Effect of Familiarity

The rapid industrial development of Germany and her present industrial supremacy in many fields appear to be largely due to the wide range of opportunities offered to German youth to learn the fundamental principals of many trades and to acquire the technical skill needed to make them efficient workmen. Enzland has noted the industrial leadership of Germany, and has sought to regain her lost ground by the establishment of enormously expensive technical schools. Valuable as these institutions rnav be they do not reach the great mass of English youth and they offer little help to those who are seeking the solution of the industrial problem in America. N either is the German system adapted to our conditions. although it offers many valuable suggestions that mav be utilized. There are no large groups of boys in this countrv destined to follow the trades of their fathers, and so trained in childhood that ambition is aroused early to acquire the skill that will make them efficient workmen and the fundamental knowledge that will fit them for position of responsibility as foremen or superintendents in these trades. There are no well defined cleavage planes in society, though they begin to appear in dim outline. The splendid opportunities that have been offered to American youth and the astonishing achievements of superior individuals of Iowlv birth have aroused boundless ambitions in the h~arts of many parents which have caused them to make pitiable sacrifices to start their sons upon careers in which they have failed, or achieved only verv indifferent success on account of lack of native aptitude, industry and perseverance. X evertheless the inclination of boys to aspire to positions above their capabilities is not on the whole to be regretted. and is sure to continue. It is important, therefore, that all schemes of industrial education should include a foundation of general training adapted to reveal to boys their limitations and possibilities, and help them to discover the industrial field in which they can specialize to best advantage. The problem should be considered onlv from the viewpoint of fair-minded men. equallv anxious to advance the interests of employers and workmen. No steos should be taken to assist those whose main object is to secure workmen of a higher order of skill and intelligence than the wages which they offer justify them in expecting. The nnrnose of industrial education should be to give boys a deeper sense of obligation and responsibility, and to enable them to acquire such skill and intelligent appreciation of industrial processes that employers will be g-lad to give them better compensation at the outset and ~arantee both advancing wages with increasing experience, and opportunity to master a wide range of processesPractice which merely gins power to produce a I:"reater number of identical results in a given time, with a particular machine, by increasing the rapiditv of almost automatic nervous and muscular action tends to arrest mental and moral growth. The campaign of education of public sentiment in favor of industrial training should result in an awakened ethical consciousness on the part of employers which will make them more ready to give a bright bov the rapid advancement which his industry and cfficiencv merit. It should-also have the effect of making them less disposed to the short-sighted policy of condemning him to the particular task that 'he 'has learned to do well. until his desire for larger opportunities makes him desperate, and he feels obliged to sacrifice the special skill that he has acquired. and ,gi,'e un his ioh because it offers no outlook with the door of hone open before him.