The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1921-04-01
DR.. UPHAM SPOKE ON
''CH|LDREN'S SOVIET"
PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSITY OF
IDAHO DELIVERED ADDRESS
TO THE TEACHERS.

Spokane, Wash.-(By A. P.)-
Modern tendencies of thought among
young people of the United States
and their utilization for the moral
and intellectual advancement of the
rising generation were discussed by
Dr.. A. H. Upham, president of the
University of Idaho, here today be-
fore the annual convention of the In
Land Empire Teachers Association
under the subject of "The Children's
Soviet"
Many good people are greatly dis
turbed these days by the independ-
ence of spirit and the excesses of
conduct displayed by our yung peo-
pie in and out of school," DR.. Upham
said. "Girls, they say, seem to ig-
more all the former bounds of mod
esty in their attire. They affect ar
tificial complexions and vampire
gowns and profess to scorn clothes
that they characterize as rs. S. and
G."-sweet, simple and girlish Boys
and girls both shock their elders by
/ their speech and habits, and seem
largely intent on amusements, partic-
ularly dancing. Their acquaintance
with life, secured chiefly through the
movies, includes details carefully
concealed from children of other gen.
erations and leads them to assume a
bored and surfeited air toward all
this old world has to offer.
mo doubt much of this is true, but
more irritating still to grownups is
the undoubted fact that the young
people of today claim many of these
things as their rights and are not
timid about asserting them. With
out organization or officers or by
laws, it almost seems as if all over
our land there is vast Soviet of
children, ready to question all con-
stituted authority and take the direc-
tion of their own affairs"
DR.. Upham cited editorial comment
of school and college papers, "walk-
outs" over small affairs, and like
evidences of such spirit. Such a
spirit has been evidenced in the past,
he said, and it's present recurrence Is
no particular cause for worry. He
cited Socialism of all degrees, I. w.
w. theories and Bolshevism" as con-
tributing causes, and declared that
"all constituted authority has been
our heads, conditions will probably
right themselves" he declared.
'To me this exaggerated sense of
right and this assumption of auto
nomy among young people are among
The biggest things of our generation,
Dr.. Upham continued eff we can
Utilize the good that is in this self
the final result will be
misunderstanding of the
highest type. Even the craze for
is fundamentally natural
md wholesome, reminding US that we
,annot keep the play spirit out Of
education. If young people under
axe to govern themselves and exer-
Of inbt
My tactful, sympathetic guidance to
levelop that most important of social
actors, the community spirit.
Happily, the very methods best
calculated to make the most of the
modern spirit in our children are
low being adopted in our leading
chools. They are as yet expert
mental and may need considerable
evision. But much the same thing
S going on in our industries and is
ucceeding there. 1t is not neces-
arily sign of poorer mentality or
weak moral fiber that we should
sten to pupils or employees when
hey seek to know where their work
5 leading them, or to have say
but conditions under which they do
tThe danger in all this lies in sent
too much about it.
'hese youngsters are not to have all
yisdom ascribed to them just because
hey are young, and they have no
ccasion for self-pity over the hard
hips they have endured They are
ound and wholesome at heart but
nat does not necessarily mean that
neir first impulses are always safe
nd dependable All the sentiment
lism of the eighteenth century had
Dot in that doctrine which arrayed
atural impulses against social GUS
I'M and constituted authority to the
lory of the former. That same SEN
mentalism is still abroad, seeking to
lorify all those who defy law and
-der and to make martyrs of them.
[artyrs' crowns are not becoming to