ASA S. BUSHNELL, Governor, Prest., Ex-officio.
ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF, Mansfield.
WILLIAM HOWAND NEFF, Cincinnati.
W. A. HALE, Dayton.
CHARLES PARROTT, Columbus.
M. D. FOLLETT, Marietta.
HENRY C. RANNEY, Cleveland.
JOSEPH P. BYERS, Clerk.
MANSFIELD, OHIO,
August 17, 1898.
MR. HORACE FLETCHER, Chicago, Ill.
_My Dear Sir_: Yours of the 15th inst. received; also proof
sheets of your forthcoming publication, which I have read with
great pleasure.
I heartily agree with you in the opinion that the children must
first be cared for if we are to make any great progress in
reducing crime.
In nearly all that I have written or spoken during the past twenty
years upon this subject I have taken this position.
Five years ago, when I was in San Francisco and spent some days
with Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, with whom I had had correspondence for
several years, and with Mr. Crowley, Chief of Police, I was
profoundly impressed with the power for good of the kindergartens
as there administered.
The only way to make good character and good habits a foundation
in the lives of growing children, which is the aim of the
kindergarten, universal, is to make the training a part of our
common school system, and I think that accomplishment must be our
objective point.
You quote what I said about the results of kindergarten work in
San Francisco, and in the main, correctly, but just what Mrs.
Cooper and Chief Crowley said you will find in Warden Hale's
address, at Saint Paul, Minn., in 1894, which you will find in the
Annual Report of the Saint Paul National Prison Congress.
Mrs. Cooper said that in fourteen years, out of about 16,000
kindergarten children, they had the history of about 9,000, and of
these not one had been arrested for crime. Chief Crowley said that
out of 8,000 children arrested in San Francisco, but one had been
trained in a kindergarten.
Warden Hale for many years has been in charge of the great prison
at San Quentin, near San Francisco, and his testimony is valuable.
Your book is timely and will be a valuable aid in educating a
healthy public sentiment. In the hasty reading I have been able to
give it I see nothing to criticise. Personally I believe that the
religious element in teaching should, at least, have equal
prominence with the industrial and intellectual. Instead of the
three R's of first importance in old-time teaching, I am in favor
of three H's, in the following order: The Heart, the Hand, and the
Head.
I give you God-speed in your good work, and if I can at any time
give you a helping hand please command me. Very sincerely yours,