THE ROMANCE OF THE L.C.S.

Evening Star, Issue 14626, 24 July 1911, Page 7

THE ROMANCE OF THE L.C.S.

[By Ronald Buchanan.] "Business is busiress." Whatever may be the precise significance of this wellworn maxim, it will probably be admitted that it represents the high-water mark of such ethical conceptions as are permitted to find a place in the working of tho ordinary commercial enterprise. That Li to say, the average business man, so far a 6 the pursuit of his calling is concerned, is a business man and nothing more. He is there to give value for value; to fit his supply to the cominu>nity'a demand; and to do these things, as* far as may be. with clean hands and a good conscience. He is, let it be granted, scrupulously honest in the of his trade; he gives full moasnrw and good value; he satisfies the highest canons of commercial integrity. And thp public are content. Ho is expected to make au honest living, not to dispense charity. He is a. business man, not a philanthropist. He may be the most altruistic of men in Ids personal relations with the world, but so far as concerns his business—well, it is business.

It is none the less refreshing, however, to lind that here and there business lias demonstrated the possibility of its being something more Concerns "are not wanting which, while failing in no one essential of business as such, still display such a measure of altruism in their operation that they have come to bo recognised as agents of social service and human progress.

Tho work of the International Text-book 1 Company may not bo generally recognised as coining within this category. Presi- | dent Foster himeeif is not so sentimental as to behove that an institution whose business it is to impart knowledge should be _ expected to do it without cost to the recipient, and there are probably few concerns in the world better organised along purely business tines than that over which he has presided for so long and with such distinction. Yet I hope to show in the course of this article that in its inception, in its present-day conduct, and in the developments that continue from time to time to mark the expansion of tho work, there has been and is being exhibited a spirit that may fairly be claimed to transcend the ordinary motives of trado. It was in 1872 that Thomas J. Foster, then a young man, went into the printing and publishing business in the important mining town of Shenandoah, Pa., the centre of a coal mining population of ICO.OOO. As editor and proprietor of the ' Shenandoah Herald ' ho began to devote his energies to the well-being of his fellowcitizens They were all mining folk, and he found among them —miners, foremen, and owners—his companions and associates. Ho soon came to understand their conditions of life, and to see what was needed to improve these. At that time there was little iti tho way of mining regulations in force in Pennsylvania, and that little was sadly out of date. But let me continue the story as it was told me by President Foster himself some months ago in the Administration Building of the I.C.S. in Scranton:

'' Because of this Jack of regulations, and tno ignorance of the sciences that regulate the phenomena connected with mining," he said, " we had a groat many accidents. Miners were being killed all the time, and sometimes foremen and owners. I lost personal friends in this way. and I began to take a serious interest in the matter. I started an agitation for the passing of laws to provide for the insjjection of mines and the education of the miners and foremen, the earns as in J'higlaud. J succeeded in securing the passing of these laws, and then I started in with my publications to educate the miners so that they could p;;ss the necessary examinations. I attempted to do this in my newspaper at that time by a system of questions and answers in tho correspondence column, but I found that I could not do thorough work in this way. I then republished in cheap editions the more popular English works that had been gotten up for the education of miners, and sold them extensively. Finally 1 conceived the notion of getting up a series of private instruction papers, with accompanying answer papers, covering tho science of mining, and suitable for study by men who had no educational advantages. Tho story of the International Correspondence School is the biography of that effort. When the work was first organised we didn't think it w,is possible to teach men surveying and drawing by correspondence, so we conducted schools for the miners to attend in the summer time, in which they could take practical lessons in these subjects. But we ?oon developed methods of teaching them by correspondence, and the summer schnoly were then abandoned. Classes w-ero then organised in mechanical drawing, and afterwards in mechanical engineering. And so we. have added subject aftor subject. We are now preparing courses in plant culture, fruit culture, poultry culture, and domestic science."' President Foster is of opinion that every subject may bo successfully taught by correspondence, and the growth and popularity of the I.C.S. work seem to bear out this viow. All that is necessary, ho claims, is a specially-prepared test book adapted to the requirements of the man who has to study at homo without tho assistance of n present teacher. Tho courses undertaken by the schools now number over 200, and they comprise such diverse subjects u,s navigation, windo\vtriinming, Spanish, locomotive-running, elc-ctro-therapeutica. The test, books in cormcction with these several courses are subject to constant revision, first, in order to keep pace with the march of science, and second, in order to incorporate in them such changes as will make them easier to study, or as may bo found to bo necessary from experience in teaching. The cost of this revision alono amounts to something over 100,000dol a year. The American is proverbially fond of statistics, and I might go on quoting some of the many facts and figures 1 have gathered illustrative of the work done at tho headquarters of this unique educational institution, as, for instance, its 6,1 acres of floor space, its 120 motors, its special post office on the premises, with an annual expenditure for postage of 150,000d01, its 1,500 forms issued at tho rate of 1.000,000 a month. But this is outside my purpose. I want I rather to allude to a recent phase o[ the work of the institution, which may help to illustrate my claim that it does not restrict its operations solplv to the channels that satisfy tho canons of good business.

Some time ago it was noticed that a student's instruction papers were being forwarded for correction from one of the State prisons. The matter was deemed worthy of special investigation, and it was discovered that a convict had enrolled as a student of the I.C.S. To the alert and generous mind of President Foster- a noble notion suggested itself. He determined to introduce, the courses of the schools into the prisons and penitentiaries of the country at a nominal cost. As a source of revenue to the institution it could mean nothing. To the convict, and incidentally to the community, it might mean a great deal. It was "magnificent, but it was hardly business. It was something moro, however. To vary the terms of au old story, it was "education, salvation, and rehabilitation all run by the one man." The- efforts of such a system on the minds and prospects of the convicts can easily bo imagined, but I cannot do better than quote some of the testimonies given by the men themselves and those immediately interested in them.

A pisonor in one of the Eastern penitentiaries says concerning the work: "It arouse or awakens whatever faculties he may have lying dormant, and fills the heart with hope and desire for the future. His brain is soon occupied with clean and healthy thoughts. Ho is prepared to face the world again with renewed energy, and fortified with vastly increased powers." An inmate of New Jersey State Prison writes: " It affords me great pleasure to 3tate that many inmates of New Jersey State Prison are enrolled in the I.C.Sj The principal keeper is imbued with an ardent desire to witness the moral and mental advancement of those under his charge, and through him every possible incentive is given the prisoner to improve his time while serving his sentence. Al-

though, the State requires about nine horns' •labor for each working day, several of the prisoners are literally burning the midnight oil in their earnest endeavors to progress more rapidly in their respective courses, and in order to enable these to devote to their studies as many hours during the night as they wish the principal keeper has granted them the privilege of individual lamps in their cells. a favor greatly appreciated by the ambitious student." Another student expresses himself thus : "I feel that in placing your ooureo within the reach of prisoners you have taken a step long needed, aad if successful, which I hope it will be, it will bo a God-send not only to the individual, but to the public at large. I really think it will reduce criminality more than any other work so far undertaken."

Here is the testimony of a young Canadian convicted of burglary : " I think the benefits to be derived from an I.C.S. course by prisoners in the various penal institutions in the United States and Canada would be simply incalculable. A continuous course of study 6crves a twofold purpose—it furnishes a wholesome mental discipline which keeps the prisonor from brooding over his misfortunes, and it furnishes him with a means whereby ho may, on his discharge, tako his position among his fellow-men. A well-known prison chaplain says : " I find that it urges a man's ambition to higher and better things, and paves the way for nn honest livelihood when he is discharged from a place of this kind. By close application to study he keeps his mind in a healthy channel and forgets crime. It gives him an opportunity to make good use of the time, that otherwise would be lost to him, in learning a profitable trade or occupation." It is hardly nocossary to add anything to testimonies like these. They appeal to one's judgment as fairly describing the probable results of the system of which they treat. A healthy, useful occupation of the mind during the prisoner's period of incarceration, with all that this means of moral reinforcement, resulting in an increased knowledge and efficiency that must assist materially towards his rehabilitation amongst his fellow-men when released—this, surely, is au ideal worthy of the sympathy and support of all who take an interest in the social and moral progress of the race. In these days of prison reform, when individuals and governments are beginning to take saner views of the great questions of crime and its punishment, this little offshoot of the great work of the I.C.S. should not fail of recognition. President Thos. J. Foster already ranks high among the world's gTeat educationists, and when his work fcas been rightly appraised he will bo accounted by no means the least among her social reformers.