Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-04-21


Importance Of Learning . Trade.
| Prison Association, that of fourteen thou.
ers confined in the penitentiaries of thirty
States, In 1867, scventy-seven per cent,
or over ten thousand Of the number, had
never learned trade. This fact may, in
some measure, be verified by inquiry at
the employment and AID associations,
where only very small percentage OF
those who apply for positions are skilled
in any trade or business. An advertise
ment for skilled labor will call out but
few responses, while one for light, un-
skilled employments will call hundreds Of
needy applicants for situations. The
point with the rising generation
Is to avoid manual labor. The aver
sion to manual labor has been, in q
great measure, brought about by the false
ideas on education that pervade all classes
Of society. 1t is supposed by these mis-
taken people that school learning" will
somehow furnish their sons and daugh-
tiers sure passport to success" which
is always understood by them to mean
getting living without work. Such Of
them as can muster means to do 80, send
their children to the best schools, furnish
them opportunities for learning music,
painting, and the other accomplishments,
not forgetting to give them the benefit Of
foreign polish when II Is possible. They
thus 20 over an amazing area of educational
territory, and bare list ofthe studies they
have gone through" would appal the Ad-
mirable Crichton himself II might be
supposed that these young ladies and gen.
tlemen would be qualified to earn an
honest penny, In case Of necessity, by
some one or all of these varied attain
ments; but unfortunately, such is not COM
monty the fact. We say leave out OF the
consideration the common branches OF
education, such as arithmetic, grammar,
and geography, which are the elementary
branches Of general education; but OF
the "higher branches" of an English or
linguistic education, how many Of these
sons and daughters of ambitious. parents
learn enough to enable them to earn .
come to handP They have made no one
them all specifically. And one may
Judge Of how they study them by watch
ing them as they 90 trudging and painting
to school, under the weight of the small
library, which seems to be necessary for q
days study in that temple Of knowledge
the public school. In due time, they
graduate" with great ecldt, and are con-
sidered ready for the battle Of life. 1t Is
all right with them 30 long as the gov
ernor," the "old man." or whatever they
may call him, can "shell out the rocks"
"down with the stamps, or, in old
fashioned language, furnish them the
means to live on. When thrown
upon their own resources they drift
about for a while, and find, for
certainty, that they are babes
in the wood" in the important matter of
providing for themselves Some of these
incompetents, after years of failure and
want, drift into employment. But the
great mass Of them are the young men
who are standing on our street corners,
or wandering about looking for situa-
ton where they can do genteel work
and anything Is considered genteel II 1t
does not involve what they term manual
labor" Peddling little patented articles
that are indispensable In every family"
clerking in any capacity, an agency,
though 1t be only patent rat-trap-al
these are genteel, and young American
graduate Of q public school or Of COM
mercial college," will call to see the pro-
prietor of the patent rat.trap two hum
dred and fifty times before he will even
think of learning . useful trade. It is
customary with some persons to blame
these helpless young men very severely
but they arc not 20 much TO blame ~ are
their parents and their teachers Their
fathers and mothers probably toiled many
weary years to gain competence, which
was most likely gained only by the labor
of their hands What more natural than
to express the wish with honest, though
mistaken kindness, that their sons and
daughters might escape 20 hard LOTT
What wonder that their children have
grown up with thorough contempt for
work. When the children went TO
school, their teachers impressed upon
them the importance of education fox
"elevating them, which they always nm
derstood to mean, avoiding the laborioug
tolls of their parents lives. We could
point TO q certain class OF Institutions
which have, In these false teachings, done
incalculable injury to the cause Of honest
industry. Before the evil can be reme-
died, . different class of ideas must pre-
vsil in families and In schools. It mus
come to be understood that parents do
only part of their duty to their children
until they zee to it that they are masters
of good trades, In oil the niceties Of theory
and practice When this view Of parental
duty comes 70 prevail, the click Of skilled,
productive industry win be more respected
than the countless make-shift expedients
for living which now disgrace % many
able bodied, but helpless young men. We
would discourage q multiplicity Of studies,
and innist tnOn the most y,er{ncf M sfnrv
OF few iudiciously chosen branches Of
the minds of the pupils that thorough