FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



character-building, the days of elemental passions, correspond- 

 ing to the life of the European people directly after the fall 

 of Rome. Then begins to assert itself that wonderful faculty, 

 the imagination, which has no sympathy with the hard, tan- 

 gible, practical, matter-of-fact things of earth, but builds a 

 world of magnificent unreality and fills it with a life which 

 the average adult fails utterly to understand : Feudalism. 

 Then comes the religious impulse and the child enters upon 

 the battle royal for character : Crusades. Next a feeling of 

 spiritual self-sufficience develops, which indicates a desire for 

 independent thought in religious matters : German Reforma- 

 tion. Then the will comes to its own and assumes control : 

 French Revolution. And finally appears the desire to establish 

 a home of one's own : Economic Liberty. Now to the extent 

 to which the child passes through these periods in its develop- 

 ment from childhood to adulthood, to that extent is it fitted 

 for the complete life. 



Harnessing the energies of the youth of the nation during 

 the developing years, is a big problem. North Carolina has a 

 splendid plan for keeping its boys busy. During the summer 

 boys who wish to work out of doors at reasonable wages are 

 employed by the state and learn how to build good roads. 

 From the New York State College of Agriculture it is learned 

 that last year school children destroyed nearly a billion tent 

 caterpillars. They collected over four million egg masses of 

 the pest, each of which averaged two hundred eggs. One 

 school of thirteen pupils collected 55,525 of these egg clusters 

 and thus saved countless apple, peach and plum trees from 

 blight. Reports from other states are similar to these from 

 North Carolina and New York. Only two things are needed 

 competent leadership and work that will appeal with a spice 

 of romance to the youth of the nation, and results will be 

 forthcoming. 



A. Play Grounds 



Realizing the first fundamental needs of childhood, some of 

 the good people of Boston, in the year 1882, started a play- 



26 



