454 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 534. 



1904, witli a membership of furty-six per- 

 sons, constitutiug, perhaps, as remarkable 

 a gi'oup of varied industrial, financial, edu- 

 cational and social interests as was ever 

 brought together in America or in any 

 other country. Its membership now repre- 

 sents fourteen states and the District of 

 Columbia. The object is to secure as 

 nearly as practicable uniform legislation 

 and uniform enforcement of laws on this 

 subject throughout the uuion. 



The work befoi-e the national committee 

 \ comprises the edixcation of public opinion, 

 on the one hand, and the bringing to the 

 attention of both the legislative and exec- 

 utive branches of the state and national 

 governments the results of the careful and 

 scientific study of both existing conditions 

 and remedial measures. The national 

 committee hopes to bring together the re- 

 sults of a larger parental responsibility, 

 the better development of the public school 

 system and the enactment of child labor 

 legislation in the several states and terri- 

 tories, and to coordinate these efforts so 

 that the evils of child labor may be eradi- 

 cated from the industrial system of 

 America. 



The Press as an Educalor. "Wm. H. 



Lynch, Salem Public School, Salem, Mo. 



Jules Verne, the world-famous novelist, 

 wisely predicted that long before the 

 middle of the century novels or romances, 

 in volume form, would be supplanted by 

 newspapers. The newspaper of to-day, 

 great as it is, has yet before it a develop- 

 ment and potentiality for usefulness 

 scarcely imagined by its most far-seeing 

 and progressive directors. 



It must be obvious to all thoughtful per- 

 sons that the newspaper may easily be 

 made the medium of imparting valuable 

 instruction in many departments of knowl- 

 edge on which the very latest text-books 

 are mere blanks. Take, f- r example, the 



experiments of Llarconi in wireless teleg- 

 raphy, so minutely recorded and illustrated 

 in almost every newspaper. Would not 

 the study of the despatches, describing the 

 achievements of the great Italian, by boys 

 and girls sufficiently advanced to under- 

 stand them, be infinitely more profitable 

 than the dull book pages they are com- 

 pelled to read concerning the laying of the 

 first ocean cables so many years ago? To 

 this question there can be only one answer. 



Take another current subject, with the 

 discussion of which the newspapers have 

 been filled in the most instructive and 

 luminous way— that of Venezuela. "What 

 might not a competent teacher, with the 

 aid of the press, have accomplished in the 

 treatment of this question toward instilling 

 in the minds of his pupils correct under- 

 standing and conception of the Monroe 

 Doctrine, let us say, or a knowledge of the 

 Spanish- American republics generally and 

 our relations to them? Then there was a 

 great coal strike and the war between 

 Russia and Japan. 



In the school books are a few meager 

 facts and dates, forgotten almost as soon 

 as they are learned, with respect to that 

 basic factor in the industrial world. AVith 

 the universal interest centered in the sub- 

 ject and the assistance of the newspaper, 

 the skillful teacher could have done more 

 to expand and inform the minds of all 

 those intrusted to his care than all the text- 

 book writers combined. Children should 

 not, of course, be permitted to read every- 

 thing printed, even in the newspapers. 

 The latest advances in scientifi? knowledge, 

 the newest inventions and discoveries, in 

 every branch of human endeavor, are all 

 heralded in the morning or evening des- 

 patches. Years hence the text-books will, 

 as it were, embalm them in their solemn 

 ])ages. Why should the child be c:™pelled 

 to sit ill darkness with the light of knowl- 

 edge blazing all around him? 



