Part 3

Mr. Hastings H. Hart, general secretary of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, who is in close communication with six hundred correspondents who are especially interested in child-saving work, assures us that if there is no obstruction offered to the free choice of children, and facilities are available for proper training, practically all can be made useful citizens, and that by coöperation to attain that aim, social quarantine is possible. The present headquarters of the National Conference of Charities and Correction is in Chicago, in the Montauk Building, 115 Monroe Street. The Conference is doing a great work in stimulating and organizing reforms. The annual subscription--$2.50--entitles members to the published proceedings of the Conference, which are an epitome of the history of progress towards social quarantine. There is no more profitable coöperation than by means of membership in this association.

We wish to say further with reference to the comprehensiveness of Mr. Van Patten's evidence, that his range of observation is, like that of Mr. Hart, as wide as the country. His activities include both the church and the political fields. He has twice been mayor of Burlington, was the first president of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and is still a director; is president of the Congregational Club of Western Vermont, as well as of the Kurn Hattin Farm School. He was instrumental in establishing kindergarten work in his home city, and also a Social Mission, where he and other Christians meet the laboring people of the community on the basis of friendly and citizen equality. But Mr. Van Patten's evidence and Mr. Hart's is the same as that of all who have entered personally into the sympathies of unfortunates, especially by the way of giving their children the means of proper training, and they are as one in the belief that thorough measures, which would effect a Perfect Social Quarantine, would rid society entirely of the "hopelessly submerged" class, and sift out of its present mass the diseased and incompetent, who should have the care of an asylum instead of the curse of a prison.

One evil that follows in the wake of such a wicked assumption as that carried in the idea of a Have-To-Be-Bad class is that it is not only a loop-hole for willing indifference, but is a blinding influence cast about those who are not willingly indifferent.

Under such a general assumption an earnest philanthropist or a would-be altruist may pass expressions of deplorable misery, want or neglect with doubt, if not with calm unconcern, under the belief that they are of the Have-To-Bes, whereas, if there were even an attempt at Perfect Social Quarantine no case of distress nor neglect could show itself in a community without its becoming the business of everybody to enquire why the social quarantine officers had not attended to their business.

In this manner the professional beggar, the tramp, the Need-Not-Be, and all that tribe of parasite humanity who prey upon the credulity of unorganized charity would be discovered in their true light, and would shrink out of sight or would be forced to seek useful occupation, if it were to be had, or would then hold just title to public assistance if no occupation were available.

It is well to bear in mind when considering the question of the Have-To-Be or Need-Not-Be classes that concrete society has to care for them in one form or another anyhow, whether they work or whether they are idle or steal. They bring nothing with them and must live off the land. If they do not work they live off the workers. In infancy, the cost of caring for them in a manner supplementary only to home care is very little, but the profit of that care increases in value in geometrical ratio as does also the cost of the neglect of right training.

And also, in answer to a question often asked by those who are not informed about kindergarten efficiency, relative to securing the willingness of parents to accept outside care for their children: The question of voluntary or compulsory compliance on the part of parents or children need not be feared during the earliest character-forming age, for until the child is old enough to earn money no selfish objection can be offered, and the greater the need, as stated elsewhere, the more easy is the compliance accorded. As this is the period of present neglect, as well as the time when all students of child-life agree that the character of the adult is moulded, the vexing question of parental control need not be raised.

The duty of social quarantine is to seek out the children of the greatest need first and work back through the strata of misfortune to those of fortune, in the same way that a process of cleansing should first use a shovel, then a broom, and finally a wash rag and a polishing cloth.

The habit-of-thought of a community aiming at quarantine efficiency will become impregnated with the idea that there _Must-Not-Be_ unwholesome units in their midst as soon as it has been delivered of the evil suggestion of the necessity of a Have-To-Be-Bad class, for it is wonderful what the mere change of a point of view will effect.

On the question of the virtue, or merit, of Strict Social Quarantine, there seems to be no difference of opinion about the desirability of the aim, and the efficacy of available means to accomplish it has already been established.

We have heard it said that the kindergarten method is splendidly adapted to the children of the poor but not to the children of the rich in America, because rich children are petted beyond endurance, and have toys in such lavish abundance, that even instructive amusements and wholesome care are but a burden when added to home superfluities. This may easily be so, as there is a point of surfeit in everything, even in the best of nourishment, but it is proof of the wisdom of a wider distribution of the effort so as to really nourish instead of causing a surfeit of care.

It is not the rich and the strong and the healthy that need the direct care of social quarantine, but its rescues from among the presently neglected and warped defenseless ones would create a wave of average improvement of ideals that would be felt in the most luxurious homes to the benefit of the pampered possessors of fortune's birth prizes.

At the present moment, the summer of 1898, there rests in the custody of the mayor of Chicago, Hon. Carter H. Harrison, 2nd, a report of a special commission appointed by him to recommend changes in the educational methods of the city of Chicago and the county of Cook, that are intended to bring them up to the level of the highest ideals. Among the recommendations it is advised that an ample kindergarten shall be attached to every school, and that there shall always be school facilities so that every child of school age shall have a seat at his disposal. The recommendations relative to the higher branches of education do not concern our present argument, but the suggestion relative to extending kindergarten facilities is of the greatest importance.

The mayor and a majority of the aldermen are believed to hold the welfare of the community they govern in earnest care, so that it is a good time to strengthen their hands to do the best and completest thing in the way of reform while changes are being made, and to insist on nothing less than Strict Social Quarantine to protect all the children of tender ages in order that the work of reform may begin _now_, at the root, and insure a generation of eager students and workers to use the splendid facilities, already supplied, when they arrive at school age.

It is not necessary to wait for the construction of fine buildings, and there will be ready for any need a competent army, if required, to take up the work of training.[2]

[2] In the city of Saint Louis, at the end of the 1896 school-year, there were seventy-one volunteer kindergartners, and the length of the waiting list of the training schools precluded promise of even volunteer appointments for three years to come. This is but an illustration of the trend of interest in the direction of character-building school employment.

Many young women are beginning to learn that _true happiness is the evidence and fruit of conscious usefulness_, and that the work of the kindergarten and industrial schools, in producing conscious good results, creates much happiness and enthusiasm in their devotees, and they are being drawn to appreciate, and will eagerly participate in, so pleasurable an occupation,--the only one that quite satisfies the mother impulse within them.

It is also a recognized fact, as an outgrowth of the development of character-school training, that no other preliminary experience is so good in fitting a young woman for the duties of married life as a course of kindergarten study; and, furthermore, there is no part of the kindergarten work that is not useful, in its simple suggestiveness, to anyone, of no matter what sex or age.

This is not, however, a plea for any particular system of pedagogy, although the method of Froebel seems to merit all praise, but for the recognition of the fact that Character-Building and Habit-Forming schools should be appreciated as the _most important branches of government_ and not as minor branches of education, and that _they should be supported as becoming the nurseries of good citizenship_.

Don't wait for fine buildings; any habitable room in the deepest part of a slum, cleaned and whitened to suggest Godliness, such as have already been used effectively for mission kindergartens is better than nothing, and sometimes better than the best, for the initial work of redemption.

PROFITABLE SUGGESTIONS.

It is the proper function of the government of a community to support so important a thing as a _nursery of Apprentice Citizenship_. Charity exercises great good in that "It is more blessed to give than to receive," but it is a poor regulator of unbalanced conditions. When it is most needed, as in cases of industrial depression, it is hardest to find.

Perfunctory charity gets weary of giving and demands the stimulation of novelty to excite it to action. It is such a poor regulator of unbalance that helpless infancy should not suffer neglect by its caprice.

As long as charity is lending its support to partial measures of relief it seems almost as if it were throwing money and effort in a hole, for there is little appreciable diminution of the need. This is why charity gets weary of its good work.

Were there a complete aim to be sought, and an estimate of cost prepared, the additional expense would not be large, while the results would soon be very evident in a community purified of its expressions of persecution and neglect, and the city or the State or the nation or whatever branch of the federal government which assumed the charge would always be ready to meet any need of the service of social quarantine as its first duty to its sovereign units.

SOCIAL ASPHYXIATION.

Organized unofficial initiative must _lead the way_, however, in social experiment, in fostering new measures of reform, until the State adopts them. Suggestions, relative to local quarantine organizations, gathered from many sources of social wisdom, are given in another chapter. When such a measure as Perfect Social Quarantine is the aim of organization it is well to insist upon adoption by the State by all possible means. Voluntary taxation of _one one-hundredth_ of the _income_ of _half_ of a community, as suggested, will accomplish a Perfect Social and Sanitary Quarantine. Families voluntarily tax themselves twenty per cent. of income for comfortable houses alone. _One-twentieth_ of this single item, properly applied, would accomplish Perfect Social and Sanitary Quarantine and make living _anywhere_ comfortable.

And finally, the chief menace of the lying hypothesis, expressed by the assumption of the necessity of a "hopelessly submerged," or Have-To-Be-Bad or Have-To-Be-Miserable class, is that it is not much of a stimulant to charity and is an anesthetic to public and individual conscience.

Conscience is an expression of Character. Conscience _is_ Character, and anything that helps to dull conscience helps to kill character; and, as character is the only firm foundation on which a republic can stand, indifference to neglect is an influence which must wash away, in time, the very foundations of liberty and happiness.

Pessimists constantly echo the cry of the necessity of a Have-To-Be-Bad class. Do not listen to this cry. If it is true under present methods of indifferent and uncertain protection it _need not be so_. You can correct the fault in a generation. Listen to Mayor Van Patten, to Chief Crowley, to Mr. Hart, and to the state secretaries of the National Conference of Charities and Correction of Canada and the United States. These altruists know. Pessimism, assumption and many a stereotyped tradition lie. Don't listen to the lie. There is better news in Truth. Seek the Truth about your fellowmen and helpless waifs and learn that a social quarantine such as we propose, protecting childhood between the age of earliest perceptions and that of reasonable public school age, will give them a choice between good character and habit and bad character and habit, and that _ninety-eight_ per cent. of the "_hopelessly submerged ten per cent_." will choose the good and become useful citizens.

This is what we mean by a Perfect Social Quarantine, and this is the menace of a Have-To-Be hypothesis by which to dull the conscience and kill the character of our republic.

Ninety-eight per cent. of the ten per cent. defective characters have been saved after becoming warped, and saved by the methods of the kindergarten. What would not the same method of character-building accomplish in the way of protection instead of correction? It would also prevent deep scars being marked on the tender soul matrices confided to our care.

SUSPICION REMOVED.

One excuse for the assumption of a Have-To-Be-Bad class lurks under the suspicion of irremedial hereditary taint. This suspicion has been proved to be without foundation.

Heredity is race memory. Physical heredity is memory and perpetuation of physical characteristics, like legs, arms, senses, color, etc., but is constantly being modified by environment. Mental heredity does not follow the physical but is a sensitive undeveloped film which holds itself a blank in the darkness but develops in the light of environment. While physical heredity goes on adding to its proportions, if allowed to normally develop, newly-born mentality must be attended by example, books, or other monuments, to start it on the plane of intelligence of its progenitors or it becomes as blank as that of a savage; with force, but no aim. The remarkable mental difference of children, while there is strong physical resemblance, in a family, denies the close continuity or potency of mental heredity in the matter of equipment and tendencies, which constitute the basis of character. The force is there but each is a distinct, new and important message from the Creator, given us to interpret and cultivate according to the best intelligence available to us.

NOTE: The careful observations of Ernest Bicknell, Esquire, (secretary of the Indiana Board of State Charities, at the time the observations were made, but at present secretary of the Associated Charities of the City of Chicago,) relative to the transmission of Feeble Mind in parents to their offspring, only serve to strengthen our assertion relative to mental heredity.

Feeble Mind is a lack of healthy brain tissue and relates to quantity of mind possibility, while mental bent is a matter of quality and is amenable to direction of aim, either in the direction of good, or in the direction of bad efforts. Ingenuous childhood prefers the good in all normal cases, even if its home surroundings are perverse, for the good is sweeter, and children are especially susceptible to the allurement of sweets.

The ranks of greatness and genius are usually filled from humble parental sources, in which character dominates over a desire for material accumulation, and rarely from greatness or genius itself, whose child-product, under parental neglect--or possibly shadow--frequently drops to an insignificant place in the scale of usefulness. If any fixed, progressive, inexorable law of mental heredity were in force in evolution, these tendencies would be reversed. Mind is Nature's one unknown quantity, except that it is good in preference to being bad, if it is given a chance to choose; progressive, if deterrents to its normal growth are removed from about it, but reactive and resentful if denied the blessing of cultivation.

The efficacy of Character-Building schools lies in their ability to teach children how to aim. What they learn while character is forming is their chief equipment in life.

Whoever learns to swim or to play billiards or to shoot when he is young never forgets his cunning at these acquired habits. It is the work of the kindergartner to find out what the natural born equipment of the child is, and to direct it; teach it to shoot right and straight, to swim safely through life, and to carom, follow or draw with the skill of an expert billiardist; carom from the evil, follow the walks of usefulness and draw unto itself the happiness of life.

SOCIAL QUARANTINE FIRST

"Said a wealthy tax-payer to me recently, as he paid me his monthly kindergarten subscription: 'Mrs. Cooper, this work among the children is the best work that can be done. I give you this aid most gladly. I consider it an investment for my children. I would rather give five dollars a month now to educate these children than to have my own taxed ten times that amount by and by to sustain prisons and penitentiaries.'"--_Sarah B. Cooper, before the National Conference of Charities and Correction._

SOCIAL QUARANTINE FIRST

Man is social first and individual afterward.

That is, without a social system man cannot exist.

Without social advantages and economical division of labor a human being ceases to be a man and becomes a very helpless animal.

It is only in the midst of social aid and protection and by the help of intelligent coöperation that man may develop an individuality having civilized attributes.

Social Quarantine is of first importance because a strict recognition of it applied to children during the habit-forming period of their growth will render greatest aid to morals and religion and also to health. An appreciation of God and that stimulating, rational and healthful reverence for good that constitutes true religion must needs follow as a natural result of Perfect Moral and Social Quarantine.

Perfect Social Quarantine minimizes causes for fear-thought and thereby destroys the arch enemy of energy, growth and happiness.

To minds that have been protected during the first years of life by being surrounded by wholesome suggestions, it is scarcely necessary to preach against the passion of anger and the self-abuse of worry, while religion comes intuitively to such, because fearlessness is the normal condition of a protected mind and religious sentiment of some sort is the natural tendency of pure thought.

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The attitude of pedagogy toward character-formation from the earliest times has been faulty. That is, the approved methods of one generation have, in turn, become classed with the methods of barbarism in the following generation, and will continue to be so shelved by succeeding generations until all the systems shall recognize a strict social quarantine as the first duty of instruction and cultivation.

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What is Social Quarantine?

Social Quarantine means throwing a perfect cordon of care around tender souls coming into a nation or community so that none shall escape contact with the wholesome suggestions and adequate nourishment that are essential to growth and habit-forming according to the best intelligence of the Science of Child-Life.

Social Quarantine requires the extension of the crèche and kindergarten systems and the provision of parental farms and manual-training schools to meet all needs, and it promises in return a crop of material for good citizenship whose character and efficiency shall save at least one-fourth of all taxation and add a proportionate percentage to the productive equipment of society.

Until the time of Froebel, society had depended on family quarantine to protect it against the evils that beset childhood, without furnishing models by which families might learn to know the best methods of care. In seaport quarantine the use of independent, State or municipal systems is securely supplemented by a national system, with the effect that there is a double cordon of protection, so that there is the least danger of a weak point to menace a whole country by its neglect. Perfect Social Quarantine, such as here recommended, would have the quality of a national, State or community quarantine to supplement the hallowed family institution, always ready to render service wherever needed.

If you cannot force a horse to drink, it is none the less criminal not to supply him with water. If society does not wish to coerce the family institution into complying with scientific methods of child-care, it is none the less criminal not to supply facilities so that none shall escape care who need and seek it.

The experience of kindergartners has taught that incompetent parents do not need coercion, or even coaxing, to submit their children to care, and that the greater the strenuousness of the need the easier the compliance following it.

Nowhere did Christ say, "Let childhood follow _any_ course until it has formed habits of evil and ruined its digestion, and then send it to me for right teaching." "Suffer little children to come unto me (for what they may need to _start_ them aright) and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven," is a burning protest against the possibility of child neglect such as prevails.

Christ's protests were misunderstood by his followers, who tried to reconcile them with the old traditions, until Saint Froebel suggested a practical application of Christ's injunctions, but out of that method wonderful results have already been obtained and marvelous possibilities have been uncovered.

Children cannot say, "Get thee behind me, Satan," with the authority of quarantine, because they do not know what "satan" is, but "satan" or evil constantly lurks about them and they cannot help but absorb it unless they are carefully protected. If the family is incompetent to protect, society should stand ready to do so until _no child can escape care_, and the responsibility of one neglected soul should hang heavily on the conscience of every member of a community until there is no more neglect.

Not one word must be said to the detriment of that sacred institution, the family. It is the basis of society and of our civilization. Nothing can replace the family as a means of good influence, but it is imperative that it should be supplemented with models of the best kind known to the best intelligence in order to raise the average efficiency to the highest possible point.