Arizona republican., 1905-09-24
Iuther Burbank,s Prophecy.

Luther Burbank, the horticultur-
list, at a dinner given in his honor by
the California state board of trade,
said in the course of an unusually in
teresting after dinner speech:
I'VE in America form a nation with
the bloods Of half the peoples of the
world in our veins. We are more
crossed than any other nation in the
history of the world. and here we meet
the same results that are always seen
in much crossed race of plants. All
the worst as well as all the best quail
tiles of each are brought out in their
fullest intensities, and right here is
where seIective environment counts. As
time goes on. environment will crys-
talize the American nation Its vary
ing elements Will become unified and
the wedding out process will proba-
bly, leave the finest human product
ever known. What Will hasten this
development most Of all? The proper
rearing of children"
Without referring to Mr.. Burbank
general theory it may be remarked
that if the development he hopes for
depends for its Fastening on the prop
er rearing of American children, it is
going to be almighty slow. For the
American child. in the cities at any
rate. is the worst reared child in the
world He isn't reared at all. He
Just grows" His parents cast the
responsibility for training him up in
the way he should go on the public
schools which are, naturally. quite
unequal to a parental duty which they
were never intended to fulfill. When
he isn't in school he is in the streets,
and 1t is there that he gets his train
ing OF course there are exceptions to
this rule There are a certain num-
Der of parents who do not labor under
the delusion that they have done their
full duty as parents when they have
sent their children to school for
number of years, meantime clothing
and feeding them and providing them
with a place to sleep. But the rule
holds. The typical American city child
is a street gamin, lawless, riotous, un-
disciplined, a tolerated outlaw with
the morals, manners, language and
thought of the street ngrained in him
His character is exempIified by the
fact that in almost every American
city the landlords of apartment houses
have been compelled in self defense to
refuse to lease their premises to fam
lilies with children. a great deal of
nonsense has been written about this
Well known fact. on the absurd the
DRY that these landlords are univer-
sally child haters, who are glad to
submit to pecuniary loss by having
unrented apartments left on their
hands for the sake of gratifyingtheir
unreasonable spite against children.
The truth is that the refusal TO admit
children to their premises is purely a
matter Of business. Experience has
taught them that a single family of
average American children in an
apartment house will make the whole
house untenantable and unrentable.
They can't afford to rent to families
with children. The blame lies entire
" on the careless and silly parents
who have so neglected the training of
their children into fitness for civilized
conditions that they are intolerable
IN an apartment mousse
community. It won't be long before !
the landlords of individual houses wiz
be forced to protect themselves by |
boycotting children, for a
half dozen unruly children in a resi-
dence neghborhood will seriously re-
duce the rental value of property on
the street they infest.
Our system of frse public education /
has many merits. 1t has one serious !
fault. Like all excursions into state |
socialism, it tends to weaken and |
destroy the sense Of individual respon- |
sibility among the citizens of the state. |
It has weakened and destroyed in |
many American parents the sense of /
individual RESPONSE biIity for the train |
ing Of their children, with the disas-
trous results above noted.
The PIatt Dog.