The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-02-01

shall she fulfill this far-reaching duty.
if she be not in touch and sympathy
with her country'S Efe2 1t is a general
ly accepted fact among people VINO
think, that public spirit, a genuine IN
tereSt in all questions of social and ma
tional Importance, is an essential part
of true womanhood as well as OF true
manhood. More and more women enter
every year, seeking earnestly to be
part in the progress OF the
state. Know in the beginning that
whatever work of advancement is un-
dertaken will not be easily accomplish
ed. Apparently failure after failure
must be viewed with calmness or dis
may according to temperament POSI-
bly, it would be well to have printed In
poster type and pasted on the wall of
the Office, BroWning's lines:
Each deed thou hast done
Dies, revives, goes to work In the
world
1t might be phrased, Each word thou
hast written" Women underestimate
some of their own opportunities for eff
fective work. They have an earnest de-
sire to help make the state better
place to live in. They long to be ac-
tive workers and they are. And when
they thoroughly understand that every
political and economic question Is a do
mestic question. they will work to bet
ter advantage. Every problem touches
the home and the community, and ev-
erything that tends to strengthen them
and purify the home and the communl-
ty, sends healthy pulsation to the out
ermost bounds of state affairs Women
are rapidly coming to see the relation
ship in these things. l will now speak
of some of the things the newspaper
women of the state may with proprlety
advocate.
One of them is the Punishment from
the counters of book stores, drug stores
and news stands the cheap, vicious
sold bows
the most appalling quantities. do not
mean obscene literature; no reputable
business man will allow his shelves to
be disgraced by that. But men do not
stop to realize the havoc wrought by
reading such trash as the Top Week
ly," Diamond Dick" Jesse James
men can be made to realize the danger
| of this thing there is hope that the sale
of these books may be stopped In the
| first place their cheapness places them
within the reach of children. The young
| loafer, the boy playing hockey from
school. can easily earn the few pennies
necessary for their purchase Some
times a personal interview with bust
| ness man will convince him of the error
of his way. The newspaper woman
must not forget to use her tongue as
effort bestow a generous need of praise
| on the man who declines to make a
paltry sum of money by the sale or
harmful, unhealthy literature.
AS author and as audience, women
| have eliminated much of vulgarity
| and harshness from literature that we
| have much faith in what they Will &C
| complish in this other line of work OF
course the pestilence of yellow journal
! ism will still be left to US; perhaps some
day these saffron hued newspapers Will
! ignite from their lurid head lines and
| consume themselves.
If providence will only take a hand in
| this matter in shaping events, the bus
| mess man who is approached on the
| subject of trashy novels may assume
| the Socratic method of defense and ask
| this question: Are the boys not as well
| off quietly reading these novels as play
| ing the hoodlum around town? What
| will he do with his time? He will not
! go to school and he does not know
| how to work" We hope he will ask
| tunity to tell him to look for his an
/ sWer in the next weeks issue of the
| paper for the answer to these questions
/ is of interest to the town. Now my dear
newspaper woman, go home and with a
4 prayer in your heart for Divine guild
ance, write the strongest article you
oan in favor of making Industrial train
| ing part of the public school system or
| Kansas. Manual training will provide
the solution of the two questions as to
what the boy shall do with his time
Give this matter much thought in or
der that you may give logical, conVlnc-
ing reasons in favor OF manual training
Try within yourself to measure up to
Emerson'S definition of intellectual
progress, Ever toward a clearer vision
of causes, overlooking surface differ
ences'' L believe it will be easy to in
terest WOmen'S clubs in the question of
making manual training a part of the
work of the public schools, but as Kip
ling says, That is another story, and
all newspaper women are probably club
women. There is said to be time for
everything but the time to talk about
industrial training is all the time.
have thought sometimes we ought to
buy large tents and go about over the
t.@II lG nd ga act
ings to stir up enthusiasm in this mat
ter. There are many appropriate
hymns which could be used How firm
a foundation will all our schools build
or In that sweet bye and bye when
the statesman comes to die; make the
latter part of this hymn a fiendish pic
ture OF the future life of legislator
who has failed to support manual
training bill.
We are all proud of Kansas with her
many school houses, but our educa-
tionaI system, wherein it fails to pro-
vide a means of working out the Gre
alive side of ature material for de-
Veloping other faculties than the intel
lect is imperfect. To the boy endowed
with plenty of vitality the one abso-
lutte necessity is to do something. His
restless energy will not lie dormant
during the period of elementary educa-
ton: if it did it would perish. The
danger is that it will pour itself out
along vicious lines of conduct, or waste
it's power in the hoodlumism from which
we suffer in small towns. Sometime we
shall be given a Horace Mann or
FroebeI who will lead us into the prom
ised land of industrial training. Until
he or she comes let us carry on the
work in favor of it, that the land may
be made ready for the coming Of the
prophet
I must dismount from this hobby at
once, for another stands ready, saddled
and bridled.
There is yet another answer which
can be given in Kansas to the straw
man. who some pages back inquired as
to what the boys and girls will do with
their time If they are denied the priv
ilege of reading Top Weeklies''-weak-