Tensas gazette., 1908-02-07
Le0na LAMAR
land Why
From The San Francisco ArsOnaut

" VI
2s2S1SSSs2SR525152S52535Sa'
The daily papers of last Saturday
morning contained a pitiful story. OF
the misfortunes of a young woman,
Leona La Mar, who, after searching
five days in San Francisco for en-
ployment, hungering by day
and sleeping in the ruins
by night, threw herself before Fol-
som street car in a desperate effort
to end her troubles. There is. we
believe, no question as to the general
truthfulness of this melodramatic
and narrowing story. But why, let
US ask, should anybody, man or wo-
man, have any difficulty in finding
work with the means of living by it
In San Francisco? Leona La Mar is
young and physically competent.
Why should she not have found the
means of living in some one of the
ten thousand places which cry aloud
for willing hands? Why should a
young woman starve, and seek to die
In a city among whose chief social
problems is the difficulty of finding
hands to do essential and pressing
work? The Argonaut knows the rea-
son perfectly well. It is because our
fool system of education is and has
been this ten years past breeding
into our young people that which is
fatal to practical capability. II Leona
La Mar had been taught respect for
labor, and IL she had gained simple
training In some industrial way of
life, there would have been not the
slightest reason for hunger, homeless
ness or despair.
There Is no obligation upon any
generation so morally serious and
positive as that of preparing the on
coming generation for the business of
Hfe. II is time we soberly asked our
selves how We are meeting this su-
preme obligation. With all the elabo-
ration Of our educational system, are
We fairly preparing our young people
for the work which must be done IL
the race is to sustain ITSELF IL civili-
zation is to be maintained and IL
progress Is to be hoped for? Does
our over-elaborate educational system
aim at the end OF equipping the ris-
ing generation for the real duties
which they must face? The Argon.
aut thinks not. Our system takes
little or no account of the needs of
the workaday world, provides no
equipment for the meeting of every
day and commonplace duties. Much
less does 1t give that discipline and
concentration essential to steady de-
votion to humdrum things. Even
where 1t pretends to be efficient, the
work Of the educational system is
imperfect to the degree of degener-
a0s. Our schools rarely turn out a
boy or girl competent to read in
teuigently, to write a plain hand, or
wiki that discipline of character es-
seatial to any kind of steady-going
caeability. To be specific, the editor
OF the Argonaut has been for weeks
locking for a personal assistant COM
p.tent at the points of reading intel
liEently. writing directly and plain.
ly.l and Of presentable office-manners.
H, has dealt with applicant after ap-
phcant, only to be disappointed and
difturbed In his work. In the end he
has been compelled to abandon the
selrch for youthful competence and
to seek aid from the ranks of veteran
efficiency under old-fashioned and
thsrough-going standards.
Ne know Of no more desperately
helpless creature In the world than
ths boy or girl graduated with what
thsy call 'honors" from our public
scaool system, with no capacity to
re9d understandingly. to write legibly,
to figure accurately, to do simply and
e1ciently what he or she Is told to
do, with no respect for superior years
OF authority, no seriousness of pur-
pose, and no manners. And this is
precisely the type of young person
watch our schools are spewing out
to be assimilated somehow by the
business and working worlds. No
wonder that poor creatures like Leona
Ia Mar, untaught at every practical
point. ambitious beyond sense or rea-
ssn. impossible to instruct bcause of
leeir self-sufficiency. useless and bur-
asnsome in any relation, find no place
lr world eagerly looking for ef-
t:iency, and so fall victims to that
desperation which comes to those who
s&n find nothing to do because they
know how to do nothing.
The fault Is at home as well as in
he schools. In other days every boy
Wan taught to do some kind of use.
iEi work, IL It were nothing more than
ckoring around. and every girl some
how learned simple domestic duties
Today what proportion OF boys in this
or any other city are taught to do
and what proportion of
gi!ls learn in their fathers house how
TO cook q beefsteak or iron a shirt?
We are told that the average work
ingman Is coming to look askance
qSon matrimony because the average
american girl has no practical ac-
tomplishments. Not one young wo-
man In ten. so We are told, knows ON
Der wedding day anything about the
mysteries of household economy. with
Zhe ways Of doing things which must
be done II she is to have a whole
some. healthy and happy life. Is 1t
necessary To suggest how sarious tbi.