?53
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
August, 1933
ING AMERICA through (Slimsiian czQeadershi/j B y CLARENCE H. BENSON* Chicago, Illinois
danger o f becoming a menace, for it is a daring and danger ous thing to train a generation mentally and neglect its moral and spiritual culture. The late president o f Princeton University said, re specting our present economic crisis: Even before the economic depression reached us, we had lost things far more important. We had lost our sense of obligation—had substituted success for character—and heeded modern maxims instead of the old one of “ integrity and service.” Economic recovery rests on confidence, and confidence depends upon individual character. Until in dividual honesty and integrity are recovered, economic recovery cannot be made. A survey of seventy-six leading industrial concerns to ascertain the reason for the annual discharge o f four thou sand clerical workers, revealed the fact that ninety per cent were dismissed for character failure, and only ten per cent for lack o f efficiency or skill. Nine-tenths o f these em ployees lost their positions because o f tardiness, careless ness, laziness, dishonesty, disloyalty, lack of ambition, and lack o f initiative. The failures were in character and not in intelligence. P rohibition and C rime S h ow U p C haracter There can be no better illustration o f the characterless condition o f the American people than their spineless atti tude toward the prohibition question, and their selfish, sordid rush to remove that protecting arm which would keep the nation from sinking back into a bestial existence. The American Bar Association has declared that the United States is now the most criminal nation on the globe. The number o f criminals at large and at work is greater than the combined number o f soldiers and policemen, and their activities cost more than the entire appropriation for the army and navy. Crime steals six and one-half per cent of the entire income o f every American. We have just pointed out that our splendid public school system costs us three billion a year, which is only one-half o f the enormous taxes America must pay for this unparalleled crime wave. And this stupendous tax that we pay for crime does not include the billions o f dollars o f protection money levied by gangsters, kidnapers, blackmailers, and racketeers—a sum greater than the expense of the federal government. L etting G o the W ord of G od We cannot lay the blame for the present condition on our public school system, as many are doing. These schools are our own creation. They are what we have made them. We have built them, furnished them, planned the curricu lum, appointed the teachers, and instructed them in the things which they are to teach. But we have permitted the
[The Bible Institute o f Los Angeles is one o f the cooperating institutions in the Evangelical Teacher Training Association, about which Mr. Benson writes in this article, which was given originally as an address at the World’s Christian Fundamentals Convention, held in Chicago in June. The course outlined by the Association is incorporated in the Institute’s three-year Christian Education Course, so that students graduating from this course are eligible not only to receive the diploma o f the Institute, but also the diploma o f the Evangelical Teacher Training Associa tion. I f preferred, the course may be taken in the Institute’s event ing classes in four years by those who desire simply to qualify in teacher training, in which case only the diploma o f the Evangelical Teacher Training Association is awarded .— E ditor .] ^ II ^ he progress , prosperity, and permanence o f a democ racy are dependent upon two things—the intelligence and the character o f its citizens. A despotism can prosper, as did pagan Rome, by main strength without the development o f education and religion in its midst. A democracy is different. Its people are to be its rulers, and therefore they must be men and women o f both intelligence and character. There is no question but that America has been most faithful in making adequate provision for the mental train ing o f its future citizens. It has one of the finest school systems in the world, and American boys and girls have scholastic privileges which European and Asiatic children might well covet. America in 1928 spent the stupendous sum of $3,033,706,590 for education and employed 1,010,- 232 teachers. In that year, approximately one billion dol lars more were spent for education than the cost o f running the government o f the United States, and more than two billion dollars more than the expenditures o f all the churches of America. One-fourth o f the total debt of the United States is spent in a single year for education. The replies to a recent questionnaire indicate that the alumni o f American educational institutions are giving them the first thought in their wills, and that our schools and colleges have hundreds o f millions to entrench themselves in the next twenty-five years as the greatest charity of the nation. In the last decade, enrollment in our colleges has increased 300 per cent, and in our high schools 600 per cent. M agnifying I ntelligence and M in im izing C haracter But while America has manifested commendable zeal in furthering the intelligence o f its citizens, it has shown comparatively little concern for the development of their character. In fact, there is nothing more apparent today than that the American people have made the fatal mistake o f magnifying intelligence and minimizing character. The very success o f our splendid American school system is in *Secretary, Evangelical Teacher Training Association.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker