The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-07-06
save the Boys.

Do American boys learn trades
any more? One would suppose
not, if the multitudes of purpose
less, almless young men out of en-
ployment is any indication. There
was a time when the master me-
chanic had his house filled with
hearty young apprentices, and when
his journeymen went from under
his roof, to set up in life for them
selves, to them in middle life the
recollections of those far off times
when the master, his men and boys,
formed strong productive indus
trial group, seem like the memory
of primitive age. Sons of rich
and educated men did not think it
beneath them to swing the broad
axe in the ship yard, or the sledge
hammer at the anvil. Or they went
to sea before the mast, and climbed
to the quarter deck from the fore
castle.
In a large family of boys one
would be scat to college, ono might
possibly go into mercantile pursuits,
and the others would choose their
trades after many anxious but cheer
ry family councils. Nowadays the
young lads shrink from the irksome
confinement of the mechanics shop.
If they cannot go to college and so
while away their youth, they must
go into a store Anything bat
work. We do not beIittle the Vo-
cation of q clerk or salesman when
we say that to be in either one or the
other of these callings appears to
most young men the most comfort
able thing. Of all the pursuits which
men follow, this seems to require
the least preparation. At any rate
the men who are willing to make
themselves generally useful more
naturally turn to the shop of the
retail dealer than to any other
source OF employment. They have
never learned a trade. They like
hands soft and white. If they can
not stand behind the counter or
desk, or secure political influence
sufficient to push them into an Office
of some sort, they drift aimlessly
about, looking for employment
which never comes.
False ideas of living and extrav-
agant notions are responsible for .
great deal of this hopeless misery.
Young lads are brought up to con-
slider manual labor degrading, and
fond, foolish parents sometimes
seem to prefer that their children
should go into the world helpless
rather than they should learn q
trade. But the selfisnness of me-
chanics and the outrageous tyranny
of their unions, have had hand in
bringing to pass the present state of
things. About twenty-five years
ago there began series of expert
ments in trades-unions, which has
resulted disastrously. The times
were good, work plenty and wages
fair. To maintain q monopoly of
these, associations of mechanics be-
gan to limit tie number of appren-
tees which might be employed in
each shop, factory, or company of
Workmen.
Men who had SONS to equip for
life actually voted to shut the trade
against their own offsprings. The
consequence was that the supply of
skilled workmen did not keep mp
with the expansion of the country,
and with the legitimate demand.
Employers were obliged to send
abroad for workmen, and il came
to pass that the grown men from
foreign parts took the places in
American workshops for which
American boys should have been
educated. Where now are those
neglected. cheated boysa Some Of
them are in jaiIs and aims houses.
Some will be found loungiug on the
benches in the public parks, Vainly
waiting for something to turn up.
Others, willing enough, are adveF-
Using for situations where they can
make themselves generally useful.