Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-07-02
OUR NATION Is
THE MOST LAWLESS.
Hamilton Mabie SO Declares.
Lack Of Obedience to Parents
One Cause, Hs Says.

Hamilton Mabie was the principal
speaker at the luncheon of the Ell
mira College Club, which was held at
the Hotel Majestic. His object was
obviously to instruct and advise rath-
er than to entertain the alumnae, who
sat behind masses of daffodils, pan
sizes and purple hyacinths, reverently
drinking in his every word.
He smiled pleasantly at them, but
he didn't mince his words. America.
he told them, was the most lawless
country in the world.
1T has," he said, fifty times as
many manslaughters every year as
has any other nation which pretends
to be civilized, and the condition OF
things in Kentucky is absolutely
primitive. There are, too, more rail-
road accidents in the United States
than in any other country. Why, it Is
more dangerous to travel from New
York to San Francisco than to be on
the firing line in a battle. Statistics
prove it,"
This unpleasant state of affairs IS.
he said, the result Of the fact that as
a nation we have no respect for law.
The divorce court, he continued.
was the worst form of lawlessness
and had most deleterious effect
upon the training of children. The
speaker made few remarks about
the spoiled American child, which
caused the mothers present to sit up
and take notice, but he admitted that
he thought the German and English
methods Of training were a Wee bit
severe.
children who have not learned
obedience" he went on, go out into
the world crippled. The world be-
longs to the trained men. and the
trained nation. Two nations have
come strongly to the front in recent
years-Germany, which subjects her
sons to the severest possible disc!-
pine, and Japan, the country in
which boys are brought up in the
faith that they must think of their
Emperor first, their duty to their an
cestors second, and themselves last
of all. A Japanese General in the
late war with Russia said to small
group of men whom he was despatch
ing upon a hopeless mission, Chill
dren, | congratulate You who are
about to have the honor of giving UP
your lives for the Emperor.
This lesson of obedience could, Mr..
Mabie said, be taught in the colleges.
although the home was the best place
for it's inculcation. The great mis-
sion of the colleges, however, espe-
cially the womens colleges, was to
keep alive the amenities of life and
to promote the study Of manners.
THE cultivation of manners is by
no means an idle way of killing time,
he added; "it Is an acknowledgment
that we are not mere machines, but
immortal souls.
Nothing would, in my opinion, be
more regrettable than for women's
colleges to turn out merely skilled
workers. | am glad since so many
women are Obliged to become wage
earners that so many occupations are
oISu W puI 1 hoPC oiC uuy wan
never come when the majority of
women will, like the majority of men,
be obliged to spend eight hours OF
every day at the grindstone. Life is
bigger thing than work, and moth
ing is more pitiful than to see a man
who has acquired large fortune and
safely invested it utterly at loss
how to spend it,"
Apparently fearing that his words
might be misunderstood he hastily
explained that he wasn't knocking
the so-called American commercial
ISM" He asserted very emphatically
that 1t was all right for a man to
make all the money he could so long
as he didn't allow the thought of 1t
to possess his soul.
1T is not" he concluded, "the
handling of wheat or sugar that
makes man materialist, it is the
habit of his mind."-New York Sun.