Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-03-29
Thursday. March a9, 1855.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

A great deal has lately been said aud
written about industrial education,
about the necessity OF giving to the
pupils OF the public schools some in
struction in what may enable them ia
Earn Q livelihood after they leave
school. This would not have been
said aud written, il the American boy
after he loft school, was allowed the
privilege Of learning . trade.
There 10 nothing In the laws OF the
land which deny TO q boy in this couu'
try the privileg. of learning = trade.
Nothing whatever in the laws either
Of the states or the United States. On
the contrary these laws on their face
allow OF the greatest liberty OF action
to the citizen. This country is the
land of freedom. And yet there is a
law, an unwritten Law, so powerful
that the laws OF The states individually
and the United States collectively are
utterly unable to check it, which pro-
hibit- at east nine boys out of ten 10
this couutry from learning trades.
srhis is the law Of the foreign trades
union, imported into this country by
foreigners and now hourishing in all
its vigor, along with the foreign
"strike' and the foreign boycott"
The American boy has been robbed OF
his heritage OF freedom, and the law
Of his country 10 powerless to restore
him his rights.
The evil has become so great that q
practical step has at last been taken 10
furnish a remedy. The National A.
ISOLATION Of Builders In their conveu-
ton in Cincinnati held in February,
recommended for adoption . system
Of apprenticeship calculsted to shorten
the time usually spent in learning a
trade. This would enable young men
who have n high school education and
an idea what KIND of work they are
suited for, to learn trades. whereas
now the majority Of the boys who are
fortunate enough TO get q chance TO
60 at a trade must go at 8 very early
age, and thus lose the advantages
which . high school oourse gives.
The system recommended by the Ma.
tional Association Of Builders IL that
trade schools should be established
where young men could learn how to
work. When the trade-school in.
struction Is finished and the graduate
can prove by an examination before q
committee Of master mechanics that
he has profled by it, a term is to be
served at real work to gain the exper.
fence which car be acquired IN no
other way. No time is fixed for the
length OF this term, but when the
young man Ia old enough TO dos full
days work and able TO pass a second
examination lie lie 10 be recognized as
ajourneyman.
This scheme, while il does not re.
store to the American boy the freedom
guaranteed 10 him by the laws Of his
native land, and Of which be has been
robbed, is yet so great q step forward
on the plane of the American idea,
that we are sure it must command it.
self to that great body Of native people
with whom the principal question
nowadays is how to prevent American
ideas and institutions from being COM
pletely swallowed up in the vast ocean
Of alienism that in the past thirty years
has swept over us.
The New York Times, discussing
this question, has this to say which
must commend itself to every thought.
full American in the land:
at il important for the welfare OF
the nation that the TRACE unions, ex-
erting as they do so vast q power for
good or evil, should be managed in
harmony with American ideas, and
that, while maintaining the rights of
their member, they should respect the
rights Of Others. Nearly ope-third Of
the skilled wofKmen 10 the United
States are Of foreign birth. The pro-
portion Of foreign to native workmen
in this city is considerably larger, aud
In many of the trades, where the high
est wages are paid, the foreigners out
number the Americans. Some OF thu
trade papers are printed partly IL
English and partly In a foreign Ian
guage. Commissioner Peck. in his re
port on the apprenticeship, states thai
he visited workshops where no Eng
lish was spoken. The rules enforced
by many Of the unions against teach.
ing young men how to work are o.
foreign origin and maintained by for.
eIgners. There II nothing American
IN the theory that II would be juslids.
BILE to stop all traffic In the Unite
States and bring whole districts to th'
verge Of starvation because q rsilroa,
company will not accede 10 the de
msnds Of lts engineers, even shoul'