Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-11-13
BOYS AND TRADES
How Can = Boy Obtain q Situatiou-Dtm-
c1lties In Their Way.

s-4ssss
now Can Boy Obtain a situation-Dim.
calties in Their Way.
nree causes combine to render il
every year more difficult for a bow to
learn a trade. Theses three causes
are; ID Increase of population, lead
ing to oyercrowding (2) trade defense
on the part of employers. leading them
70 employ only those who are skilled in
some specific matter, and to keep each
70 nus specialty-in other words, divi-
SION OF labor; and go trades-unionism
ON the part of the employed, leading
them to discountenance additions to
,neir number. Parents in all classes of
NE feel the effects of these three
causes The rich man who has retired
rom business or who wishes his son to
follow another business is confronted
with the effects of which he was him.
sen the natural cause, and the son of
the workingman finds his way to work
barred by the organizations of one of
winch his father is an ornament.
w men a boy succeeds in obtaining
work 1t by no means follows that he
learns trade. Indeed. if he is paid,
ne IS not paid to learn the trade, but to
90 some one thing, the doing of which
Is worth the sum paid him. ANYTHING
more that he may learn is the result of
ms own tact and shrewdness. In his
ODD minutes, or as he does his subor-
dlnate work. quick-witted boy sees
now other things are done, and on
some occasion may persuade friendly
workman to let him try his hand, until
at last he comes in as a substitute for
some one. Apprenticeship in the old
sense, which was supposed to mean al
lowing youth TO see how things are
done. and permitting him to attempt
TO do them, is thing of the past I'm
Renting observation while at work
and unremitting study of matters re-
laong to business during free hours are
the secrets of success in learning a
trade at the present day. The assidu-
Gus. patient worker. who minds moth
ing but his own business in working
hours, and then goes home to rest, is
doomed TO stay his life long in a sub
ordinate position.
5 sOvercrowding and division of labor
are not confined to the mill trades.
They extend into other trades and into
the professions, which latter are also
becoming affected with an exclusive
ness which is only trades-unionism
under another name. The young gem
teman who enters merchant office
under the impression that he will learn
the honorable business of merchant
{ may be found engaged in work scarcely
as intellectual as that of the errand
boy; and the youth who, carried away
by the grandeur of architecture. enters
ha Atrff.sa of will r1Snallx-
find that tracing upon paper or linen
and keeping drawers in order is all the
architectural education he is likely to
get for years. The number of youths
!. who, in the hope to rise, attach them
selves to the professions increases at a
greater ratio than the population, and
the infinx tends to bring the pay of
mental work down to the level OF
manual labor.
This is the state of things. To sug-
gest q remedy is difficult, to apply it
impossible A state that is the result
of the habits of several generations
can only be done away with by the
gradual growth of habits tending in Il
reverse direction. Emigration relieves
crowding. but the gaps it leaves are
quickly filled so long as population con-
tinueS to increase at present rates. Co
operation, if it could become extensive.
would act as a check to the power of
exclusive organizations of every sort,
whether ruled by employers or en-
ployed-but cooperation seems at
present almost as far away as the
millennium. Socialists of extreme
views suggest anarchy and a re-deal on
communistic principles; but so long as
man is individual, communism Is i'm
possible, and the attempt to enfore it
would end in despotism and loss of the
large amount of individual liberty
which. after all that can be said against
existing institutions, is enjoyed by the
men and women of this century
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