The Washington times., 1895-03-22
EDUCATION'S AID TO LABOR
More Industrial Training Needed for
the Rising Generation.
Prof. Klemm Advances the Proposition that
Woman as Teacher Is Only Useful
in the Lower Branches.

The conference at the Columbian Univer-
sity yesterday was continued on the applca-
ton of education to the Industrial problem,
the presiding officer being Hon T Harris,
United States Commiss ,oner of Education.
There We're good many ladies present,
who heard with attention the express ons of
opinion on that subject, and who, doubtless,
took particular note of the argument
OF L. R. KlenIn, Phi. D., who spoke in ad-
verse criticism of the employment OF women
in any but the lower grades of education.
Commissioner Harris devoted his intro
ductoTy remarks to showing by statistics
that common school education added 20
per cent value to a laborer, aud high school
education a so per cent. value He also
developed the statement that in those States
which gave the longest terms of education
to the masses, the value of the production
per capita was greatest,
DR.. Kiemm began by criticising resident
McAlister, OF Drexel Institute, who traced
present industrial ideas back to Rousseau,
Bacon, and Locke. Dir. Klemm held that
DR.. McAlister reasoned from what those
ancients said" not from what they had
done. Their theories, all mems theor es,
he admitted to be forces, but they are not
results. He did not think that any of
these, nor PestalozZi, nor Froebel and the
kindergarten had solved the problem, for
as a matter of fact, he said there were five
States in which there were no k.ndergartens.
The public schools, he claimed, do not touch
the industrial problem, and the Industrial
school is ever accorded a secondary place.
1t has been urged that children shall
not be burdened with the future cares
and problems of life. They should be re-
garded as OF false philosophy Allusions
TO labor and commerce are excluded from
public school teaching in this country as
are all practical studies. This must be
so while women are dominating the teach
ing, and supplant real, live issues by the
methods of the nursery.
He maintains that wherever there has
been progress, man has been the teacher.
The Germans understand this better than
we do: and in that country practical and
industrial ideas are early inculcated and
there is no deterioration of the public
schools by the teaching of women. The
education given i'll this country only fits
u boy to be mechanical drudge
AS an example of the inefficieDcy of our
public schools, he said. that on the &C
cason of the recent eclipse, he asked forty
people of Washington, including street car
drivers, bank clerks and government clerks,
dozen intelligent women of the city, what
was the cause ofSthe eclipse. and only one
| explained the phenomenon-and he had
not attended the city public schools.
| He had asked some women teachers how
grain was made into flour, and the only
| intelligent answer was, by q machine
| DR.. Klemm would not, however, under
rate the value of woman as a teacher.
| He thought that they would do very well
! in the lower grades. What was needed
| was not money or supervision, but teachers
! who would teach the practical things of
! life.
| DR.. Mayo discussed the relation of labor
| and ethical culture. The object of edu-
| cation should be first to furnish the child
| with the implements of intellectual work.
| Major j. ". Powell spoke ofstrikes, riots,
| anarchists, the unrest in society as indi-
eating q social storm. 1t simply means
! that vast numbers of people are idle, vast
numbers seek employment and cannot
! find it. The engineer is king to-day,
| and practically ell trades are being wiped
| out, and in a generation more there will
| be no places for the laborer.
Machines have not only replaced brute
| power, but man power. The application
| of the knowledge of electricity will in
| less that a generation revolutioniZe even
what we know now. In fine, man is
Transforming the labor of his muscles
! into the forces of nature. They claim
already that 33 13 per cent. of the nations
| population are idle.
Prof. j. w. Holcombe, formerly super
| intendent of education of Indiana, held that
the industrial school had more direct re.
lation to the industrial question than the
university.