Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-01-31
BUILDING A Boy;
PARENT AS CHUM
). G. Smedley, Y. NJ. G. A. Sec
rotary, Tells of Rights of
Youth.
! DANGER IN ASSOCIATION
Natural Bent Is to EIude Restraint,
Which Leads to Employment
at Too Early an Age.

Icongregation of the Edgewood Baptist
church last evening on THE Boys
Rights" He took for his test Colos-
SLAMS 3:20-21. He said:
Every boy has rights. but not every
boy gets his rights. I wish to call the
attention of the boys to the things
which are their rights, and at the same
tlnne to help the parents to see these
things, so that the boys may get rights
instead of wrongs
In the first place, the fact that
every boy has rights curtails the
rights of every boy to exactly the ex-
tent that he is surrounded by neigh
Dors. If there were only one boy in
ROCK Island county. that boy would
nave many rights which no boy in the
county can have now, because there
are so many of them. For this reason,
boy in the country has more rights
than his cousin in town, because there
are not so many of them. The pri-
mary fact about all rights is that be-
cause everyone has rights. every one
must regard the rights of others. My
rights stop where your rights begin,
and the lesson that | must learn. in
common with every boy, is that when
my rights come in conflict with the
rights of others, they are likely to be
come wrongs. And so, as We speak
of the rights of boys. let us bear in
mind that all these rights must be en-
loved with proper regard for the rights
Of other people
Training for Life.
Il believe that every boy has a right
TO know. Our public schools bear tes-
timony to the fact that our nation be-
Ieves in this right and need of the
boys and girls to know. But l do not
Believe that the people as rule have
begun to realize the absolute neces-
sity for training and knowledge as 4
preparation for life.
ANY boy can ask questions enough
TO drive his parents crazy if they at
tempt to answer them, and many 4
time the questions are evaded or dis
missed as a nuisance. even when they
are legitimate questions. And yet, a
boy has a right to have his question
answered. and it is by receiving the
right answers to his questions that he
learns. You parents may refuse to BE
bothered thus, but just so surely az
you do, two things will happen: Your
boy will lose confidence in you, or
rather, you will lose his confidence,
and he will ask his questions of others
not so well qualified as you ought to
be to answer them, and the result will
be the gaining of much information of
an evil and undesirable nature.
Boy Wants to Know.
Your boy has the right to know
the deep things Of life, as he is able
to know them, and many boy is ready
for knowledge far beyond what his
parents give him credit for. He wants
to know. and should know, the things
that concern his own life, the things
that make for character, the things OF
religion and the church, as well as the
things that con ern his intellectual and
physical development.
81 have been surprised and troubled
as l have gone about in the stores and
shops of this city and seen young boys,
lby the score, just past IA. at an age
when all considerations Of health and
future welfare demand that they
should be in school, out at work by
the day for the small wages that their
labor can command On inquiring OF
the authorities I have learned that
very large number of young boys are
out at work on certificates issued at
the request of their parents This
ought not to be so.
"a bow of Il may be forced out into
industry by the need of his family foI
his help in the way of support, but it
is not right thus to deprive the boy of
his chance for the future for the sake
of the pittance he can earn, and some
other means should be devised where
OIc IF no family he
cared for. Our nation cannot afford
tbus TO waste the ability and lives of
the youth upon whom tomorrow must
depend. Again, there are boys who
foolishIy wish to quit school because
thew are tired of restraint, and eager
to be out among men These boys
need/to be dealt with gently but firm
" and prevented from doing them
selves such a wrong.
Need of Education.
..The work of the world is in the
hands of educated men, and other
things being equal a high school edu-
cation increases by hundreds of times
the chances of success, while college
education puts its possessOr, if a young
man of any worth, in the very front
rank. Stay in the high school and go
To college is a sound piece Of advice
for boys and their parents to digest
again, a boy has a right to be
strong. A vigorous, healthy body is
one of the things that he needs as an
equipment for life, and it is one Of the
things that our modern civilization,
with all its advantages, too often de
MES him. Witness the round shout
ders the narrow, cramped chests, the
pjpe-steIh limbs of the average young
boy of today 4 boy ought to have no
more need for a gymnasium or for
physical culture than a bird or a horse
has. and yet there are not many boys
today in this city who do not need such
culture. not only to give them strong
t.oli.,.- and riecnrnns health hut even