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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, JULY 29, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEEY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH rOBSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postofflce as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES ». GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Dr. Soule’s Service to Georgia.
A ■wise Athenian was once drawn into an envious
law suit over a petty farm. After showing the judges
that his cause was just, he quietly said: "I will not
entreat you, nor do I care -what sentence you pass.
It is you who are on your trial, not I.”
The same remark might aptly be made of those
gossips who are seeking to belittle the usefulness
of Dr. Andrew M. Soule, president of the State Col
lege of Agriculture. It Is not Dr. Soule but these
would-be trouble-makers who are on trial. It is
they who are slandering the State through their
vicious attacks on the work of a man who has done
more perhaps thai. any other individual to promote
the agricultural progress of Georgia. Dr. Soule needs
no defense other than the clear record of his public
service, nor could he- have higher praise than that
which looms from every chapter of the institution he
has upbuilt.
Under his administration, the Agricultural Col
lege and all its related departments have grown in
attendance, in influence, in efficiency, in power for
practical good. They have become a vital force in
the daily life and welfare of Georgia farms; and
every dollar appropriated for their maintenance has
•■been returned a hundredfold in benefits to the people.
.This great work, Dr. Soule has done with equal
earnestness and modesty. He Of all men would be
the last to claim undue credit for what is being
accomplished and he, better perhaps than anyone
•else, appreciate the value of his able co-workers ahd
the responsiveness of the people themselves. But an
intelligent public knows that it was his genius in
organization and leadership that has counted most
in making the Agricultural College what it is today.
Why is it that such a man and such a work should
incur the venom of political gossips? Simply for
the reason, we suppose, that successful men are al
ways the envy of unsuccessful and that useful lives
are always a target for the useless. Dr. Soule needs
no vindication before the people whose State he has
made his own and whose interests he has sp faith
fully served, even at financial sacrifice to himself.
But those slanderers of his good name who, like
Shakespeare’s “scurvy politician,” “seem to see the
things they do not,” deserve a rebuke from every
right-thinking Georgians.
Interurban Trolley Lines.
The Chamber o-* Commerce did well to create
some months ago a special committee on interurban
railways. Atlanta’s future growth depends largely
on the development of her outlying territory and
there are few surer means to that end than the es
tablishment of well-considered trolley lines. The
city’s present connections with Decatur, College
Park, Marietta and other thriving towns are an In
valuable asset not only to Atlanta and to each of
these terminal points but also to the intervening
country.
The time is soon coming, if, Indeed, it is not at
hand when additional lines and longer lines can be
profitably operated. The city should be prepared to
encourage such enterprise^ for, If they are under
taken with foresight and are carried to "successful
completion, they will prove vital factors in muni
cipal progress. In this connection the Chamber of
Commerce committee can render substantial service;
in fact, it is already doing so. It is gathering sta
tistics concerning interurban railways in Indiana
and other middle-western States. The information
thus secured will be very helpful as a basis of con
siderations and plans for projects of the same kind
in this part of Georgia.
The committee is particularly interested just now
in the proposed construction of an interurban elec
tric line from Anderson, S. C., to Atlanta. This en
terprise is said to have the support of large and sub
stantial interests. If it can be consummated, it will
he a distinctive advantage to Atlanta and to all the
territory traversed. Certainly, it merits the investi
gation the committee is giving it.
Such lines, besides quickening and extending the
commerce of the towns and cities they connect, add
greatly to the value of farm lands. They promote
agricultural progress, that basic element in the up
building of Southern communities. They open new
lines of trade and afford new outlets for the products
of the soil. Within the next few decades, we shall
hear much of interurban lines in the South. Atlanta
does well to .take the lead in this fruitful field of de
velopment.
Mr. Bryan is more lectured against than lectur
ing.
Speed the Vital Statistics
Bill to Prompt Passage.
The bill providing an appropriation of five thou
sand dollars for the establishment of a State bureau
of vital statistics Is now before the House committee
on hygiene and sanitation. If promptly and favor
ably reported, It will doubtless become a law at the
present session of the Legislature, thus solving one
of the most urgent and far-reaching problems with
which the people of Gegrgia are confronted. It is
especially important, therefore, that the committee
do Its part in speeding this useful measure on the
way to passage.
It is scarcely necessary to remind any thoughtful
group of men, either in the Legislature or among
citizens at large, of the sifpreme need and value of a
system of vital statistics in conserving the interests
of public health. All informed persons, whether phy
sicians or laymen, know that without an adequate
and dependable record of births, deaths and the
causes of deaths, little or no progress can be made
in campaigns against disease. If the funds now ap
propriated to the State Board of Health and those
appropriated to kindred agencies by individual cities
aqd counties are to yield a due return, there must
be a system of vital statistics in the light of which
they may be intelligently and efficiently spent. It is
thus to the interest of every citizen and every home,
of every county and town, especially those of rural
districts, that the vital statistics bill be passed.
There is still another consideration which de
mands the prompt enactment of this measure. It Is
this: Georgia now has virtually no place or mention
in the health reports compiled and issued by the fed
eral census bureau. The census bureau collects such
statistics from only those States in which there is
a satisfactory system for the registration of vital
statistics; and necessarily so. The only available
records of this kind In Georgia are from the cities
of Savannah and A tlanta. Thus it is that in those
reports of the United States which deal with health
records and conditions and which are read as author
itative throughout the nation and throughout the
world -Georgia is now conspicuous by her utter
absence.
The result of this Is inevitably damaging to the
State’s reputation and to its material progress, for,
among the first questions asked by a prospective
home seeker or investor is a question of health and
sanitation. No man wants to live in a community
whose health conditions are doubtful or unknown
and few men will risk an investment there. How
then can Georgia expect to get her due share of the
thrifty settlers and the millions of capital that are
trending Southward, when she has no official stand
ing whatsoever in the government health records to
which people everywhere turn for guidance and in
formation? Georgians know that they have a natur
ally healthful State hut the important thing is that
the world shall know this.
Hence from the standpoint of economic interests
as well as health interests, it is imperative that a
State bureau of vital statistics be established with
the least possible delay. A bill to this end has been
introduced in the Senate by Senator Elkins and in
the House by Representative Allen, of Jack-
son. It is a model bill, meeting the requirements of
the census bureau and the government health author
ities. It calls for an appropriation of only five thou
sand dollars, an amount really trivial compared with
the far-reaching service and value it will render.
This bill will place Georgia on the health map of
the nation. It will lead eventually to the saving of
thousands of thousands of lives and incalculable
stores of potential wealth. R Is a bill in the interest
of economy, of progress, of humanity—one of the
most important bills, indeed, that has ever been be
fore the Legislature.
The committee on hygiene and sanitation should
do everything within its power to expedite the pas
sage of this vital measure.
Parcel Post Rates.
Postmaster General Burleson seems fully to have
sustained the wisdom as well as the authority of his
order reducing parcel post rates for rural routes and
short distances. Challenged by certain Congressmen
as to his right to make these reductions he appeared
before the Senate postofflce committee and came
away, as The Journal’s Washington correspondent
says, “with flying colors.” Senator Hoke Smith, a
member of the committee, is quoted as remarking
that the new order “will greatly facilitate the use
of the parcel post, will lessen the cost to the people
from one-third to one-half and that before the post
master general can be interfered with in this matter,
the law must be repealed.’*
Some of the railroads appeared somewhat dis
turbed when it was announced that the maximum
weight now allowed for parcels to be delivered
within the one hundred and fifty mile zone would
be increased from eleven to twenty pounds and that
at the same time the charges on such parcels would
he reduced. The carriers figured tuat this would en
tail upon them an extra burden without extra pay.
But the general public welcomed the announcement
with enthusiasm; certain it is that whatever crit
icism^ of the order may have developed in Congress
did not spring from a popular source.
The reduced rates and more liberal provisions
will obviously benefit the public and, in the long
run, they will benefit the postal department as
well. For, it is evident that Increased business will
mean increased revenues, under a competent ad
ministration. The more parcel post stamps the gov
ernment can sell the more profitable the service will
be to the postofflce. The Important thing is, of
course, that this service be furnished at the lowest
reasonable cost to the public. It was eminently
proper that the postmaster general reduce the
charges when he felt warranted in doing so.
The present ocale of rates within so-called “local”
zones is five cents for the first pound and one cent
for each additional pound; the maximum weight al
lowed is eleven pounds. The new rate for “local”
zones will be five cents for the first pound and one
cent for each additional two pounds; at the same
time the maximum weight will be increased to twen
ty pounds. For the second zone, which comprises
territory within a hundred-and-fifty mile radius, the
present charges are six cents for the first pound and
four cents for everj additional pound. This rate is
to be lowered to nve cents for the first pound and
one cent for eacn additional pound; in this zone
also a maximum ot twenty pounds to the parcel will
be allowed.
The new order,-which becomes effective August
the fifteenth, will considerably extend the useful
ness of the parcel post. Many parcels which be
cause of their weight can now he sent only by ex
press may be mailed and the reduced rates also will
offer a distinct advantage.
The postoffice administration has effected a num
ber of improvements in the parcel ; jst service and
will doubtless effect many more that experience will
suggest and circumstances permit. Instead of being
hindered or interrupted in this good work, it should
be heartily encouraged.
The Supremely Important
Duty Now Before Congress.
The supremely important duty now before Con
gress is the enactment of a currency and banking
law that will meet the country’s urgent business
needs. The tariff bill is assured of passage. The
far-reaching changes which that measure will bring
about and the readjustments it will necessitate de
mand an accompanying revision of the hanking and
currency system. Indeed, these two issues are so
closely interwcfven that they cannot be logically or
safely separated. Tariff reform and currency re
form must go hand in hand, if either is to yield
satisfactory results.
By reducing and, in some instances, removing the
tariff taxes that foster monopoly and stifle the spirit
of free enterprise, the Democratic Congress will re
lease new forces of commercial and industrial life.
But unless this fresh freedom is given the means of
sustenance and of practical operation, it will be a
blessing more shadowy than substantial; for, “the
tyrannies of business, big and little, lie largely with
in the field of money and credit.” Should Congress
adjourn without enacting a currency bill to give bal
ance and guidance to'the tariff bill, it would leave
its great task only half complete and its great pledge
to the nation but partly redeemed.
The effect of this upon business interests would
be distinctly disappointing and unwholesome. The
country expects banking and currency reform as con
fidently as it expects tariff reform; and it feels the
need of the one as sharply as of the other. Until
these two related issue- are settled, business will
stand in a temper of suspense. Everyone realizes
that we are at the threshold of important economic
changes. No one fears the step that will be taken
but everyone dreads delay and uncertainty. There
fore, for the sake of business stability and progress,
some adequte measure of banking and currency re
form should be agreed upon and put into effect at
the earliest possible day. It is continued suspense
and agitation that are dangerous and hurtful. But
so soon as Congress enacts sutffi a bill as will be
even fairly satisfactory, business will move promptly
and hopefully forward, knowing the path it is to fol
low and the means at its command.
It is not to be expected that a final and perfect
law of this character can be secured within a single
session of Congress or within any definite period of
years. Nor will it he possible to secure a law that
will completely reconcile all differences of opinion,
even though they are honestly entertained. In this,
as in all matters of far-reaching legislation, there is
a wide diversity of judgment. The most and best
that can be hoped lor is a measure that will approx
imately meet the needs of the time and relieve the
oppressive sense of uncertainty that now prevails.
The errors which such a law might tjntain could be
corrected and woul- be, as occasion and experience
would warrant; but failure to enact any law at all
would be a serious anu inexcusable mistake.
It is imperative, therefore, that the Democrats in
Congress get together in a spirit of party faith and
workmanly patriotism and agree upon a hanking and
currency bill. Dispatches indicate that there are
sharply drawn differences among the members of
the House committee. It is the duty of the
Democratic members to harmonize those differences
as speedily as possible. Certainly no member should
oppose his particular views to the party’s general
will to such an extent as to destroy the chance of
passing a fairly acceptable 'currency bill and who
ever does so will prove himself unloyal to the party
and the country as well.
The measure which the committee is now consid
ering and which, in the main, has the administra
tion’s approval was not introduced as an ideal one,
but rather as a practical basis and starting point for
constructive legislation. That it is open to improve
ments, no one denies; sympathetic criticism of any
or all of its provisions sjhould be welcome. But it is
none the less apparent that the Democrats must rally
around the basis principles of this bill, if they are to
accomplish anything in the way of currency and
banking reform. They must get together and stick
together oh the principal issues of this bill, if they
are to serve their party and their country as they
should.
Surely, there is a broad Common ground of belief
upon which the Democratic members of the commit
tee and of Congress as a whole can meet, if they
are not unduly insistent in particulars and in their
personal views. All the essential provisions of the
pending bill are thoroughly sound and are evidently
acceptable to the rank and file of business men. It
provides, for one thing, that the control of the sys
tem of currency and banking shall be public instead
of private, in order that it may operate for the in-'
terests and the rights of the country as a whole
rather than for the special advantage of particular
groups and centers. Furthermore, provision is made
for a currency that will be elastic and responsive to
the needs of sound credit, instead of rigid and unre
sponsive as now. And provision is also made to pre
vent the undue concentration of the nation's mon
etary resources at particular points or by particular
interests. These are the broad principles embodied
in the present bill. They afford, as we have said, a
practical basis and starting point for legislation of
which the country is in vital need. They should have
the hearty support of every Democrat and, for that
matter, of all Congressmen who are sincerely inter
ested in currency and banking reform.
A law framed on these lines will prevent financial
panics. It will give us a flexible currency. It will
give us a banking system under the impartial and
responsible control of the Government. It will estab
lish certainty and order where uncertainty and dan
gerous confusion now exist. It will relieve the busi
ness mind of that disquieting suspense which will
continue to spread and deepen until Congress speaks
the word which Business is waiting anxiously to
hear.
Democracy now faces its crucial test of statesman
ship. Shall it falter and fail as Republican Con
gresses have done, or move unitedly forward in the
performance its great task. President Wilson insists
that an adequate currency and banking bill be
promptly passed. In this, as in the tariff issue,
he is backed by public sentiment and public judg
ment. The country is watching Congress, demand
ing that it be given a practical measure of banking
and currency reform with the least possible delay.
By guerilla warfare in Mexico is not meant mon
key business.
Between two evils it is better to marry for money
than for a chance to get even.
The enterprising summer girl has no use for
the young man who wastes his time kissing her hand.
A successful financier is one whom everybody
claims to have, known when he didn’t have a dollar
to his name.
■x
Advantages of Growing Old
BY DR. rBANX CRANE.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
Sensible people when they grow old find a great
many compensations. Crossing the line of fifty, one
moves up a little closer to the heart of the world.
Youth is a good deal of a
stranger and pilgrim in the uni
verse. The ageing man discov
ers a realness and a homliness in
men and things.
Youth has no sense of pro
portion. He must hasten. Re
forms cry out. Up and at them!
He tears his shirt. Then when
he gets old he begins to say, with
Emerson, “Why so hot, little
man?” He sees that the only
dependable improvement in so
ciety is that which grows, not
that which is forced. The youth’s
optimism is a kind of enlarged
egotism; the optimism of old
age is an appreciation of the friendliness of nature.
Young men are dazzled by institutions, imposed
upon by organizations, overawed by the presumptuous
authority of the past. Old men come to value per
sonality more than these things. There Is nothing
worth while but to express one’s self; it takes years of
experience to realize th’at. «
Old age learns how to “come down’’ without “giv
ing up,” to use the words of The Country Parson.”
The old man quietly adjusts himself to the stubborn
inevitable. Young people waste infinite effort in fuming
and useless strenuousness. To youth success seems a
matter of laboring hard at the oar; to the wis© old
man it is a matter of setting one’s sails. The winds of
heaven, if we get at the proper angle to them, will do
more than all our muscle.
The conscienc of youth is usually morbid. Many
of his reddest sins and most shining virtues tone down
with years. He learns tolerance. He believes legs and
less in prohibitions and punishments and more and more
in the creative virtures such as love, courage, and lend
ing a hand.
To a normal old age comes a consciousness of the
real jdy of living, of the little thingi that compose life.
The youngster is so whirled in high enthusiasm that
h© forgets or has no time to see how good life is, mere
existence. Old people come back to eating, sleeping,
walking breatheing, all the common ingredients of
the day, not sensually, but with spiritual gratefulness.
Young men are eager for knowledge, greedy for the
equipment of facts, of skill, and of efficiency. Old men
have seen the weakness of these; they prefer wisdom
and philosophy; they prefer the expert soul to the ex
pert hand and mind.
Love means more to old people than to young. To
youth it is an adventure, to age it is the color of ex
istence. To young persons it is a dangerous madness,
to the old it a conservating, universal, ever-present
force. The unwrecked personality ought to be am
usually is happier after fifty than before.
A Ray of Balkan Peace.
If It be true, as the dispatches indicate, that the
Powers have auuiorized Russia to occupj Armenia
and compel Turkey to cease her recent aggressions,
one of the gravest perils of the new Balkan war has
been averted. So long as the larger nations act In
concert, there Is hope of not only confining the
Balkan problem to the peninsula but of also solving
that problem itself. The danger has been that
Austria’s ambitions would set her at cross purposes
with Russia and that an open clash would come be
tween the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
Russia is the logical peacemaker in a war that
so largely concerns Slavic interests. Her diplomacy
should be particularly effective with Bulgaria and
Servia and, if given right of way by the other
Powers, she can doubtless do much to put an end
to the present strife. It is especially Important for
the sake of all Europe’s peace that Turkey be
checked In her plans to reoccupy all the territory
she lost In the war with the Allies. She has already
taken possession of Adrianople and threatens to
seize other territory which was allotted to the Al
lies in the London treaty. But if Russia Is author
ized to force compliance with the terms of treaty
and drive the Turks back across the Enos-Midia
boundary, this particular menace will vanish. It Is
likely, indeed, that an ultimatum from Russia would
send the Turks packing.
The prospects for a cessation of the war among
the Allies is brighter than it has been since the re
cent outbreak. Austria Is reported to have cast her
influence for peace. Bulgaria is evidently ready for
a truce; the Greeks and Serbs have little to lose
through negotiations. It Is possible, if not probable,
that the war will soon be at an end.
Lo, the Rich Indian.
Secretary of the Interior Lane makes the wise
suggestion that the Government gradually cease its
policy of paternalism toward the American Indians,
leaving them free, as a race and as individuals to
follow their own bent and work out their own for
tunes. Some decades ago such a proposal would
have been Ill-considered, but today it enlists wide
spread and merited approval.
The Red Man of this generation is as far re
moved from the “poor Indian,” of Pope’s conception
as a Henry James novel from a Leather Stocking
tale. Of the three hundred thousand Indians on
federal reservations, fewer than ten per cent are
still primitive in the manner of living; and those
are so largely because they have been treated as
segregated tribes rather than as individuals. Many,
if not a majority, of the Indians on reservations are
adjusting themselves to twentieth-century life. They
are learning the use of tools, the ways of commerce
and industry; they farm and trade and, when educa
ted, they easily earn a respected place among
Americans at large.
The Indians, taken as a whole, are the richest
people per capita on the earth. The Osage tribe,
numbering some twenty-two hundred persons are
the joint owners ol nearly two million acres of rich
farming land. Their property is no"- being turned
over to them as individuals. Their “ready-money”
funds, according to Mr. Haskins, amounted to nearly
nine million dollars. • "Under the law,” he says,
“each Indian has been permitted to take four hun
dred and eighty acres of land and has been given
nearly four thousand dollars in cash.
Such a policy is manifestly wiser than that of
holding the Indian in permanent tutelage. It would
not do, of course, to remove the Government’s pro
tection and fostering care and protection all at once;
but the more individual responsibility the Indian
can be given the more surely and rapidly will he
take his place among the nation e wealth producing
citizens. In time, i.s Secretary Lane suggests, there
should be no such institution as a government In
dian bureau.
'i 'O -
THE NEW RURAL SCHOOL
II—now IT WAB BEGUN.
BY FREDERIC J. BASKIN.
The experimental rural school at Rock Hill was
planned not only to discover a method of curing: the
ills of the ordinary rural school, but also to find a
itiethod that would be within the
reach of any country school dis
trict. Therefore, much thought
was given to its equipment, as
being the necessary first step
that, once taken, might perhaps
determine the whole future of
the school. To get as far away
as possible from the traditional
school room idea it was deter
mined to have no desks; to have
three rooms, each to be used for
a different purpose; and to make
the physical surroundings of the
children as home-like as might
be—banishing every suggestion
of the jail-like school house with
its rows of desks and its prison discipline. As the in
tention was for this school to multiply in the coun
try districts, a farm house was desired for the first
home of the new school. One was found, as mentioned
in yesterday’s article, on the edge of the campus of
Winthrop college at Rock Hill, S. C. It was a typical
Carolina farm duelling with a large veranda, clustered
over with vines and roses. Flowers grew in profusion
all about it, there' were plenty of trees for shade and
a few for fruit With a little work the house was
given an attractive homelike appearance, both inside
and out. There was a well for a water supply, and
ground enough for the necessary garden.
• • •
Three rooms were fitted up. The first and large:- 1 '
one was furnished with a long table covered with bur
lap and was christened “Teacher’s Room.” Curtains
of scrim softened the lines of the windows without
cutting off the light, potted plants were placed before
the windows, and the room given a cheerful air. Broad
shelves were built for writing and drawing materials,
scissors, modelling clay, and sewing implements. A
few chairg were grouped about the big table. Only
the blackboard gave a hint that this was a school
room.
• • *
On the table were displayed the books, the school
books, such dull and dreary enemies of childhood as
Mother Goose, Pinafore Palace, Robinson Crusoe,
Lang’s Fairy Tales and the like.
* • *
The next room was turned into a carpenter’s shop.
There were two benches, very simply made, and such
ordinary carpenter’s tools as saws, hammers, chisels, a
square, a brace-and-bit—nothing not easily to be had
in any farming community. Care was exercised not
to furnish too many things, or tools that would be
unavailable to the children at home. A blackboard
again was the only typical school room device.
• • •
The third room was dedicated to cookery. There
was a big coal range, two kitchen tables, the cooking
utensils and dishes. Again care was taken not to
have things that were not a part of the most ordinary
kitchen equipment—special devices of the domestlo
science schools being barred in favor of the ordinary
implements of the common farm kitchen. And here
also the inevitable blackboard. Seats were placed on j
the veranda, and here, near the pump, were hung the
drinking cups, one for each pupil, on numbe. ,. pegs.
Such was the house. The garden and the play
ground were there, and with the exception of a toolj ■"
house In the garden for the wheel-hoes, rakes, hand
hoes and trowels, they were much as nature furnished 1
them.
• • ■
On March 21, 1911, at 9 o’clock In the mornnig, the
Rock HLi school ceased to be a project and became a
fact. The experiment was launched. Mrs. Browne
found eight children, two boys and six girls, ranging)
from six to nine years old, for her first human mate- j
rial. The first thing she did was to sbo B them
through the house and exhibit the wonders IpM re
sources of Its three rooms. Then everybody went to
the garden.
IB*
There the children were delighted to find that each
of them was to have a garden for his very own, and', ^
they wanted to begin work instantly. A three-foot ‘
walk had been laid off down the middle of the garden.
By measuring, the children helping, it was found to
be forty feet on either side from this walk to the
fence. So each garden was to be forty feet long, and
now it must be decided how wide each was to be. Each
child wished for a very large garden, but the teacher
limited their zeal to a width of seven feet so as to
leave room for new pupils.
• • t
Walks were laid out, one foot wide, separating the
children’s gardens. Difficulty was found in getting
the sides straight and one of thet boys suggested the
use of a garden line. A piece of twine was found and
the children, after much measuring, finally laid off
their own gardens and began to dig with pride of
ownership. That was the first day at school and not
a child would go home when school was out!
* * *
But some of the children had forgotten what gar
dens were their own, so they Insisted that the gar
dens be marked. ~ut how? Each child was asked to
go to the blackboard and draw a plan of a marker.
They all agreed on a stake with a cross-piece ...at
should bear the name of the owner. After much dis
cussion, each child giving his defense of his own
plan, it was decided that the upright pieces should be
eighteen Inches long by two Inches wide, and that the
cross-piece should be three Inches wide and twelve
inches long. So the whole school went to the carpen
ter shop, demolished an old dry goods box for lumber
and went to work measuring and sawing and nailing.
Not one of them so much as suspected that he had
had a lesson in drawing, a lesson in arithmetic and a
lesson in manual training. Of course, they talked all
the time, to each other and to the teacher, but the talk
was all of what they were doing. One boy perhaps
vaguely feeling the influence of past generations of
school children, asked If he might whistle as he
worked at the carpenter’s bench. "Certainly," said
the teaoher. And no one thought it at all surprising
that Mclver should whistle in school!
• • •
Each part of the work of making the stakes was
assigned to a particular child. The assignments were
written on the blackboard by the teacher. No word
was spoken. The older children read their own or
ders, or whatever they may be called, and read the
others to the younger children. Ambition to be able to
read their own orders made it necessary for the tiny
tads to learn to read. They simply couldn’t get along
without it. So a little sentence appeared on the
blackboard: “I have a garden.” And It was read
aloud, and then everybody made the word “seed” with
the cut out letters on the table. But there was no
class in reading and no recitation in arithmetic, or no
semblance of the conventional school. (It may be
mentioned here that this first session of the school
was begun and held before the publication in America
of the first exposition of the work of Mme. Mon-
tesorri).
* * *
On the third dly it was too wet to garden, so
grains of corn were put in wet blotting paper to ger
minate and some beans that were put in damp earth
on the first day are examined. They have sprouted!
Tiie teacher speaks of the baby bean, the seed coat,
the two leaves, the stem and root, and she writes the
word “see” on the blackboard. Then “see the pota
to.” and then they model a potato in clay, and they
draw pictures of u.e bean on pdper and color them—
a very fine game.
* * *
At 10:30 the teacher announces recess, for even
this teacher was not able entirely to rid herself of
the conventional ideas of the old school. But before
the fifteen minutes was up the children had slipped
back to their work. It wasn’t long until the “recess”
had to be abandoned because the children said they
couldn’t afford to take the time from what they Were
doing.
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*