Volume 1 Number 32
Serial Number 32
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, FOUR DOLLARS. SINGLE COPIES TWENTY CENTS.
FOREIGN POSTAGE, 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE, 50 CENTS EXTRA.
ENTERED AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y., AS SECOND-CLASS
MATTER. COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., PRESIDENT
AND TREASURER, R. M. DONALDSON; VICE-PRESIDENT, W. M. SANFORD;
SECRETARY, L. D. GARDNER.
_Editorial_
The Mentor Association is less than a year old. The Mentor plan
is a few months older than that. But the idea of which The Mentor
Association is the outgrowth is one of the oldest in the world. It is
as old as Curiosity--and just as human. The “Wonder Why” of Curiosity
is always linked with the “Want to Know.” The two lead on to Knowledge.
What has always been wanted and what is wanted now is a quick, easy and
agreeable way of getting Knowledge. That is what The Mentor Association
gives.
The plan of The Mentor Association fills so definitely a real want,
that every one ought to know about it. All members of the Association
and all others who see The Mentor will want to know not only what we
have done and are doing, but what we shall do for months in the future.
In a broad, popular, educational plan of this kind there should be
the fullest confidence. The importance of this grows week by week,
for The Mentor idea has drawn the interest of many thousands, and the
membership increases day by day.
Though these lines are headed “editorial,” we feel a good deal of
hesitancy in using the word. It gives the impression that The Mentor is
simply a magazine, while actually it is much more than that. It is an
important part of a broad educational plan, which includes an Inquiry
Department, Suggested Courses of Reading, and other advantages.
It is not easy to find the exact word for a plan of this sort. Some day
a brief phrase will come to us--no doubt some member of the Association
will supply it--that will tell fully and adequately all that The Mentor
Association stands for. We have described it many times. We cover the
plan fairly well when we say in our prospectus that “the purpose of The
Mentor Association is to make it easy to learn the things we want to
know and ought to know,” but in that we say nothing of the beautiful
pictures, which are a most important feature. There is a value in
the stimulating phrase that we use, “Learn one thing every day,” but
there is no hint in that of the delight afforded by the exquisite
illustrations furnished in The Mentor. In the service of The Mentor
Association Information and Art go hand in hand.
The quick recognition of the value of The Mentor plan during the
eight months of its existence is naturally gratifying, but what is
most interesting is the wide reach of its appeal. We have hundreds
of letters coming to us from all sources, and the message is much
the same, whether it be a lawyer, a college professor, a teacher, a
clubwoman, an engineer or a doctor. The burden of all these messages
can be summed up in three phrases: First, “The idea is fine”; second,
“You have carried it out admirably”; and third, “It fills a real want.”
We have referred to our prospectus. This is a booklet in which the
plans and purposes of The Mentor Association are fully described, and
the schedule of the year is given. It also tells something of what we
have in preparation for 1914. Send for copies of this prospectus. If
you are a member of The Mentor Association you will, of course, want
it, and you should have some extra copies to give to your friends. You
will be doing them a service.
[Illustration: JAMESTOWN TOWER]
_HISTORIC SPOTS OF AMERICA_
_Jamestown_