gratitude usually begin with
the child. A child is born into the world the most helpless of all
creatures; for years it could not live but for the affectionate and
devoted care of parents, or of those who stand in the place of parents.
If, when it grows up, it becomes indifferent; if its heart grows cold,
and it becomes ungrateful, it arouses universal indignation. Poets and
writers of prose have exhausted all the epithets in their effort to
describe an ungrateful child. Shakespeare's words are probably those
most quoted:

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child."

But it is not my purpose to speak of thankless children; I shall rather
make application of the rebuke to the line of work in which I have been
engaged. For some thirty years my time, by fate or fortune, has
been devoted largely to the study and discussion of the problems of
government, and I have had occasion to note the apathy and indifference
of citizens. I have seen reforms delayed and the suffering of the people
prolonged by lack of vigilance. Let us, therefore, consider together for
a little while some of the priceless gifts that come to us because we
live under the Stars and Stripes--gifts so valuable that they cannot be
estimated in figures or described in language--gifts which are received
and enjoyed by many without any sense of obligation, and without any
resolve to repay the debt due to society.

These gifts are many, but we shall have time for only three. The first
is education; it is a gift rather than an acquirement. It comes into our
lives when we are too young to decide such questions for ourselves. I
sometimes meet a man who calls himself "self-made," and I always want to
cross-examine him. I would ask him when he began to make himself, and
how he laid the foundations of his greatness. As a matter of fact, we
inherit more than we ourselves can add. It means more to be born of a
race with centuries of civilization back of it than anything that we
ourselves can contribute. And, next to that which we inherit, comes that
which enters our lives through the environment of youth. In this country
the child is so surrounded by opportunities, that it enters school as
early as the law will permit. It does not _go_ to school, it is _sent_
to school, and we are so anxious that it shall lose no time that, if
there is ever a period in the child's life when the mother is uncertain
as to its exact age, this is the time. I h