The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-07-17
State School Inspector
mdCd0ndId'S Address
TO Convention.
Continued from Page Ter

Continued from Page Ter
trained rural teacher and low educa-
tional standards, but by his and their
example he robs the country boy Of
even the value of an eighth grade
completion. He opposes by every art
known to his kind all movements, and
legislation intended to improve attend
ance or the enforcement of law to fur
Their that end. Thus he Is directly re-
sponsible for robbing childhood Of its
sacred rights to hours of wholesome
play and years of profitable study.
He is sometimes ably assisted by
some well.meaning but misguided
people who want to be known as pro-
,gressives in matters Of education, at
least, and so they come forward with
all kinds of tones and nostrums for
the major rural school Ills. To hear
or read some of their declamations you
would be led to believe that they were
anxious for the time to come when the
country youth would not know or
would not care what the Declaration
of independence meant, provided It
was not some kind Of new soup or
farm machine. These people are not
progressives, not even digressives,
but purely retrogressives; for they
would make out Of the school an ap.
prentice shop, and so restore the So
called education Of the Middle Ages.
At this point, speaking for one whose
work is primarily in the field of rural
education, wish to express my high
appreciation of the grand work being
done for this cause by many normal
school and college professors, journal
lists and statesmen and by the Nation
al Bureau Of Education, 80 ably direct
ed by DR.. Claxton, and particularly
for that clarion call Of his to the great
need and imperative duty of all school
officials to secure better attendance
by securing longer terms.
Another cause of this poor attend
ance in relation to child labor is com.
mercialism," that is. greed on the part
Of the rural resident. This is a tale
Of sordid greed and criminal thought
lessness. The poor attendance includ.
ing the short term costs little and so
is favored by the mercenary rural res
ident. Then, too, children out Of
school and at work lessen the cost.
But the end is told in these lines:
I'll fares the land to Fastening Ills a
prey,
Where wealth accumulates while men
decay"
Each year more than a million
country boys between the ages of ten
and fourteen inclusive are kept out OF
school for an average of three months
In an average term Of seven to do the
work Of men in order to help support
the schools they cannot attend. 1t Is
more than hollow mockery; it is bru'
tai. This in most cases is done in de.
fiance of law and always in defiance Of
the sacred rights of childhood to hours
Of joyous play and years Of valuable
study. This child with the body Of a
growing boy. soft of bone and tender
Of muscle, is deprived Of his right to
a common school education in order
that some may boast Of much wealth,
that some may live in ease or in lux
ury. And so in a generation we have
produced many million farms with
broad and well-tilled fields as the price
of many million boys with narrow and
ill-trained minds. Yet these are the
boys who with hollow chests, stopped
shoulders and blighted minds are OK.
pected later on to assume and dis
charge the complex and responsible
duties Of American citizenship
The excuse is given that labor Is
scorce, which means that labor Is
high priced. The reply is that the
money spent on tobacco and liquor by
the rural resident would pay the
wages necessary to hire men to take
the place of the boys. and would leave
enought over to build. equip
and maintain graded con-
solidated school in every dis.
trict in the open country. But the
average rural resident is able even
under present conditions to keep his
boy in school; for there are farmers
in straitened circumstances who do
so. There are also in every town frail-
bodied widows living in lowly cabin
homes who by going out scrubbing
and taking in washing keep their girls
and boys in school through the eighth
grade and sometimes the high school
and college. Thus 1t would seem that
an able.bodied man living in his sub.
stantial farm home surrounded by
productive fields could at least permit
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