At the Associate Collegiate Alumni
meeting in Boston, Mrs. Alice Free
man Palmer, member of the state
board Of education, advocated the plac-
ing of teachers with college training
in the lower grades. Superintendent
Balliat of Springfield advocates fewer
pupils to a teacher.
"Schoolboards are often ruled mainly
by political influence. There is more
meaning in the terms Republican and