Page:May Walden - Socialism and the Home (1900).pdf/19

 Rh forget their miseries, and they do not feel like studying. They have never had a chance to learn anything but low thoughts and bad words, nor to see any sights but vulgar ones. How can you expect them to grow into healthy, pure-minded men and women and makes homes which shall be foundations of "a glorious country?" Such people are the most dangerous a country can gather. Do not say "Ship them back to the place they came from." They are being made here every hour and minute of the day and night, and the only way to help them and help the country is to give them their liberty from the shop, factory and mine. Turn them loose into the country air, into the free sunshine, and let them run and roll, and teach them from birds and flowers how to grow up into noble, helpful manhood and womanhood. In Chicago alone there are over 15,000 children at work at different occupations, the most of them in factories and workshops. A safe estimate of the number of children in the United States who are obliged to work is two million.

In order to get the most out of life, people must be educated, but the opportunity for a good education comes to few children. "Under our public school system cannot every child get a good education?" No, far from it. Education has become a class distinction. Many children must leave school at the age of twelve or thirteen years, and even younger, in order to help earn money enough to support the family; and they never can go back again for the same reason. In the United States in 1896, out of a total school population of nearly twenty-one million, less than half of that number were in average daily attendance. The average length of the school term is 140 days, so one can imagine the amount of knowledge the laborer's child gets.

The question of education and a discussion of its different sides, including the imperfect sys-