Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1883-11-16
EDUCATION AxD LABOR.

4
The subject OF education is receiving
at the present time larger amount o.
attention from the periodical press o.
the country, than ever before in ouI
recollection. The ouarterlics. the
monthlies. the great leading weeklies
and the dailies, almost without an ex-
ception. are discussing 1t. There
seems to be feeling prevalent tha,
with all our boasted school privileges
our common schools, our normals,
our colleges and our universities
there is yet vital deficiency, some.
thing radically wrong in the system.
1t is urged that our present system,
instead Of qualifying young men and
young women for the actuaiities of life,
units them for practical, honest, hon.
orable labor. Hence while the ave-
nues Of the "genteel professions" are
crowded and over-full, the useful trades,
the farms. the forges and the shops,
are abandoned to those who have not
become too we'll educated to work for
a living. The enemies of popular ed
ucation have always urged that there
must of necessity be a learned and an
ignorant class, the first for leaders,
the professions, and :he conduct of af-
fairs. the other to do the hard and dirty
work, and to furnish Il e muscle and
sinew to carry out the behcsts OF the
superior class. This argument is the
argument of the aristocrat, and the
slave holder. but can never receive
popular approval or find place under
our institutions. Ignorance is the safe
guard Of an aristocracy, but it IS the
bane and menace ofa republic. Where
the people rule, they must be educated,
and that education must be OF char
acter that does not unfit them at the
same time to do the worlds work.
The movement at present in the cities
especially, seems to be in the direction
of manual training schools and as far
as the cities are concerned, they un.
doubtedly fill a useful and important
Office; but this does not reach the
great mass OF the rising generation, the
country districts, the young men and
the young women from the village
and the farm. The farm affords hap.
pier and just as honorable a position
as does the bank. the bar, or the pull
pit, or the merchants counter, and the
intelligent and thoroughly competent
artisan has by far better chance for
a livelihood and an independence BY
and-by with the same amount Of capi.
tai, and far less wear and worry, than
any profession can offer the average
graduate, and with it all, a mental in.
dependence, that needs not sacrifice or
cringe or aatter or fawn or yield an
uta of manhood To find success
Rousseau said, one hundred and twenty
years ago: "lf, instead Of keeping boy
boring over books, employ HIM in work
shop. his hands will be busted to the I'M
Of his understanding, he will be-
,ome philosopher while he thinks himself
orly an artisan" He also said, that ITO
inow how to use ones fingers, gave super
ori;y in every condition of life"
Prot. c. NJ. Woodward, of St. Louis,
;ays:
II indiscriminatcly we educate all our
'outh away from certain occupations and in
o certain others, as is very clearly the case at
present, some employments will be crowded,
md consequently degraded; in others, the
'hoicest positions will be filled hy foreigners
md the lowest posts. wherein labor is with.
'ut dignity, must perforce be filed by those
who have neither taste nor fitness for theii
work. The result is broils, plots, and social
disorder.
The time surely has come for some
ort of reform, and reversal of the
Id idea that it is more respectable to
'e second.rate lawyer, or doctor, a
nerchant's clerk, or bankers assist
mt, than it is to be skilled mechanic
4 successful farmer; more honorable
D successfully defend in court a thief |
r murderer, than to plan a bridge,
uild house, or till the soil.