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Show J The Seminary J Corner j It is said that 95 per cent of the people are the product of their en-, vironment, and that the remaining 5 per cent are the people who change ! the environment and make it more , fit for the one hundred per cent to j i live in so that they will not be so miserable among themselves. Most of us would admit lhat we are not far removed from the animals and if turned loose like they, without training train-ing nor education we would be little different from them. The great difference dif-ference that now exists is due to our enriched environment which has been in process of building up for the last four thousand years. All of our social institutions, our schools, our libraries, our governments, our inventions, and scientific accumulations have been in process of growth all this time. They came to us without any effort on our part. If we do our share we must not only maintain these gifts in the condition con-dition they come to us but, more, we must also add to them so that we may hand them over to our successors in a better condition than we received them. Since the children of our nation are its greatest asset, we must see to it that they are better prepared to use and pass on this great heritage to the generation following them, just as we were better prepared than the generation preceding us. We must properly select their environment, their training and education must be wisely provided. They must not be allowed to run wild and give free play to their instinctive tendencies in unsocial channels in animal fashion; fash-ion; but guarded and guided in social channels that will insure the greatest ultimate happiness to the greatest number of people. Most individuals of experience will agree that good companions are about the best insurance we have for good behavior and that there are few better bet-ter companions of young people than their parents. Judge Ben L. Lindsey, of Juvenile Court fame in Denver, said, "A financially well-to-do father said to me he was too busy to look after his boys, to be companionable, or take an interest in them." We have no more dangerous citizens that such men. This is too often the case. In the end, I believe that such men would profit more by less business and better bet-ter boys." - r |