_The child to be educated in the light of sanitary science.
Office of the school. Domestic science for girls. Applied
science. The duty of the higher education. Research needed._
No Christian and civilized community can afford to show a
happy-go-lucky lack of concern for the youth of today; for,
if so, the community will have to pay a terrible penalty of
financial burden and social degradation in the tomorrow.
_President Roosevelt, Message to Congress, December, 1904._
The loss of faith brings us by a short cut straight to the
loss of purpose in life--of any purpose, at least, beyond
purely material ones. To those who need money the duty of
getting it first and above anything else becomes the gospel
of life. To those who feel the need of position, whether in
society, business, or elsewhere, their gospel drives them to
all means within the law to attain that. To those who have
both money and position comes the only remaining purpose in
life--that of using them for an existence of amusement and
enjoyment. Is it too much to say that never before in our
history have such aspirations so completely dominated and
limited such large classes?
What is the poor American to do in his present fever and
with his present nerves, but with fivefold greater powers
placed in his hands and fivefold greater attention and
capacity demanded for their control? If sixty years ago the
free forces and rushing advance of the republic urgently
needed the regulation of a powerful and learned conservative
body, who can overestimate the necessity for such service
now?
When you ask how it is to be rendered, one cannot be
mistaken in turning first to those priceless qualities in
any sound national life whose tendency to decay we noted at
the outset. Give back to us our faith. Give back to us a
serious and worthy purpose. Restore sane views of life, of
our own relations to it, and of our relations to those who
share it with us.
_Whitelaw Reid, Phi Beta Kappa address, 1903._