"FIRED THE SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD" Leading citizens and officials in four cities have pledged their cities to accomplish Social Quarantine. The General Federation of Women's Clubs of the United States, through the president, Mrs. Rebecca D. Lowe, of Atlanta, Ga., and the National Congress of Mothers, through the president, Mrs. Alice G. Birney, have pledged their efforts to Social Quarantine, and will make Social Quarantine the key-note of their administration. The adjourned Prison Reform Congress, which convened at New Orleans in January last, resounded with notes which advocated prevention to avoid the necessity of punishment. Social Quarantine was explained to the Congress by the author, and, at the close of his address, by a rising vote, the Convention unanimously subscribed to the practicability, desirability, and possibility of Social Quarantine as just expounded. BECAUSE "IT PAYS!" The National Cash Register Company, of Dayton, Ohio, employing over two thousand employees, and said by experts to be the most perfectly organized industrial institution in the world, having many unusual features of comfort and recreation for the employees because "It Pays," and having kindergartens, cooking schools, gardens, etc., for the training of the children of the employees and other residents of the factory quarter, have published the decree that, "After 1915 no application for employment in the company will be considered unless the applicant has had an industrial (otherwise kindergarten) training in childhood." The company will continue to publish this conspicuously, and why? Because, in their experience, children so trained are workers to be trusted without superintendence, and "It Pays" to have such workers. This shot at old conditions relative to the improper care of children is the result of experience, and it is truly a shot that will be "Heard 'round the World" louder than that which first belched forth in defence of personal liberty at Concord, Mass. The liberty to learn to work with skill, and to participate in recreative work, is the ultimate liberty that ensures the possibility of happiness. This is the aim of the educational philosophy of Froebel, so ably endorsed by Charles Dickens, so beautifully exemplified by Mrs. Peabody, Mrs. Cooper, Miss Blow and others by successful practice, and now brought into the economics of manufacture by a great company which has tried it and finds that "It Pays." Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is hereby placed in the public domain. |