Bisbee daily review., 1908-07-17

| 1o IOtlONiuS IS an dDSlfdcI OF TlS
address of Nathan C. Schaeffer, OF
Harrisburg, Pa, before the National
Education association at Cleveland,
recently:
What can the school do to fit the
pupils for the several callings by
which they will earn their Livelihood
is a question which is now more than
ever before engaging tle serious at
Itention of educators throughout the
civilized world. This question is so
important and all-aI 'orbing that there
/ is danger of losing sight of the other
equally important question: What
can the school do to make life worth
living during the hours in which the
individual, is not engaged in the
struggle for bread?"
The laboring classes are striving TO
get an eight hour day. In some
cases they have already won this
concession. Whether the victory shan
prove a blessing or a cuRse will de-
pend upon the way in which the Ie-
naming hours of the day are spent
If the hours which are not devoted TO
work and sleep are spent in dissipa-
ton and riotous living, the eight
hour day will prove curse instead of
2 blessing.
I live in the richest agricultural
country in the United States the
country that is in a congressional dis
trict by itself and that has more de-
posted in its national banks than any
one of the seven Southern states that
might be named. One OF its leading
industries is the growth and manu-
facture of tobacco. As soon as the
law allows. and sometimes before the
legal age is attained, the boy and the
girl leave school to begin work upon
the tobacco. The owner of one of the
tobacco factories assures me that dur
ing the noon hour the telephone is
kept I'm constant use by the young
people who are anxious to secUT.e
seats upon the roof garden and at
the vaudeville SHOW. have no guar
rel with the young people who seek
recreation during the hours which
are not devoted to bread winning
have heard of industrial establish
ments in which il takes twenty-five
persons to make a shoe. I have ner-
er been able to ascertain through how
many hands the tobacco passes before
It ends in ashes and smoke Think of
a human being spending the workin"
hours of a whole week in making the
22d part of a pin, the Gath part of a
shoe, the infinitesimal part of a CT
gar. and YOU can form some idea Of
the drudgery against which human
nature rebels, and from which it
seeks relief by visiting the roof gar
den. theatre and the saloon. I say
II have no quarrel with the toilers
who seek recreation. Our insane asy-
lums are filed with farmers wives
whose work was never done. who
went through a ceaseless round of
drudgeTy seven days In the week year
after year until the nervous system
broke down and the individual sank
into hopeless insanity. It is the mex
'orable demand of human nature that
il shall seek and have relief from the
drudgsry of piece work in the shop
and the factory. What keeps me
awake at night, is tle thought that
if these toilers had been taught at
school how TO use and enjoy a good
book, they would seek recrC alton and
enjoyment by visiting the public Ii
brary instead of going 70 the roof
garden and the saloon.
II is not easy to map out curric-
ulum that shall fit pupils for work in
a silk mill. a tobacco shop, a caraIueI
factory and the other industries which
are listed in the United States cen
sus: it is even a doubtful question
whether the American people would
tolerate preparation in the public
schools for work in the brewery, the
distilleTy. and the like: but We can
all agree upon the desirability of fit
ting pupils to enjoy the things of the
mind and the higher life, on the i'm
Dortance of teaching the right use OF
books. on the supreme duty of train
ing the boy and the girl to think the
best thoughts of the best men as
these are enshrined in art and litera-
ture. The pupil who is taught to
think the thoughts of God as these
are expressed in the starry heavens
above us, in the moral law within us