United labor bulletin., 1910-09-29

flower" And children, healthy children,
ire fond of flowers. have heard it said
hat richly gowned women wept as they
ooked at long rows of withered and dead
lowers. Wept? l wonder why? I won
der if they ever thought how poverty
withers and oppresses the life of the
budding flowers of humanity-the pa
bies?
No, don't reproach yourself, madam,
you didn't know. How could you-living
in another world? 1t was really good o
you to think of the withered flowers
but it would have been more humane II
you had dropped those tears for the lit
tie whitening flowers of the tenements.
Their homes are squalid and their lives
do need spiritualizing and refining infu-
ence of flowers and kindness. But
neither the babies nor the blossoms can
flourish there. They pine and droop and
die together True, some of them hve'
babies and blossoms, but how? This is
the work that calls for service and sac
rifice; to bring blossoms and babies TO-
gether where both can thrive. TO re-
store the child-sense of kinship with ma
ture, that to every child may come the
joy of understanding natures eternal
harmonies. To bring the freedom and
beauty and companioship of beast and
bird flower and tree, mountain ana
ocean, streams and stars, into the lie
of every child. Excuse me-did l hear
some gentle reader murmur Utopia, i'm
practicable? Let me say in answer:
Some there are, the despised builders
of humanity's temples. who are laboring
to give this vast heritage to the children
of the world. They build patiently, for
they have faith in their work-and this
is their faith-that the power of the
world springs from the common labor
and strife and' conquest of the countless
ages of human life and struggle; that
not for a few was that labor and strug-
gle, but for ALL And the common good
and common joy will give babies and
blossoms the fullness of life.
While we fully realize the vastness OF
the child as an economical problem, and
our duties toward the child from a hui
manitarian standpoint. we must no less
realize the vastness of the child as So
cial factor The sceptre of power Will
rest with the child in the cradle of to-
day when this generation "has shuffled
off their mortal coil" and passed beyond
the Great Divide, from whose bourn no
traveller ever returns" Are we doing
our utmost to equip the child with the
physical and mental qualities to cope
successfully with the stupendous prob
lens they must encounter in the future?
The home, the city, the state, the coun-
try, the world and all the customs and
secrets and accumulations of all ages
and all civilizations are the natural and
rightful legacy of the cradle. 1t remains
for the babe to take up the gauntlet OF
life's problems, to perpetuate and evo-
lutionize and shape the course and fu-
ture destiny of mankind, to a successful
conclusion. For, as Sheldon wrote, "the
man who can look no further than the
present is mentally blind; the man who
can plan for the future has his eyes op-
en-; the man who can plan for lifetime
is a general; but the man who can plan
for generations is genius"
The purpose of civilization should be
to protect and not permit the child to be
an innocent victim of circumstances,
over which it has absolutely no control.
The child is the living embodiment and
of virtue. Such corner
stone to build the future hope of man
upon is indeed the acme of perfection.
i
character and mind in the child. The
sublimity of the human mind shines
forth in all the works of the human race.
It shines forth in the grand period
who electrified the stat rs
men of Greece, and in the eloquent flights
of Cicero, who held the mighty heart of
Rome in his hand. 1t radiates forth in
the brush of Raphael and Angelo, who
animated the canvas with life and
speech who sketched the smile and the
frown, the skies and earth. 1t shines
forth in the chisel of Phidias and Prax-
iteles, who carved the tear and the sigh,
and made the marble laugh and weep.
It shines forth in all the visions of Ho-
mer and the dreams of Milton, in the Tyre
Of Shelley and the harp of Byron. ii
shines forth and is perpetuated in the
strains of Mozart and Beethoven, who
filed the world with waves of symphony
and waves of harmony. The majority of
The human mind beams forth in all the
science, in all the trophies of progress
and success, in all the thoughts and all
he dreams. in all the raptures and ecsta-
;ies, in all the flights of fancy and in al.
he visions of glory that have made the
golden page in the history of the world.
Let it be remembered, the child problem
S embodied in the economical problem.
THE BULLETIN GETS OFFICE.
The United Labor Bulletin has secured
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