Omaha daily bee., 1905-10-02
CITIZENSHIP OF THE FUTURE.
Cheering Thoughts on the Training OF
the Young.
CbicaR o Tribune


From two distinct sources come cheering
thoughts concerning the future, The Amer
lea of tomorrow will be in the hands of the
children of today. A far larger proportion
of children than of adults is of foreign birth
or recent foreign extraction. VIII these
children grow up filled with the true Amer
lean spirit. or will they perpetuate outworn
ideals? Miss Jane Adams and Luther Bur-
bank, from their different points of view,
see indications full of hope. Miss Adams
finds the children of immigrants have an
almost Irresistible desire to become Amer
icanized. They are quick to learn our
speech and our ways. They are eager to be
considered as good Americans as any. They
adopt this country so enthusiastically that
they join tn singing Land Where My
Fathers Died" without a sense of incon-
gruity. In fact, the most dangerous thing
in the situation is that the children make
such Roadway that they often look down
upon their parents who cling TO foreign
speech and customs. These they think I'M
progressive and outlandish. For this ex-
cess OF zeal some remedy or check must be
devised, but even the excess shows that the
problems Of the future will be problems OF
the nation as a whole, and not result OF
warning nationaiities on one soil.
cline him to believe that the power Of Inn
mediate heredity has been exaggerated, and
that more stress should be laid on environ
ment. We inherit from our ancestors, but
we cannot say which one has contributed
most to the formation OF body, mind or
character There are strange reverslons 10
earlier types. No one can tell what posi-
bilities lie dormant in the seed for CEN
turtles to awake and develop when the sur
roundings are changed. The man who has
created the thornless edible cactus who has
improved the orange the rose and whatever
fruits and flowers he has attempted to con-
troll, is sure OF a respectful hearing when he
claims that in the same way children of an
old stock in new surroundings will reveal
unsuspected powers Freed from what fet-
tered growth in the old life. the vigorous
plants are ready TO assimilate new food 70
develop along new lines. to be what the
gardener makes them.
The problem. from whichever side ap-
preached, reduces to this 10 see that the
good tendencies existent in the heart OF the
child Of foreign parentage be nourished and
check the development of tendencies to evil
which may attain a noxious growth I'm
favorable conditions. The answer is In the
hands OF the school teacher. That the chill
dren of immigrants are ready to seize learn
ing is proved by the rolls OF our colleges
and universities These show that an in
creaslng percentage of the students bear
names such the older generation would
call foreign. and that among them the
honors received are out of proportion to
the number. But the teacher has a higher
function than to iynpart learning; he or she
may make good citizens or bad. The in
creasing realization OF this duty by the
teachers, the growing interest in civic edu-
cation and in sociological studies, and the
agitation of such questions as these in edu-
cational circles combine with the observa-
lions OF Miss Adams and MT Burbank TO
assure us that the America OF the future
will be stronger, not weaker Race suicide
may extinguish the names hitherto prom
inent in our life. but there win be other
names no less honored