Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-02

science that fits one to earn a living is out
OF place In the curriculum Of public
school. True the line must be drawn some
where. but that is certainly not the place.
those studies In which both head and
nand are employed should be encouraged
To the question, why train ten Thousand
find employment? the answer is 'the man
uai training school is not mere training
Oh mechanics. Industrial education fits
boys not to become mechanics only, but
men of intelligence and skill.
1t educates them so they may have open
to them all the employments. Thirty-five
yea years age the FRENCH bought all their cot,
bought English machinery, brought over
English workmen to run it, established a
training school for the cotton industry at
Mulhouse, and now the finest cotton goods
used in England and in this country are
made in France. ITO twelve cents worth
Of cotton the French add so much skilled
labor that we pay them dollar for it."
In like manner has France obtained con-
troll of her own market for watches by es-
tablishing schools for the watch industry
at Bescanon and elsewhere.
Another case Illustrating the benefits Of
Industrial education: "Mr. Perrot Of
Switzerland. came to this country In 1876
to exhibit his machinery for making
watches. Landing in New York, he hasten
ed to Philadelphia to secure place to
next to the Waltham Watch Company.
He took just one look at the Waltham
machinery, and then he telegraphed to
his agent in New York not to permit his
own machinery to be landed, but to send
1T back to Europe by the ship in which 1t
had come. In the autumn Mr.. Perrot went
men that American workmen earned three
times as much as the Swiss workmen, but
by reason of the intelligence and skill Of
the American workmen they were well
were their wages Switzerland could never
again to hope to sell watches in the Amer
lean market"
|. Head and Hands.
We can, if we will, raise the intelligence
and skill of American workingmen, so
that our industries shall be above all COM
petition. Green, the English historian
says, that in the midst of the eighteenth
century New England was the one part
of the world where every man and woman
was able to read and write" Has the
New England Intelligence been profitable!
Look at the wealth of New England. III
to-day tho wealth of New England was In
silver dollars the silver dollars would al
most outweigh the rocks of New England"
All the result of high class industrial edu-
cation.
One great object of industrial education
is to foster a higher appreciation of the
value and dignity of intelligent labor ana
the worth and responsibility OF laboring
men. A boy who sees nothing In manual
labor but brute force despises both the
labor and the laborer. With the acquisi-
ton of skill in himself comes the ability
and willingness to recognize skill in his
fellows. Again, 1t is highly desirable that
a larger proportion of intelligent and we'll
educated youth should devote their ener-
giles to manual pursuits, or to the develop
ment Of mechanical industries, both for
their own sake and for the sake of society.
Hitherto men who have cultivated their
minds have neglected their bodies. and
those who have labored with their hands
have found no opportunity to cultivate
their brains. The crying demand today Is
for intellectual combined with natural
training. 1t Is this great want that in
dustrial education aims to supply. Neither
Watt, Saxton nor Edison ever had more
than a few months schooling: they are IL
lustrious examples in the world of me-
chanical industry. Great as their names
have become. it is difficult to believe that
they reached the limits of their powers;
they might have achieved more had the
opportunities now open to ambitious boys
been theirs. The success of this movement
for increased facilities for industrial edu-
cation rest largely with the school au-
thorities. Congress will do it's part; no
doubt about that. If the matter is rightly
presented new era for Washington boys
will begin, and from this point many will
go to teach the blessings of industrial edu-
cation to the struggling men and women
throughout the land.
DANIEL MURRAY.