The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1909-04-23
Boys, Is This True!

to school each day. That appears to
be the limit of what you ask of them.
We send our German children to
schoOl-tO splendid scho0ls-but they
have work to do before they 90 to
school, and work to do after they
come home. Except their meals and
the natural play time, also the reason
ably frequent holidays. they have
helpful work to think of all the time.
Your children have spending money
which they do not earn by work.
They get up to late breakfast. They
walk easily to school. They come
home as they see fit, to find everything
in the house attended to. The boy
finds that women on every hand have
taken care of nearly all his wants.
His bills are paid, his pocket sup
piled, his home made clean, and he
has nothing to do but 'get educated, 4"
whatever that may mean. He is ba.
bied by women on every side and for
gotten by his father until he begins
to grow beard. Then he may prove
OF some use, but he has had little
training in practical things. He gets
into the hard side of the world of work
and he finds a German boy, a Polish,
Bohemian, Norwegian, all handy
at that which he does not understand.
Unless father and mother can con.
tinue to pay his bills, he is ready to
be crowded out of the race. In my
judgment, through the fault of his
father and mother, he was never Civ.
en- fair start.
Not so very long ago we received at
the consulate, a letter from a great
manufacturing concern of this United
States. 1t stated that it desired to
Immediately employ sixty capable
young men with mechanical training.
Our assistance was asked in securing
these young men. The least pay off.
cred was SIS month, and promotion
was certain if the work was we'll per.
formed. Through US and the techni.
cal colleges of the country, as well as
through certain scientific newspapers,
the sixty young men were finally Sc.
cured.
The youngest employed was sixteen
years of age, the oldest twenty-five.
The nationalities of the sixty were
Germans, sixteen; Belgians, fifteen;
French, ten; Polish, eight; Bohemian
five; English, three; American, two;
Hungarian, one.
Fiftv.eight of these youngsters were
born abroad. All sixty had techni.
cal educations. The foreign BOYS
could all do other work than that re.
quired of them. They could sweep
and dust. Some were expert in dairy
matters, others in metallurgy. All
had been taught to work and to work
early in life. They were never per.
mitted to think that they could ''live
off their parents. F"
Would there not have been more
American boys accepted for this work
it American boys were not brought ur
SO helpless?
; Has the child place of any less
. Importance in the making and support
of the home than the parents?
F., In Europe we think not. In Europe
we think the child must work out its
own place, earn Its own standing, pay
its own way.
That We arr right and you are
wrong seems to me to be proved BY
the fact that most of the important me-
chanical and engineering work. as
well as home work, in the United
States today, is being done by for
eign-born and not by Americana orr
children.
Go into any large establishment
where brains are required with work
and see if my words are not true DR.
Walther Werer, German Consul ir
Chicago. in Mother'e Magazine.