ivates the naturally
democratic spirit of the child, and makes him a true American. Sharing
in the responsibility of the home begets self-reliance and
dependableness in later life.

The supreme lesson of life is to learn to be unselfish. The child in
the home is often obliged to yield his own wishes, and finds that he
gets greater satisfaction than if he had contended successfully for
his own claims. In the home the compelling motive of his life may be
consecrated to the highest ideals, long before childhood has merged
into manhood. Such consecration of motive is best secured through a
knowledge of the concrete lives of noble men and women. The noble
characters of history and literature are portraits of abstract
excellences. It is the task of moral education in the home to make the
ideal actual in life, to show that it is possible and worth while to
be noble-minded, and that the highest ambition that a person can
cherish is to be a social builder among his fellows.

61. =Child Dependents.=--Many children are not given the rights that
belong to them in the home. They come into the world sickly or
crippled, inheriting a weak constitution or a tendency toward that
which is ill. They have little help from environment. One of a
numerous family on a dilapidated farm or in an unhealthy tenement, the
child struggles for an existence. Poverty, drunkenness, crime,
illegitimacy stamp themselves upon the home life. Neglect and cruelty
take the place of care and education. The death of one or both parents
robs the children of home altogether. The child becomes dependent on
society. The number of such children in the United States approximates
one hundred and fifty thousand.

In the absence of proper home care and training, society for its own
protection and for the welfare of the child must assume charge. The
State becomes a foster-parent, and as far as possible provides a
substitute for the home. The earlier method was to place the
individual child, with many other similar unfortunates, in a public or
private philanthropic institution. In such an environment it was
possible to maintain discipline, to secure instruction and a wholesome
atmosphere for social development, and to have the advantage of
economical management. But experience proved that a large institution
of that kind can never be a true home or provide the proper
opportunity for the development of individuality. The placing-out
system, therefore, grew in favor. Resu