GOOD SENSE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 39, 22 January 1886, Page 21

GOOD SENSE.

(New York Freeman's Journal).) In several of our exchanges, uncredited. occurs the following paragraph : " A good many centuries ago, in the early days of the Jewish nation, it was held to be the duty of all parents to teach their children to work, so that they might be able to maintain themselves. There was no middle course. It was hell that the man who did not train his son to be a workman was necessarily, by neglect, educating him to be dishonest. The records of tbe Penitentiary show that this principle holds true, to some extent, today ; that the thieves, as a class, are very largely composed of young men who have not been taught to work. In modern times, however, society has taken the place of the parent as an educator, and it is society that is at fault, to some extent, in not providing a system of education fitting the pupils for work. This is remedied, to some extent, by technical schools, which, though they do not teach trades, and cannot do so, prepare the boys for work and give them the right kind of respect for manual skill. That, at least, is something gained." Too many parents are glad to let society— that is, the Statetake the burden of their children off their hands. They do not see the enormous sin of this, but it brings its own punishment The Jewish ideal of family life— an ideal which the Jews have not lost to this day— was a high one. The father was head of the family, the arbiUr, under God, of the fate of hi-, children, and to Go I only did he feel responsible for them. This, too, is the Christian ideal, with a more sublime meaning and still higher attributes ; but modern society takes a different view. In one of Moliere's comedies there is a sciolist who coolly takes a man's heart out of his body and puts it back on the right side. Then be answers anxious inquirers by saying : " Ob, we have changed all that ! This pleasant fiction of the comedy-writer is very like the present position of civilised society on the subject of education. It attempts to change the order of nature, and coolly answers : '• Modern I knowledge is greater than God." It was settled long ago that man must work in order to live. All I the talk of the Socialists, who seem to think that Kden may be restored through their efforts, cannot alier that fixed fact. Mnn in not born with the skill aud the tools necessary to do work needed by tbe world. It rests with bis parents to Increase and conserve his strength, that he may begin to work. The majority of men must work or steal in order to live. Those who are not taught to work are tempted to steal : hence the most dangerous class of the community is the •• Hoodlums "—youths who steal to live, or who depend on the exertions of others that they may live. This idleness saps all manliness, all virtue ; it makes those who live in it callous to the sufferings of others, and selfish to the last degree. Idleness, whether tbe consequence of lack of work or lack of desire to work, ia the greatest aid to anarchy and revolution. There can be no doubt that the fa* her who lets his son grow up without providing for his future, lavs him open to temptation. It v no easy thing, in these days, for a father to fit bis son for work, or to find work to fit his son. Nevertheless, it is not harder than the ' efforts fathers make to lay up money for their sons. A little timu and attention taken from the absorbing occupation of maney -making would be of great advantage to sons, who sometimes find riche? without the education necessary to use them properly, more of a burden than a boon.

There is no txouse for the poor man, if be let hit ton idle away nil yean in the oaeleu schools provided by the Bute, in which no preparation tor lite is made. He o»onot conscientiously avoid too duty of teaching his child how to maintain himself. Kingi and princes—notably the princes of the reigning German families— learn trades at part of their education. Bat the fathers of our young Americans hold their sou above manual work. We are not aware that •• society " provides technical schools for the majority of pupils who most work to lire. But we are aware that 11 society provides public schools at public expense, in which the children of workingmen get the opinion that the hard work of life is not for them. It was good enough for their parents— good enough to clothe them, to feed them, and to keep them warm, when done by others— but it is not good enough for young persons of that higher education provided by the Stale. They look to easier means of supporting themselves. But they do not, as a rule, honestly find them. They are startled by the realities of life. They are unarmed, unprepared. ' ' The jails are full of young men— not uneduoated, in the popular meaning of the word— who coveted what they bad not been taught to work for. Americans need to learn a lesson which ia not taught in the public sohools : that " independence "is not an inheritance, but a spoil torn from the world by frugality and industry.