TRAINING THE SLUM CHILD
Your correspondent in the Spectator of April 6, who signs " W. M.," suggests some excellent plans for giving slum children an opportunity to become as he says " self-support- ing." But when he states " . . . it is obvious that we cannot relieve these conditions simply by building more houses," we are compelled to disagree with him. If the children are reared in uncrowded and healthy conditions the moral enlightenment which will result will find outlet in some aim towards self-sufficiency. And, Sir, I venture to suggest that to teach these poor slum children some handicraft without ameliorating their present conditions is absolutely useless. The age has passed when the toil of hands can command any- thing except occasional curiosity. And children will inevit- ably want to earn money. We must invest our capital in educating them in the ordinary way, rather than in giving them a trade before they are capable of doing justice either to this trade or to themselves.—R. S. J.
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