Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1906-05-23

these very foreigners become good
citizens, and the menace of our
country is not found among that class
of people, but rather in the second
generation of the rich.
DEBORAH people have heard some of
the best men on the lecture platform
during the past season but the
universal opinion of DR.. Steiner's
large and appreciative audience was
that this was the best lecture of the
season.
! Saturday mornings session was
taken up with discussion of the pro-
blem of the troublesome boy. Prin.
| Irving Sanford of Chester gave very
! interesting account of his solution of
the problem by getting the boys to
come to the school house in the even
ing. Here he would have room at
tractively arranged, using books
papers, and magazines. By. this
means he not only taught them the
correct methods of study but made
them feel also that school could be
really place one could like. Supt.
Robt. Rienow of Elkader told of
method he had found successful it was
/ to inculcate self control by means of
system of lf-government.
County Supt. r. H. Belknap of
West Union gave as his theory the
belief that in the country there were
too many women teachers, that boys
loved their mothers and sometimes
their teachers but never held either in
ave. The remedy that he suggested
for the troublesome boy in the country
was corporal punishment. Miss Ger
trude Kaye suggested that perhaps
teachers paid not enough attention of
the right sort to these boys; she felt
that people in general would give the
girls everything they wished but
thought that boys should be satisfied
with very little. The general opinion
was however that this question always
sits down to the conclusion that it
is after all, not so much uestion of
the troublesome boy as it is a question
of the troublesome parents those who
do not give their children the proper
sort of home training
Saturday afternoon DR.. Geo. w.
Cady of Dubuque lectured, his theme
being a reply to the novels, "The
Leopard Spots, y and" The Clansman,
by Thomas Dixon Jr.
/ He showed that conditions as de-
jected by Dixon in these novels were
not only overdrawn but misrepre-
sented That they aroused the people
of the south and north to hatred of
the negro race.
Dr. Cady opened his lecture with
an historical synopsis; the landing of
the Pilgrim Fathers how slave traffic
gained a foothold, the gulf widened
between the north and south, slavery
being the primary cause. Finally it
came to the point where it was real
lied that one part of the union could
not be bound, the other free, war
followed.
Then came the negro problem. The
north fresh from battle was not pre-
pared to cope with it. It's attitude
was too much that of revenge for the
south.
The attitude of the south not that of
''you first, my dear Gaston," as
Dixon would have you believe.
The Klu Klux Khan as set forth in
these novels was necessity to insure
the protection of the southern white
woman. Had it been, why was it
necessary to drive out of the country
teachers that had been sent from the
north? Why did not Khan insure the
same protection to the black women
of the south? The south said, "They
do not, and will not take advantage of
the opportunities offered them"
But Iowa has compulsory school law.
"They are immoral But who
made them so? They were not so
naturally. "They are lazy and good
for nothing" But it has been intimat-
ed the whites of the south are not
overly addicted to strenuous lie. |"
Good for nothing but in spite of
their lack of hereditary, of training,
and culture, there has in period of
forty years arisen Booker T. Wash
ington, Frederick Douglas, Paul
Lawrence Dunbar.
The problem can not be solved by
agitation, but must be marked out by
deliberation and level headedness.
When the matter was being worked
out gradually, on comes such a book
as Clansman, and stirs up such hatred
for race, that one feels like killing
every niger on earth" Such a book
or drama is wrong. Put yourself in
the negro's place. They are human,
and as much Gods creatures as
though their skins were white.
DIR. Cady concluded his lecture by
reading several poems of Paul Law
renee Dunbar.
Following DR.. Cady's lecture, a
paDer entitled NRheforicalc and OraI