Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-03-05


There are certain facts of current history
which give great importance to the subject
of industrial education. 1t is notorious, in
the first place, that the old system Of appren-
ticeship has almost entirely gone into disuse.
How the American artisan gets the knowl-
edge and skill which enable him to work at a
trade, is not obvious. In one way or another
he manages to do it but the approach to a
mechanical employment has practically ccas-
ed to be through an old-fashioned appren-
ticeship. Among the causes that have con-
spired to procure the abandonment of the
old SYSTEM may first be mentioned the inhu-
ence Of common schools. Quarrel with the
fact as we may, it cannot be successfully de-
MED that the influence of common schools
has been to unfit those subjected to their pro-
cesses aud social influences for the common
employments of life. The lad who has made
n successful beginning of the cultivation of
his intellect, does not like the idea of getting
a living by the Bkillful use Of his muscles, in
a mechanical employment. II does not ac-
count for everything to say that he gets
above it. 1t is enough that he likes the line
of intellectual development in which he finds
himself, and has no taste for bodily labor
So he goes further, or, stopping altogether,
seeks some light employment demanding his
grade of culture, or tries to get his living by
his wits. Mechanical employments are pass
ing more and more into the hands of foreign
ers. General Armstrong, Of the colored col
. lege at Hampton, in a recent search for black
smiths shops at the North where he might
safely place number Of Indian lads, found
no Americans TO deal with. Every black
smith was an Irishman
If it is asked why there is not a universal
effort made for the reinstatement Of the ap-
prentice systems, we reply that there is a
very ugly lion in the way. An item of news
which has Just gone the round Of the papers
states the case as it stands. A piano maker
complained that he could not get men enough
to do his work, the reason being that his men
belonged to a society that had taken upon
itself to regulate the number of apprentices
lie could instruct in the business They had
limited this number 10 one utterly insufficient
TO supply the d, mand, and be was poweress
They had even cut down the number recent
ly, so that there was no way for him but to
import his workmen, already instructed. from
abroad In brief, there is a conspiracy
among society men, all over the country, to
keep American boys out of the useful trades +;
and industrial education is thus under the
ban of an outrageous despotism which ought
to be put down by the strong hand of the
law. 1t is thus seen that while the common
school naturally turns the great multitude of
its attendants away from manual employ
ments, those who still feel inclined to enter
upon them have no freedom to do 50, because
great Himy Of society men stand firmly in
the way, overruling employer and employed
alike.
The public hardly needs TO learn that the
result OF the indisposition and inability to
learn trades among American boys is about
as disastrous as can be imagined. 1t is found
that in the prisons, almost universally, the
Y.tlr1l.r Of gr;tr,ff,utp NIL l.. I
trade to those who are skilled workmen are
as six to one. The army of tramps who have
infested the country for the last few years is
largely composed Of men who have had no
industrial education whatever These men,
who beg at our doors, are mainly men who
never learned trade and can handle nothing
but a shovel A New York clergyman, pos
sessng large family of boys, recently de-
clared from his pulpit that he intended that
every lad of his family should learn some me-
cLanical employment, by which. in an emer-
gency, he could get living. He was right.
II is in the emergencies Of life-it is when
men find themselves helpless and without the
power of earning money-that they slip into
crime, and become the tenants of prisons and
penitentiaries.
SO the American people must, sooner or
later be driven TO the establishment of in
dustrial schools. To learn how to work skill
fully with the hands must become n part of
common education. Rich ard poor alike
should be taught how TO work, for it is quite
as likely that the rich will become poor as
that some of the poor will become rich and
that is, and always must be, a poor education
which fails to prepare a man to take care of
himself and his dependents in life We un-
derstand what to do with criminals We con-
fine them aud set them to learning trade,
especially the young criminals The reform
schools never leave out the element of manu-
al industry. Why is it not just as legitimate
to teach the yirtuous how to take care of
themselves without crime as it is the vicious
j. q. HolldHd, in lScribHer for Mdrch.