The Falls City tribune., 1910-07-29
A Better Crop of Boys and Girls
BY William A. Mckeever

IN ordinary farmer chances To have
= horse that balks in the harness or
a COW that runs off the reservation
he needs only to write to the nearest
government experiment station in
Crde' to secure. free of cost. care
fully prepared bulletin on the subject,
and perhaps along with II a helpful
letter from a high-salaried expert.
But if the refractory creature chan
ces 20 be his 16-year-old son or fledge
ling daughter, the perplexed ruralist
mus fight out the cas- alone, or aid
Cd orly by a d2spairing wife.
WHERE WE BLUNDER
Tie foregoing is typical of a lot
Of slaring Inconsistencies i'll our
boosted age of progress. Through
government appropriations and priyat
5enetactions we are expanding vast
sum- of money in pursuit of wealth
and in the hidden meanings of non
human nature. Just now we read
that government experts are constant
ly al work patroliing the sea coast
in order to make a careful study of
the antics of he sportiye clam, the
elusive mackerel and the hilarious
bachelor seal, nut here is no publicly
supported effort to observe scientif-
ically the interesting behavior of lit
tie children playing around the fami
" fireside. We have scholarly deser-
tations on how to develop kindness
and good will IN the ~recreant mule
and how to bring up in a successful
way the orphan calf, but those who
have in charge the home development
of human offspring must grope in the
dark for a sue aessful way. We know
how to make pigs .hrive, but not how
10 tech boys II save. We know how
to make hens lay, but no t how to
train girls to help in h home or
whether or not they should be so
trained. We inow how scientifically
to bring out the hidden energies of
lit Eoliy u = IN u otihi VI "
TO bring to realization by mean of
scientific homa training the splendid
latent aptitudes that are the inherent
possessions of practically all boys and
girls born among is.
W. require a long course of school
ing for the teacher, the physician,
the veterinarians; we offer advanced
courses of instruction for those who
would do well in the breeding and
management OF cattle and hogs and
chickens, but we have no course of
training or any standard of require
meni for those who are to engage in
the complex and difficult task of rear
ing children in the home. Any young
human pair no matter how much
diseased, how criminal in their habits
or tendencies, how ignorant OF things
in general and of ~child-bearing In
particular may, if they agree, be-
come married and blunder ava with
out help or h,ndrance in the work
of bringing up a family.
COURSE IN MATRIMONY NEEDED.
One thing is certain. Our young
people continue to fall in love as OF
old. But so far as science has invest
igatcd this phenomenon in its direct
bearing upon the future of the race
it might be a result of infection or
contagion, or merely an idiosyncrasy
of callow youth. We have scientif-
ically worked out cards for scoring
COWS and pigs and chickens, but how
abou. scoring young men and women
who are candidates for marriage.
What are the correct standards of
form and symmetry of body?
OF ability 10 work and to resist
fatigue. OF compatabilities of men,
tai nature? OF knowledge as to the
care and instruction of infants?
What are the marks whereby a young
woman whose hand is sought in
marriage may know a good man when
she sees him. And those whereby
2 young man may know a good wo-
man: How singular, and yet how Ian
entable a fact it is that farmers
should know so much more of a spc-
cific and reliable nature about pre-
pairing their hogs for the livestock
market than they do about preparing
their daughters for the matrimonial
market.
All the foregoing important matters
are left to chance or accident and
gossip, because of the fact that we
have beer laboring under the foolish
belief that love is blind and not to
be influenced by instruction. Young
men fall in love with such superficial
things as a basket-shaped hat or a
mining gait, and young m with