The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-08-31
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION,

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.
AT recent session of the fifty
eighth annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Institute of Instruction at New
port, Rhode Island, q large number
of interesting papers were read upon
subjects of practical interest to edu-
Gators and to all supporters of the
public school system. In the course
of one of them Professor S. r.
Thompson made the following plea
for industrial education:
Industrial education supplies the
element now lacking in our system.
Education in relation to modern in
dustry is the question of the hour.
Not all intellectual training and edu-
cation comes from language and
books, but education in industry,
for industry, by industry, is the new
trinity, in place of the old trivium
and quadrivium and its modern modi-
ficatons. Education in the industries
is old for them it is new, but it has
come to stay, and an education by
the industries, which for so long has
done its useful but unrecognized
work in happy country homes, must
have its beneficent sway greatly ex-
tended.
If the plea for industrial educa-
ton quoted above had been uttered
in Honolulu, it might well be re-
ferred to as the "question of the
hour" And if Professor Thompson's s
utterances are justified by facts in
Rhode Island, they are applicable
with thousandfold more force here.
Indeed it looks, at first sight. more
like growl than as the expression
of real grievance to hear that there
is any felt necessity in the latitude
of Newport for greater develop
ment of the industrial element than
already exists there. In Rhode
Island, as is well known, the doc
trine of diversified industries is prac-
tically carried out to an extent that
is almost incredible. Scarcely any
line of business or handicraft, exists
in the civilized world that is not
domciled, to a greater or less eX-
tent, in that diminutivc state. Taking
the city of Providence alone, the
censuses of 1870 and 1880 show the
increase of population, in that de-
cade, to have been from 6S,904 to
104,S57. Skilled mechanics and
willing laborers were all but certain
of employment, every time, from
whatever part of the earth they
came. Under these circumstances,
it is hard to see where the professor
at the Institute of instruction
meant to place the proposed invest
ments in industrial education.> The
same facts cited with reference to
Rhode Island, are applicable to
many other parts of the Union, but
we confine our illusions to that
State because it is one of the near
est of states, in extent, to the island
of Oahu. The whole state contains
an area of 1,306 square miles, OF
about twice the area of this island.
The population of the state is 276,-
52S, while that of Oahu is but 29,-
OG8. The city of Providence alone
contains five times the population OF
Honolulu. There is no doubt that
the massing of people from all quar-.
ters of the world in that city is
largely due to its diversified indus.
tries, its multiplied divisions Of
labor, and the numerous channels
into which its commerce flows. Or
the other hand, there can be nc
getting away from the fact that the
meagre population of about twenty
to the square mile that luxuriates il
this peerless climate, is the newt
able result of its Industries being
limited to a very few, the almost
total absence of labor, and to the
confinement of its commerce within
the two or three deep and narrow
ruts in which it has hitherto beel
conducted.