Part 6

The origin of the name "Quarantine" is traced to republican Venice at the time when she was mistress of the Adriatic and of the outside world of commerce as well. It referred to the period of forty days prescribed as a term of probation during which vessels, men or merchandise coming from infected ports should not enter the harbor.

Names of institutions often stimulate the efforts of those employed under the title in the direction of the aims of the institution, and names given to children sometimes seem to determine their occupation or in other ways to influence their character or career.

Students of Child-Life find in the lives of Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and many others who have achieved military glory, a steady inclination to be worthy of the heroic names they bore, and some go so far as to associate the patriarchal qualities of President Lincoln with the subtle suggestion insisted on by the name of Abraham.

It is reasonable to suppose that names in constant use carry strong suggestion with them and for that reason we have adopted the names "Character-Building and Habit-Forming" by which to designate the several schools that are intended to fit children for the independent individual employments of mature life.

For the same reason we have adopted--invented, if you like--the name "Quarantinist," to apply to such as share our sympathy for health and harmony in all branches of social and individual economy, and the name "Neglectist" to apply to all others, not by imposition, but by inference.

Who is there that would like to be known as a neglectist, and who is there, having joined the ranks of the quarantinists, that would not constantly be reminded to apply the suggestion to matters of individual care?

"Kindergarten" is a beautiful name, with fine poetic significance, but unfortunately is not quite sufficiently descriptive of its high purpose. In common acceptance it means a something intended principally to "amuse children and keep them out of mischief until they are old enough to learn something useful."

The method of analysis and training that has ripened out of the wise suggestions of Saint Froebel is the most important acquisition to pedagogy that has ever been discovered and is applicable to any branch of education and also to the use of industrial institutions in improving the condition and status of employees as well as establishing cordial relations between employers and their employees.

A splendid example of the latter application has been carried to success by the National Cash Register Company, of Dayton, Ohio, whose happy and enthusiastic employees number nearly two thousand persons of all ages and both sexes, scattered in every part of the world where commerce reaches, but the subject of this institution and its methods is worthy of a special treatise. It is an "object lesson" which should be known to everyone within the whole range of contact between directors and directed in industrial pursuits.

The first aim of all education should be Character-Building and Habit-Forming in order to prepare a fertile and weedless soil in which to nurture seeds of intellectual attainment, manual skill, and religious intuition, all of which are the certain product of character cultivation. These insure industry and growth which never fail to produce blossoms of religious yearnings.

Intellectual and manual training are themselves most useful instruments in establishing character and habit, but their first and best mission is sometimes overlooked, and intellect and skill are frequently taught to children without reference to poise, honor, order and harmony, in which case the instruction is like building upon sand, without adequate foundation.

Character is really the chief object and recognized mission of the kindergarten and no disrespect is intended by suggesting the names "Character-Building" and "Habit-Forming" to include it in a wider scope of application.

All great world-movements in the evolution of civilization are modestly started. Froebel was undoubtedly unconscious of the tremendous impetus toward reform that his "_Mutter Werk_" had put in motion. Like all great movements it started in the warmth of a simple and spontaneous love impulse, but has spread a wave of true charity that more nearly satisfies the Christ ideal than any that has before covered the world. In the simplicity of its inception it received the blessed name of "Kindergarten," unconscious of its wide mission in the cause of general reform and harmony.

That the mission of the kindergarten is a very broad one is proven by the fact that more victims of hopeless and hardened criminal mania have been touched and reclaimed through kindness to the children of these unfortunates in kindergartens, as related elsewhere, than by direct effort.

Until the time of Froebel educational methods left character and habit forming to parents and religion. These are not sought to be replaced by the Froebel method, but they are powerfully supplemented by it; and, when character and habit schools for young children, followed by an adequate number of manual-training and parental farm schools to test older children for preference of occupation, have come to be appreciated as the _most important functions of government_, as well as of education, as they must do to keep up with the present acceleration of progress, the Science of Government will rest on the Science of Child-Care, and will have been simplified to the position of greatest effectiveness.

Herein will woman find the sphere of her greatest usefulness and of her natural inclination.

Wherever a great light appears to enrich literature, or art, or science, or philanthropy, or invention, or discovery, or whatever branch of usefulness it may bless with its potential energy, it is easy to trace much of the excellence acquired to the teachings of a mother. To the mother impulses and instincts we owe much that is good in our treasury of thought, but opportunity for the best mother influence has been, and still is, a matter of chance, with few good models available for the parents of those poor and oppressed innocents, "The Hopelessly Submerged Ten Per Cent" of ignorant and cruel tradition.

The "_Mutter Werk_" of the kindergarten, pursued anywhere, upon the common, by the wayside, in a wood-shed, or in a shabby but tidy room in the midst of a city slum, carries the opportunity of profitable lessons in life to all, and fulfills the mandate of the Christ in the spirit, as well as in the letter, of His command.

QUARANTINE AGAINST MALADMINISTRATION

"What shall we do for these children? Good people everywhere should combine to care for them and to teach them. Churches should make it an important part of their work to look after them. The law of self-preservation, if no higher law, demands that they should be looked after. How shall they be looked after? By establishing free kindergartens in every destitute part of large cities."--_Sarah B. Cooper, before the National Conference of Charities and Correction_.

QUARANTINE AGAINST MALADMINISTRATION;

OR,

PLACE FOR A MOTHER DEPARTMENT IN GOVERNMENT

There was a time when woman had no voice in government, when she could not hold property in her name, and when she was regarded as very much the intellectual inferior of man.

Within a century there has been a growing tendency to admit women to all the civic privileges enjoyed by men, even to vote in political contests. In some advanced communities women now vote for officers of the school department and serve with distinction in school boards.

Women now enjoy complete equality in four, and partial political suffrage in twenty-three of the United (?) States of America.

Since it is recognized that woman has _some_ place in politics, it is well to consider what is her _especial_ sphere within politics.

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It is by a wise division of labor that great ends are attained, and the blessings of civilization are only possible through the most economical division of effort which assigns to each unit of a community that duty which it is best fitted to perform.

Woman has always borne more than her share of the burdens of life, and her lot has often been ill apportioned. In primitive conditions of society she was considered merely as the bearer of children and the servant of the stronger sex by the same argument that made slaves of conquered foes or weaker neighbors.

In the division of government, if woman is to participate in it, she should serve with unhampered freedom in the departments where mother intuition, mother wisdom and mother skill are needed.

The development of kindergarten and college-settlement work has demonstrated that women are wonderfully efficient in the establishment, management and development of these character-forming institutions, and if they were sufficiently extended so as to begin a Perfect Social Quarantine the sphere of woman's usefulness would almost be unbounded.

If woman has been the means of establishing the value of public free-character institutions, and they should come to be appreciated as the _most important function of government_, as they must eventually be appreciated, because they are the _nurseries of good citizenship_, why should not this be recognized as the special sphere of the gentle sex in administration, and why should there not be a Mother Organization to serve in a special Department of Character Schools?

By this apportionment woman would win all the advantage that could be desired and ample field for her usefulness, for a vigorous and thorough administration of the Mother Branch of Government would insure generations of good citizens to whom administration of all executive branches could be entrusted with confidence.

Apropos of the German _Lied_, some one has said, "Let me select the songs of a people and I care not who makes the laws."

There is also an axiom of similar import in the Catholic Church, "If we have children under our influence until they are seven years of age we do not fear other influences they may be subjected to for the rest of life."

Both of these assumptions are proven to be wise by the wonderful solidarity of the German race and of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Juvenal it was who said, 'The man's character is made at seven; what he then is, he always will be.' This seems a sweeping assertion; but Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Lycurgus, Bacon, Locke, and Lord Brougham, all emphasize the same idea, while leading educators of a modern day are all united upon this point."[7]

[7] Sarah B. Cooper.

A Mother Organization in politics or administration might safely and appropriately adopt the following assumption and promise for its propaganda:

"_Let us manage all of the institutions relative to child care and child training during the period of formation of child habits and character, and whatever means are necessary to maintain a perfect moral and social quarantine to supplement the family institution and furnish the requisite models of profitable suggestion, so that no child shall escape the best care known to the Science of Child-Life, and we will promise to save, within a single generation, one-fourth of the present cost of government, including the cost of our own branch, and add to the taxable effectiveness of production a measure that cannot be estimated. We will also immediately reach cases of shiftlessness and depravity that are a menace to the peace of the community and effect in them reforms that present methods cannot accomplish. We will also promise, through our unofficial Unsectarian Associated Charity Societies, intimately connected with our crèches and kindergartens, to search out cases of silent and modest distress, relieve them without an offensive show of patronage, and at the same time throw a search-light of enquiry upon perverse idleness and beggary that will render them impossible to flourish on the credulity of unorganized charity._"

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In suggesting a name for an organization to take charge of character institutions the word "Mother" seems to be the only one that suits the purpose and aims. It would escape the imputation of "old-womanishness" by the very wisdom of its purpose and aims, and it might appropriately include in its membership both men and women who approve of the proposed apportionment of woman's sphere in the division of government administration and recognize its civilizing mission, without breaking affiliation with chosen parties in the established lines of political competition or mission work.

And is there not good logic in the suggestion of a mother organization to manage an important branch of government, wherein woman has proven her superior wisdom and efficiency?

What has woman to do with war if not to furnish brave soldiers and an incentive to heroism?

What has woman to do with correction and punishment, if not to make them unnecessary by seeing that children are not bred to idleness and crime?

What has woman to do with vexed economic questions, if not to rear the sons of productive toil and furnish an incentive to civilized living?

What should woman have to do with politics, if not especially with that branch of administration which deals with training the tender shoots of humanity to be chivalrous, honorable, self-respecting and orderly as a foundation of good character on which to build a structure of good citizenship?

And, on the other hand, what has man to do in the sphere of mother efficiency, in keeping with the demands of a rational division of labor, than to furnish the support required, and, in himself, show a worthy example of the potency of mother influence?

SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL QUARANTINE ORGANIZATIONS

"In the great seaport city of Hamburg--of all sorts of cities the one likeliest to prove an _omnium gatherum_ of the human refuse brought by ships from all over the world, I lived a whole week without seeing a beggar, a tramp, or a drunkard; and what is true of Germany is more true of Japan."--_Julian Ralph_.

SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL QUARANTINE ORGANIZATIONS

During the preparation of this appeal for organized effort to establish Perfect Social Quarantine, the writer has enjoyed the advice and example of numerous workers in the field of child-saving and child-training, both in Chicago, where the incident which led to the appeal occurred, and in other sections of the country, representing various and extreme conditions of opportunity, need and experiment. Among them we wish especially to mention Mr. Hastings H. Hart, general secretary, National Conference of Charities and Correction, with headquarters at Chicago; Miss Julia G. Fox, director of the West Division Kindergarten, Chicago; Miss Eva B. Whitmore, general superintendent, and Miss Estelle Taylor, secretary, Chicago Free Kindergarten Association and Kindergarten Normal Department, Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago; Mr. Michel Heymann, superintendent, Jewish Orphan Asylum, New Orleans, La.; Mrs. Mollie E. Moore Davis, New Orleans; Miss Mary F. Ledyard, supervisor of Kindergartens, Los Angeles, Cal.; Colonel George McC. Derby, United States Engineer Corps, in charge of Lower Mississippi Levee District (now, August, 1898, at Santiago de Cuba), New Orleans; Mr. William S. Harbert, president Forward Movement, and Mrs. Harbert, Lake Geneva, Wis., and Evanston, Ill.; Rev. Dr. George W. Gray, in charge of the Forward Movement schools and charities, Chicago; Mr. Hugh K. Wagner, attorney-at-law, St. Louis, Mo.; Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McCoy, actively interested in the rescue and cure of crippled waifs, Chicago; Mr. Myron M. Marsh, Chicago; the examples of the National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, and of the N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company, St. Louis, Mo.; Miss Amalie Hofer, editor of Kindergarten Magazine, official organ of the Kindergarten Department of the National Education Association, Chicago; Mrs. Lucretia Williard Treat, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Colin A. Scott, Ph.D., professor of psychology and child-study, Cook County Normal School, Chicago; teachers of classes at Hull House, Chicago, whose Mæcenas, guardian and manager is Miss Jane Addams; Hon. William J. Van Patten, Burlington, Vt.; Mr. Clarence A. Hough, Indianapolis, Ind.; Mr. Clarence F. Low, president of the Charity Organization Society, New Orleans, La.; General Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Mansfield, Ohio; and Hon. C. C. Bonney, organizer and president of the Auxiliary Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, in charge of the World's Parliament of Religions.

We wish also to acknowledge valuable assistance on the part of Mynheer J. Drost, president of the Board of Education, Rotterdam, Holland; Sydney Whitman, Esq., author of _Imperial Germany_, London, England; Julian Ralph, Esq., traveler and author; and R. W. Rogers, Esq., Yarmouthport, Mass., and New Orleans, La., whose combined stores of information, supplementing that obtained from the workers mentioned above, and that in possession of the author as the result of personal observation, seem to fairly represent the field of practical suggestion.

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As encouragement to those who may be interested in the cause represented in this appeal, from either the religious, humanitarian or economic point of view, and who may desire to organize local bodies to supplement the family, existing public institutions and the National Quarantine Organization, which is now under consideration, in putting a cordon of care about childhood, it is pertinent to state that all of these workers and observers endorse our position without reservation. In fact, we have failed to receive a shadow of denial or lack of sympathy from any of them.

Full-grown questions, relative to full-grown subjects of competition, will always elicit argument in discussion, but care of children during the formative period of character and before the money-earning age finds no opposition, so that Perfect Social Quarantine is only a question of organized effort to accomplish the complete aim.

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In further encouragement of organization and effort, sadly deplorable though it be, it is valuable to know that the average career of criminals or peace disturbers, when they have come under the ban of ostracism, and are become social "outcasts," such as burglars, thieves, prostitutes and others, most of whom lead dissipated lives as an accompaniment to their evil doing, is not more than three or four years. This estimate of the average life of crime in an individual is from the best authorities. Criminals either die or reform after three or four years of strain, and frequently earlier, so that the average is maintained.

All of the trouble that Society suffers comes from spasmodic crime which is fed from the ranks of neglected childhood, and which would disappear from among us if the gaps of neglect were closed by means of a Strict Social Quarantine; and, within five years from the closing of the last gap, for a popular wave of prevention would effect such impetus to correction that disorder and crime would be impossible in _all_ communities as they already are in _some_ communities; while the general dissemination of proof of the infamous falsehood of the necessity of a Have-To-Be-Bad class would open the eyes of all citizens to the criminality of neglect and thereby effect a speedy cure.

SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL ORGANIZATION.

The best work is secured through committees whose aim has been defined by an executive committee, composed of the officers, _ex-officio_, and the chairmen or chairwomen of the separate committees.

SUGGESTED LIST OF COMMITTEES.

Committee on Districts or Wards and Census of Children Needing Care, and also on available rentable rooms to accommodate the neglected in groups of not more than fifteen or twenty in each class. There may be several classes in each school, all under the supervision of one director, and assistants.

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Committee on Estimates and Finance.

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Committee on Securing the Services of Scientifically Trained Teachers, to serve as directors, and on Securing Volunteer Teachers, in process of training, to serve as assistants.

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Committee on Securing Initial Support until government shall take over the schools which have proved to be efficient nurseries of good citizenship on demand of the people. Experience teaches that this method of introduction and progress towards proper public establishment and support is natural and speedy, as the result of the merit of the process of citizen culture suggested.

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Committee on Suitable Nourishment and Clothing for destitute children.

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Committee on Parallel Sanitary and Cleanliness Requirements, which must claim attention in connection with the reclamation of children from unsanitary and uncleanly surroundings.

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Committee on Emulation for individual or sectional neighborhood cleanliness and for home or neighborhood decoration; this outside of the schools, where no prizes should be given.

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Committee on Crèches.

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Committee on Kindergartens.

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Committee on Manual Training Equipments.

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Committee on Domestic Science Equipments.

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Committee on Vacant Lots to Be Used as Vegetable Patches, by which to teach nature study, and through means of which to offer prizes for the best results of growth obtained.

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Committee on General Amusements of character-building or habit-forming suggestiveness.

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Committee on Circulating and Traveling Libraries, aiming to reach remote country districts, tributary to the urban community.

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Committee on Stereopticon View Circulation, in connection with other organizations so as to bring the world to the children and to their parents.

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Committee on Associated Charities to co-operate with the character schools.

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Committee on Transportation of Children from their homes, or from farms, or from designated rendezvous, by means of wagons or otherwise, to the character schools; an important consideration.

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Committee on Statistics and Laws; following the careers of children to note effect and permanency of cultivation; to be used in legislation when needed.

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Committee on Waste for the Waif.

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The latter committee may well study the history of sacrifice in times of war and other emergencies and learn that these seasons of deep and common interest have often inspired the putting away of useless ornament and luxury, and the saving of careless waste in the interest of a patriotic cause, and that the sacrifice has been a means of positive pleasure that indifference or neglect cannot carry with them.