, 1881-06-05

Conkling ought to have striyen to attnn tie
same degree of skill before attempting te
"bluff " the President and the people.
THE NEW DEPARTURE IN EDUCATION.
When the panic OF 1873 struck this country
it was found necessary for thousands Of men
10 leave the cities and towns and seek q
| livelihood by cultiyat!ng the soil. There
! were in the towns perhaps five real-estate
agents, life-insnrance agents, bookkcepers,
doctors, and lawyers where only one could
make living. The four who went upon the
soil helped to cheapenagricultural products,
anu thereby lcssened the gains at the only
business which was then profitable.
The crisis which stunned us struck France
lightly, chiefly by reason OF the great diyersi-
ty Of the cnployments OF the French people.
| \ total failure of the crops is impossible in
| this country, because Of the diversity OF our
soil and climate. France occupies tile sam G
| vantage ground with regard to her indus
tries; they are so diversified that failure is
next to Impossible. Industrially France car
r!eS her eggs in a Thousand baskets, While we
carry ours i'll dozen. The necessity for our
people to go from the town to thu country
! arose from the limited number Of occupations
open to them. The great majority of middle
men and professional men follow their occ,l-
pations, cveu III good times, only because no
! Others are open to them. Three-fourtlls OF
| the lawyers and physicians in the United
States would gladly engage in any paying
! industrial occupation. At the time Of tue
| panic even mechanics had to turn farmers.
When they ceased to find work as 1nachinists
or carpenters, there was nothing but farming
left for them to Ito.
We are all prosperous now: production
and consumption are once more ip cquilibri-
un. and trade has revived. III due time VIC
shall have completed another cardboard
house. Then the Jay Cookies and the Henry
Clewses of the day will advocate the election
Of the Grant Of tue day TO the Presidency,
to avert Il financial panic. and lie will be-
elected. Then some afternoon at 3 O'Clock
the most extended eXtender will say, mo
funds" when his note is presented for pay
ment. Then will follow the panic and its
effects, and the middleman, and THE pro-
fessional man, and the mechanic, and the
laboTer will seek the green fields for bare
living, and the voice Of the tramp and the
Comm ulist will again be heard i'll the lend.
Atil4 any tt1liIss uC NUttc stOouL ~ AECHll-
not wholly avert the coming commercial
crisis, but We may mitigate its severity The
more occupations there are III community
the more smoothly uoes the social machine
move. Diversity Of employment means
wealth, The South is poor because it has
but one ccupa.ion-farlning; the North Is
rich because it has Il thousand. France is
the most prosperous country Of all. BECAUSE
it has thousands of occupations. The need
OF the world always has been, is now, anu
always Will be, to find new occupations for
people. To find remuneratiye employment
for all, at ali times, is the problem Of cyiliza-
ton.
How can occupations be mnltipliedo Only
education, aud its resultant, skill, can multi
ply them; these do multiply and diversity !
them. II the question had becn asked in !
17sl to what lew occupations men would !
devote themselves during the next hundred !
years, 10 trile answer could have been re-
turned; but the new occupations lave come.
Millions Of men aud women, perhaps half !!
our population, are now engaged IN occupa-
tions which had not been thought Of III 1851.
The railway and the telegraph alone prob
ably employ fifteen hundred thousand men,
and it is safe to estimate the number Of our
people supported by these elnploymcnts at
five or six millions we have multiplied Our
occupations during the last hundred years
almost to the limit Of calculation. Not so the
Turks, nor the Spaniards, nor the Lapps, nor
the Fins. Wherein lies the difference? III
the education and training Of the different
peoples. We started with some skill and In
telligence, and have increased them. The
Turks, Spanlards, Iapps, and Fins started
with ignorance AMI stupidity, and they hold
their own remarkably well.
LII our day an unskilled laborer earns SLED
per day. LIE benefits mankind only by his
crude labor, and thereby barely returns to
the community whnt it costs to support him
in youth. lie originates nothing, and his ig!
Aorance makes him, at times dangerous
citizen. Train this common laborer to be
mechanic and he will repay the cost Of his
'' raising" and much more. He will earn
from two to three dollars a day; he may in
vent some useful thing; he will be an intelli-
gent citizen, and hence rarely dangerous. |
Add to his mechanical training good scien-
ific education and lie will earn from four to
live dollars day, he more Intelligent cltl-
:el, anu never dangerous. Thus knowledge |
lld skill pay both the individual and society.
They pay as soon as acquired, and continue (
o pay through life. The man who starts |
With soine knowledge and skill ut 20, is
likely to acquire more. knowledge and skill i
constitute a bank-account from which, un- I
Ike the ordinary bank-account, the more {
here is drawn the more there is left.
II knowledge and skill are SO profitable for {
ha inf1i mi 1oft tT.n
Increase them Indemnity? So far as we {
ave gone, training has paid a high rate of {
interest. Why not 60 further? If little ,
raining is good, why not great deal? +
Il by training were meant only such knowl-
dge as is now acquired in colleges, it might I
fell be doubted whether education at pub c
C expense should be pushed further than 1t c