The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-09-25

cure from it's surroundings a main
tenance and have left at the end of any
given period of effort, a surplus OF
energy, then progress becomes posi-,
bile. This surplus of energy as it &C
cumulates, according to this theory,
finally expresses itself in the form of
animal Uses in an experimental way
for all sorts Of purposes very much
after the fashion OF Mr.. Kipling's "Ele-
plant Child" You will remember
that the elephants child had a mere
smere of a nose" something like a rub
Der boot, for which he had discovered
no particular function. On a certain
day, however, he went down to the
great, gray, green, greasy Limpopo
river to find out what the crocodile
had for dinner. When he had asked
the question and had put his ear down
close to the crocodile to hear the
answer, that u%nfriendly monster caught
him by his ungainly nose and began
pulling, and after continued pulling
this Mere smere of a nose was ex
tended into the really, truly elep-
plants trunk" Presently, however,
a fly lighted upon his shoulder, and he
struck it dead with this new-formed
organ of his Vantage No. l" The top
of his head getting very hot and fever
ish he scooped up a great sloop of
cool mud and water and put it on the
top of his head. Vantage No. p and
as he started home across the desert
he blew down this trunk, making
more noise than a brass band Want
age No. - and so on from day to day
he discovered ley ways of using this
newly formed organ of his.
Now to transfer our thought to hui
man evolution. So long as a man has
to spend all of his time and energy in
securing for himself a mere living, he
is facing, in the praseology of Mr..
Patton, at the end of each day, a de-
felt. Now one of the functions Of an
education is to render his efforts so
much more efficient in doing the thing
he has to do in a shorter time, and at
the expenditure of less energy. That
is one of the purposes of education
to fill the world with more efficient
workmen, who can do a given task
more efficiently and in a shorter time.
But aus we release a certain amount
Of this mans time and energy from the
necessary effort of making a living, We
have given rise to a new problem.
How is he to use his surplus of time
and energy for his w good. The
law may say the eight hour day is
long enough for a laborer to work,
and it is long enough for any man to
work according to the divine order
of things, whereby We find eight hours
for the service of God; eight hours
for our usual vocation, eight hours
for repose and sleep. But If the hours
between the close Of the eight-hours'
work and his bed time are to be spent
in the saloon or in riotous living, there
is a serious question as to whether the
man has gained anything in having
his hours of toll reduced.
l believe in work, l believe that
everyone who does an honest days
work contributes to the wealth Of the
world. Further, l believe that there
is culture in ones work. But after
all this is said, the fact remains that
the paramount problem of education
is to teach the nan how to use the
leisure time and energy. And 10 l
return to the point, that education
must not only train the boy how to
make a living, must not only put him
on to his job-it must prepare him to
way that makes for culture, that
makes for refinement, that makes for
moral character. Our education will
not have achieved it's supreme aim
until 1t has trained the citizens of this
country to appreciate and love good
music to appreciate and love works Of
art, to appreciate and love a beautiful
city, to appreciate and love a beautiful
home, to appreciate and love a good
book. And so l repeat Education
must not only teach the boy how to
make a living, it must make his life
worth living"
The public school is the greatest
product Of u civilization. She is the
great force with which we have to
reckon. On her depends the guidance
of the nation, and in a large measure,
the amelioration of all human ills. /
admire her for what she did for me,
and for what she is doing throughout
this. vast country. The public school
buildings of every township, city and
county should be the best that in.
genuity ear devise. / do believe how
ever, that much energy is m~isdirected
that much latent energy is never re-
vealed. The schools Of today have
much more to do for the young than