Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-11-29
Character BUILDING
From the 81. Louis Globe-Democrat
young man fecentiW arrested for forge

A young man fecently arrested for forgery
gives as excuse that things did not 20 good for
him.. and seems to cling to the idea that he is
victim OF circumstances rather than Of his own
acts. Briefly, his history as he tells it is that
his family in the east is fairly we'll to do. He
received as good an education a. he was willing
to take or study for He passes over his failure
at home, which his history here indicates, and
says that while here on business for his father
he met girl and in week married her under
an assumed name. Apparently he forgot all
about that business for his father in his new
identity He got job and lost it, got another
job and lost it, then forged three checks and
went to another city, where he got still another
job and lost il. All this is tough luck" from his
point of view. He is like other less educated
and for that reason perhaps less culpabe, law
breakers, who declare they never had no
chance" in country where thousands Of our
most successful and wealthy business men had
no better chance than they.
This young man had at least three Jobs after
he was married, with the added urge Of family
responsibility to cause him to make good, in
Guiding before the end baby, and yet he could
not keep them. He could not satisfy at least
three different employers that he was worth re-
tanning on the payroll, in spite of having a
good enough education to keep him there if he
had possessed enough moral fiber without which
education is valueless except as an aid to dis
had better educational equipment for success
than thousands upon thousands of young men
who are making good in every avenue of human
effort, some of them on their way clear to the
top. He lacked the most important qualifica-
ton of all for business success-moral fiber.
His failure was of his own causing directly
Indirectly there, were other causes and respons-
Utilities
Lack of old-fashioned home life and old
fashioned home discipline is responsible for
responsibility in the present young generation.
Our recent military experience has shown, or
should make us realize, the value of discipline
in developing the sense of responsibility, cul-
tivating reliability and stiffening the moral fiber
in young men. But the average age of 20 years
is late for the beginning of such development.
There is no age too early for its beginning.
When it begins early its success is assured.
When its begins late it is not assured and at
best cannot reach the perfection OF the earlier
beginning 1t is evident that the best place for
discipline and training to develop character is
the home, and, just as the home loses disciplin-
airy character and home atmosphere and be-
comes easy-going and unhomelike, its work of
character building is impaired, and the result is
worse for the children who grow up in it. Our
present-day civilization has in it much less of
this genuine home life than existed half cen
fury ago. and we are paying for it with larger
proportion of young men with flabby char
acters.
This is great fact which must be faced It
is existing condition which cannot be blinked.
Nor can it be changed by merely pointing out
its existence. 1t is great national tendency
which only some other tendency can counterfeit.
That counteractng tendency must be in
crease in the number of homes of genuine
Christian atmosphere and parental discipline,
instead of the decrease that has for some time
been going on While this is being done, and at
all times, because perfection in that respect can
not be expected, there should be strengthen
ing of the character building influences and
agencies which affect the lives of boys and
young men outside their homes. Contribu-
tons of personal service and of money to the
operation and support of such agencies con-
sttute the finest sort of patriotism and philan
thropy. A much larger devotion of public at
tention and public funds to that sort of work
would be wise act for the preservation of our
American institutions by assuring the right kind
Of citizens into whose hands to entrust them.
We need in our work of character-buding for
the youth now with us and those to follow them
a strengthening of home influence and disci-
pine, and as we'll we need increase in the
number and strength and intensity of work of
those Misunderstanding influences outside the
home which supplement home training and be-
come the only substitute for it when it is lack
ing. The strength of nation lies in character
more than in education. We have been paying
too great proportional attention to education.
We must increase largely the more important
factor Of character building.