Editorial note — Chapter LXXXIV · WORKERS’ EDUCATION

N. I yield to the temptation to quote a letter from Mr. Monroe, answering some questions as to his work:

“I have made a study of true co-operation for twenty years and that is what I deal in. First I tried to educate men. It didn’t work. Then I tried a combination—men and women. That failed. Then I tried to educate the children. It was a fruitless effort I discovered, as no doubt you did long ago, that the children couldn’t be ‘educated,’ but that if any degree of success was obtained, they must educate themselves.

“The work is carried on through the medium of clubs which are co-related and interlocking. Each club has a code. They are bound in honor to live up to its provisions. They are doing it, too. This may sound like the ‘boy scout plan’ but it is altogether different. Boy scouts are disciplined, army style, by adults. Under our plan the boys and girls discipline themselves. As a matter of fact they help to build their own program. Many noteworthy character building suggestions have come from the kids. Our plan helps to obviate the spirit of warfare without war being mentioned. I feel that war is a dangerous word. Why use it? Our plan is built around harmony, charity, peace and good will. There is no need to discuss war if peace can be thorolythoroly understood.

“The plan sounds complicated to a good many of the adults, but the children understand it. They have more faith, more optimism, more energy, more loyalty, more potentialities, more wisdom. Parents tell me our members are better behaved at home. They are more considerate and unselfish. They think of others. They are getting to the point in many cases where they are ready to make co-operation the very important essential in the texture of life.

“I am working thru the Farmers’ Union. This because it is a vehicle at my hand. I have undertaken thru the medium of the juvenile organization to develop a new rejuvenated spirit of co-operation in the home life, the social life. Each child will thorolythoroly understand the value of co-operation, spiritual and material, its necessity and importance in the scheme of life. They, in their own way and time, come to understand the vitalness of co-operative principles, and learn by experience that failure is ever the creature of competition.

“By the excessive mental effort and physical energy it is sometimes possible to arouse the adults for the moment—but only for the moment. They have been too long victims of a deadly environment. Our hope lies with the children. Strange as it may seem, part of our plan gives the children opportunity to assist in education of their parents. It is altogether surprising to me to see how well this works out in practice.

“Each club has an ‘editor’ who reads a paper at each meeting night. This does not mean that the editor simply produces a ‘literary paper.’ As a matter of fact most of the editors take their work seriously. They make a good job of it. The papers in most instances are educational, instructive as well as newsy. Practically all of the clubs take their ‘paper’ to the local newspaper and have it printed therein. This makes for genuine propaganda. Besides this plan, with proper tutelage, helps to develop potential editors who may one day be recognized as factors in the newspaper field.

“All my work is based on the honest conviction that we can expect no help from the public schools or colleges. Of course the forces of competition have them absolutely under control. There can be no real help from the subsidized press of the present time. Even library lists are censored. Because of such conditions I believe that this is the way out. The plan works. That’s something. Other states are taking it up. Kansas, South Dakota and Georgia have already written for the plan with the intention of carrying it out.”