The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-16
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE.


 trust, there are other projects that indicate that the State is progressive and prepared to meet the demands of modern life The city of Newark is to have an athletic field for the pub lie schools. Eight acres of ground are to be devoted to this purpose. There will be a football field, two baseball diamonds, and a running track; three tennis courts and two basketball courts will be provided; jumping pits and sprinting tracks are included, with pole vaults and chinning bars. There ia too a grandstand and bleachers, with dressing rooms and baths. The stadium is to be part of the public school system. It is evident that the upper section of New Jersey is to build stalwart men and women to Agrapple with the strenuous problems of the future What takes place in Newark has significance for the whole State, for it is the metropolis. The greater part of the wealth and population of the State are centered there
 The effort that is being made for the development of system of play grounds in the larger cities of the country, or in providing the more ann bilious athletic field as contemplated by Newark, has doubtless grown out of the attention that has been given by educators for years to the study of child-nature and the needs of chill dren: It was a happy thought of some one who proposed the scientific study of childhood, It seemed that the hu- man mind had applied itself to the careful and zealous study of every other object under the sun except the child. But the reaction came some time ago and now the idea is catch ing that too much cannot be done to secure a healthful, robust, industrious, righteous and happy order of child hood With the general spread of the ideas of Kindergarten methods of in- struction and the emphasis on play as we'll as on study and work has come what may be called a civic love for children and a desire to provide for them as thoroughly as possible full rounded life.
 When one thinks of the many insti- tutions Of various kinds that give evi- dence of this general effort to care properly for the children he is inn pressed with the great interest that is being taken in the needs of childhood In our universities are departments for the study of the child physiologic- ally and psychologically. In Sunday school work an effort is made to train teachers in the principles of child cul- ture in ethical and. religious lines. In this city the recent formation of un- ion of Sunday schools is an undertak- ing that has an excellent work under way. Numerous movements, as junior republics, clubs Of the Bancroft Fcote club pattern, are designed to contrib ute their part to the building of man. hood and wonnanhood. On the puni- tive side are the juvenile courts and special institutions and methods to restrain the evil and to bring out the good. The whole purpose is to develop a generation that will be better equip ped than the present to meet the re- responsibilities of the larger life that is sure to come. To this end the initia- tive, spontaneity and enthusiasm of youth must be conserved and guided. Consequently the movement against child labor points out that it will mean much that is good for society to abolish such labor and to lengthen the playtime of children. Cities that give attention to the right training of their children will be the richer for it It is a part of the whole process of civic betterment.
 Another movement just inaugurated that brings Newark in line with New Haven is one similar to that of the civic societies here, though the move ment there has taken somewhat differ ent shape Two-score clergymen have got together for the purpose Of begin ming an interdenominational work in the interest of civic righteousness. They are practical preachers. The Newark Evening News says of them: These men are broad-gauged and deep drafted. earnest to make their influ- ence measure up to the sacredness of their. calling. ambitious to become true prophets Of righteousness, eager to have united action by the whole church supplant the sporadic efforts of individual pastors and denomina- tions
 But similar activities are going on