daily impressed with the dangers of hell and the devil in their study of the "New England Primer." The sample page from the Primer which is reproduced in the accompanying picture shows the children offering their Praise to God for learning to Read... His holy Word," because it taught each that he was a "slave to sin" and made him wonder whither could "a sinner flee to save himself from Hell." The "New England Primer was the universal book for beginners in reading in the colonial schools of New England. Similar primers were used in other colonies. After the primers had been mastered, pupils proceeded to read in the ९९ SAMPLE PAGE FROM THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER," ILLUSTRATING THE DOMINANT OTHER-WORLDLY RELIGIOUS AIMS OF COLO- Bible. In the early colonial schools down to about 1750 practically all of the reading matter was of a religious nature. Hardly anything else was taught in the elementary schools except arithmetic, and that only in the larger towns. Social changes since colonial period. To comprehend the change from this narrow conception of elementary education to the broad idea of training for "complete living," as emphasized by Spencer about 1860, it is necessary to consider the enormous social changes which had taken place in the meantime. We shall discuss three of these social developments or changes under the following headings: democratic government, practical humanitarianism, and industrial interdependence growing out of the factory system. Democratic government. Without education it becomes a farce or a tragedy.—The organization of the American government as a republic following the Revolutionary War had far-reaching influences upon elementary education. The fact that governmental affairs were now in the hands of representatives elected at short intervals by the people made it very important that all citizens be trained to understand the duties and problems of citizenship. This fact is well expressed by James Madison, the fourth president, in the following words : A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. . . . The best service that can be rendered to a country next to giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation and enjoyment of that blessing. (7: 133) Training for political citizenship not an empty phrase. — Too often the phrase "training for citizenship" is spoken glibly without serious comprehension of its significance in the actual life of our country. It is well to read the first sentence in Madison's statement and then apply it to the reign of the Bolsheviki in the Russian Revolution of 19171918 to understand what a terrible "farce" or "tragedy' a republic may become in the hands of mistaken or unscrupulous leaders of an uneducated and largely illiterate people. Training in reading and in the independent study and evaluation of printed discussions of social issues is one of the fundamental bases of enlightened, democratic citizenship. Just as soon as our republic was established, this fact was appreciated. As a consequence political orations were inserted in the school readers, and accounts of the history and geography of the country began to be written and gradually found their way into elementary schools. Democratic government and education to benefit the people. Not only does democratic government necessitate an education which trains for enlightened citizenship but it demands also an education which will benefit the people, the masses of citizens, in all possible ways. This becomes clear when we think of a democracy in Lincoln's terms as a government of the people, by the people, for the people." A government for the people is one that does all it can for the people. Since the public schools of a democracy are merely a part of the government, their purpose also is to serve and benefit the people in all possible ways. Practical humanitarians attack social evils including educational neglect, slavery, juvenile criminality, and poverty. The problem of helping and benefiting people was attacked during the nineteenth century not only by democratic governments, however, but also by practical humanitarians working as individuals or organizations, often in coöperation with the government. To help the unfortunate classes, humanitarians in England and America attacked especially, during that century, the following evils : slavery, juvenile criminality, poverty in the large cities, child labor, and the lack of primary education. Slavery in the English colonies was abolished by an act of Parlianot ment of 1833. Lincoln's abhorrence of slavery and his State w abolition of it in this country are familiar to all. Juvenile Hist criminality and poverty in the large cities was attacked in America early in the century. In 1800 the population of the five largest cities was as follows: Philadelphia, 69,403 New York, 60,489 Baltimore, 26,114 Boston, 24,937 Charleston, 20,473 In these cities existed concentrated ignorance, vagrancy, pauperism, vice, and crime. Public-spirited citizens who were concerned about the degraded condition of the lower classes in the cities organized societies to study and improve it. Thus, in New York City there was organized in 1817 the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. This society undertook the establishment of a savings bank, an apprentice's library, and other enterprises. Defects in the penitentiary system were attacked, especially the confining of vagrant children with hardened criminals. A private subscription of $17,000 was raised for the founding of a House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents, which was established in 1824, the first of its kind in the United States. Private philanthropy established free schools of New York City. The same peculiar problems of city life were uppermost in the minds of citizens who established the first free schools on a large scale in New York City. Owing to the fact that no public schools existed in this city of 75,000 people in 1805, a private philanthropic society undertook extensive provisions for free education. Speaking of the social needs of the city's poor at that time De Witt Clinton said: A number of benevolent citizens had seen, with concern, the increasing vices of the city, arising, in a great degree, from the neglected education of the poor. Great cities are, at all times, the nurseries and hotbeds of crime. Bad men from all quarters repair to them, in order to obtain the benefit of concealment, and to enjoy in a superior degree the advantages of rapine and fraud. . . . The mendicant parent bequeaths his squalid poverty to his offspring, and the hardened thief transmits a legacy of infamy to his unfortunate and depraved descendants. . . . In this state of turpitude and idleness, leading lives of roving mendicancy and petty depredation [these children existed] a burden and disgrace to the community. (7: 265) Child labor attacked by English humanitarians, 1833. The efforts of humanitarians to benefit the masses of people, particularly children, is further illustrated by the restriction of child labor in England. The following account of this action is given by Hazen following his story of the English abolition of slavery in 1833. Conscience was aroused at the same time by a cruel evil right at home, the employment, under barbarous conditions, of children in factories. The employment of child labor in British industries was one of the results of the rise of the modern factory system. It was early seen that much of the work done by machinery could be carried on by children, and as their labor was cheaper than that of adults, they were swept into the factories in larger and larger numbers, and a monstrous evil grew up. They were, of course, the children of the poorest people. Many began this life of misery at the age of five or six, more at the age of eight or nine. Incredible as it may seem, they were often compelled to work twelve or fourteen hours a day. Half-hour intervals were allowed for meals, but by a refinement of cruelty they were expected to clean the machinery at such times. Falling asleep at their work they were beaten by overseers or injured by falling against the machinery. In this inhuman régime there was no time or strength left for education or recreation or healthy development of any kind. The moral atmosphere in which the children worked was harmful in the extreme. Physically, intellectually, morally, the result could only be stunted human beings. This monstrous system was defended by political economists, manufacturers, and statesmen in the name of individual liberty, in whose name, moreover, crimes have often been committed, the liberty of the manufacturer to conduct his business without interference from outside, the liberty of the laborer to sell his labor under whatever conditions he may be disposed or, as might more properly be said, compelled to accept. A Parliament, however, which had been so sensitive to the wrongs of negro slaves in Jamaica, could not be indifferent to the fate of English children. Thus the long efforts of many English humanitarians, Robert Owen, Thomas Sadler, Fielden, Lord Ashley, resulted in a passage of the Factory Act of 1833, which prohibited the employment in spinning and weaving factories of children under nine, made a maximum |