The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-12-06
APPRENTICE SYSTEM.
Its History and Decline Closely and
Interestingly Followed by
Mr.. c. II. Riggs.
In Well Prepared Paper Before the
Social Science Club-Points
Out the Remedy.

The meeting of the Social Science
Club Tuesday did not have the
usual large attendance which has
been given the meetings this year,
the medical meeting and district
court serving to keep many members
away while several others were out
of the city. But the meeting was
nevertheless an interesting one.
The club voted to buy three pic
lures to be placed in the Commercial
Club rooms and the same will be plac-
ed there as soon as framed.
The subject before the club for the
evening was the apprentice System
cause and Effect of it's Modification
and Decline" The paper was read by
Mr.. G. I'll. Higgs, and was most in
terestiDg and well prepared one, fol-
lowing closely the cause of the de-
cline of the apprentice system and
the remedies therefor.
Mr.. Higgs followed the apprentice
system in the trades from it's earliest
inception down to the present. How
as slavery began to disappear, the
wOrkmen formed themselves into
guilds for mutual protection and an
advantage. These combinations
Of labor were more powerful than are
the combinations of capital today
and controlled the legislation for the
time. They had strict regulations re-
garding membership, and it was pro-
vided that not every boy was eligible
to apprenticeship. In England no
boy could serve an apprenticeship
unless his father was freebooter,
or had an income of a specified
amount, and the number of appren-
tices from each town was limited. In
short, he said, ''the apprentice sys-
tenor the binding of young men or
boys by indenture to artisans for the
purpose of teaching them trade-is
the creation of the guilds, which
were the parent system of our mod
ern labor unions" He then followed
the history of the guilds which COM
prises the history of the apprentice
system, showing how the matter was
long controlled by them, largely by
the aid of the legislation which they
were instrumental in having enacted.
While we have laws in force today
practically the same regarding ap-
premiership that have been in force.
in this country and Europe for the
past 100 years, yet the system has
steadily declined, and is today prac-
tically annihilated. He attributed
this fact to four causes:
1st. The repeal of the compulsory
laws.
I'd. Education, especially among
the poorer classes.
Sd. The tendency to specialize
work.
4th. The development and intro
duction of labor saving machinery.
The greatest inroad upon the ap-
prentice system, he thought, had
been the result of specialization,
whereby what was one trade is now
many times divided into half a dozen.
One man no longer makes an entire
article alone, but simply some par
ticular part of it. 1t does not take
as long to become proficient in that
part, as to learn what was once the
complete trade, hence boys and young
men naturally decline to bind them
selves out to a seven-year apprentice
ship.
The introduction of machinery has
also wrought change, and in many
instances has completely annihilated
what were before prosperous trades,
causing vast armies of mechanics to
seek other means for livelihood, as by
means of machinery cheap and I'M
skilled labor, takes their place. So
while many trades have thus been
practically destroyed, others have be-
come so modified that long appren-
ticeship has become unnecessary.
In spite of all these changes the
labor unions are still attempting to
enforce the old conditions of appren-
ticeship and the result is the Ameri-
can youth is not being trained in any
of the trades, because they see many
things they can turn their hands to
and earn living without learning a
trade and consequently escape a long
apprenticeship without pay. AS
result of this the trades of this coun-
try are being filled almost entirely by
foreign born workmen, and he quoted
from different authorities showing
that labor unions are today controlled
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