III


AN EDUCATIVE FORCE


"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

"After all, it is the children who are the important factors of
our nation, and every one of them neglected is a reproach to every
Christian, man or woman, in the churches who has a dollar or a voice.
When the Spartans were demanded to give fifty children as hostages,
they wisely replied, 'We would rather give one hundred of our most
distinguished men.'

"It is an irrefutable fact that the work with the children pays
the best dividends to the state and nation. There is a Doric oracle
which says, 'If the Athenians want good citizens let them put whatever
is beautiful into the ears of their sons.' If we Americanize this
oracle it would read, 'If the Americans want good citizens let them
put whatever is beautiful and useful into the ears of their sons and
daughters.'"


* * * * *


It is instructive to note the inter-relation and interaction of
forces and influences that have been powerful factors in national