American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-05-04
Labor Schools in Europe.


dustrial education. Promising that
since workingmen can not come to the
University, 1t is the University's duty to
go to them, it proposes to open course
of specific training, not for the social
ed liberal professions, or for middle
men of any kind, but for the veritable
producers-in other words, for the
working class. This design is worthy
of an institution which, since the day of
the Long Parliament, has been out
spoken in the expression of popular
sympathies and steadfast in promoting
reform.
Since the decay of the old apprentice
system, very little has been done for the
education of labor. 1t is plain that the
establishments known under the name of
ragged schools scarcely belong to the
class of industrial seminaries. AS their
title indicates, these institutions receive
the children of poor parents, or or
phans, afford them lodging and nour-
ishment, and employ them in various
trades. The extreme youth of these
children-they graduate, as a rule, at
the age of 15-prevents their receiving
a substantial technical training. On the
other hand, considerable progress has
been made in this direction by certain
countries on the Continent, and some
examples specially worthy of imitation
are pointed out in this report.
| Industrial schools seem to be quite
numerous in the German empire and
Austria, in Denmark, Sweden, Holland
and Belgium. They are generally
known as apprentices workshops"
but they combine theoretical with prac-
teal instruction, and presuppose gradu-
alton from primary schools. In Bel
GUM pupils are admitted from the age
of twelve, or even earlier, if they can
show the requisite measure of element
airy knowledge. The articles made in
the shops are sold for the account of
those who furnish the raw material, and
the latter are Unidentified for damage
occasioned by Impractical hands. A
point to be noted in the Belgian system
is the payment to the pupils of a small
stipend, by way of compensation to
straitened families dependent to some
extent on the earnings of their younger
members.
In Holland the most important techni-
cal academies for producers are those of
Amsterdam. The school for boys,
founded in 1861 by the "Society of the
Working Classes" is designed to train
workmen for those trades which are
connected with architecture and ship
building. The course of instruction
lasts three years, and includes-besides
certain studies supplementary of primary
acquirements-the elements of metrics,
of mechanics and natural history, the
art of drawing, the study of tools and
materials, carpentry, masonry, the use
of the lathe and the forge. The
pupils must be at least thirteen years
of age, and have received a good
elementary education. They are re-
quired to pay an annual fee which does
not exceed, however, thirteen dollars.
There is likewise a training school for
girls in Amsterdam, whose management
has been attended with good results, be-
cause it has avoided the common error
of wasting time on lady.ike accom-
plishments. Special attention is paid
to the commercial applications of the
art of design, to dressmaking, tailoring,
and lace making, and to those branches
of knowledge requisite for the prepara-
ton and vending of drugs. Girls are
admissible at this institution at the age
of twelve and pay fee of $21.
In Scandinavia and the German en-
pire the apprentice schools differ only in
some details of small Importance from
those above described. We merely note
that they are Government institutions,
whereas in Vienna, Prague, and
throughout Austria the industrial acad
emies were created by private enter
prise, although they receive a subsidy
from the State. Passing to other
countries, we find the idea of technical
training for the working classes has
born but meager fruit in Switzerland,
although the system of rudimentary in
struction is singularly efficient. There
exists, it is true, what is known as an
Industrial School, where pupil gains
some acquaintance with the theory of the
applied sciences, but very little help
toward the practical mastery of given
craft or calling. In Italy, too, not
much has been accomplished for the
professional education of those produc-
ers who form the mass of its popula-
ton. ..--
Notwithstanding many projects
brought forward at the epochs of its va
rious revolutions, France, as nation,
has done almost nothing in the way of
providing a substitute for the old sys-
tenn of apprenticeship which passed
away with the ancien regime. She seems
to have taken thought for every thing
except skilled labor. Her unrivaled as
semblage of art, scientific and profess
sional schools is supplemented by a
score of special institutions whose grad
yates are qualified to direct every species
of industrial and agricultural enterprise,
and by a number of business colleges
framed on the model of the Ecole Iur-
got, whose pupils are fitted for the sew
eral branches of foreign and domestic
trade. But of schools for workmen the
State has none, if except the establish
ment founded by the Sandman Govern
ment and transferred to France upon
the annexation of Savoy and Nice. 1t
is true that few municipalities have