The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-11-21
CHARACTER BUILDING

A young man recently arrested Tor
forgery gives as excuse things dld
not 90 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 well to do. He received as
good an education as he was willing
to take or study for. He passes over
his failure at home. which his history
here indicates, and says that Whlle
here on business for his father he met
a girl and in a week married her I'M
der 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 it. All this
is tough luck" from his point Of
view. He is like other less educated,
and for that reason perhaps less cus-
pable, lawbreakers, who declare they
never had no chance" in a country
where thousands of our most success
full and wealth. business men had no
better chance than they
This young man had at least three
Jobs after he was married, with the
added of family responsibility to
cause him to make good, including be-
fore the end baby, and yet he could
not keep them. He could not satisfy
at least three different employers that
he was worth retaining on the pay
roll. in spite of having a good enough
education to keep him there if he had
possessed the moral fiber without
which education is valueless except as
an aid to discovering more ways OF
getting into trouble. He had a 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 quallil-
cation of all for business success
Moral fiber. His failure was of his
own causing directly. Indirectly,
there were other causes and response
bilities.
Lack Of old-fashioned home life and
old-fashoned home discipline is re-
sponsible for much of the noticeable
absence of a sense of 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, cultivating RELIABLE
ity and Gtiffening 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 il
begins early it's success is assured
When it begins late it is not assured
and at best cannot reach the perfec-
ton of the earlier beginning. 1t is ev-
ident that the best place for disclp-
line and training to develop character
il the home, and, just as the home
loses its disciplinary character and
the home atmosphere and becomes
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 a
century ago, and we are paying for ii
with large proportion of young mer
with fabby characters.
This is a great fact which must be
faced. 1t is an existing condition
which cannot be blinked Nor can i
be changed by merely pointing out It's
existence. 1t is great national ten
dency which only some other tendency
can counteract. That counteracting
tendency must be an increase in the
number of homes Of genuine Christian
atmosphere and parental discipline
instead of the decrease that has fol-
some time been going on. While this
is being done, and at all times, be-
cause perfection in that respect can
not be expected, there should be Q
Strengthening of the character-build
ing influences and agencies which at
feet the lives of boys and young mer
outside their homes. Contributions OF
personal service and Of money to tht
operation and support Of such agencies
constitute the finestasort of patriotism
and philanthropy. A much larger de
yotion of public attention and pubic
funds to that sort Of work would be
wise act for the preservation of out
Ys American UlSLlLuliuiS Wy
right kind of citizens into whose hands
to entrnst them. We need in our wori
of character building for the you'll
now with us and those to follow then
a strengthening Of home influence an
discipline, and as well we need an in
crease in the number and strength an
intensity of work of those character
building influences outside the hom
which supplement home training ant
Z, become the only substitute for it whei
!. ait is Licking. The strength of ma
ton Hes in character more than in ed
ucation. We have been paying to-
great a proportional attention to edu
cation. We must increase largely tn
more important factor of characte
4 building.-Globe-D Democrat.
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MISSOURI NEEDS Of