his hard-earned soles. In some cases it means debt for life.

Add to this burden of superstitious faith fostered upon him by his conquerors, the use of alcohol to which he has also been introduced by the white man, and one sees two of the chief obstacles in the way of the Peruvian Indian's present advance.

The lack of knowledge regarding the outside world has thus far kept the Indian an inhabitant of an isolated existence, and his mountains and his animals are still the chief

things which he knows. That he is as good and as capable as he is, considering his lack of opportunities is a revelation of the inherent qualities of a race of men worthy of the study and the sacrifice of any people truly interested in humanity.

The red man of the Sierras has degenerated since the white man has touched him. The great question persists, when will the white man pay his debt to the South American Indian by giving him the privilege of being a man?

which has characterized the American mind in these times of a world war has had a spiritualizing effect upon childhood. Truer values have been put into the place of sham and ephemeral interests, and the ideals of humanity and civilization have been pushed into the foreground with unusual force. We may assume that there is being developed, to some extent, a heightened sense of patriotism, of patriotic duty, of self-sacrifice, of love for fellowman.

Yet, even this new patriotism, with a child, is a somewhat hazy thing. The child, ordinarily, has too little personal experience of the extent, even, not to speak of the meaning of his country, of what it might signify to him, in distinction from other countries. He takes things for granted, and does not bother himself much as as to where the good

home, his school, his advantages, are all accepted in a spirit of thoughtless self-complacency. American children have so far, luckily, escaped the real horrors of war, and their deprivations have been little. They cannot fathom the spirit of selfdefence against a foreign foe. Their idea of "country" is not well defined; it is composed of a number of symbolic phrases which are devoid of the stern realities which they represent to the mature mind. They live still in the paradise of childhood, unconscious of these stern realities. A high school student may begin to divine the horrible emptiness of the life of The Man Without A Country

to the elementary school child this wonderful story conveys little meaning. Real patriotism presupposes a certain maturity of mind which is not the child's. The child's inability

to grasp the full significance of patriotic subjects is accentuated by the deplorable fact that the teaching of history, even of American history, is still extremely weak in our public schools, not only the elementary, but even the high schools. We may remember that an American child may pass on to college and thru college to the university without having more than a smattering of U. S. or universal history.

Nevertheless, I am willing to admit that momentous times like these will offer many welcome opportunities of impressing patriotic duties even upon young children. The Red Cross

work, the Boy Scout movement, even the mere parading of soldiers, or the enlistment of brothers, fathers and relatives in the army or navy, their departure for the warring the warring countries, will impress lasting les

sons.

But there is a host of regrettable effects which we must not underrate.

The very sadness unavoidably associated with these experiences cannot fail to affect the child unfavorably, to burden his soul with undesirable conceptions. I have never been able to persuade myself to believe that sadness, bitter experiences of any kind, help in the development of the child soul. To the child, happiness is a source of strength, and the longer we can safeguard for him that paradise of childhood, so that the thought of wrong or sin would not enter his mind prematurely-not until he is fortified by the examples of love, goodness, and faithfulness-the better for his character development. Faith must come first; the realization that there is strife and treachery acts like a shock upon the sensitive soul of the child and may warp his whole being before its time.

The effect of war upon happy child life has always been found to be sad. When the child's attention is directed to the bitter things, to hatred instead of to love, his whole world takes on a darker hue. Our children have been caught in the swirl of excitement, often bordering on hysteria, which is swaying the entire country. Thus the emotions of the young have been turned into abnormal channels, and the lust of blood, of killing, has entered their systems. The talk they hear, the pictures they see, are about trenches, war machines, smashing battle lines, throwing shrapnels and hand grenades, killing the foe at the point of the bayonet, etc. The millions who are killed or maimed, the terrific cannonades of the artillery, mowing down everything before them, the use of poisonous gases, of submarines and airbombs, appeal to their imaginations in lurid pictures. Soldiers who become experts in killing are the popular heroes. The peaceful conquest of civilization retires into the background. The very playthings now offered to the child are representative of the ruthless spirit of war. We have blamed the foe for bringing up his children with thoughts of warfare-and justly so. But what shall we say when we see in our own toy stores and in our own nurseries all kinds of toy soldiers, exploding submarines, even miniature tanks for the boy's playtanks, those modern juggernauts which crush the life of the foe under their cruel onslaught? And these war toys and games were given our children even at the great feast of love, at Christmas, when the angels are supposed to chant into every human ear the old carol of peace on earth and good will to men! The death-dealing shrap

nels, in silver and gold imitations,

are

introduced into the peaceful homes as goblets, vases, dring mixers, and what not. It is horrible enough that these things exist, and that war breaks down the barriers of adult civilization. But let us spare our children, as far as we can, the corruption of youthful spirit which comes in the wake of toying with its horrors.

It is certainly not a mere coincidence that cities thruout the country have shown a great increase in juvenile crime. The juvenile courts are busier than ever, and there is a great percentage of insubordination and so-called incorrigibility in the schools. The same thing was observed in England and France as one of the unavoidable results of the war.

We have no data about Germany, but the conditions there can hardly be better; may be they are worse. Truancy has been pronounced as one of the first steps in the direction of delinquency.

The supervisor of attendance in one of the larger cities of the east, in a recent interview, credits the enlistment and consequent absence from the family circle of older brothers with having as much influence on the conduct of the younger members of the household as the absence of the fathers. But for the most part he believes the cause to be rather a psychological one. "There is a condition of subdued excitement," he says. Also, as part of the war conditions, there has been much to be seen in the street that is fascinating to the average alert boy. "Sometimes the boy's truancy began because he skipped out to see the soldiers go by."

Another grave danger for the child is what has been called the wage lure. The child of even elementary

In

school age has been called out to do some share in war work, almost from the beginning of the war. Sometimes this call was disguised as wholesome exercise in backyard, garden and farm work or, in manual training, as the making of some useful articles for Red Cross, or other immediate war-time use. Schools, classes, teachers and social organizations vied with each other in exploiting children in this manner. some instances children, often without proper supervision against overwork, were sent out among the farmers and truck gardeners. I remember an appeal to boys of high school age to hire themselves out as stewarts to the officers in the camps; this appeal came from a rather authoritative source. School boards were not averse to offer the services of their charges in all sorts of "war work."

Educational aims and methods were lost sight of. The immediate practical end was the only thing considered. Thus, the parents began to realize the working capacity of their children, if they had not before realized and exploited it. The barriers which had been so laboriously erected to protect children from exploitation, began to crumble down. Open attempts were made to suspend the child labor laws during the duration of the war. And actually, the schools declined in attendance. Apart from the fact that boys of high school age were encouraged to enlist and were highly praised as being particularly patriotic when they volunteered instead of completing their adolescent education: many were tempted to accept employment for remuneration. When the attendance. officers succeeded in locating those under age having no "working repermits," and, in sending them back

to school, there was often distinct resentment, and, as the same officer said whom I quoted before, "the boy who has had his taste of moneymaking, goes back a dissatisfied youngster and then plays hookey." The wage lure is a strong lure inasmuch as owing to the alleged scarcity of labor these youngsters of sixteen or seventeen are able to earn wages out of proportion to normal conditions. Thus, they are tempted to feel independent and will resent parental restriction, spending their easy money unwisely and not too well, victim of temptations and dissipation. In the case of the girl of this period, the danger is still greater. And much graver. It would be easy to prove that the same conditions which ensnare the boy, also trap the girl, and that with her, the attraction of the uniformed soldier has proven to be a moral pitfall.

The war spirit has even affected our courses of study. Perhaps favorably, in some instances. More attention is being paid to the teaching of history and geography than heretofore. Manual training is better co-ordinated with the book studies; nature work has received a higher valuation. Physical training is more emphasized now than ever. But the war bias has colored many of these improvements. The war spirit and war prejudices have entered the school room. The teaching of the so-called foreign languages (all of which, and more, being spoken by many thousands of American citi

zens) has been reconstructed, not for pedagogical reasons, but to serve an emotional purpose of doubtful value. Body training is undertaken largely with a view of making better fighters, and mothers of fighters. The militaristic ideals of Germany which we so justly decry, have become filtrated into our national body, into our educational system, like an insidious poison.

War is, at best, a necessary evil. It surely is an evil, and there may be grave differences of opinion as to whether it is necessary. Yet, be that as it may: this appalling world catastrophe which is turning the world upside down would be a still greater misfortune than it is if out of the caldron of suffering there would not emerge a new world, purified and united in true ideals of civilization and humanity. This new world will be our children's inheritance. They will have to build it and develop it. If we now undermine their best interests, the very conditions of their of their healthy growthhealthy in body, in mind, in spirit, in emotions, and ideals—what is to become of their precious heritage?

Let us keep our eyes open. Maybe we cannot avoid all the deplorable effects which the present crisis must have upon our children's souls: let us at least do all in our power to minimize these effects so that we may look with confidence into the future of those who are dearest to us, in whose lives our own lives will be immortal.