The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-06-28

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finger you are educating the mind.
To use tools accurately is not only n
fine discipline for the mind and hand,
but it has moral significance in devel-
| Oping habits of truth, carefulness and
| honesty.
Talent or inventive genius is of no
good if not cultivated, and technical
| training is the only real way to Gull
| tivate. Education means to draw out.
| This is especially true of technical
education. You teach Latin and Greek
to cultivate the mind, knowing that
the knowledge will be of little prac-
teal use, vet the same length of time
devoted to mechanical drawing for
instance, would train not only the
mind, but the eye and hand, and also
the moral nature, for to make a draw
ing you must be true, and this teaches
the Importance of truth and insensi-
bly, it affects the moral nature, and the
person learns to love truth for truths
sake. To see a thing and be able to
correctly put it down on paper, dis
ciplines the mind and adds strength
to the mental forces. Nothing is so
powerful as force of habit, if you learn
to work to a line, learn to be accurate
to a hairs breadth, you very soon
think that way, talk accurately, and
your moral nature is improved.
GREATNESS OF A COUNTRY.
Ladies and gentlemen, it rests with
YOU to a great degree what the future
sentiment shall be. The people are
the country, not the costly buildings
or pile upon pile of magnificent ma
sonry.
To have a country advance mater
, tally, it's people must advance, not only
in science, ethics, law, medicine and
the arts. but in the ability to invent,
make and manage appliances to pro-
mote these other lines of thought. 1t
is a common saying that the farmer
feeds them ALL" but when you remem-
! Der how helpless he was before the
mechanic came to his aid, and how
| helpless he would be now without his
! wagon and pillow, and every 1mple-
ment, YOU will find that the mechanic
! has had a hand in every single occupa-
, ton or profession in which man is en-
gagged. Looking over our own State,
one very striking instance of how tech
meal training effects material advance
/ ment is that of the bag machine. The
secret lay hidden until brought to light
nv the late Mr.. w. H. Kerr, who had
! the advantage of a course at the Poly
/ technic Institute in Boston, ana What
is more remarkable, is that the ma
chine which he patented was built out
of the remains of an old one which q
mechanic of the apprentice system had
/ worked upon for months and Iald
aside as a bad Job. This sounds as if
I were rejecting on the old style OF
. workmen, and some may say that 10
comes in bad grace from one who
learned his trade in that way, but l
am only speaking the truth. nave
/ felt acutely the need OF technlcal
training.
Now let me call your attention to a
curious fact and ask why 1T lsF 1hefe
is ONLY one native Master Mechanic IN
! North Carolina, and this is not an un-
usual condition. The Ralelgh ana
CASTOR shops, in which l served my
time, has never had native In charge
of her mechanical department. Inc
present Superintendent of Motive POW
er is an Englishman, he succeeded an
freshman. The Coast Line has a
Scotchman now and an lrishman be
fore him. The Southern shops at Sal
isbury, Burlington and Charlotte are
managed by mechanics who claim
other States. Even our State road, the
Atlantic and North Carolina, has a
:, Canadian. The Cape Fear and Hadkin
Valley is the only one that has
thought it best to have at the head
of her mechanical department
one who is to the manner
born" | am not censuring these roads,
II is not a question of sentiment but
business with them. They want the
best without regard to where they
come from, but there must be some
reason for it. What is it? Have not
North Carolinians the same amount OF
ability as people from other parts of
the world. or is it that they have not
the oDDortunities of those elsewhere
These men all get fair salaries say
fair because none get as much as they
should. comparing the knowledge and
ability they have to possess with the
salaries? We need technical training,
we need manual training, so our boys
and learn to study themselves, instead
can Get accustomed to the use OF Tools
Of STUDYING Greek and Latin, and find
out IN what line their talents liz. Many
a first class mechanic has been spoiled
i'm making a ten cent preacher or doe
tor. We also need for our people to
nut value on a man for his abilities
and ,yorth and not feel that an inn
moral drunken professional man IS a
better companion than an honest,
bralny mechanic. During 1895 two
men were subpoenaed as witnesses in
/ Wake county, one physician the other
! an engineer.
Roth stood at the top of their pro-
fessions. both asked for expert fees,
tbe doctor received $1,000 a day as an
expert. while the mechanic was almost
insulted for presuning to ask to be
called All expert.
SELECTING A PROFESSION.
Many young man fancies he is cut
out for a mechanic and serves four
long, dirty years trying to absorb e.
nougn knowledge to make living at
trade. and then finds out that he has
missed his calling. He would have
learned more in six months in trade
school With more satisfaction to him
self than he has in four years in the