The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1881-08-13
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. EDUCATION.

Why is il that Southern parents are
teaching their sons to be masters OF al
most everything else except mechanics? /?
Nothing pays so well as mechanical art.
Nothing offers so wide field for useful
ness as mechanics. II is not merely cot
ton mills and wooden mills which want
overscers and engineers, but iron works
and iron manufactures OF every descrip-
ton, woodworkers and wood manufac-
turers, coal mining, mining for other
metals, and railroad engineering and
construction, car shops, all sorts Of tex
tile manufacture, a thousand branches
Of mechanical ingenuity which can be
profitably filed and worked only by me-
chanical training and education. II
seems as though persons whose object in
educating their sons is to enable them
to achieve success could not shut their
eyes to so vast field except through the
binding force Of old customs. Our Sec
ton has all the elements Of material
greatness, and we are learning to use
them, very slowly, TO be sure. But If
We have TO go to the North or TO Europe
for the trained and educated minds and
hands to work up these possibilities, then
we are indeed spendthriits of intellec-
tual force. Are We content TO call upon
others to enter into our inheritance? p
lf not, why do We not :each our chill
dren to do that which must be done, the
doing Of which brings profit and honor?
We cannot get along without mechan-
ical arts and appliances. In the present
state of advanced civilization We require
thousand times rs much product Of
mechanics IS formerly. We must have
cotton mills, WOODEN mills, jutc mills,
paper mills, iron foundrics, machine
shops, rail mills, car shops. factories Of
leather products and wood work, saw
mills, grist mills, agricultural machinery,
and thousand varieties Of Industrial
enterprise. We shall get them, to be
sure. The point is not so much how
We shall get tlem--but rather who shall
furnish the educated brains to build and
run them? We can buy the necessary
brains in Europe, or in the North, and
let the brains OF our children be wasted
in over-crowded and profitlcss profess
sions. We can put strangers in posses
sion Of our riches, and let our children
starve. There is no law against it, cx-
cept the law Of nature, and We violate
that every day. But If VIC desire our
children to inherit our wealth VIC must
train our children to take care of our
wealth. If we wish our children to di-
rect the next generation Of the South,
We must teach them to be leaders and
directors. Overseers, engineers, me-
chanics, trained supcrintendcnts, these
will not grow out Of the natural soil like
thistles. Masters OF men are made, not
born; educated, not grown; bull, UP
and cultivated, not trained on supports,
like vines.
Let our wealthy men, instead of send
ing their sons to law and medical schools
or orcommercial colleges, send them North
or to Europe to the schools Of mining
ard engineering, put them in the great
machine shops and manufacturing estab-
lishments there, and learn them the prac
ticc and theory OF the mechanic arts.
We.know Of cotton mill engineers in
the South whose income is far in excess
Of that Of any lawyer in the cotton
States. We could mention one who has
supervision over the construction OF
seven mills.
In our own city VIC call to mind
young man who gets $4,000 for super
vision over the construction Of 4 manu-
featuring establishment now being erect
cd here. The Southern young men who
abandon the old traditions and get into
the new field first cannot fail TO achieve
fortune and fame.-Nrio Orkiaas Pifa-
pHHr, AHg. IH