The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-04-19
Learn a Trade, Boys.

A correspondent in the Sewing Ma
chine News, quoting from the Ladies'
Home Journal an article on the value
of trade, makes some remarks of his
own which are practical and pertinent
to the subject.
| / remember years ago, when l was
very young man, writes John Coates
in the Journal, meeting John Roach,
the great ship-builder, in his ship-yard
at Chester, Pennsylvania. I remem-
ber, too, what he said then about the
value of trade to the average boy.
"Young man." be said, laying his
great broad hand on my shoulder, and
looking at me earnestly with his keen
steel-blue Irish eyes, "next to a clear
conscience, trade is as good q thing
as any young man can have in this
country. You can carry it with you
all your life long ; you have to pay
neither rent nor taxes upon it, and it
will help you around a sharp corner
when most other things will fail"
I have never forgotten that utterance
from q man who started in life-after
landing in New York from Ireland
as q helper to a machinist,, who be-
came the leading shipbuilder Of his
time, and who, up to the hour that he
was stricken with q fatal illness, could
take place of his workmen, whether
it was a man driving rivets or an ex-
pert putting together the most delicate
parts of steamships machinery.
Something very like what John
Roach said 1 heard another great man,
who is now dead, say. This was Peter
Cooper, a man of whom American
boys cannot know too much, and
whom they certainly cannot too much
admire. "If I had my way" said the
venerable philanthropist, on the oc-
casion to which I refer, II would give
every boy trade. Then I would have
him stick to it, love ii, and be good to
it. If he does, it will be good to him."
To which the writer in the Sewing
Machine News adds:
To an observing and interesting per-
son, how sad is the spectacle, and how
forcible is the fact, which ought to be
food for serious reflection to every
American citizen, that very few of our
American boys ever learn trade, and,
ss result almost everywhere the lead
ing mechanical posi- tions are filled by
men of foreign birth.
Why is this? Is it because our boys
are less able? Is it because there are
no facilities for learning trades in this
country? To the last question the ar
gument may be advanced that the
trade unions lay too many and too
heavy restrictions regarding the num-
ber of apprentices which will be en-
ployed or allowed, Argument admit
ted and the point taken granted. But
the bottom cause is Young Americas
"don't want to.n He would rather
stand behind a counter in some store,
or canvass for some agency, or work IN
some factory at piece work, where he
can earn more money, at first, per
week than if put to learning a trade.
This would all he very well, provided
be could be sure that such employment
would last as long as he needed to
work for living. We all know that
no substantial building exists, or can
exist, without a solid foundation,
therefore let US encourage our hoys to
learn trades. Where there are trade
schools, take advantage of them, and
every city should have one or more.
Teach them that work is honorable.
That it is no disgrace to lay brick.
That it is not unmanly to be seen on
the street carrying kit of plumbers
tools with clear conscience. Though
the work be dirty, the money is as
clean as that gained in any other way.
Encourage them to learn trades and
afterward to rise in them. Having a
good common school education for a
starter, their native smartness will cd
able them to master their trades, and
by avoiding all unclean habits, they
need have no fear for the future, for
their services will always be in de-
mand.