Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-23
FOREIGN INDUSTRIAL DISEASES
HAVE NO PLACE IN AMERICA
Dr. Ftnesan's Harrisburg School Confer
enee Can Do Something to Protect
This Country From Experiment.
ina With Alien Ailments

SOpCl VI pODliS llSll uSIlOli'
is reported as expressing the opinion that
there should be an adjustment of the
work of the schools to meet the new
| conditions that have arisen as result
/ of the war.
He has called conference of men and
women interested in education to meet
/ in Harrisburg in November and to dis
! cuss the question for week. Prominent
! college professors. high school teachers
and city and county superintendent will
! be invited. It has not yet been an
professionally interested in education
will be asked to be present.
The fact that the conference has been
| called should be encouraging to those
who are hoping that Doctor Finegan will
make the public schools of the state equal
to those in any other commonwealth. He
has come here with the hearty indorse
ment of educat tional experts as a man
who knows how to get results. His ap-
pointment of DR.. William D. Lewis, of
the William Penn High School, as one of
his deputies indicates that he knows how
to choose men to assist him. Doctor
Lewis is a man who is not content to
follow the methods that have been in
vogue for generation merely because
they have been followed by his predeces-
sors. He has been more intent on results
than on method and has shown himself
willing to discard everything that does
not produce the results he is seeking.
Doctor Finegan is understood to be the
same kind of a man.
Now what are the new conditions con-
fronting the public schools that, have
arisen as a result of the war which de-
mand the consideration of persons inter-
ested in public education?
The physical and mental examination
of the young men by draft boards during
the organization of the armies disclosed
some facts about the status of education
which were not generally known. A sur
prisingly large number of the young
men were unable to read and write. The
illterate were found in every state,
Pennsylvania as we'll as Mississippi, and
Massachusetts as we'll as Alabama. Yet
we are supposed to have a school system
which teaches the elementary branches
to every boy and girl. Schoolmen in all
parts of the country were impressed by
this exhibition of the extent to which
the public-school system had failed to
reach all those for whose benefit it is
maintained.
1t was also learned that still larger
number of the young men of draft age
were physically defective and incapaci
tated for service as soldiers. The schools
as a whole have apparently been devot--
ing their attention to the minds of the
children and ignoring their bodies But
we know that many minor defects can be
removed if they receive attention when
the children are young.
The war has impressed upon us the
necessity for a more rigid enforcement
of the compulsory education laws and
the Importance of giving more attention
to the physical condition of the public
school children. But these unsatisfsc-
tory conditions existed before the war
and have not arisen out of it.
The most disturbing result Of the war
is the spread of un-American ideas
among the workers. We are hearing
much about direct action" when unsatis-
| factory political and industrial condi-
| tions are discussed. Direct action means
violence. In Russia, where the term
originated, it meant bomb-throwing and
assassination. 1t is the appeal to force,
No argument is needed to prove that
this sort of thing is out of place in
America. This is a democracy in which
| the majority rules. AS soon as a mi
nority becomes a majority it can have
it's way surely and peaceably. Every
! proposition for change that can stand
the test of public discussion and can
commend itself to the judgment of a
majority is certain of adoption in the
course of time. There is no tyrannical
dominant class here holding the rest of
the public in servitude and provoking re-
bellion. But there are men who, as Her
bert Hoover said the other day, would
make America a laboratory for expert
ment in foreign industrial diseases.
II is evident that the way to DESTROY
these un-American ideas is to begin with
the children and to devote more attention
to training them for citizenship. Our
public-school system exists primarily for
the purpose of qualifying the rising
generation for self-government, for
teaching them that the right to life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness is in
herent, and that respect for the rights OF
others goes along with the respect OF
Others for our rights. .....-....s
If we have time and money left after
teaching the elementary branches and the
fundamentals of Americanism to teach
manual training and such like things, all
well and good; but manual training
should wait until the more important sub
iects have received proper attention
| what good viii II do 4 boy 10 BE- taught