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MISDIRECTED ENERGY.

HOPE ALTRUIST.

INCE we are knocking at the door of the twentieth century, it would seem out of place to address enlightened people on the above subject. In this age of the world men are supposed to know how to direct means to right ends, and as a matter of fact many do know and do so direct the means at hand; but that this is done so generally as to render the consideration of the above subject unnecessary the thoughtful reader may judge for himself.

Let us turn our attention, for a short time, from the wonderful achievements of modern science and the numerous comforts enjoyed by the race as a result of the inventive genius of the present, to some of the other aspects of human life. We need not look long until we see conditions that we would wish to change for the better if it were in our power to do so. It is only when we call a halt to our admiration of the beautiful side of life and deliberately investigate its ugly and dark side that we become aware of what may yet be done to make life sweeter and better than it now is.

In every large city there may be seen a comparatively large number of persons who are poverty-stricken or otherwise miserable. This morning's paper reports that a woman is dying of starvation in a hospital in one of the largest cities in the United States. She was found almost dead in a room which she occupied for some time after her property had been sold by the sheriff. Having been very eccentric, she did not make her wants known to any one, and consequently starved in a large and rich city. Since she was known to be eccentric, it seems as if every neighbor had said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Had she starved in the wilds of New Mexico, we should all exclaim, "How sad that no one lived near enough to prevent such a calamity!" The energy put forth in so large a city, in a thousand directions, is simply beyond comprehension, and the good that is done would fill volumes; but with all that the woman starved to death. Dumb animals are provided for, by last will and testament in a few cases, and cruelty to animals is

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punished; but the poor, eccentric woman starved. We are not fixing blame, but think it a duty to comment on the fact. May we not ask, Is this not a case of misdirected energy with a sad and serious end?

A young man is employed in a bank. His father is wealthy, and later on he expects to enjoy the benefit of this wealth. Being in haste to become rich, he begins to speculate with money belonging to the bank. He is not detected before he comes into possession of his father's fortune. With so much money at his command he proceeds to make investments that promise a flattering income. The scales turn in the wrong direction, and the young man suddenly loses his fortune. He cannot bear the strain of such a misfortune, and in a fit of despondency he commits suicide. Here is another life ended. It is not an end like that of the poor woman who starved, but if there had not been serious misdirection of energy the end would not have come as it did.

It is needless to multiply examples. That energy may be and is misdirected, with all our enlightenment, is clear from these examples, which are types of what is going on throughout the land, in one form or another. To say that all this is simply according to the nature of things and belongs to an unavoidable conflict of interests, is not going to the root of the matter. Man has changed the nature of many things and has overcome conflicts of interests, and he can do more than he has already done.

To this end let us look into the leading causes of misdirected energy, and then we shall see whether we are in a position to correct more of this evil or not. These causes may be grouped under four heads; namely, ignorance, poor judgment, prodigality and selfishness.

The ignorant savage cannot develop his country and carry on commerce, even if he were willing to do so. He ignorantly moves on in his course of cannibalism or his hunting and fishing. The inhabitants of civilized countries who are ignorant of the laws of health, misdirect their energy by violating these laws in their daily occupations as well as in their use of food and drink. Ignorance of the object of life and the destiny of man is the cause of a vast amount of blundering in the choice

of an occupation and in the pursuit of it all through life. The energy is misdirected first of all by being driven in the wrong channel, and then it is misdirected on account of poor judgment, wrong planning, and so on. Ignorance of the laws of supply and demand accounts for the misdirecting of a great deal of energy in the various business occupations throughout the world. Even young teachers often fail to adjust themselves to this law. They seem to think that the demand for teachers with higher salaries is practically without limit, and here and there in a rural district the school board ignorantly supposes the supply of cheap teachers to continue indefinitely. A recent daily paper contains the following astounding statement: "A unique case of misdirected enthusiasm in legislation is represented in one of our Western States by the repeated attempt to legislate a' Chair of Maternity' into a university which had no medical department connected with it. One of the regents was so imbued with the notion that, happening to note that one of the courses in the department of pedagogy was headed Child Study,' he desired to have it made compulsory for all students, under the impression that it was a course on raising babies."

Whilst we hope that this statement is a joke, it nevertheless indicates that newspaper men are so fully aware of the incapacities of certain educational authorities that they dare, even at the dawn of the twentieth century, to show their want of esteem for them by publishing such jokes.

In many cases poor judgment plays a more active part than ignorance. Men engage in business and fail because they cannot foresee the increase in the supply that puts down prices. In their judgment the demand must continue to be greater than the supply, until they have accomplished their object. Educators put their theories before their school authorities, and the judgment is taxed to the utmost in working them out in practice. The actual wants of men, their dispositions, their habits and their environments operate against carrying out some of the important parts of the theories so well received at first, and the educators must modify or abandon them.

Prodigality is another fruitful cause of misdirected energy. Boys may have wrong views of life or none at all. The things of sense and passion attract their attention and divert their

energy from the path of rectitude. They go "into a far country," and they "waste their substance with riotous living." The millions of men that annually die in the world from the effects of drunkenness and lust not only misdirected their energy in the ́ course of their lives, but they also fill the hearts of their kin with sadness by leaving them in wretchedness. Such misdirection of energy makes a most frightful chasm between its goal and that of energy well directed.

Selfishness accounts for more misdirected energy, probably, than any of the other causes here considered, inasmuch as it is often the source of prodigality itself, and sometimes of ignorance.

The strike now going on at Cleveland, Ohio, is no doubt the result of ignorance, poor judgment and selfishness combined. Which element is uppermost cannot in this case easily be determined. Usually strikes begin because the laborers believe that injustice is done to them under the circumstances, and they often continue for a long time because the employers regard the demands of the strikers as unreasonable. The employers are disposed to be selfish, because they have great risks to run; the laborers are often totally ignorant of these risks, or lack judgment in regard to what they involve. A strike based upon either of these is a misdirection of energy, and must finally break down before enlightenment and better judgment; but where the intelligence of the laborers discovers pure selfishness or unwarranted precautionary measures against losses by keeping wages at a minimum and hours at a maximum, public sentiment will finally move the employers to make the necessary concessions. But during the strike, in any case, the hands are idle or engaged in mischief, and the employers lose track of their regular business. In either case there is a misdirection of energy, the sum total of which is astonishing when one thinks of it.

Self-help to the detriment of others makes a man poor in the end. The speculator may hoard up money and hold most of it till he dies, but his conscience, his peace of mind must be so disturbed as to make him feel poor in spite of his millions. A very rich member of a church in one of our large cities said, several years ago, "I must diminish my contributions to the support of benevolent enterprises, for I may yet come to want; and yet the investments were as good as could be made in the

city. When self-help in education goes so far as to enrich principals, superintendents and presidents by such management of elementary classes as will put a premium on cheap teachers, and will leave a large margin for the heads of the institutions, it becomes an ugly phase of misdirected energy and an injustice to subordinate teachers. Fortunately the increasing intelligence of boards of education is making such examples gradually to disappear. Frequently the great difference in salaries is due to other causes.

Another form of selfishness manifests itself in seeking glory and fame. Here there is a great field for misdirecting one's energy. The millions of dollars spent annually and the hard work done for the purpose of winning a great name are so much misdirected energy. The schools are not free from this form of evil. There are many schools which close with a public show, very little of which exhibits what the pupils had learned during the year; and what is still more deplorable, the most precious hours of the closing weeks are snatched from the reviews for examination, in order to rehearse the wisdom of noted men for the purpose of making a great display on the last day of the term, or at a so-called commencement. Every teacher knows that the last weeks of the year are worth vastly more for correlating and fixing in the mind the leading facts, events or principles of the various branches studied during the year than any other period. To devote most of this time to work which is only indirectly connected with the legitimate work in the course is a misdirection of energy; and the pupils imagine that they have accomplished great things because the papers make flattering remarks about their performances. Wise teachers break up this fashion by making a part of the examinations also a part of the public exercises, and they make the rest of these exercises conform as nearly to the requirements of the course of study as the public can be trained to appreciate.

During the year, even, the teacher may misdirect his energy by trying to show his knowledge of the new philosophies that find their way into the educational field, and by failing to distinguish between the professor's chair in the university and the teacher's position in a graded school, or even in an ungraded The editorial on page 506 in the April number of EDU

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