The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1911-02-28


the ideal thoughts. The practical
must also be developed with the
ideal-boys and girls must be taught
to work. thus making Ct them
useful men and women. if they are
to attain to the noblest and best,
The ancients recognized that as a
man lives so must he also speak.
This being true, the first lesson in
language should be in right living
which will make right thinking.
History tells US that the greatest
epochs Of literature have generally
followed the time Of the highest and
strongest moral state of the country.
History repeats itself. Perhaps
there is no criticism to which our
American children are subjected by
social critics all over the world that
hurts US so much as the one that our
school children are not mannerly,
and | truly think it hurts US the
more because we realize that the
statement is true. They prove to US
that detailed course of study along
this line should be made a part of
the entire American school system.
If our children were taught to show
more courtesy, more obediance and
more respect for others, many of
our great evils would be easier to
eradicate.
Today we find many men and
women of culture are more or less
alive to the value Of good literature
as a means to lift themselves from
the plane Of the real to that Of the
ideal. They find it a study which
engages the highest faculties of the
mind, heart and soul, and, for good |
or evil, gives utterance to all that is
deepest there.
Today we find the newspapers
mold the ideas and form the thought
of millions Of people, old and young,
who look at them as their only
source Of knowledge. The newspa-
per has become one Of the necessi-
ties of everyday life, and is one Of
the great powers for good or evil,
as it is directed to promote the one
or to encourage the other. 1t is our
duty to seize it as a medium through
which the higher ideals of the ma
ton may be elevated. Colonel Wat
terson, the veteran editor, a few
months ago, addressed the National
Press club on the relation of the
newspaper to the public. He called
its attention to the general decline
In the moral tone of the papers and
urged strongly that each member of
the club put his shoulder to the
wheel and add his mite toward max
ing their work a higher and nobler
calling. In his appeal he said some
one ought to organize an intelligent
and definite movement toward the
lettering of the newspaper. He
closed his address with these words:
L have been proud of that calling
all my life, and when | go to my &C
count | want to see clean and hon
ored flag flying from the masthead
There perhaps was never
greater libel on American intelli-
gence than that of the comic sup
plement Of our Sunday papers,
which takes it for granted that
coarse and malicious jokes illustrat-
ed by shockingly bad drawings are
all the majority Of our people and
children know how to appreciate.
Bright and beautiful pictures are a
great and social force and help to
form very great part of our best
A wide field OF usefulness afford
ed us by the newspaper and maya
zine is the one offered to writer's
who are gradually developing their
talent. The editors of these papers
and magazines take the contribu.
tons of the less developed writer
who promises better things to come
Our most eminent men of letters
were in their lesser day diligently
fostered by these agencies.
"Too. the stage, if rightly used,
could be medium through which
we might attain to that higher and
nobler state. There can be depicted
some of the greatest and strongest
lessons of life and there is no soul,