Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-04
BY JAMES 3. MORROW.

Swapping kings as he would
III oxen and dealing in countries
x as If they were plantations. he
told Pestalozzi that he had no time to
trifle away over the alphabet.
Pestalozzi, he thought, was no more
than a Swiss school teacher He did
not know that the friendly little man
from the shore of the Lake of Neuchatel
was the wisest and r-ost brilliant drill
master in Europe-the marshal. indeed,
of embryonic battalions and brigades
and of armies marching onward to con-
quest
In Germany, Pestalozzi obtained an
eager and intelligent audience. The
efficiency of that country today is, by
= some, attributed to his simple but rev.
dictionary methods. Women are say
ing in the United States that they are
not rearing their sons to be soldiers.
In sense, they contravene Pestalozzi's
principles.
What" Pestalozzi would ask. lis that
boys aptitude To be a tailor? Then
make him one. In his philosophy it
was more honorable, as well patri-
otto. to be the father of a brave and
capable soldier than of an inept law
yer, though the soldier died from a
bullet in his youth and the lawyer
lived to be three score and ten. Pes
taloZzi hated mediocrity, if so gentle
man could hate anything. Use" was
the key-word OF his example and
preachments. Any effort. when going
to the limit of capacity, If it were
moral (as wood chopping, for example)
was holy. Propensity increased Its
sanctity by doubling its utility.
Mankind, as he believed, should be a
beautiful and serviceable mosaic, with
each life fitted into the place intended
for it-herdsmen, camel drivers, ply
sicians, scientists and writers, it is to
be hoped, giving harmony. value and
distinction to the whole So he taught
until, dying, he left an empire, unlike
Napoleon's, that was to broaden it's
boundaries until they encompassed the
earth.
vocational training" is now the
phrase by which Pestalozzi is inter-
preted. 1t is old in central Europe, but
new in the United States. Reduced to
a single word, its definition is pre-
edness-preparedness for the indi-
vidual, the family, the community and
the nation.
The United States Chamber of Com
clerce-a host of 800, 900 driving men,
enerslzing cities and states. from coast
TO coast and from the frontier of Can
ada to the edge of Mexico-seeing
through the veil that separates the
present from the hereafter, has ac-
trine. knowing little. possibly of
Pestalozzi, the man.
\ terrible war is coming some
prophets are saying-a with COM
mOdities in place of cannons. Nation
is to battle with nation. armed not
with rifles, flying machines and bombs.
but with plows, reapers. lathes. re-
torts. crucibles and furnaces. There
fore preparation must begin with
farms, mills and shops instead of at
sruories and gun factories
Men are TO do the fighting a. of yore
and they must be trained as in the
past PestalozZi would take them while
they Were children. discover them and
then develop them into a cohesive and
highly capable productive host This
he did for Germany through the in
strumentality of disciples. who adopted
his educational policy
No one, perhaps. this side of the
Atlantic translates PestaloZzi with
greater fidelity of purpose and feeling
than does Phi!ander Priestly Claxton
United states commissioner of educa-
lion. i.onS before he ever heard Of the
master he was later to follow, mean
Ing to be a lawyer. he learned his bent
and straishtway turned to school
teaching.
The cavalry of Forest campel near
his fathers farm in Tennessee Hoods
army went to pieces not far away. The
ClaNtons We're left in poverty by Con-
federates and Federals as they alter
rately and hungrily swept the country
bare OF food and all other portable
property
Philander Priestly. the son. with bor-
rowed money that he repaid. took a
course at the University of Tennessee.
Law was in his plans at the outset, but
he switched to electrical engineering
and became a student at Johns Hopkins
where, within a few weeks, teaching
took hold" of him and conquered. He
found himself, as PestalozZi would
have stated the case, and teacher he
has been ever since.
DO you believe that a nations ef-
ficiency begins with its children" he
was asked by the writer.
Your question" he replied, seems
automatically to answer itself. All
things begin with the children of a
Observation-Disclosures, self-control, vir-