The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-10-18
THE RIGHT TO SPANK.

/ An eminent eastern jurist has dis
/ covered that it is proper for parent
to spank l6year-old daughter The
Iuueston seems to have been consid
Tered Of sufficient Importance to be
taken into court.
And how could there be two sides
to 1t?
Ii child of G or IL may be spanked
with propriety, why not one of l6i
Certainly if the younger child merits
punishment by misdoing, the older
one. who knows much better, merits
Fit all the more.
Theoretically, a child is spanked
for its own good. Then surely the
guiding and sustaining hand should
not be withheld from spankable girl
| at .lG any more than the younger one
| AT lG girl needs more careful con
trol' than at any younger age, par
| tieulariy If she has been spanked W
| to that period. The more a girl has
been spanked, the more she needs to
| be spanked at that time. Indeed, the
child raised on steady spanking sell
dom, il ever, completely survives the
need of it.
| 1t is harder to wean a child from
the spanking habit than from its
| mothers milk. Once it becomes ac
eustomed to judge right and wrong
only with reference to a spanking
that standard must be continued elst
the child is left helpless, like a shiL
without a rudder,
/ Besides, spanking breeds ia a child
/ passions and qualities that only more
spanking can successfully contend
with. So the process. once started
must be kept up as long as possible
land the longer the better.
/ The spanked child soon discovers
that the punishment is attached not
to the wrong-doing habit. but to being
found out. So it resorts to lying
Spanking has made more liars than
lall other processes combined, and
1.-THE worst sort Of liars, for the
spanked child learns not only to lie
but to lay its own faults upon others
I and to feel that this most detestable
kind Of lying Is iustiflable
Would it be wise, after having
spanked the lying habit into a child.
ITO withdraw all restraining influences
| At 1G7 II is impossible to fix any ar.
ibitrary age limit where it may be
| said that the lying child may now be
trusted to tell the truth without BEING
spanked.
Spanking breaks a child's spirit
Persistently kept up it will make a
sneak and coward as Well as a
liar
Dog breeders know that to COW a
puppy is to ruin him. He can never
after be fully trusted either in his
courage or his gentleness Dog
breslers know this because it is their
business. 1t means dollars to them,
and they give it careful thought.
Unfortunately, nobody makes a
business of studying children with
the same proftinspired care with
which dog breeders study pups.
The dog breeder in a fit Of anger
may feel tempted TO thrash puppy
but when he reflects that the thrash
ing would take several dollars off o.
his value he refrains, Unfortunately
most parents DO not estimate tn,
value of their children as carefully
The angry impulse has no restraint
so far as the child is concerned. Cart
Is usually taken that no scars be in
ficted upon the child's face, hut tina
is about the limit No care is giver
for the scars laid deep in the little
one's soul.
/ Possibly, If children were raised fol
sale, they might be given more sant
consideration and spared much in
jury. s'y
Some parents seem not to reali2,
that childtraining includes selftrain
ms as ITS liArSt and most essential Gle
ment.
Il is not the fault OF the child that
induces a spanking; 1t Is the IA
blacker fault OF the parent III par
ents We're cured of ignorance and un
restrained anger spanking woul
lcease.
| But the child that has been steadil,
spanked up to 1G needs II then NOR
than at any previous time. It's fea
LOT spanking Is perhaps its only incen
Tive to apparent right doing which /
tleft 1t. 1t has become like the maj
Ior woman addicted 10 drugs nothinl
'felse, will inspirit, even though the in
fspirlting only further deadens.
/ or course the right to spank thei