The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-11-22
What To Do With the Bows,

What To Do With the Boys.
The London correspondent of the
Boston Advertiser calls attention to the
discussion which is now going ON in
England of the question what to do
with boys. The statements of the Lon
don Tetegraph, Spectator, and other pa
pers upon the subject go to show that
the English are laboring under the
same difficulty that is experienced in
this country, and that parents there as
well as parents here are equally dis
tressed to know what to do with their
boys. So far, however, there has been
no decision. The discussion is limited
to complaint and sort of hopeless re-
gret over the situation. No practical
remedy is suggested.
The burden of complaint in that
country, as in this, is, that the boys are
brought up ignorant of any trade, the
assumption being that they will get
their living by some genteel occupation
which does not involve severe manual
labor and whose demands are limited
to the minimum amount of work of
any sort. The result is, that whenever
a genteel vacancy occurs there are hun
dreds of gentee1 young men ready to
fill it. The Telegraph gives an instance
of vacancy in a clerkship to which
was attached the munificent salary of
$3.50 per annum, for which there were
over 2,100 applicants, and the same
paper says: ssThe best positions of
this kind in London, Manchester, and
others of our large cities are filled, not
by young Englishmen, but by young
Germans, who come over here in
swarms every year, who are better edu-
GATED than our young men, and who
will work longer hours for smaller
pay" 1t adds to the despair of the
situation that one avenue of relief is
closed. Formerly the younger sons
and the idle, genteel boys were shipped
off to the colonies, but there is no
longer any demand for them. Farmers
and skilled mechanics are wanted, and
they are the only ones who make n sue
cess or get ahead in the world. There
is nothing for genteel young men to do
unless, as one correspondent suggests,
they engage in menial occupations, and
clean boots, or sweep floors, or carry
bundles, which is not what the genteel
young men want to do. So, whether
! in the colonies or at home, the great
cities are full of idle boys. who, being
idle, naturally enough get into mischief,
and so go to the bad.
1t will be observed that the situation
in England is substantially the same
as the situation in this country. We
have two classes of boys seeking gen
teel occupations, because both are
without trades. The one class has been
brought up to farming, and, tired of
the farm, gets away from it as fast
and as soon as it can, and seeks the
cities, hoping to find something to
do that will not require hard manual
labor, Having no trade, it drifts about
trying to find genteel occupation, but
in vain, as there are hundreds of appli-
cants for every situation that is offered.
The other class is made up of boys born
in the cities who have no trades and are
ignorant of every form of manual
labor which requires any skill. Ameri-
can cities, like English cities, are full
of idle young men who, from sheer
lack of anything to do and of any other
way to pass their time, fall into bad
company and evil habits, and at last
openly take to vicious courses and be-
come habitues of saloons or gambling
houses, and go from bad to worse.
Hitherto the situation has been worse
in this country because we have had no
colonies where the youth could be
shipped, but at last step has been
taken which promises partially at least
to mitigate the evil. The establishment
of manual training schools in our
principal cities opens up opportunities
for boys which they have not had be-
fore, owing to the selfishness of the
trades unions and the barring out OF
apprentices by foreign workmen. These
schools are rapidly spreading, and are
beginning to be recognized as an i'm.
portant element in the public school
system. They bid fair to equip large
numbers of boys with the practical
knowledge of skilled labor, and te
start them out in the world with the
means of earning a livelihood. In this
respect we are ahead of England, for in
that country they are but just begin
ming to recognize the necessity that
the young men of the middle classes
should learn mechanical trades. A
commission has been formed to suggest
and carry out some system of technical
training stage we have already en-
tered upon. Lord Coleridge, who had
the opportunity of knowing what the
St. Louis school is doing, and who was
present at the laying of the corner
stone of our own and heard its purposes
explained, ought to be able to ma
terially help the English commission
when he returns. The English have
done great deal for young women in
their art schools and schools of design,
and they have been unaccountably slow
IN graphing with the question, What
shall be done with the boysp-C Chicago
Tribune.