Mexico weekly ledger., 1879-05-29
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.


DIR. VIM. T. Harris, Superintend-
ent of public schools of st. Louis,
says that upon choosing a vocation
for life there are many Important
questions to settle. Win this prove
a permanent vocation? viii the pro-
ducts Of my labor always find ready
market? Is it likely that. new and
newer methods, say, of labor saving
machinery, will do away with the ntili-
ty of the trade / am about to acquire?
Will cheaper
COMPETITION /"
from q foreign shore sometimes render
my vocation insufficient here for my
support?
To the young man to the young
woman entering, upon the vocation OF
teacher just now similar questions
present themselves.
What is to be the future of the pro.
fess,onal teacher in this country?
More particularly he will ask: Is the
progress of the past fifteen years in
schooleducation to be regarded as
inaugurating a new era of progressive
culture in civilization wherein the
province of the school shall contin-
ually widen and the vocation of the
teacher be magnified? Or is the re-
cent prosperity an illusion, a mere
imitation, like our supposed wealth in
real estate, in railroad stocks, in per
sonal securities, in franchises? With
the inevitable collapse that is upon
us in the wealth and business of the
country, is the .u11, uaE r
voCATIONcoF TUE TEACHER &c.
likewise to shrink to its former rank
and Significance in the community?
Is the school to be curtailed in its
influence because our finances seek a
specie basis?
Shall our magnificent city systems,
which reach out and bring into the
school sixteen per cent. of the entire
population, relax their efficiency and
gather only ten or twelve per cent. OF
the population into schools, as form
erly, permitting one-fourth of the
youth to squander their time upon
the street or in haunts of vice, or to
be dwarfed Of their normal human
growth by premature employment In
the mill or workshop?
Everywhere throughout the land we
hear of the shrinkage of values of the
decline in wealth. But this is not the
worst; q mere shrinkage of values
may be due to the transaction from
an inflated paper standard to a solid
specie basis. 1t is not the decline in
wealth that We lament, but the de-
cline in the production Of wealth.
IT. .. . N MILLION .
Of workmen in our nation are at
present idle DR. earning barely enough
to subsist upon. This means a de-
crease in Our aggregate annual pro-
auctions sufficient to amount to III
entire national debt in six years.
When q private individual is in debt.
or is poor and desires to be rich, con-
slant industry is an adequate re-
source. If a nation is IN debt should
there not be occasion for the constant
industry of lis people? And yet
through some imperfection i'll Its So
cial machinery it happens that for
several years there is a decline in
production and an enforced idleness
in our communities.
= No one seems TO be able to give a
rational account of it. The wise
acre shakes his head and matters
as e. s'ovER-PRODUCTIoN,
markets everstocked with goods"
He thinks that there has been too
much manufactured, too much raw
material produced. But it is a strange
anomaly that people should suffer for
want of food, clothing and shelter,
simply because of the superfluity of
the supply of their wants, because Of
the ..overstocking Of the market"