The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-11-28
STUDENT LABOR PROBLEM


STUDENT LABOR PROBLEM.
How It's Being Worked out at Clemson
CoiIeee--President Craighesd has Some
thing Interesting to Say About it in
his Annual Report to the Cen
eral Assembly.
The following extract from the an
nual report of President Craighead Of
Clemson College, bearing on the prob
lem of Student Labor" which seems
to have been solved at this institution,
will be found of great interest:
"The student labor problem is, I
think, gradually solving itself. The
professors in the academic department
have cheerfulIy consented, whenever
called upon, to superintend squads. AS
will be remembered, the management
and direction of student labor was left
largely in the hands Of the president.
Subsequent experience will no doubt
modify and perfect our plan, but | am
more firmly convinced, as the way
opens up, that all students should be
required to perform certain amount of
purely educational labor for which they
should receive no pay whatever. Practl-
cal work in the chemical, physical,
botanical, biological and chronological
laboratories is educational labor, re-
ouired of all students taking these
courses, and should evidently receive
no compensation whatever. In like
manner, students taking courses 10
agriculture and horticulture should be
required to do a certain amount of work,
such as professors may deem necessary
to q completion Of their courses on the
farm and gardens, natures own labora-
tories. So also should mechanical stu.
dents be required to doa certain amount
of purely educational work III the
foundry, the wood shops, and the ma
chine shops, for which it would be
folly to expect any remuneration. 1t is
clear also that mathematical students
should be required todo much practical
| work in Surveying, ieveling and the
like. All work of this kind is not only
practical, but educational in the high
est sense. To abandon this in our
scheme of studies is 10 turn out theorists
and day-dreamers, whose heads are
crarnmed with useless stuff which their
| hands can never turn to practical use.
| A certain amount then Of real practical
work, such as the board and professors
in charge consider necessary, should, I
think, be exacted of all our students,
and for which they should receive no
money. Here compulsory labor should
| end.
SIN addition to this, there will al
ways be an indefinite amount Of really
productive labor, not necessarily eGu-
catioual, which students u hc need the
money can and should do, and for
which they should be paid. In DO other
possible way can liberal and practi-
Cal education be put within the reach
of the masses. have received during
the year hundreds of letters from pa
rents writing me that but for our labor
feature they would be compelled, be-
cause of the pressure in money matters,
to withdraw their sons. 1t is safe to
say that only by making use of op-
portunities here afforded for rernunera
tive labor have at least one-balf of our
students been able to continue at COL
lege. To undertake to furnish free to
all young men seeking it such an edu-
cation as is afforded here would impov-
erish the State and send out horde of
young men taught to rely upon the
bounty and generosity of the common
wealth. Against the insidious approach
of this form of paternalisID, which
strikes at the very foundation ofstrong,
sturdy, manly independence, our col
lego is pledged by the very charter Of
| its existence, to perpetual warfare. it's
the duty of the State to put the op-
| oortuuities of an education within the
reach of all her children. 1t is the duty
of the Individual, in obedience to God
| Almighty's first great law, to seize
those opportunities by hard, unremit-
ting toll.
AFTER studying the question in all
its phases, I would recommend to the
board that all agricultural students be
permitted to work forty hours, aud on
ly forty hours, per month, at not more
| than cents an hour for good, honest
labor. Exceptions should be made in
cases where the nature of the work,
such as milking, may require some de-
Walton from this rule, but for all such
| additional labor I would recommend
| that only cents per hour be paid. At
the Mississippi College, mechanical
| students are not paid at all. Here l
recommend that they be paid according
to the monetary value of their work.
We have paid out for student laboring
| the last seven months S., 4O3 04.
II have dwelt at length upon the
problem of student labor, for upon its
successful solution depends the veal or
woe of Clemson College. Labor, labor
of the hands as we'll as of the head, Ia
Dor in the shops as we'll as in the fields,
| is expected and demanded of all who
enter here. The dignity of manual la
Dor is the foundation stone upon which
our educational ediice is raised, and
must be maintained or the whole struc-
| ture tumbles to the ground. 10 put
young men in the way Of maintaining
| themselves in honest independence, TO
send out real providers, men who earn
the bread they eat and the clothing
whereWith they are clothed, this is the
mission Of our State college. Ours IS
the duty of teaching the youth ofSouth
Carolina the quaint old truth that for
| those who do not work there are three
OluSI LuluSS W uO1 W oCS3 w otSs-i, w
starve. Of the youths who leave these
halls let it be asked in the language Of
Ruskin: Can they plow? Can they
SOW? Can they plant at the right time,
or build with a steady hand? Is the
effort of their lives to be chaste, knight
", faithful, holy in thought, lovely in
word aud deed?' | trust that in the
coming years we may be able to reply:
Indeed it is with some, nay with many,
and the strength of South Carolina is
in Them
"The mess hall, under the manage
ment of Mr.. Schilletter, has been sur
prising success. He has demonstrated
beyond question that good, wholesome
board, including fuel, lights, water,
etc., can be furnished for less than 500
a month"
Badness is often preceded or accom-
noniad hv pravneSs of the hair To