Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-03-04
THINK FOR YOURSELF,
How Young Men Can Achieve suo
cess In Their Chosen Calling.

Earnest, Independent thought on thu
part or any boy or young man who ha
set out to make mechanic Of himsel
viii certainly bring him both knowledg,
and Skill in his chosen calling.
We hear or see statements every LITTLE
while that, as machine shops gradual,
grow into manufacturing concerns, tie
work Is systematized until there Is
nothing but routine in the different
classes Of ork. and a boy apprenlicet
to one of these establishments gets nt
show" in The shop, and is mo good
wien his tine is out.
That graduate from, say, a steam
pump shop, going TO any other shop do.
ing different class of work, must
work for small wages, in order to "hold
job" because he can not take hold oil
work as 1t comes along and do 1t in.
telligently. lie is pictured az being
Sent out of the shop 10 make repairs.
upon a steam engine, or line up shaft
In a brewery, or to fix an hydraulic
elevator that is on strike.
After wasting an hour or two OF
time, he admits that he Is "stuck, u
and goes crestfallen back to the shop.
taking this message to the foreman:
send up machinist next time. :"
And then the parties get their work
done at some other shop, and refuse &c
pay for what our pump man has done,
because he did not know what he was
about. He actually caused damage by
hi ignorance. Why IS this? He might
have been good man in u pump shop,
but fails Immediately on attempting
printing press or sewing machine work.
He has learned to turn and bore, 10
plane and slot, to chip, file and scrape,
but he fails when asked to perform any
o. these operations on any thing except
steam pump. Is it because he has
not learned 10 do these things well, or
because he did not use his brains while
learning To use his handsp
Machine shops are always overrun
with applicants for apprenticeship. But
nine-lenths OF the applicants for places
never think of anything beyond getting
into tie shop. OF their own fitness tor
the ma hlnlstS' trade they never in
Quire into. They expect to work th ee
Years for a little less pay than they
could get shoyeling, and then blossom
at once into tirst-class, well-paid ma.
chlnlst, with no particular mental effort
on their part. The result is easy TO
see. We see it every day in the army of
workmen who can do only the com.
mOneSt work, and oftentimes In only a
single branch of the trade Of which they
CAL themselves masters.
This, claim, is from want of thought
on the part Of the boy or man himself.
Tie steam-pump man, If he has mas
tered the trade as far as taught in the
steam-pump shop, has mastered the
principles upon which the steam-pump
operates, and is a competent man to
send out TO repair gas engine or a
printing press. But this he can not do
without thought, and thought is but
another narue for study. Tie study
that II takes TO master the principles OF
the steam-pump will incidentally bring
knowledge OF other machinery that car
not fail TO be of use some time.
y boy once taught the habit Of indl.
vidual thinking about his work, a place
In the front rank of mechanics is sure
to be his. Thought will give him cou.
tidence and skill, and with these two
elements in his mechanical makeup
he will prove valuable man anywhere
he is employed, whether they build
saw-mill machinery or machine tools TO
build saw-mill machinery with.