Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-07
New York Offices Room ss, Tribune Building
As the time for the opening of the publ

As the time for the opening of the public
schools approaches several of the large Atlantic
coast cities discover and bewail the fact that
their accommodations for the children are in
adequate. Some of the little ones must be
cheated out Of the education for which their
parents and the general public, to whom their
ignorance means detriment, have been taxed.
the evil of insufficient school buildings and
Its companion evil Of the use OF
unfit rented quarters in preference to
total denial Of the opportunities of instruction.
have been felt by Washington at least as
severely as by any Of its sister cities; but there
is brighter outlook before it. Eleven new
school houses will be opened to pupils at the
beginning of the school year two weeks from
Monday, and it is expected that by Christmas
ten more will be completed. When school
room is insufficient the evil always seems to
fall upon the primary pupils, in whose educa-
ton the public is theoretically the most inter-
ested, and for whose instruction it can most
logically be called upon to pay. The STAR has
many times made vigorous protests against the
failure of Congress to provide the buildings
necessary for the District school children, es-
pecially the pupils in elementary branches,
and it heartily congratulates the capital that
for this year at least there will be no occasion
for it to join in the clamor of other cities for
moro school room. Twenty-one additional
structures will doubtless relieve the pressure.
The announcements by the superintendent
that the system of manual training in the local
schools will be further developed will also meet
with popular approval After the elementary
branches of general education have been dis
posed Of, thousands of children will derive from
training in the useful employment Of their
hands their most profitable instruction, and
that which will enable them to make to the state
as steady, productive and useful citizens, the
greatest returns for their teaching Oppo-
sition on the part of few members Of
trades unions to manual training in the
public schools and to special trade
schools has developed in this country. The
international Labor Congress in its recent
meeting at Paris adopted resolutions favoring
technical as well professional education for
children. The wiser view of the mattei is that
taken by the foreign workmen, and those who
think with them in this country. The appren-
tice system is a failure as a substitute for man
ual training schools. The youth Of America
should be encouraged to develop at will, and in
the direction toward which natural ability and
inclinations point, the faculties with which
nature has endowed them. The one who
nature has fitted to be, and who aspires to be-
come, skilled workman with his hands should
not be handicapped at the outset in favor of
him who inclines to professional" pursuits.
Senator Hawley argues III favor of holding
the proposed international exposition of 1892
in New York with less intelligence and fairness
than would have been expected from his char
acter and opportunities for reaching correct
conclusions in the matter. He says, for exam
pie, that the population within two or three
hours travel of Washington does not exceed
1,4OO,000. The Senator forgets-o. did he
never know?-that Philadelphia is now within
three hours of Washington, and that she alone
claims, and doubtless has, a population nearly
If not quite equal to the number he names.
100000 would be much nearer the right
figure for the area he specifies. Equally is he
at fault in asserting that climatic conditions
are in favor of New York as against Washing
ton. With her clean. wide Streets ample park
spaces, and protusion of shade trees, the sum-
mer temperature OF Washington is much more
endurabIe than that of New York, with her
narrow, dirty streets, high buildings and foul
smells. This is the testimony of every fair
minded person familiar with the subject.
New York is brisk town for trade but
Washington is the proper place for the great
show of %, il that affair is to be a truly in
ternaTional event, and not mere local specu-
lative enterprise, run in the interest of the
hotel keepers and merchants Of a single To-
cality.