The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-06-24
Technical Schools.

OiC VI oiIC fiCop llSCND VA UlIO 0Oubn 10
technical knowledge and training. There
is scarcely day passes that something
does not suggest the great poverty of this
section IN that knowledge which is essen
tial to the development of Southern inter-
ests. We are so entirely dependent upon
the technical skill Of the North, that
scarcely one comprehensive scheme look
log to the utilization of our material re-
sources can be suggested, unless we are
met at the Threshold with the inquiry
who is to take charge of it ? The answer
invariably comes-we must open CORES
pendence with some Northern parties, for
we cannot find competent persons in our
own section. While the South has been
absorbed in political schemes and the dis
cussion of abstract questions, the North
has taken hold of the practical things of
the day and trained her young men in the
channels which will make them useful and
indispensable factors in material develop.
ment and progress.
Commenting on the necessity of more
extended technical knowledge, the Ame,1-
can Machinist has the following sugges-
tions, which have application in every
Southern State, where the absence of tech
nical knowledge is necessarily more palpa-
bly, felt than in the North. That paper
says: at is doubtful if. in the equal ex-
penditure of means, the same amount of
effective work can be done for the future
manufacturing interests of the country
in any other way as can be by estab-
fishing schools, for which the one estab-
lished in New York City by Peter Cooper,
may be taken for model. Not that they
should necessarily be of the same magni-
tude as this, but their aims should be in
the same direction. Schools Of this kind
ought to be So common that every young
! mechanic could avail himself of their as
sistance in securing an education, so far
as book knowledge goes, in matters relat-
ing to the trade he is learning or follow
ing. To be sure, all would not do so but
providing means would develop large
amount of latent talent that is now
wasted. And the number of those who
would be led, from example, to use con-
venient educational facilities would in
crease surprisingly, the result being that
manufacturers would reap the benefits of
having in their employ q class OF work
men bringing to their work intelligence,
and training that fitted them to think of
what they were doing. And the more Of
the thinking. reasoning habit that is CEN
tered in any manufacturing business, the
better the prospects of success.
Considering the fact, now well under
stood, that in the future manufacturing
will partake more and more, from year to
year, of the character of close competition,
as between different countries, the wis
dom Of providing every means for lncreas-
ing knowledge of the subjects connected
with it ought to be apparent. In Euro
pean countries this is1very clearly under
stood, and the matter discussed and helped
along in every possible way. Here but
little attention is paid to it outside of
three OF four large cities, and thousands of
young men, who are anxious to devote
their leisure to study in the line of their
work, find no help in doing so.
Those who have given the subject much
attention have almost universally con-
cluded that what is needed is coordinate
education of the hand and brain. The late
Professor Thompson, in his review of the
reports of the British commissioners of
technical instruction, review recently
made public, shows that in Europe the
demand is so largely for men whose train
ing has been, to great extent, practical,
to ill important measures, that there is
an excess of men who have a training
purely theoretical. He instances Germa-
ny, in which it was found that there were
a large number Of highly trained polytech-
mic graduates for whose services there
was no demand, while the Austrian Min
lister of Instruction Iamented the inability
to reduce the number of theoretical engi-
neers, and to replace them with those who
had knowledge of both theory and prac-
| tice.
! If such schools as the Cooper Institute
were as common as they should be, this
uniting of theory and practice would be
the result. We have in this country some
excellent technical schools, and some Of
them appear to be fairly successful in unit
ing practical and theoretical instruction.
But no more than the merest fraction of
those who ought to have theoretical train
ing are able to take advantage of their IA
cilities. What is wanted is an opportuni-
| ty for all, SO that the best that is in every
young mechanic may have an opportunity
to develop ITSELF This is what technical
education is coming to in Europe, and
| is what it must come to here. When this
is so, the more important mechanical mat
tiers in manufacturing will be in the hands
of those best able to manage them in all
respects, because every one who has suffi-
Gent energy to fill position of trust, will
have secured the necessary theoretical in
struction."