Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-02-09

1t Is necessary LOT Il Iatlt UNDERSTANDING
to obtain among all the grownup men,
bers of the family To the ehild's eyes
they must all be in league, held to mu-
| tual respect and understanding under
penalty of compromising their educa-
tiona authority. and in their number
must be counted the servants Serv-
ants are big people, and the same sen
timent of respect is injured in the
child's disregard of them as in his dis
regard OF his father or grandfather.
The moment he addresses an impolite
or arrogant word to a person older than
himself he strays from the path that
child ought never to quit. and if only
occasionally the parents neglect to
point this out they will soon perceive
] by his conduct toward themselves that
the enemy has found entrance TO his
heart
We mistake If we think that a child
is naturally alien to respect, basing this
opinion on the very numerous examples
Of irreverence which he offers us. Re
spect is for the child a fundamental
need. His moral being feeds on it. The
child aspires confusedly to revere and
admire something but when advan-
tage is not. taken of this aspiration it
gets corrupted or lost BY our lack of
cohesion and mutual Difference we. the
grownups. discredit daily in the child's
eyes our own cause and that of every
thing worthy of respect We inoculate
in him a bad spirit whose effects then
turn against MS
This pitiful truth nowhere appears
with more force than in the relations
between masters and servants rs we
have made them. Our social errors.
our want of simplicity and kindness.
all fall back upon the heads Of our chill
dren There IRE certainly few people
of the middle classes who understand
that it is better to part with many
thousands of dollars than to lead their
children to lose respect for servants.
who represent III our households the
humble yet nothing is truer Main
tain as strictly as you will conventions
and distances, that demarcation of So
eial frontiers which permits each one
to remain iii his place and to observe
the law OF differences that is 4 good
thing. | am persuaded but on condi-
ton of never forgetting that those who
serve US are men ana women like our
selves. You require of your domestics
certain formulas of speech and certain
attitudes. outward evidence of the re-
spect they owe you. Do you also teach
your children and use yourselves man.
ners toward your servants which show
them that you respect their dignity as
individuals as you desire them to re-
spect you? Here we have continually
in our homes an excellent ground for
experiment in the practice of that mu-
tual respect which is one of the essen
tial conditions Of social sanity. | fear
we profit by it too little. We do not
fail to exact respect. but we fail 10 give
it. SO it is most frequently the case
that we get only hypocrisy and this
supplementary result. All unexpected
the cultivation of pride in our children.
These two factors combined heap up
great difficulties for that future which
we ought to be safeguarding | am
right then in saying that the day when
/ by your own practices You have
brought about the lessening of respect
in your children you have suffered
sensible loss.
Why should | not say it? 1t seems to
me that the greater part of us labor
for this loss On all sides, in almost
every social rank. notice that a pretty
bad spirit is fostered in children. a spir-
it of reciprocal contempt Here those
who have ealloused hands and working
clothes are disdained. there it is all
who do not wear blue jeans. Children
educated in this spirit make sad fellow
citizens There is in all this the want
Of that simplicity which makes it pos
sible for men of good intentions, of
however diverse social standing to col
laborate without any friction arising
from the conventional distance that
separates them.
If the spirit of caste causes the loss
of respect. partisanship Of whatever
sort, IS quite as productive of it. In
certain quarters children are brought
mp in such fashion that they respect
but one country their own; one sys-
TEN of government--that of their par
ents and masters: one religion that
which they have been taught. Does
any one suppose that in this way men
can be shaped who shall respect coun-
Try, religion and law? Is this proper
fespect-this respect which does not
extend beyond what touches and be-
lousys RI aIlrcalvpSS Stronpe blindness
of cliques and lotteries, which AFRO
gate to themselves with so much in
genuous complaeence the title of
schools of respect. and which, out
side themselves, respect nothing In
reality they teach. Country, religion.
law-we are all thesew Such teaching
fosters fanaticisin. and if fanaticism is
not the sole antisoeial ferment it is sure
~ one Of the worst and most energetic.