Extract from Mr. Angell's Address to the 

 Annual Meeting of "The National Associ- 

 ation of Superintendents of Public Schools," 

 at Washington, D. C, Feb. 14, 1884. 



"Nearly all the criminals of the future, the thieves, 

 burglars, incendiaries, and murderers, are now in our 

 public schools, and with them the greater criminals who 

 commit national crimes. They are in our public schools 

 now, and we are educating them. We can mould them 

 now if we will. To illustrate the power of education: We 

 know that we can make the same boy Protestant, Roman 

 Catholic, or Mohammedan. It is simply a question of 

 education. We may put into his little hands, as first 

 toys, whips, guns, and swords, or may teach him, as the 

 Quakers do, that war and cruelty are crimes. We may 

 teach him to shoot the little song-bird in springtime, with 

 its nest full of young, or we may teach him to feed the 

 bird and spare its nest. We may go into the schools now 

 with book, picture, song, and story, and make neglected 

 boys merciful, or we may let them drift, until, as men, 

 they become sufficiently lawless and cruel to throw our 

 railway trains off the track, place dynamite under our 

 dwelling houses or public buildings, assassinate our Pres- 

 ident, burn half our city, or involve the nation in civil war. 



" Is it not largely., if not wholly., a question of education ? 



" I am sometimes asked, ' Why do you spend so much 

 of your time and money in talking about kindness to ani- 

 mals, when there is so much cruelty to men > And I 

 answer, */ am working at the roots.'' Every humane pub- 

 lication, every lecture, every step, in doing or teaching 

 kindness to them, is a step to prevent crime — a step in 

 promoting the growth of those qualities of heart which 

 will elevate human souls, even in the dens of sin ana 

 shame, and prepare the way for the coming of peace on 

 earth and good will to men. 



