Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-02
NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Features of Socialist Sunday
 School In Boston.
GYMNAsTIo EXERCISES WITH MUSIC


 Who Outlines Purposes of the
 School, Says the Aim Is Not to Con-
 Aict With Other DenominationaI Schools. .-. .-
 The first Socialist Sunday school es- tablished in Boston was opened at the headquarters of the Socialist party, 699 Washington street, the other day.
 The school was organized by the, So- cialist Women's club of Boston, which has been in existence a year, says the Boston Globe. @
 Men as we'll as women will be in- structors and speakers. Among them are several former teachers. Charles Burbank, a lawyer, and George Willis Cooke, author of Ralph Waldo Elmer sons Life, Writings and Philosophy George Eliot, Critical Study" Poets and Problems'' and other we'll known books, have promised to be among the speakers. Rev. John Fills, an alumnus of Harvard college and Socialist can didate for the Massachusetts senate, has also been invited to speak and teach in the Socialist Sunday school. # The superintendent is an ex-secretary of the Young Mems Christian associa- tion. The school starts with sixty-five persons, including a good number of children. Mrs. Elizabeth Porter played the piano, and the exercises began with singing Marching Song from the Socialist Songs,". compiled by MT. Charles H. Kerr.
 The following stanzas from the Marching Song" give an idea of the character of Socialist music:
 In the shops and in the sIums.
 Working, suffering day by day, We are making wealth for millionaires to
 hold,
 But with joy we pledge our faith
 To the cause of all who toll
 Till the better social order shall unfold.
 In the days that are to be,
 When the cause we love is won, We shall labor for ourselves and for our
 own,
 Each for all and all for each, as.
 And through many joyful years 5,e A. .. We shall pluck the fruit that comrades z & brave have sown.
 A favorite song is James Russell Lowell's True Freedom" Dr. Antoi- nette Konikow, physician, graduate of Tufts Medical college and organizer of the Socialist Women's club of Bos- ton, thus outlines the purposes of the Socialist Sunday school: The Socialist Women's club of Boston inaugurates movement which is entirely new in this part of the country Socialist Sunday school.
 ''The Socialist Sunday school is not created to antagonize the Sunday schools organized by different churches. Not to come in, conflict with them, we chose the time for school in the after noon. Socialism has just as little to do with religion as medicine, ntera- ture or science. Like the state of to- day, it leaves religious education to the individual and to parents.
 '"The chief aim of the Socialist Sun day school will be to bring our chill dren up in the ethics of Socialist prin- ciples. For years we have had to con- vert young men and women to social ism who were brought up in the eth ics and spirit of capitalism,
 we should not wait till our chil- dren 1mbibe wrong conceptions of cap italist ethics, but fnstill into them the right ideas of justice from their earli- est years. Unfortunately the working man has but little time for his family, and before he realizes it his children have drifted away from him spiritual ly. To fill out this gap, to bring a moral and spiritual tie between the overworked father and mother and their children, this school is organized.
 While we intend on one hand to give our children through this school the ethics or morals corresponding to our conceptions of economics, on the other hand we will try to give them true knowledge of present and past conditions. ..l However good our schools of today are in comparison with the schools of old times, they still stick to many old methods of teaching. History is still treated by them as succession of heroes instead of an evolution where the method of production played one of the most important roles; some pages of history are still misrepresented, cor responding to the prejudices of the class in power. s..
 "The aim of our school, in short, will be to develop in our children the broth erly love and comradeship taught by Socialism instead of the narrowness and conservatism which always follow tradition because it is of long standing and accepted by many; to develop the spirit of independent judgment and the courage to stand up for the right prin- ciple. Whether we succeed or not will partly depend upon our comrades. It is new field, and we have but little experience. We need the good will and help of every one.''
 At the close of Dr. Konikow's speech, to give the children a rest from sitting, all stood, and few minutes were spent in simple gymnasttc exercises with mu- sic.