Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-12-29

pointed ard discouraged, and IL upon eompai-.
ing his own work with that of the machine he
should throw it upon the ground and say dang
rebt Inst ta biDo eSn that ~ IA, az
work, he would have been educated only in
tellectually-but that now he is educated ply
sicily, intellectually and morally He will
understand you, and be real happy
The time was when one man made the whole
of each boot and shoe Go into any of the large
shoe factories of San Francisco, az you will see
that it is not SO now. Each of dozen or more
parts are made separately. one man working
dag in and day out, month after month. at his
/ special part, many with the aid of wonderfully
constructed machines. In many of the
| the way, who so def with their fingers as the
Chinese, who so skiliful and dexterous in all
kinds of manipulation. or who so quick
to learn to do with their hands,
whatever hands have done, as the Chinese ?
| They have always more or less intellectual
| training, too, as they all can read and write
4 and make arlthmetical calculations. They GER
tainly ought to be Living exemplifcations OF
| full, rounded physical, intellectual and moral
development.
Again, incorporation is urged because it
| will dignity labor Now, that is good thing to
do. And it ought to be done-it possible. But
! ] csn give you better way to dignity labor than
to introduce it into the public schools as a part
| of the system. way that, unlike your way,
! shall be entirely free from any element of doubt
as to its succe>s-an absolutely dead sure way
| pay for IT, Let once physical labor be remuner-
| htGu u SDOt Qtul llOTS iHau any Otler KIND OF
labor, and its very name would at once shine
| respondent with golden halo of dignity. Let
| manual labor once command a remuneration
| three or four times that given to Superintend-
| ents of schools and teachers. and we would all.
| every mothers son of us, be breaking our necks
u get into some branch of ii for share in its
dignity.
| So return, and our gulehes and the beds OF
| our mountain streams again yield up for the
taking their stores of gold III untold wealth. and
| in thirty days there would not be men enough
left in the schools OF this state TO run tue
Manual Training Department, or any other de-
partment they would all be up in the noun
tsins, standing waist-deep in water shoveling
sand and scratching gravel with the greatest
possible dignity.
The danger is, my friends, of over erowdine
our public school System-Of making the cost 81
great and so buIdensome that reaction will
! take place-a reaction in which will be lost
much that has already been gained. You OF
San Francisco know how difficult it is even now
to provide the most ordinary schoOl-room ac-
| commodations for the children Of that CITY
and the papers have informed us that large
numbers have been deprived of any school
privile ges whateYer-and the same is true of
some other cities, no doubt.
This reaction has already come in the
city of st. Louis-St louis the Mecca of
the incorporators-the seat, too, of the largest
most fully equipped and best manual training
| school in the country-in St. Louis, within reach
| of the voice and influence of the foremost and
| ablest advocate of manual training in all the
|
leaflet / read to you a while ago. And
in its strong current, The reaction there
has carried away with it even drawing and
| the drawing teacher. This | learned in a lettel
which recently received from the teacher her
self, Miss Josephine Locke, whom many of you
will no doubt remember in connection with the
| exhibit which she brought out with her TO The
late meeting OF the National Educational As
ISOLATION.
Let me take only single moment more o.
your time 10 read very short extract, a. a kind
of summary, from brief but pointed leading
article on this subject by Selim H. Peabody
which l find in the New Englaud Journal q
Education of November %, 1883.
And now, in conclusion you nave been told
To-Day ana told eloquently, well and exhaust
lively of the benefits vague and theoretiC
mostly which would follow the proposed incor-
poation. What would be lost by II cannot, o
course, from the very nature of things, be emu
merated in detail or definitely stated Whar
might be lost, and probably would be lost !.
foreshadowed by the experience in st. Louis
Are the benefits to flow from the incorporation
of manual training or industrial training in Oui
public school system (and they have been vel
set before you-thsts all there is of it, are they
| ask, sufficiently definite and well assured anC
if So are they finally of a kind and value tina
would justify so revolutionary a movement
Are they so manifest, aud SO great as to justif,
the very heavy additional expense, ant
the consequent increase of taxation
with its possible outcome of disaster
Let us, say, rather strive to DO better and bet
ter the work we already have in hand. Let IL.
give to our pupils the fullest opportunity and
our best aid TO bs intelligent men. This is thei
birthright, and to secure it TO them the publ,
schools were established and are maintained
Then if they become mechanics they will b,
intelligent mechanics; if they become farmers
teachers, writers, observation-disclosures they
are, they will do their work intelligently anC
well, and they will be safe and useful citizen
of State that requires for its safety not ma
chimes, but intelligent, thinking men.