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r THE FUTURE CITIZEN page 7 PROGRESS (By Dr. Frank C rane) One would naturally suppose that in a thousand years or so, people woujd accumulate a little sense; but one would be mistaken. Plain horse sense tells us that the only way for a race lo progress is to make each new generation bet ter than the old. The only way to do this is to train every child in the nation. This does not mean training in arithmetic and literature, but in useful labor, in self-control, in hon esty, in teamwork, and in the arts of government by democracy. If we give every boy and girl a thorough education of that kind, nine-tenths of our social evils and personal perversions would dis appear. Almost every hardened criminal in our cities is a neglected boy. Most of the scarlet women of our streets enlisted before they were eighteen. We howl about decent wages for shopgirls. No girl has any busi ness to be working for a living. Neither has any boy. They have a right to be equipped by the state lor sell- supporting citizenship. Behold us now ! We exert our selves through churches and miss ions to “rescue the perishing” in city slums—which amounts to squirting a half-inch stream upon a house afire. We are punishing criminals in courts, penning them up in rotten prisons, hanging them by the neck, or killing them by electricity. j ^ et anybody who knows history * knows that this does not and never 1 did stop crime. We are treating human nat ure as bad. and are trying to“redeem” it and “punish” it. But we cannot improve human nature until we believe in it, love it, train it, and trust it. Bring our economic conditions into line with justice. Give every born baby a square deal. Abolish our endowed class and the mediaeval fiction of the right of inheritance which maintains that class. Make everybody work for a living. And train every child to earn a living. Humanity is incurably good. All it needs is a decent chance. 'Cake as good care of your children as you do of your hogs and horses, if you want fine human stock. That means all children : none must be neglected.—Cosmopolitan. WHICH ARE YOU? (By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.) There are two kinds of people on earth today; Just two kinds of people, no more, I say. Not the sinner and saint, for its well understood, The good are half bad, and the bad are hall good. Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man’s wealth, You must first know the state of his conscience and health Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span, Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man. Not the happy and sad, for the swift-flying years Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears. No; the two kinds of people on earth 1 mean, Are the people who lift and the people who lean. Wherever you go, you will find the earth’s masses Are always divided in just these two classes. And, oddly enough, you will find too, I ween, There’s only one lifter to twenty who lean. In which class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road? Or are you a leaner, who lets others share Your portion of labor and worry and care. Two .Kinds of Boys. “Wanted a well grown boy who car. make himself generally useful. Salary moderate to start with.” This was the advertisement that called together twenty-five boys The merchant talked with one af ter another until only two remain ed in the outer otlice. “Come in both of you,” called the merchant “I can tell you what 1 want and what I am willing to pay.” Then followed an enumeration of the ser vices expected with the promise of two and one-half dollars a week with an increase at the end of six mont hs. One of the boys turned on his heel and said : “That settles it! 1 can’t afford to work for any such wages as that.” “I’ll try it,” said the other, “and if 1 suit you six months will soon pass. The two- fifty will pay actual expenses, for 1 live at heme; then when l get to earning more l can help more. Five years passed. The first hoy idled away his time and went from bad to worse. At last lie stood in the prisoner’s dock awaiting trial for forgery. What was his aston ishment to behold his former friend ranged on the side ot the prosecu tion as junior membet of a firm of eminent lawyers. There was no need of argument on eit her side for the poor fellow broke down at sight of his former schoolmate, and risingsaid: “I'll tell the truth and take my punishment. It I’d begun as that young man five years ago 1 might have been somebody todav, but 1 was above low wages and did not believe in small beginnings. Now l am a living example of what pride and indolence can do for a boy.” Satan is always sure to find mischief for idle hands, and the only way to keep clear of his work is to be busy at something all the time pay or no pay.—S. (». Hop kins. in Watchword.