The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-04-15

One of tho chief evils of which
superintendent and foremen of good
machine shops complain is the difficulty,
even almost impossibility. of finding
competent workmen among the crowds
of professedly skilled machinists who
form in these times a sort of endless
procession through their Office doors
seeking employment. To have worked
at piece work few months in some
large shop seems, in the minds of the
majority of these tourist journeyman
who are constantly passing from one
place to another seeking employment,
to entitle him to the name of machinist
"a name woefully defoimed by their
appropriation of it-when in fact they
are about as much machinists as is the
"supe" an actor who masquerades for a
season in stage costume.
The experience of a superintendent OF
a very reputable machine shop in Con-
necticut, and one which by the way
has, and 1 say it to its decided credit,
returned to the old and correct custom
of receiving bound apprentices, as re-
lated to me by him, will serve to fifty
illustrate the absurdity of the claims
of these travelling workmen. This SUI
perintendent needed the services of q
competent machinist, and such a one,
Judging from his own claims, presented
himself. He came, as he claimed,
from well-known shop in Northern
Massachusetts, where he served for a
long term, and was turned out. as he
thought, competent machinist. So
good were his Endorsements, that he
was engaged at machinists wages on
trial. He was set to make O round
headed machine bolt as a sort of easy
test, the superintendent giving the di-
mansions and designated lathe for
him to use. 1t was as good as circus,
the superintendent said, to see the man
maneuver. For five hours he worked
at the job, puzzling his empty head,
and in his anxiety fairly reeking with
sweat, and when the dinner whistle
blew the job was no nearer completion
than at the beginning, save that the
piece of steel was spoiled.
And yet this case is only sample of
the skill of thousands of so-called ma
chinists who apply for positions at
shops all over the country to-day.
And the evil grows, and is fostered by
the popular, and for that matter excel
lent, practice now common that it has
become necessary, of making machine
parts to regular measurements and
templets so that the parts are inter
changeable. For this work special
tools and devices are provided, so that
by their use an ordinary workman who
can grind tool and stop and start the
machine may follow treadmill sort of
mechanical existence, and delude
himself into the belief that he is really
machinist.
Too much serious thought cannot be
given to this subject by young and
ambitious man who contemplate fol-
lowing the highly inviting and inter
esting occupation of machinist. 1t Is
an occupation full of interest, and pre-
senting channels aud possibilities of in
teresting study rot only, but of honor,
and preferment, and wealth. Very
many of the great manufacturers of the
country have come up from the bench
or the draughtingro But it must
be observed III these cases that the one
thus advanced has possessed thorough
knowledge of his trade. The chances
for such person as l have referred to
above becoming a manufacturer or
superintendent, or in fact anything but
a day laborer, are as remote as for him
to become President of the United
States. The pressing difficulty, espe-
cially among young machinists, is to
find one who in any degree is master
of his trade.-AOe of Steel.