Young Socialists Magazine 1913 July Dec.pdf

9 tD YOVIO IC)CJUJ.l8Ti' JU,.OAZ:DrBREFERENCE I)OOKSOld Dr. Johnson. who is as wenknown to modem generations a:Iany man of his time, because ofthe biogfapny written by Boswell,said a great many wise things thiltwcre none the less wise bttauseSchool is a place for teachillgt.hildren how to know thing:ol.rather than for providing themwith knowledge; and after childrenIt'ave school they are tempted (0think they have thrown aW ilY agrut deal of timo. bttause the .­I,avt forgotten much over whid lIhey have spent many hours. Furim:tance, after once leaving school.a boy may never in his life be callt'rlupon to draw a map. and he may.therefore, think that l11ap-drawin~is a useless study.and in an atlas he would tind amap a hundred times better dra\¥n"than any he could construct with·out its aid. If, therefore. map·drawing was meant only to providethe student with a mental atlas, itwould be a great waste of time.The real object of such a study is10 teach the pupil what map-draw·ing reall y is-what the lines mean.hl\W the fact s are put down. and.il' general. the language used forcxpressing geographical fact:; Oillhey were said in big words. Agood joke at his expense was madeby Oliver Goldsmith when he saidthat if Dr. Johnson were to makelittle fishes talk, he would makethem talk like whales. One of themost frequently Quoted sayings bythis wise doctor is that in which poper. Having drawn a map. th~he said there were two kinds or Lther maps become intelligible.knowledge. "knowing a thing, and There are certain things, how·knowing where to hnd it."lind what you want and utilize itnccording to your needs; and do·ing thill, you have used books tHadvantage. But your son who i ~in school. though he has this samebook. will be set to memorize i:trom first to last. . ..."Yet. "ifwhen he gets into the field of ac'tual work he needs knowledg-::which this book contains, he cat!go to it and utilize it as you tit)now.All readers. speakers. editur ~ .and uther public teachers need toconsult books of facts continually.\Vithol1t these books they would ~.recver. which one Gught not to have I;early helpless. except, possibl v.to look up. Two simple in stances on one o r two fields ; for in ·are the l1luhiplication.table and the ~ tance. one man might know th e~pelling of common words. The history of a single country, anothertime spent upon these in school is might be fully infonned in OIlCgi\'en to acquiring knowledge; ,fur part of a science, and so on. Yct .if one had to refer to the table or even in these special instances th l·10 the dictionary to solve the easy knowledge of one man could 11('1(Iuestions that come up in keeping for a moment compare in fulln e~ ..dl"counts or in writing a letter, each ' or accuracy with that contained ;:1d these little questions would a volume costing, perhaps, a d o ll a~.ca.use a serious delay. These in· therefore, why the desk of a joUI":-lancCS will illustrate clearly the Halist, the library' of a minister o)rdifference between knowledge a doctor. the t~ble-of' a professional\'. hich should be carried in the writer, will contain a selected set .Jjhead, and knowledge which may books of facts. These books. uf~ :lfel )' be sought elsewhere. It is oourse, will vary with the man';to be feared that teachers often fail \;.ork. A naturalist making a sp...··To which branch o f knowledg('.a..i it is divided by Dr. Johnson.does map-drawing belong ~ Youwould naturally think, at tirst, th atwhen you drew a Illap of NorthAmerica the object was to learn the!!.hape of the continent and theill giving the proper amount oflime and attention to instructingtheir pupils in regard to knowledg!which is not to be memorized. Mr.cial studv of birds will have th e!.rest auth~rities upon his own sub­jtct; the politician will have tablc ..of Yotes, copies of laws, maps .)fboundaries of the natural and poii· William Hawley Smith, in the political divisions, and so ' on.tkal divisions. Dut a little thought " New York School Journal;' Whatever men have to do, if it bewill show you how unlikely itwould be that a man would e\'('rneed to refer only to his memo rymakes the plea that " schools shouldteach children not books them·sdves, but the right use of them."allY but the ~erest hand labor, theyne~d the printed report of what hasbeen -done by other men beforefor such infonnation. Unless he He says. addressing his grown·up them, or the he1ps that have beenhappened to be wrecked upon a reader : " You. in your library, de· r.!ade by workers in the same fielddesert island or becalmed upon Iyacht, it would take him only .\sire infonnation in chemistry o r . to save time and trouble.history, and )'ou reach out your.few moments to refer to an atla ~: hand, an~ , upon dll: s':arch ):ou(Continurd on Palt: 7.)'I'D "1:9~.P. ~TI' J14G~ a( .. AUGUST BEBEL ~ ]was busied with oth~r things. Th~gre~t world outside, the struggle.!!between man and man. class andc1~ s s. they claimed hi s whole int~res t. As a \'ery yo_ung man inr .eipzig he joined an organizationknown as the ":\rbtiter Bild~llgs·\ 'erein," a dub of young worker:;;who, under the direction of Liberalleaders. strove to educate them·selves, to gain an understanding ofsocial, scientific and economic con·ditions. He vehemently opposed atfirst the attempts of ' Jater well·known Socialists, Liebknecht andVahltekh amon&' ,th~m, to changethe character of the organization, 10make of it an Qrppj~tioo for agitatioo.. and ~~ . p~nd.arnone the la1:k>ring masso. I!eb:eJ Ias-L!Dmlber of the exeCutivt committee.was practieaTly fDrced lttspokr:sman in Parliament. He wasalways radical, aggressive. some·limes e,'en brutal in hi s condemna·tion of all that stood for capital·ism and its system. In 1870 he andLiebknecht were the only memberswho did not vote the extraordinarysubsidy required fo r thr: war withFrance. He was .the only Socialistelected to the Reichstag in [871. buthe ullr:d his position to protestagainst the annexation of Alsace·I.orraine. and to express his fullsympalhy with Ihe Paris Commune... Do not forget that the Euro·pean proletariat and everyone whobears in his breast a spark of lovefor freedom and independence islooking toward Paris. And whenthe up-risinr in Pari.s has been sup·pre5~, rem~mber that it was but askirinish, that the real EuropeanA comrade has gone from U5, afriend, a brother whO' understoodstudy the Marxian philosophy, toIry to understand the ideas of. theus and loved us. August Bebel; a class struggle. And, wh.t h.s hap ....son of the working class, the incar· pened to so many who set out tonation of all that it means; a living oppose our movement, 11(' foundexample of its sufferings, its strugrles,a prophecy of its future gt'cat·ness- he has left us, and his com·rades in the farthest corners of theearth are bowed down with grief.. Of Rebel's young days we willhimself befo re 'Iong, at first an unwilling.but l-inally an enthusia sticsupporter of the idea ~ he had triedto ~ Iamp oul.From that time his ri ... e to pr~)m·inencc in the working class move·say but little here. An extract of hi :; menl was rapid. In 1867 he I I as.. Reminiscences," reprinted cl se· cl~~lcd with Liebknecht 10 Ihewhere in this Illagazine, gi\'es a ReidlstCig where. with the exceptionpathetic picture of hi s boyhood nf the two ~ · cars from 1881.ISH,jdays.•• J became a turner for a veryhe represented the Soc iali ~ t Partyuntil the dar of his cieath .simpl~ reason. I assumed that a His wonderful organizing ICilentfriend of ours. who was turner bytrade. would take me as an ap-­and oratorical powers quil'kly madehim one of the leadr:rs of the SocialiHprentic~ . And so it happened,"movement and their dlief... ays ~~I in his "Remniscences."He confesses later that he never be·came a very good turner. His headstruggle .tands before you. Rememberthat erJ many deCades have'pa s*~ . th.lillltl~.t Iy ·of th~ P.ri.it.rpruletariat : ''''ar to the palace!'.peace 10 the hovels, death to starvalionand idle ne ~s.' will be the crv ofthe whole European pruletariat.:·I.augiltc r r rom th e Reich ... tagRreeted t hi~ pruphecy. But theHe iLh .... tag laugh .... no longer. Ittre l1lhl e~ \ 1 ith fl·ar. it ~ t e p ., ~'Hlti ou ~·Iy Ic ." it awake u IIl'C Blurc thc spiritof re \olution, !hc ~ pirit o f thc ParisLU lIlllHlnc.Hi .~ l1Iard. alten\anl sCiid th althis)oiJCCd l o f I:clx!]", wa :- a ray u f lighl.:'Ih/) \\'ill,l:" him lhal ~Ul' jalj !. m W il li anenemy tll bc fllught and cru ... hcd. InIHo;.! Il(.'oc l \\·a., acc useo ')f preparalionfur hgh In .. a ~u n and (ondcl1lllc