The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-05-06
TRADE SCHOOLS.
FACTS WELL WORTH CONSID-
ERINGs EE

Industrial School to be Established
at Raleigh.
The most valuable feature of manual
training its mental and moral intiu-
ence-is very imperfectly understood in
this country. and not AZ all in Europe,
except in Russia, if indeed it be there,
where the laboratory method of instruc-
ton in the mechanic arts which bears
the Russian name originated. The trade
schools of Germany, France, and En-
gland grew out of industrial rivalries.
They are the product of a struggle for
commercial, mercantile. and manufac-
turing supremacy. They have their
root in the merchants grim law of ne
oessity-the necessity of underselling
his rival Their purpose. for example,
in France, is to make a doll for a cent
less than it can be made in Germany.
and in Germany TO make penknife for
Q cent less than It can be made in
support of government, because they in
crease the tax-paying capacity of the
subject in the exact ratio of the increase
of his productive power.
The trade school IS the yestibule of
factory or shop, and the trade-school
pupil is an apprentice-an apprentice
a hundredfold Better trained than the
apprentice of the old regime, but still
an apprentice. He becomes a cog,
wheel, a pinion, lever, or shaft in
machine adapted to certain productive
processes. And the more efficient he is
as part of the machine, the less power
he has to determine the share he shall
receive of its products, and the less
capacity wisely to dispose of the fruits
of his labor.
Germany has more trade schools than
any county in the world, but her peo-
pie are thereby neither enriched nor
made contented. Every year large
numbers of her labor class bid adieu to
the father-land and flock to these shores,
and the drain of the flower OF the labor
class OF a population is an irreparable
loss Of national vitality.
The trade school at its best is a spe-
clal school which does not aim to give
general education. 1t is hence one
sided. In establishing it or aiding it
the state places upon its graduates the
brand of inferiority. since it reserves
for the universities and other institu-
tons of learning the highest honors
The trade schools of Europe are per-
petuating system of caste in education
which it is the chief mission of the civ
llzahon of this age to destroy. They
graduate carpenters. blacksmiths, and
turner's, but they fail to equip men for
an equal chance in the battle of life. In
Holland there is government commits
sion whose duty it is to procure situa-
tons for the graduates Of trade schools.
and to watch over them for several
years" The graduates of properly or
gained and conducted schools will
create situations for themselves, and
show by the ability and faithfulness
with which they discharge the duties
thereof that they require no watching.
There Is a disposition in this coun-
try, in some quarters, to initiate the
European system Of trade schools. Pro-
lessor Robert H. Thurston, of Cornell
University, recommends % drawing
Ind the modification of methods of in
;truction in the direction of the sci
>nces in existing schools; O. the insti-
mtion of special courses of instruction,
and the foundation of trade schools,
having for their object the teaching of
-he principles and the practice of the
leading industries in localities in which
such action would be Justified and 81
5he creation of one or more technical
colleges.
There can, OF course, be no objection |
% the establishment of trade schools
5or special purposes; but if Professor
Ihurston's proposition contemplates the |
Imitation OF all technical instruction to |
'uch special schools, it involves the in
reduction to the United States of the |
european special or caste educational |
ystem- weaving schools in Massachu-
etts, ship-building schools in Maine, |
chools OF mechanism in Pennsylvania,
md agricultural schools in the valley
II the Mississippi Schools, they should I
'e called, for the promotion of caste.
md not merely the caste of modern
europe. but the more rigid caste of an
aent Egypt, which compelled the man
o follow the occupation of his father,
marry within his class, to die as he
vas born" thus making of society an
rganized injustice
AZ Is pleasant to turn from the NAL
husian theory Of the law of life-that
rutal theory which necessitates the
tarVatlon of hundreds of men that one
nan be well fed-to the theory of hui
1ahlfy and gentleness- bright
leOry which contemplates the salvation
no elevation OF the race through the
eFelopment OF the best aptitudes of all
S members. The Russian-American
7stem of manual training promotes
re humane theory of life, because "a
:, dlgnifies labor, (2) it is a powerful in
lfectual stimulus, and (3) it is the
'eat discoverer OF truth, and hence a
oral agent of incalculable force. 1t
lould therefore be made part of
'ery system of popular education. For
1t is confined to the colleges and uni
'rsities, few will avail of its advan-
ges. since by the time the student
lall have reached that advanced stage ]
his course he will have contracted I
cling of aversion toward labor, and
I'LL have determined to enter one of the
called learned professions The
nall number of students enrolled in ,
9 several mechanic art annexes of the I
ueges and universities of the United S
ates confirms the truth of this obser-
ton: There is, I believe, only one t
ception to this rule-that of the Man